More Magic
Clerics seem to generate more heat on the boards than any other profession, and I'm not quite sure why. It might be professional jealousy as other professions seem to think clerics have training costs that are too cheap. The complaint seems to be that if clerics are now pures, why aren't their training costs in line with all the other pures. The GM's have offered clerics who want to be swingers rather than pures a way out by creating the Paladin class and allowing them to switch, and from what I read on the boards a lot of clerics are planning on switching. The fact that only clerics and warriors can reallocate into paladins has also upset a lot of people. Suffice it to say that I don't quite understand why there is a difference in the skill costs either.
My own feeling is that you can remain a swinging cleric if you wish to sacrifice some magic skills. However, the GM's have stated quite firmly that they are gearing all spells and other magical training towards clerics being unable to function as a swinger in the later years.
I have 2 clerics. One is a polearm user, one an OHE. Neither has ever thought of themselves as a paladin, so I don't think I wish to go that route just to be able to swing a weapon. On the other hand both are quite firmly swingers. What to do, what to do.
I am hoping that with the new Continuous Reallocation (which is what the GM's have named the new Mangler ability to learn and unlearn skills) I can start them off as swingers and gradually switch over to being a pure if I need to in their later lives.
What has all this to do with magic? Training paths, that's what it has to do with magic.
The whole idea of GS4 is diversity. No more cookie cutter characters. Lots more skills to choose from. Too many to possibly train in them all. That means that when you take a character into the Mangler, you will have to make some serious choices among all the possible skills in which you can train that character. With the new ability to use a staff (a magical staff, not just one you found on a critter or bought at a merchie, although there is talk of being able to get one altered) some people say that the need of pures to train in weapon and shield for defense has gone away. Now you can take those formerly wasted points and use them to train in the magic skills you always thought your pure needed to have but couldn't afford.
Other people have pointed out that if you can train in both weapon/shield and lots of magic skills, a character would have the best of both worlds: both kinds of defense whether one used a staff or weapon/shield and the ability to use magic to kill the critters.
Someone else pointed out that to have as many ranks in magic skills so that your staff defense was as high as possible all pures would 2x spells and then max out their training in all the cheap magic skills first, for example by 3x scroll reading (which is now call Arcane Symbols, by the way) thereby creating cookie cutter pures all over again. Meaning there will be no more diversity in GS4 than GS3 had.
Now, all this, like so much else in GS4 is an unknown quantity. We are not able to test the stave skill yet. We have no idea what DS it will give, or whether it can be disarmed, because if it can be, away will go our defense, and there will only be a wet spot where a pure once stood. We have no idea how many other magic skills we will need to train in to boost our defenses to the point of not being a wet smear should we be disarmed, or if that will even be possible.
However, the staff isn't going to give you quite as much defense as a sword and shield because the GM's feel you should be using your magical training for your defense. So what is a pure to do?
The discussions about how staves should be trained in and how they should work would fill up entries in this for the next week, at least. Since I don't think it would be much help until more information is forthcoming from the GM's and some testing is done in the Preview Test (formerly the Beta Test but so many problems have been found that they have decided to call it the Preview test until it's improved enough to be called Beta. Can you say "GS4 Goes Live with more bugs than Microsoft found in Windows?") I shall content myself with having given you the basics.
The idea I am getting is that the GM's want the pure magic user in GS4 to go back to their roots .. wizards in robes carrying a staff which protects them from harm while concentrating the wizards manna and beaming it out where ever directed by the wizard. Sort of like Gandalf. Sorcerers in robes, holding a magic crystal and directing their devastating spells through it at critters. I like Gandalf, I like the sorc image, too, so I am all for that. But not if it means some critter can take away my staff/crystal and leave me standing there all but naked while it swings a claid at my unprotected head. Quite where clerics, empaths, monks, paladins, rangers, bards and savants fit in this with staves hasn't really been explained yet.
The GM's say, "train in all the magical means you have at hand. It will all affect things we can't tell you about now, but trust us, it will affect them and the more you train the better off you will be." I say give us a clue what will affect which. What will training in the lores do for me? What will doubling in MIU do? Or harness power … how many times should I train in it? What about Arcane Symbols? Did anything change other than its name?
