Which is probably why I have a soft spot both for the “lost technologies” scifi trope, and fantasy universes where magic is studied just like any other science
“What the fuck? why is this spell trying to access your Patron directly? Theres no reason it cant run off your local mana reserves”
“Wow I made the pact with the creature from the abyss to get my powers, and now it wants a monthly sacrifice in order to keep use them?”
“How does a simple “create water” spell have a 15 second cast time? Is it doing something else in the background or were the glyphs written by a first year apprentice?”
“Ah fuck how do I change the incantation for my spell again? Let me search the the orb real quick…”
“How does a simple “create water” spell have a 15 second cast time? Is it doing something else in the background or were the glyphs written by a first year apprentice?”
And that’s how the backdoor (literal) in the xzutils material component was discovered.
@PugJesus I'm actually working on a medieval fantasy RTS RPG thing where I want most of the combat to be regular old non magic stuff.
I still want magic to exist though, and it's going to be really powerful.
I'm planning on discouraging most people from going into it, by making the process of getting it really complicated and making nearly all lower spells really edge-casey.
E.g. "heal" + "small cut" + "body part" will each have a different spell.
Star Trek example. It would be really funny to me if Scotty refused to personally use the transporter. Everyone else beams down and he shows up on the shuttle a few hours later.
That’s it, I’m deleting my account on ArcaneOverflow, everyone acts all high and mighty and is always saying “search the Wizardly World Weave properly, foolish simpleton”. I’m going back to my pa’s farm!
Write us a sketch comedy episode of Gandalf contacting up Tech support because this particular spell isn’t working. Patrick will troubleshoot the problem. In the end it’s Darth Vader who figures out the solution.
This would help explain why there are so few spells compared to the infinite possibilities of magic. Many problems are solved. There are only so many ways to sort a list and many of them are either entirely unuseful or only good for specific situations. Turns out there’s only one way to make a fireball. Every other way doesn’t work as good.
This is probably true in the game world as well as in the game development world. WotC and Paizo could create more variations on Fireball, sure, but does it really change the game in a meaningful way?
Like a electricity Wizard who casts lightningball instead.
They could just add rules that allow you to tweak the spells, just like how they allow for increasing damage with a higher spell slot. But also changing AoE size, changing damage type, range, changing needing to see the target, and other properties, … All which you will have to chose when preparing the spell for the first time, not to overshadow metamagic and keep the game flowing.
But does it change the game in a meaningful way, enough to offset the complexity that’s being added? Enough that house rules for an individual group about flavoring spells and changing damage types wouldn’t be enough?
In Pathfinder at least, they do have rules for spell research, and it’s easier if it’s pretty similar to a spell you already know, so “fireball but it’s 10 ft wider and does d4s” is something you could get.
Or you could use metamagic feats. Widen Spell for AoE, Elemental Spell for damage type, and other properties. Though that can get expensive.
There is one standard way to cast fireball - it works, it’s cheap, it very rarely backfires, it’s in all the textbooks, everyone knows how it behaves - but sometimes you sit down in a tavern next to another wizard and you just know before they even open their mouth that they are going to spend the next twenty five minutes telling you about how they learnt this alternative way to cast it and it’s taken a bit of practice but they can just about cast it as fast as they could before and how it’s so much more ergonomic or whatever
See Rich Cook’s Wizardry series. It’s about software engineers transported to a fantasy world and they start approaching magic as software. They create complex spells out of lots of smaller spells, they even create a debugger demon.
Oh that series is so much fun! I need to read those books again. Another good one is Scott Meyer’s Magic 2.0 series. Basically a random dude finds the rules.ini file for the universe hiding out on the internet and ends up using it to travel back back to Arthurian England to live openly as a Wizard. Except he’s not the first one with that idea…
“Wait, you’re still using store-bought ashes? Haven’t you ever made your own? It’s super easy, and you don’t have to worry if your bone ash is ever cut with Birch anymore.”
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