Arcane Magic - Zeros

[TheMatt]

Are you keeping the rule that if you have a zero primary/secondary, then spell is no go?

ie
0 + 0 + 8 = 0?
9 + 9 + 0 = 0?

Not for it, personally. It was a fudge. Better to have the feedback table start high:
SP |Feedback
1 | 40
2 | 35
3 | 30
4 | 25
5 | 20
6 | 15
7 | 12
8 | 10
9 | 8

P+P+S
1+1+0 = 35
2+2+0 = 25
3+3+0 = 15

Single point brings big drops.

[Maugh]

I do think it's a good rule. It means there is at least some barrier to entry for some of those schools, even if that is 1 skill point.


If I were to do the system from scratch, I would group abilities into wider categories, as "character Concepts," and have a large cost for picking up a new character branch, then skill points to buy individual abilities within that tree. Still encourages combining, but gives more of a mental handhold for broader combinations of character archetypes, while still allowing for more subtle customization within.

Ultimately, there is such thing as too much customization. Larger concepts give people a mental idea of what the overall character is, while smaller abilities flesh out specific options and distinguish two characters from the same concept apart.

Radagast and Gandalf or both wizards. People think of wizard and they know what that is. Radagast and gandalf have different capabilities and specializations, making them two different characters.

That's an example of a class-like heuristic. It works, but it is just a little too simple. Ultimately "wizards," run together too easily.

Gandalf: Swordsman, Immortal, White Wizard,
Radagast: Immortal, Brown Wizard, animal trainer.

That one would be an example of a more concept-driven structure, which I think would work better than a full class system, giving you ideas of what they can do as well as who they are, but without lumping them into too large a group. A fully ability/skill driven system like Mayhem can do this, but it doesn't use larger categories, it uses ability distributions. It may be too easy for someone to pick up a whole new skill branch, though. This is nice, for character customization, but the above example I think has more of a mental handle. Limiting the total number of categories to a manageable number, and giving character progress by letting people advance in each group.

Just a thought. Doesn't really address your initial topic directly, but it's a similar train of thought.

[TheMatt]

yeah, just don't want to move toward a WoW 'class tree'. in WoW, every class has a 'tree'. There is a trunk class, and at some point (Lvl X) you choose a 'branch' and gain further abilities along that branch.