That one I can answer. It now factors into our ability to infuse scrolls. The better trained you are in it, the better at infusing you are. Infusing is being tested in the Preview Test and seems to be working. I can give you the method by which you infuse a scroll, and I will if I get enough feedback requesting it, but in a nutshell it goes like this:
There are runestones in GS4. They will be found in all sorts of places. Everyone will know all the common ones, but the more rare ones will appear in treasure and in quests and such. Runestones are used in scroll infusion, spirit servant, and eventually, minor summoning. And later down the road probably major summoning.
To infuse a scroll you take a certain runestone, and you take a scroll, and by manipulating stone and manna you can unlock the scroll and infuse manna into the spells on a scroll. This means you can have many more invokes of the spells than the scroll started out with. And as far as I know you can do it more than once to a scroll, but that may be wrong.
I told you about the spirit servant in the last entry, and now that I have told you about infusing, that leaves only the summoning of demons. Some time in the near future (although it is supposed to be being tested in the Preview Test in August) sorcs will be able to summon a minor demon as his/her companion. Much, much later, the Major Demons will be summonable. There is considerable excitement among sorcs about this, but also a lot of cynicism as demons have been promised for ages and never appeared. Can't say I blame them. But my sorcs are looking forward to prancing around town with a bright red imp following them.
Ok, I am going to end this with an assortment of small, interesting(I hope) tidbits about magic.
The lores factor into most things magical, and GM's advise all pures and semis to train at least once in their lore of choice.
Arcane Symbols helps with enchanting as well as infusion and sprit servant.
Spell 712 will strike out at an enemy/critter if you have it up and are stunned/killed. Be careful wearing it in town as it does NOT discriminate and will kill a friend who playfully stuns you as quickly as it does a critter out on the hunt. And the DR (death recovery) points and deeds and lost friendship are a high price to pay for forgetting to dispel 712 before entering a town.
The maximum time a spirit servant can keep your dead body is 2250 secs. A nice long time I would say.
Training in the 400 circle beyond 430 increases the defensive benefit of 430 by 1 DS per 2 ranks.
This for bards: Air lore will affect sonics. Nothing heard thus far about earth lore affecting anything, though it would make sense for vibe chant. The only mental lores that affect spellsongs thus far are manipulation for purification and telepathy for lullabye. However, I imagine teleportation will affect Traveler's Song. This is all I know at present, and may change, of course.
More soon.
My own feeling is that you can remain a swinging cleric if you wish to sacrifice some magic skills. However, the GM's have stated quite firmly that they are gearing all spells and other magical training towards clerics being unable to function as a swinger in the later years.
I have 2 clerics. One is a polearm user, one an OHE. Neither has ever thought of themselves as a paladin, so I don't think I wish to go that route just to be able to swing a weapon. On the other hand both are quite firmly swingers. What to do, what to do.
I am hoping that with the new Continuous Reallocation (which is what the GM's have named the new Mangler ability to learn and unlearn skills) I can start them off as swingers and gradually switch over to being a pure if I need to in their later lives.
What has all this to do with magic? Training paths, that's what it has to do with magic.
The whole idea of GS4 is diversity. No more cookie cutter characters. Lots more skills to choose from. Too many to possibly train in them all. That means that when you take a character into the Mangler, you will have to make some serious choices among all the possible skills in which you can train that character. With the new ability to use a staff (a magical staff, not just one you found on a critter or bought at a merchie, although there is talk of being able to get one altered) some people say that the need of pures to train in weapon and shield for defense has gone away. Now you can take those formerly wasted points and use them to train in the magic skills you always thought your pure needed to have but couldn't afford.
Other people have pointed out that if you can train in both weapon/shield and lots of magic skills, a character would have the best of both worlds: both kinds of defense whether one used a staff or weapon/shield and the ability to use magic to kill the critters.
Someone else pointed out that to have as many ranks in magic skills so that your staff defense was as high as possible all pures would 2x spells and then max out their training in all the cheap magic skills first, for example by 3x scroll reading (which is now call Arcane Symbols, by the way) thereby creating cookie cutter pures all over again. Meaning there will be no more diversity in GS4 than GS3 had.
