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Harbinjer · 09-18-2018, 06:35 PM

Short term lurker, first time poster.... so apologies in advance if I miss some etiquette.

The basic idea of this style I'm working on is that Magic is a natural thing that follows laws, just as all things in nature do, and that magic is essentially a release of energy. Without guidance from a wizard, magic will naturally express itself as an instantaneous release of heat, light, sound, and force, something like a ball of flame. I call it a "Foom" after the sound it makes: There's a flash of light, and soft explosive Foom!, along with a release of heat and force that dissapate harmlessly.

Students of this style start by learning to create a "Foom," and then progess to breaking down the four types of energy one at a time, learning how to control them (the spells Sound, Light, Ignite Fire, and a new spell called Force). Once done, they have all of the required spells mastered, they have the tools they need to learn more advanced spells on their own, including using them from default skills (as a Style Perk).

The spell list is basically everything that follows from those four basic spells: Light, Sound, Ignite Fire, and Force (something like 105-110 spells). The benefit to the wizard is they can start using a lot of spells pretty quickly, and self-teach even more, but they don't have what some other schools might call "The fundamentals."

Anyway: I have (at least) two questions...
1) Is "Foom" worth creating a spell? I feel it wouldn't even qualify as Hard skill, though it would require at least Magery 0. At low levels it can't do any damage, even at point blank range, and isn't any more useful that just shouting to get someone's attention. It might be scaled up with more mana to make it brighter, louder, hotter, more forceful, but by the time its doing anything useful there are other, more efficient spells to accomplish the same effect. It is impossible to Crit-Fail however (it either goes off or it doesn't), because it's essentially a free-release of magical force anyway.

2) I've created a Movement spell I'm calling "Force" as a pre-requisite (in this style, anyway) to Apportation. It acts as if a person of strength 1 (or more with more FP) pushed against an object with a single finger. i.e. enough to move or knock over something small, thus demonstrating control over the magic "force."
Why a new spell? Because the style is meant to start with the most basic versions of heat energy (Ignite fire... a point of heat), sound energy (Sound... pretty obvious), light energy (Light... also obvious), and a physical force... which has no corresponding basic spell. Apportation is is close, but does more than the simple Force I'm looking for. I considered some of the Air spells, but they wouldn't work in a vaccuum.

I forgot that was supposed to be a question...... uhh, what do you think? Is there a better option than creating a new spell that won't really be useful in a game context?

Any comments on the concept in general?

09-18-2018, 06:35 PM	#1
Harbinjer Join Date: Sep 2018	New Magical Style advice Short term lurker, first time poster.... so apologies in advance if I miss some etiquette. The basic idea of this style I'm working on is that Magic is a natural thing that follows laws, just as all things in nature do, and that magic is essentially a release of energy. Without guidance from a wizard, magic will naturally express itself as an instantaneous release of heat, light, sound, and force, something like a ball of flame. I call it a "Foom" after the sound it makes: There's a flash of light, and soft explosive Foom!, along with a release of heat and force that dissapate harmlessly. Students of this style start by learning to create a "Foom," and then progess to breaking down the four types of energy one at a time, learning how to control them (the spells Sound, Light, Ignite Fire, and a new spell called Force). Once done, they have all of the required spells mastered, they have the tools they need to learn more advanced spells on their own, including using them from default skills (as a Style Perk). The spell list is basically everything that follows from those four basic spells: Light, Sound, Ignite Fire, and Force (something like 105-110 spells). The benefit to the wizard is they can start using a lot of spells pretty quickly, and self-teach even more, but they don't have what some other schools might call "The fundamentals." Anyway: I have (at least) two questions... 1) Is "Foom" worth creating a spell? I feel it wouldn't even qualify as Hard skill, though it would require at least Magery 0. At low levels it can't do any damage, even at point blank range, and isn't any more useful that just shouting to get someone's attention. It might be scaled up with more mana to make it brighter, louder, hotter, more forceful, but by the time its doing anything useful there are other, more efficient spells to accomplish the same effect. It is impossible to Crit-Fail however (it either goes off or it doesn't), because it's essentially a free-release of magical force anyway. 2) I've created a Movement spell I'm calling "Force" as a pre-requisite (in this style, anyway) to Apportation. It acts as if a person of strength 1 (or more with more FP) pushed against an object with a single finger. i.e. enough to move or knock over something small, thus demonstrating control over the magic "force." Why a new spell? Because the style is meant to start with the most basic versions of heat energy (Ignite fire... a point of heat), sound energy (Sound... pretty obvious), light energy (Light... also obvious), and a physical force... which has no corresponding basic spell. Apportation is is close, but does more than the simple Force I'm looking for. I considered some of the Air spells, but they wouldn't work in a vaccuum. I forgot that was supposed to be a question...... uhh, what do you think? Is there a better option than creating a new spell that won't really be useful in a game context? Any comments on the concept in general?