Difference between revisions of "Magic systems"

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; Slot-based
; Slot-based
: [[Spell]]s are prepared in advance, and once prepared a spell can be cast at anytime with little or no chance of failure, but once cast the spell is consumed; to cast a spell twice it has to be prepared twice, and so on.
: [[Spell]]s must be prepared in advance, after which it may be cast at any time. In many systems, once a spell is cast, it is consumed; to cast a spell twice, it must be prepared twice.
: Typically the maximum number of spells that can be prepared is finite, either with an explicit cap (i.e. 'Slots'), or by requiring a finite resource (i.e. Material components).
: Typically the maximum number of spells that can be prepared is finite, either with an explicit cap ('Slots'), or by requiring a finite resource (i.e. material components).
: Variations include: more powerful spells require more slots/resources; [[D&D]]-style leveled slots; pre-requisite spells to implicitly consume extra slots for powerful spells.
: Variations include: more powerful spells require more slots/resources; [[D&D]]-style leveled slots; prerequisite spells that implicitly consume extra slots for powerful spells.


; [[Mana]]-Based
; [[Mana]]-Based
: [[Spell]]s consume a quantity of spell points (i.e. [[Mana]]) when cast, otherwise spellcasting is unrestricted.
: [[Spell]]s consume spell points ('[[Mana]]') when cast, but spellcasting is otherwise unrestricted.
: Variants are: '[[Aspected Mana]]' (Fire mana, water, defensive, aggressive, etc., and other more unusual divisions); [[spell]]s consuming things other things instead of mana ([[hit points]], material components, food, etc.), and spells consume more then one type of thing/aspect of mana (e.g. 3 fire mana and a stick of charcoal)
: Variations include: '[[Aspected Mana]]' (fire mana, water mana, offensive mana, defensive mana, etc.); [[spell]]s consuming things other than mana ([[hit points]], material components, food/nutrition, etc.); spells consume more than one type of thing/aspect of mana (e.g. 3 fire mana and a stick of charcoal).


; Chance-Based
; Chance-Based
: [[Spellcasting]] is essentially free, but has a chance of failure, probably a very large chance.
: [[Spellcasting]] is essentially free, but has a large chance of failure, especially for high-level spells.
: A variant is to have the chance of failure be affected by some combination [[stat]]s, skill, or environment.
: A variant is to have the chance of failure be affected by some combination [[stat]]s, skill, or environment.


It is quite common to combine more than one of these methods.
It is quite common to combine more than one of these methods.


A Slot/[[Mana]] system might let you memorize a shortlist of [[spell]]s, which are then cast as a mana system. [[Crawl]] does this.
A Mana/Chance system might allow memorization of any number of [[spell]]s, with the drawback that they cost mana and may fail. [[NetHack]] does this.
A Mana/Chance system might allow skill to reduce the mana cost of casting spells. The [[Pen and Paper]] [[GURPS]] does this.
 
A Slot/Mana/Chance system might allow you to memorize a short list of spells, which then may be cast as above. [[Crawl]] does this.


== Related links ==
== Related links ==

Revision as of 21:40, 5 August 2018

Slot-based
Spells must be prepared in advance, after which it may be cast at any time. In many systems, once a spell is cast, it is consumed; to cast a spell twice, it must be prepared twice.
Typically the maximum number of spells that can be prepared is finite, either with an explicit cap ('Slots'), or by requiring a finite resource (i.e. material components).
Variations include: more powerful spells require more slots/resources; D&D-style leveled slots; prerequisite spells that implicitly consume extra slots for powerful spells.
Mana-Based
Spells consume spell points ('Mana') when cast, but spellcasting is otherwise unrestricted.
Variations include: 'Aspected Mana' (fire mana, water mana, offensive mana, defensive mana, etc.); spells consuming things other than mana (hit points, material components, food/nutrition, etc.); spells consume more than one type of thing/aspect of mana (e.g. 3 fire mana and a stick of charcoal).
Chance-Based
Spellcasting is essentially free, but has a large chance of failure, especially for high-level spells.
A variant is to have the chance of failure be affected by some combination stats, skill, or environment.

It is quite common to combine more than one of these methods.

A Mana/Chance system might allow memorization of any number of spells, with the drawback that they cost mana and may fail. NetHack does this.

A Slot/Mana/Chance system might allow you to memorize a short list of spells, which then may be cast as above. Crawl does this.

Related links

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