Creature Magic Level question on 08/31/2002 10:06 PM CDT
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When critter magic gets put in place, how will will critter magic skills be placed?

Currently, a critter of level X on the beastiary, has weapon and defensive skills of a barbarian that circle, approximately. (Yes, I realize the beastiary is wrong on some critters, that's not what the question is about)

Even mage-ish critters, like an Adan'f Mage, have the weapons and defensive skills of a comparable barbarian, as we can tell now that magic for them is turned off.

My first question then, is, when critter magic is put in place, what will the critter's magic skills be placed as?

For instance, will spell casting critters of level X, be given the comparable skill of a primary mage (WM, Cleric, MM) of that level? Or a secondary, or tertiary mage of that level? I'm not talking specifics here, I realize there will be some variance, but on average.

Second, will that level X be the same as the X on the beastiary? My reason for asking this is because, while a barbarian of level X will usually hunt a creature that most other guild of level 1.3 to 1.6 * X will hunt.

Third, if a critters magic is too powerful, or too weak, what will get tweaked? The level of the critters magic skills, or the spell?

My reason for asking is because, we know, that, first, Critter and Player magic will be the same. So, if say, Rock Trolls get the same Tremor spell as WM's get (which I feel is underpowered) and it turns out that, giving them about 60-70 PM and 55 PP (They're level 14 on the beastiary, WM's of level 14 will have roughly those skills) does not make them effective, what will happen?

What I'd like to see happen is to have the tremor spell improved so that with 60 or 65 PM, it's a reasonable threat to a 14th circle character. If tremor is too effective, similarly I'd like it weakened.

What I don't want to see happen is for the rock troll to be given 100 or 150 PM to make that up, even though it's the faster, easier solution than reworking the spell. I hope that a rule is put in place on the GM side that a critter has to have a given range of magic for its level, and can't be given more to support the fact that, say, it's area doesn't have enough mana of that type, or that the spell it casts isn't affecting the characters.

The reason I ask about all this is partly because of the BMR issue we talked about earlier. And, because of the Gm response to that issue, because I realize that as a WM, my spells will be tweaked because of how they handle in the hands of critters, and I want to be sure that they are tweaked based on critters with the appropriate skills.

And, because I definitely think that a 14th level critter should have the magic skills of a 14th level War Mage, and not an 18nth or 20nth level War Mage.

Oh, and by no means do I mean to imply that I think the GM's are going to do bad work on critters. I think they'll do just fine, I just want to make sure that the issue comes up before it's too late to do anything about it.
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Re: Creature Magic Level question on 09/01/2002 02:02 AM CDT
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Good post and good questions, I'd like ta know too...

Hark
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