Magecraft Ideas

[Takta]

I asked on OOC, but I was sadly too busy and distracted and didn't copy down answers, so:

We've added a new skill to the game called magecraft that will allow mages to create various magical items. Right now the boundaries and limits of this skill are pretty vague. It'll be used to create circles for demon summoning, as well as potions and items like the talismans mageforge used to make, but we could use more thoughts and ideas.

What would YOU like to see magecraft be able to do?

[Onyxsoulle]

The first item is obvious: wands. It's a caster's standby in any game.

Then there's:

Magic clothing that is as hard as steel(probably some activation word or something needed to activate it).

Well, apparently thats all I can think of for stuff that doesn't have anything to do with stuff already covered in spells(that I know of). But for stuff that DOES involve spells, there's always items that have a spell applied to them.

For example:

Earrings with Riddle of Babel on them

A head item with Auspex cast into it

Boots/shoes with Path of the Snake

You get the idea, though I'm not sure if any of these would be implemented as it could possibly break the game balance.

Oh and of course: Bag of Holding and an item(maybe a key) that when sayto'd with the proper word, tp's a mage to a preset room.

Again, alot of this stuff may be gamebreaking and probably already thought of, just throwing out what came to mind.

[Leech]

Items you can enchant and throw at peoples' faces to explode/ put them to sleep. Basically an escape thing like temijul.

Items to up various skills/stats when worn.

[Geras]

One thing that I feel is important is that there be some sort of division of labour. It'd be boring for all mages to potentially be able to craft all items.

[Annalesa]

I agree with Geras on this one. I think it should be somewhat tied to the moons/element system and only be able to create and item with this or that power if you already have the prerequisite spell or moon/element level to learn it.

I would say that fire mages, for example, would be likely to make lanterns or torches, perhaps items that burn those who touch them without explicitly being set to be able to touch them.

I like the idea of being able to make clothing that could become hard like steel/iron/whatever, but I think that should be a high level Earth magecraft.

I think that the way to go about it at first is to try to adapt the skills and general abilities of the mages through spells/attributes associated with the moons and elements.

So, take Leech's idea for getaway items:

If we base it on the element/moons:

Fire could be ones that explode. Void could be ones that blind. Earth could be ones that ensnare with vines or something. Water could be ones that freeze to the ground/create ice walls. Air could encase in some kind of low-level dust tornado.

[Kinaed]

Element prereqs are easy as a lot of magecraft requires casting to activate objects.

Right now, we were (hope my info is still the latest and greatest) looking at all mages being able to summon, water mages having exclusive ability around potions, earth being talismans & enchanted objs. I like the fire ideas around magic lights, bombs, etc. Not sure what air and void might specialize in, but I don't think that all elements need a magecraft shtick. Interested to hear more ideas.

[ScottyEnvy]

Now, would this specific style of magecraft only stick to the mage's original moon/elle? Or if the mage had like GM in two, would they be able to do both?

[Kinaed]

I'd think do both? Any opinions on the ups and downs of that?

[Takta]

I'd think do both, absolutely, since the 'bottleneck' would be the casting of the spell. But I hadn't thought we were planning on water mages alone getting potions, as some of the potions I've already designed fit better with some other elements. (That said, water has MORE potions thus far and will likely continue to.)

I think it's very important that every element get some craftables lest we leave some mages feeling screwed. The only potential exception I could see would be void due to the power and range of its spell list, but even then I'd like them to get SOME stuff.

A big problem is what we can create with magecraft that won't require a tremendous amount of new coding per item, though. There's no extant code at the moment for the actual coded effects of spells to be stored in objects, as far as I know. Which limits some of the more entertaining ideas...

[Onyxsoulle]

On the subject of element/moon to item, for air I actually think instruments would work really well, most instruments are kind of wind based(horns, flutes, woodwinds, even strings if you stretch it a bit.)

Void is kind of tough, but maybe masks? since void is kind of espionage based?