Now, all this, like so much else in GS4 is an unknown quantity. We are not able to test the stave skill yet. We have no idea what DS it will give, or whether it can be disarmed, because if it can be, away will go our defense, and there will only be a wet spot where a pure once stood. We have no idea how many other magic skills we will need to train in to boost our defenses to the point of not being a wet smear should we be disarmed, or if that will even be possible.
However, the staff isn't going to give you quite as much defense as a sword and shield because the GM's feel you should be using your magical training for your defense. So what is a pure to do?
The discussions about how staves should be trained in and how they should work would fill up entries in this for the next week, at least. Since I don't think it would be much help until more information is forthcoming from the GM's and some testing is done in the Preview Test (formerly the Beta Test but so many problems have been found that they have decided to call it the Preview test until it's improved enough to be called Beta. Can you say "GS4 Goes Live with more bugs than Microsoft found in Windows?") I shall content myself with having given you the basics.
The idea I am getting is that the GM's want the pure magic user in GS4 to go back to their roots .. wizards in robes carrying a staff which protects them from harm while concentrating the wizards manna and beaming it out where ever directed by the wizard. Sort of like Gandalf. Sorcerers in robes, holding a magic crystal and directing their devastating spells through it at critters. I like Gandalf, I like the sorc image, too, so I am all for that. But not if it means some critter can take away my staff/crystal and leave me standing there all but naked while it swings a claid at my unprotected head. Quite where clerics, empaths, monks, paladins, rangers, bards and savants fit in this with staves hasn't really been explained yet.
The GM's say, "train in all the magical means you have at hand. It will all affect things we can't tell you about now, but trust us, it will affect them and the more you train the better off you will be." I say give us a clue what will affect which. What will training in the lores do for me? What will doubling in MIU do? Or harness power … how many times should I train in it? What about Arcane Symbols? Did anything change other than its name?
That one I can answer. It now factors into our ability to infuse scrolls. The better trained you are in it, the better at infusing you are. Infusing is being tested in the Preview Test and seems to be working. I can give you the method by which you infuse a scroll, and I will if I get enough feedback requesting it, but in a nutshell it goes like this:
There are runestones in GS4. They will be found in all sorts of places. Everyone will know all the common ones, but the more rare ones will appear in treasure and in quests and such. Runestones are used in scroll infusion, spirit servant, and eventually, minor summoning. And later down the road probably major summoning.
To infuse a scroll you take a certain runestone, and you take a scroll, and by manipulating stone and manna you can unlock the scroll and infuse manna into the spells on a scroll. This means you can have many more invokes of the spells than the scroll started out with. And as far as I know you can do it more than once to a scroll, but that may be wrong.
I told you about the spirit servant in the last entry, and now that I have told you about infusing, that leaves only the summoning of demons. Some time in the near future (although it is supposed to be being tested in the Preview Test in August) sorcs will be able to summon a minor demon as his/her companion. Much, much later, the Major Demons will be summonable. There is considerable excitement among sorcs about this, but also a lot of cynicism as demons have been promised for ages and never appeared. Can't say I blame them. But my sorcs are looking forward to prancing around town with a bright red imp following them.
Ok, I am going to end this with an assortment of small, interesting(I hope) tidbits about magic.
The lores factor into most things magical, and GM's advise all pures and semis to train at least once in their lore of choice.
Arcane Symbols helps with enchanting as well as infusion and sprit servant.
Spell 712 will strike out at an enemy/critter if you have it up and are stunned/killed. Be careful wearing it in town as it does NOT discriminate and will kill a friend who playfully stuns you as quickly as it does a critter out on the hunt. And the DR (death recovery) points and deeds and lost friendship are a high price to pay for forgetting to dispel 712 before entering a town.
The maximum time a spirit servant can keep your dead body is 2250 secs. A nice long time I would say.
Training in the 400 circle beyond 430 increases the defensive benefit of 430 by 1 DS per 2 ranks.
This for bards: Air lore will affect sonics. Nothing heard thus far about earth lore affecting anything, though it would make sense for vibe chant. The only mental lores that affect spellsongs thus far are manipulation for purification and telepathy for lullabye. However, I imagine teleportation will affect Traveler's Song. This is all I know at present, and may change, of course.
More soon.