Brainstorming: Making different spellcasters more different
issueid=921 04-07-2012 05:03 PM
Junior Member
Number of reported issues by Sam Handelman: 15
Brainstorming: Making different spellcasters more different
Make wizards different, while keeping ADOM different

So, you don't want to make the game a clone of Crawl or Zangband, I'm assuming.
* Spells are learned by reading books, which gives you a finite number of castings.
* Casting spells gives you ranks which makes the individual spell more effective, while using up castings and spells become unreliable when the number of castings is low.

On the other hand, you want a magic system which has a bit more flavor, is a bit less bland.
* Add more self-buff spells, but make them corrupt you. This, admittedly, taken from Crawl where the Haste spell (among others) gives you energy contamination. Other spells to consider - debuff/malus spells (Confusion, Domination, anything that can be done to the PC really); summoning spells (but these are invariably a balance nightmare);

* Other misc stuff you might shameless rip off from crawl: controlled teleport isn't 100% accurate, and teleport from the spell takes a few turns to kick in (thus isn't guaranteed to save you, although next idea would take care of this as well.)

* Give some (all?) spells unpredictable, multiple-turn casting times. Each turn of casting, you make a check to see if you contribute success. Wizards can maybe have the power to boost this by burning extra power points. This mechanic is borrowed from Retromud (http://retrowiki.wikidot.com/quick-chant). This would give ranks in spells like Teleport something more exciting to do that just save you a few power points. Each round of casting could also introduce another chance of actual spell-failure. Retromud also has a fantastically long spell list from which you could crib, and some other interesting ideas for things to give different religious groups.

* Give different characters "force" aptitudes, which are different from skills, and you get them from class levels.
* Elementalists get +1 aptitude in Fire, Lightning, Cold (and Acid?) every level.
* Druids get +1 aptitude in Life every level, and +1 aptitude in Cold or Lightning at alternating levels.
* Wizards get +1 aptitude in Aethyr every level, and can choose +2 aptitudes in any other category.
* Bards get +1 aptitude in any category.
* etc.

* Books teach different/multiple spells depending on aptitude. So you find a "Book of Energy Bolt", if you have aptitudes Cold 10, Aethyr 5, Fire 2, then when you read the book you have a good chance of learning lots of Frost Bolts, a medium chance of learning some Energy Bolts, and a poorer chance of learning relatively few fire bolts. Aptitudes should probably-also modify the rate at which you acquire ranks in different spells, compounding these differences.

* Most of the existing utility spells are I guess Aethyr, so you'd need to code a bunch more buffs/utilities. This would take a (possibly impractical) heap of work, although I suppose you don't need a spell for every book/aptitude combination; thus if you have a high Fire aptitude and a poor Aethyr aptitude, the book which teaches Teleport might not be that good for you.
Issue Details
Issue Number 921
Issue Type Feature
Project ADOM II (formerly known as JADE)
Category Gameplay
Status Suggested
Priority 10 - Lowest
Suggested Version ADOM II 0.2.4
Implemented Version (none)
Votes for this feature 0
Votes against this feature 0
Assigned Users (none)
Tags (none)




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