Posted by Jheriohn on December 1, 2000 at 08:16:00:
In Reply to: Wasted dexterity of mages posted by Quipahe on November 30, 2000 at 21:25:43:
Unlike communes, a spell does not open a channel between deity and empoweree. Rather, through mental discipline (read mana) and the appropriate incantiation (Someone utters the words 'grzzs') magic is called forth, channeled etc. There is also a form of sign language that accompanies this. Mages can not cast when manacled and some spells require concentration (and likely gestures) impossible during active combat. Agreed. Now, elves are high dexterity races. This dexterity is usually "wasted" in a mage class. Can not dodge and the dex-based armor class reduction is not too exciting. Stone skin is surely better and AC becomes meaningless as level increases. So, why not tie dexterity into spell casting? Well... because simply the time required to cast it is time required to cast it. It takes time to build up the energy necesary to put into a magical spell. The rate you move, in my eyes, has no outward affect on the speed this energy is gathered. For example, the higher the dexterity of the mage the faster speels could be cast. I don't mena something to eliminate the lag on certain spells. But a high-dex mage could be expected to get through the gestures for casting armor quicker than a low-dex mage.Perhaps this couldbe tied to INT as well with some probability to lessen casting lag. The logic being that if your are adept mentally and agile wiht good coordination (hihg-dex even) you ought to be able to speed things up. Even if this is just some fraction of a round if would be useful. One could make it a skill to be learned as well. Call if spellgesture if you like. One learns it like any other just that the mage's dexterity is checked as well. Read my above statement on everything save for that skill. I do like that skill idea. Maybe at the height of mastery in this skill a mage could learn to cast simple magics totally without speech (hands and mana only) or be able to have a chance to cast when manacled (albeit with greater mana requirement). Any thoughts? This I do like. Not all spells, stuff like word of recal and maybe the lower level spells like lightning bolt or fireball. I've often thought that such an addition would be neat, though a bit unbalanced. With some tweaking I'm sure it could be balanced. I just like the idea of a silent mage. Big boom, no sound. Jheriohn