More controversial mage suggestions

[RogerN]

It's been noted on several occasions that mages tend to rely on everything except magic to deal damage. I thought I'd throw another idea out there (which has probably been suggested before in some form).

What if mages could channel their magical energies through wands and rods in order to increase the damage output? These guys are supposed to be masters of magical devices. You'd think that with all their magical training they'd get a little more benefit than an extra 20% chance of not screwing up with a wand of magic missile.

There are several different ways you could do it. You could have a Channel spell which lets you pick a bolt/ball wand and a target (i.e. use mana directly to increase wand damage). You could have an Unleash spell which releases some or all of the charges in a wand at once. Or, you could have an Absorb spell which sucks charges out of a wand (i.e. lightning bolts) in order to increase the power of your lightning spells for a while.

An added benefit is that mages only receive increased damage output when carrying the right kinds of wands/etc... Thus there's an element of specialization based on the wands you're carrying.

Thoughts?

[Elsairon]

I like the unleash idea, and would add an increasing chance of destroying any item so unleashed, depending on the number of charges.

[Storch]

Damage output

I oppose the idea that damage output of mages should be increased significantly and it does not matter if it would be achieved by means of stronger spells or better use of magic devices.

If the mages were able to deal damage well, half of the fun would be lost. They have other means of surviving in the dungeon. It think that it is also quite "tolkienish" - wizards in his books never achieved their goals by brute force in combat.

[bpleshek]

perhaps, but they weren't masters of melee artifacts either.

Brian

[Atarlost]

Only one mage ever beat Angband in the books. Of course back when Luthien did it Sleep Monster worked on all uniques, even Morgoth.

If we don't restore the option to put everything to sleep and filch the silmarils that way we probably shouldn't be limiting mages based on what Tolkein wrote. They wouldn't be playable.

[Narvius]

Oh, just by the way.
Enemy "Discharge" spell. Basically kills off your charges or makes your rods recharge.

[Conker]

It's a game, not a piece of fan-fiction, and accordingly accuracy to the books can be sacrificed for playability.

These ideas are interesting, but I'd propose more diversification between the classes - make mages worse at combat, but better at spells.

[Storch]

Damage done by mages

I will try to be more specific. It does not matter much if I want the game to be "tolkienish" or not, it does not apply to many variants anyway.

What I mean is that giving mages big destructive power would unbalance the game. If mages had special spell or special wand that could do the same damage as other classes can do, what would we get? Such mage would be able to inflict as much damage as ranger or warrior and could use super usefull spells (identify, haste, recharge, resistance, shield, banishment, destruction etc.) as an extra. His only disadvantage would be lower hitpoints.

That does not seem to be a good idea to me.

[Atarlost]

Rangers also have spells. The mage's disadvantage is that restore mana potions are rarer than arrows.