 December 29, 2015 - 10:43pm | Each spell is a skill and learned individually. And class can learn spells with the caveat that you cannot mix divine and arcane energies in the same character. A character will either practice divine or arcane magic but not both. All spells have a base level of functioning which is somewhat limited. Meaning limited range, targets, area of effect, duration , amount of damage etc. The spell casting classes get to scale these parameters up as part of their class abilities. For example a wizard who knows arcane arrow spell can scale it up to double the targets from 1 to 2 or he can double the damage or double the range (there is no area of effect so this does double. The cost for scaling is an extra casting point. Casting points are a pool of power a caster has. He gets one point for every level of class skill (wizard, priest, or alchemist class skill) plus one point for every level of skill in every spell. Racial abilities might also confer an extra casting point (elves). Higher level magic users have a greater pool of power to play with. Limits on scaling a spell can only be scaled 1 time for each level of skill a character has in it (again this ability is unique to magic using classes ensuring that they are the best magic users around). A character may use any and all of his pool points casting and scaling the same spell over and over know spells can be cast repeatedly while his pool of power holds. A character with arcane arrow of level 3 can scale it up 3 time doubling the targets 3 times or doubling the damage 3 times or doubling the range 3 times or any combo of those. For example he might double the targets 2 times for a total of 4 and then double the damage to 2d10 if the party encountered a group of orcs allowing him to dish out good damage to several opponents or if the party encountered one tough creature like a troll he might opt to double the damage three times to dish out maximum damage of 6d10. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 29, 2015 - 10:48pm | Players can use their magic user as a battle field nuke much like the D&D magic user throwing fire balls but he will burn through his available power fairly fast doing this or he can conserve power with limited casting but be able to cast spells over a long period. A thief learning a few spells will never out shine a dedicated magic user since he can't scale his spells. All he gains by increasing a spell's level is a better skill check with it and another casting point. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
December 29, 2015 - 10:56pm | A unique ability of the wizard and the priest is to counter magic in the realm of magic they operate in arcane or divine. If a wizard has not acted this turn and an enemy wizard casts a spell he may attempt to counter: first he makes a RS check and with success he declares a counter for the spell just cast and deducts casting points from his pool equal to the number of casting points used by the enemy wizard in his spell. In this way enemy spell casters can duel with their magical enemies and the PC spell caster may just save one of his front line fighters from a grisely death. Counter spell is an innate ability that comes with the Wizard or priest class skill. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
