So.
Cabal as it is now is never really how it was initially intended. Anyone who has come in late and seen our OP knows that much. This system, and the underlying logic and mythology behind it, was never designed to stand up to the equivalent of Magical Tinker. What that means is that as things progressed I made some pretty snap decisions on various things that, as the story unfolded and the logic behind how things work was more explained, started not to make sense. Its to the point now that people asking increasingly in depth and complex questions fills me with dread because I have to keep a bunch of mutually exclusive or contradictory plates spinning. Its not terribly fun and its kind of why a handful of people here now have thousands of mana and are maxing out their levels without issue.
First thing's first: Permanence.So permanent spells were just something I kind of took for granted but they don't really make sense in this world, least how they are. The issue is that this is a world without natural mana regeneration, so how the hell do these permanent spells work? Shouldn't they just run out over time? For humans and living things I assumed that they drew from a creature's bodily mana, the stuff that keeps them alive. Hence Benedict the Griffin getting more tired and unable to act the more stat boosts were stacked on him. There are two issues with that:
1. I kind of just have to make vague guesses as to when he should get tired and it doesn't really seem to do much.
2. It doesn't seem to happen to humans, hence the leveling up via +X to a stat.
Beyond that, there is the issue of permanent enchantments on non-living things. Aside from weird rule breaking artifacts, these things really shouldn't exist. They should have a "Battery" of mana they draw from and once thats up it goes away. Sure, maybe a "Staff of fireball" could cast fireballs for less mana than a standard fireball spell, but it shouldn't be an infinite thing. Kind of goes against the entire lore and setting to do that. Not to mention that it could be very easily abused (Make item that permanently generates gold, melt gold to mana,
, Profit! No more mana crisis!).
So here's my intended fix of that
1. Permanent spells on items now work in two ways, standard and spirit infused. Standard is just a standard spell, cast like usual, but with the intent of being "permanent". These spells will now be no more difficult than single use spells (or at least only a bit more difficult) BUT will also not actually be permanent. When you cast them, you'll have the cost of casting + however much mana you wanna dump in to make the thing last. This extra mana will basically be the battery the enchantment or spell draws on. How much mana it will draw with each "use" will depend on the effect, but I'll just be rolling standard polyhedral dice and draining that way. For example, you can make a "Wand of flamethrower" and depending on how much fire you pump out of it in one go, I'll roll Between like d4 and d20 for the amount used. Power isn't used otherwise. Spirit infused spells are basically the same but they require you to basically enslave a spirit (much like in the tech Dev and Co. are excavating) and bind them to the enchantment. What this basically means is that in addition to the stuff form the original, this spell will slowly generate mana each turn (as spirits do for players) in order to empower the spell. How much it generates and how much it can hold max depends on the spirit. Things like Animating a painting will basically always be temporary unless spirit infused.
Mana CAN be added to permanent enchantments like reloading a gun, but their max capacity is determined by the amounted added when they were first made. Oh and words like "Permanent" would just make the costs of activating the thing cheaper, not make it actually permanent.
2. Second is how permanent magic effects normal critters and, importantly, players. Now, there are lots of ways to handle this but the issue is that most of them require extensive retcons or are...just not very fun. I can start putting all sorts of limitations on things, making leveling up reduce some stat or how much magic you can hold or whatever but I don't really want to straight up punish people for leveling up. I also don't want to make you like...consume a spirit each time you do it because permanent enchantments are already gonna be spirit genocide so...The idea I have is this: I'm gonna steal from my old work and make it so that each time you level a stat, I roll on a chart and you might get mutated by doing so. It might not happen, it might happen, and if it happens it can be good, bad, or neutral. This already happens to a degree (Big Eye Sy) but I want to make it an actual mechanic. Of course,this means some of you (Dev's team in particular) might suddenly mutate like you downed a chugged a bottle of radioactive ooze. Oh and this applies to when you stick permanent, non-mana pool draining spells on yourself as well. You can either do a spell like a normal permanent one, or like a current permanent one, with the chance to mutate each time.
For Non-Player characters this will manifest in the more mundane stat manipulation manner. So making something super buff might slow it down, etc. Because its more reasonable to play a balancing act with an NPC than a player when it comes to leveling.
Second thing: How the hell do summoned creatures and objects work? Summoned creatures are basically manifestations of mana, like any other spell. However, since they often hang around, I think its important to look at some of their properties.
1. Can they do magic?
Only if they're a "Permanent" spell, and they use up the mana that makes them to do it. They have access to the words that made them and no others, and they can't learn any more. This of course only counts for creatures, not objects. A chair cannot use "Chair" magic. Least not unless you summon a chair that can use chair magic...
2. How long do they last?
Depends on their size and if they do normal living thing stuff like eat. It is possible for them to survive indefinitely by processing mana via eating. Basically, depending on their size, they'll get a dice roll every in game day to see how long they last, but as long as they're fed enough, that dice roll can be held off. Summoned objects "decay" at a standard rate depending on how magical or otherworldly they are. Generally they'll last a lot longer than creatures though.
3. What about temporary summoned creatures and objects?
Anything that lasts over an hour is considered permanent. Otherwise, they're temporary. They last their time and go away. They can't use magic.
This is what I can think of for the moment. I might be back with more.
Author
Topic: Cabal: Wizard Open World Game (Read 367411 times)