Elemental affinity, or "I'm a wizard and can do whatever I want whenever I want, the rules exist to slow me down"
>>44304922
The affinity doesn't always have to be elemental, but there should always be a "theme" or a "school" of some kind. Wizards being able to fuck the rules and do whatever they want is like like 80% of the problem with most versions of DnD and it's ripoffs.
>>44304922
Neither? Elemental affinities can be kind of boring.
But obviously you DO need specialization of some kind, or even - God forbid - making magic itself not capable of literally everything.
>>44304922
Yes for affinity but call it attribute so you can include things that aren't elements and don't trigger someones autism with it. Also allow for 3 of 12 affinities max per mage, that should do quite well for balance purposes and allow for enough problems being solved by a single PC.
Example:
Fire affinity (manipulate heat, fire, generate fire, useful for alchemy, can generate explosions)
Water (manipulate cold, generate water/ice, heal, generate defensive barriers)
And so on.
You can include death/life domain stuff too or even stupid things like darkness.
>>44305111
What if I want all three of my Affinities to beSWORD?
>>44304922
Wouldn't affinity restrict the wizard? A fire wizard is going to use fire spells.
I like the idea of specialized magics. It makes magic able to handle some problems (in a way that mundane tools cannot) without giving wizards the solution to every sort of problem possible.
>>44304922
What the hell are these 8 elements?
>>44305549
Not op, but they're the magic schools you obtain in Secret of Mana, an RPG for SNES.
They are water, earth, wind, fire, dark, light, moon, light, wood.
>>44305649
Oops, that's wrong.
Eight elements, not nine. I meant water, earth, wind, fire, dark, moon, light, wood.
>>44305666
Pretty much this, where moon is the weird arcane magical element and wood represent the natural state.
>>44305666
I thought it was
Water Earth Wind Fire
Dark Light (Spirit?) Wood
>>44304922
I prefer if wizards are extremely powerful, but they have a very limited purview in which to utilise that power.
School is good, but I'm a sucker for elemental theming.
Here's a better.question and a task for you, /tg/
Create a list of magic attributes without using a single elemental one. That's right, no fire, water, rock and lightning.
>>44308180
And by attributes I mean the affinities, schools, specialisation, or whatever you wanna call them, of magic
>>44305249
Then you enter conflict with the King of Heroes.
>>44308180
Abjuration
Conjuration
Divination
Enchantment
Evocation
Illusion
Necromancy
Transmutation
:^)
>>44308180
Alteration, Restoration, Destruction and Conjuration.
Spells sorted by general purpose. Still can use other elements with it and frankly, just throwing words around mean nothing.
>>44308180
Soul, Mind, Body, Force, Divine, Infernal
>>44308180
I'm sure I'm gonna get flak for this but I like the DnD schools.
I'm also not sold on hard restrictions, I prefer things like specialities. Like Int gives you a bonus to Abjuration, Evocation, and Transmutation. Wisdom is good for Divination, Conjuration, and Necromancy, and finally Charisma is good for illusion, enchantment and magic resist + magic resisted penetration. Still a work in progress.
>>44308180
Secrets
- Learning
- Concealing
Changes
- Entropy
- Transformation
Passions
- Igniting
- Smothering
>>44308180
So the elemental table you define will basically say everything about your game. Is it gamist? Then buff, debuff, attack, protect, control, observe are your elemental categories. rename them "in universe" shit to make like you are original. "Potency, Entropy, Elementalism, Divine Soul, Geomancy, Divination"
Is your game about spy stuff? The whole game is now about learning secrets and getting in and out, so your magic cant have any DnD style divination, but you need to manipulate folks, so you'll have Sex, Lies, and Disguise
etc.
People seem to want specific Wizards limited by a school but personally I really like the whole Wizards diving into dungeons and uncovering old scrolls and learning from them sort of thing, which you couldn't really do with specific school Wizards.
I think general school Wizards are just as good, just make their powers a bit weaker and let them develop their specialties as they go.
>>44308051
The spirit is actually the light one. Golden one is supposed to be Luna, but in some other games they swap it for Gold to contrast with wood.
>>44308180
>Divine
Creation, synthesis.
>Mortal
Change, modification.
>Demonic
Corruption, obliteration.10 emonie to whoever can figure out where I ripped this off from