Shattered Kingdoms

I think that getting organizations working better trumps fixing the magic system. But since it's a lot easier to come up with fixes for magic....

* Add a new save-boosting stat: spirit, linked to charisma. It resists all grossly dehumanizing spells (petrification, summon, etc.) IN ADDITION to any fortitude or will save. This should let people resist one-spell kills without blocking every spell in the game.

* All spells with reflex saves do double damage when the save is missed. This should make reflex and magic resistance more worthwhile.

* Player-enchanted items are limited to 6 protection-type enchants. Try to apply more, and the item blows up. But you can have any number of stat-boost enchants without invoking this limit. Besides discouraging enchanting fanaticism, this measure will encourage finding powerful items.

* No enchantment fades, which allow casters to effectively restart an item. If the spell doesn't fizzle, the item is either enchanted or destroyed.

* However, an enchanter can choose to duplicate any protection-type enchant already on an item. This is meant to encourage specialized items, allowing more tactical choice in prepping.

* Changes to art and spell casting times as needed for balance.

Okay so let me get this straight.

You want another stat when we don't have enough stat points already especially on classes like bard/hellion.

You want to increase spell damage reflex type spells.

You want to decrease the amount of protection you can get against spells.


NO.

Not another stat like wisdom, but another save-boosting enchantment type like willpower.

Add damage to reflex spells? Yup, unless reflex has become as popular as fortitude, willpower, and magic protection. There are no tactics without choice. Damage spells that become too powerful can have cast time increases.

Decrease the amount of protection against spells? Only in the sense it shouldn't be possible to be highly resistant to everything. Again, no choice; no tactics. On the other hand, it should be easier to resist one-spell wonderkills and make greatly XXX enchanted items. I'm sure quite a few spells will need tuning, but I like the direction.

You do realise that a reflex save cuts the damage a spell does in half, don't you? You're pretty much stating a want that is already fact.

To clarify, if a reflex spell now does 20 damage, but 10 with save, I'm asking for 40 damage, but 10 with save.

No. I don't like this idea at all.

So combine fort and will into one save. Right. Except that's ridiculous.

I'm confused. Reflex and MR are already important enough, why do they need to be buffed?

People hoard stat mods bad enough already. This will just widen the gap between newb and veteran even wider.



Targeted enchanting is good, but it shouldn't be guaranteed every time, and especially shouldn't be set to a hard limit of 6 per item. I also see no reason why exploding is better than fading.

Easier said than done.

The idea isn't to make fort and will a single save, but to create an additional spell difficulty modifier for effective death spells like petrification: save bonus = fortitude + spirit. Spirit does combine the virtues of fort and will for such spells; I'd expect it to be popular. But then it does nothing against spells like blind and curse. Again, choices. Also, if we choose to limit enchants, there'd better still be a way to keep death spells under control.

Exploding is better than fading if you're trying to slow down the treadmill. The idea is the enchanter sees what the initial enchantments are, and then makes a decision: Shall I replicate some of these, try for something different, or just quit on this? He makes a choice early in the process, rather than constantly enchanting until he gets what he wants. However, this makes tuned enchanting too easy and powerful without some additional limit.

Otherwise, I think we're in as much agreement as I could expect. I'm not shooting for your goal of making enchantment easier while keeping its power the same. I think both the treadmill and the top-end potential are silly, and that balance precludes fixing one and not the other.

(Edited since it'd be nice if I could keep the name of the new save modifier straight. )

Sounds like a step back to save vs death, save vs petrification, save vs charm