Magic branch for mercenaries

[Rhaegar]

You know, for all the people that finished the Elemental Academy rather than Cadet School in Gelan and wished to continue on the path of magic.
Currently we have 3 occupational caster guilds, of which 2 are evil and 2 are priests rather than mage type. Why not let people join the occ caster guild to provide more options and enhance the possibility of roleplaying a layman caster?

Skills:

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knife      : superior professional
defence    : superior craftsman
language   : superior professional
herbalism  : superior craftsman
spellcraft : confident veteran
abjuration : superior journeyman
alteration : superior journeyman
conjuration: superior journeyman
divination : superior journeyman
enchantment: superior journeyman
evocation  : superior journeyman
illusion   : superior journeyman
air        : superior amateur
earth      : superior amateur
fire       : superior amateur
water      : superior amateur
life       : superior amateur
death      : superior amateur
alchemy    : superior layman
knowledge  : superior guru (works just like adaptation)

Spells:

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Magic missile
Schools: evocation/conjuration
Difficulty: medium
Damage: random low to medium (depending on the number of missiles generated, higher guildstat helps)

Fireball
Schools: evocation/conjuration
Difficulty: difficult
Damage: low to medium, area of effect

Lightning
Schools: evocation/conjuration
Difficulty: very difficult
Damage: random low to high, may bounce to different targets including the caster and his team

Color spray
Schools: cojuration/enchantment
Difficulty: difficult
Damage: very low, has a chance to blind and/or stun the target

Darkvision
Schools: alteration/enchantment
Difficulty: easy
Effect: see in the dark *duh*

Blur
Schools: illusion/enchantment
Difficulty: medium
Effect: reduces damage from missiles

Sphere of protection
Schools: abjuration/enchantment
Difficulty: difficult
Effect: protects from magic and elemental damage

Identify
Schools: divination/enchantment
Difficulty: very difficult
Effect: reveals some more information about magic items

Ventriloquism
Schools: conjuration/illusion
Difficulty: very easy
Effect: lets you communicate with other mages

Teleportation
Schools: conjuration/alteration
Difficulty: very difficult
Effect: teleports caster to the guild

Invisibility
Schools: illusion/alteration
Difficulty: very difficult
Effect: turns caster invisible until he attacks or attempts to cast a spell

Scry
Schools: divination/conjuration
Difficulty: difficult
Effect: I can see you!

The spells are just a suggestion, this are the most common spells found in basically any RPG. The spells would have to be researched (at the expense of time, fatigue and mana) and then successfully cast in order to scribe them into spellbook. The research would be random (you can't choose which spell you are researching, you'll know it only after you managed to cast it).

Titles and emotes coming soon.

Edit:

Titles:

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Based on knowledge level:
Uneducated
Learning
Knowledgeable
Learned
Educated
Advanced
Expert
Scholarly
Wise
Enlightened

Based on guildstat:
Initiate of the Arcane Arts
Student of the Arcane Arts
Dabbler of the Arcane Arts
Practicioner of the Arcane Arts
Master of the Arcane Arts
Grandmaster of the Arcane Arts
Archmage

They need to be tweaked a bit so that they correspond with Merc titles in terms of quantity (someone update me on this please?).

[Alorrana]

Proberly a good idea, but lets get some players before we get magicial mercs

[Hektor]

I think that would be a very good idea. They would be a very needed addition to the game. I seem to recall that Demonsgate MUD had a very nicely coded mage guild with those spells. Last I heard that MUD was shut down, maybe one of the wizards there would feel allright to lend out the code to a Genesiswizard and adapt it to todays standards?

[Rhaegar]

I think that would be a very good idea. They would be a very needed addition to the game. I seem to recall that Demonsgate MUD had a very nicely coded mage guild with those spells. Last I heard that MUD was shut down, maybe one of the wizards there would feel allright to lend out the code to a Genesiswizard and adapt it to todays standards?

I asked them about it. Currently the MUD has been shut down, they're not willing to release the code (yet), they're eager to give it away though if someone were to provide a host for it. Something along those lines, it's been a while since I had any contact with people there.

@ Alorrana: I believe that having such option could bring more people in, be it new or the old ones. There's been a lot of people who wanted to play as a caster but the options for that are severely limited in gen:
PoT/MM - long and tedious application process, extremely long and tedious initial stage before you're a "full member" and able to actually do something, evil only, elves not welcome. PoT are priests.
ScoP - no idea about the application process here, but seeing the recent influx of their members I'd guess it's not that hard. Don't know much about how much their gameplay feels "magic". Goodie only, priest stuff.

That leaves us with 1 "proper" occ magic guild which is very hard to join and then be successful in and that's evil only.
Things will get better when ScoP get turned into elementals, but they're going to be priesty-elementaly too. At least they're going to be neutral.

[Sharn]

There used to be "Wizards of High Sorcery" (Krynn mage) guild on genesis.
There used to be evil, neutral and good aligned branches (black, red and white robes).
It was about 10 years ago?
The guild pretty much had most of what you described.
But were closed. No idea why.

Magic is not my cup of tea...but I liked and still like the idea.

[Rhaegar]

But were closed. No idea why.

If my brief experience with abominable transgression that was the Igor (or whatever this thing was called) would indicate what WoHS could do then here's your answer:

You're travelling somewhere, fighting some creeps and living a happy life. Suddenly some eye or something appears next to you and I believe keeps following you like the necro skull. Next thing you know is a mage appears and starts hurling lightning bolts and fireballs left and right, effectively frying you.

Scry + teleport to scried location was a god damn 'I WIN' button.

And if I recall there were plans to bring WoHS back to gen, which included adding the 'staff' skill, some 10 or so years ago but I believe it failed.

[Alorrana]

Sure im also for more guilds, And if it would bring back players, indeed, then let the change come. but didnt Damaris work on Kiraa´s the ones in Raumdor or where evere they are located. where..?

As I remember it was pretty much good to go, so perhaps some codes could be borrowed from there if the guild isnt to be implimented after all. I know Elmore coded some Death knights on krynn when he was Wizard, perhaps loan some code there aswell.

I agree there should be a caster guild aswell, for the casual spell caster. Or even for players to see if this the path they want to take.. then they could join the more high end guilds, Scops, mages, or Pots.

But wouldnt it put the Cadet elementalist a bit out of work, I mean If you can join Mercs as a wandrere or how every young, You will abandone the accadamy to get the more powerfull skills in mercs. ? wouldnt you ?
If they are to be implimented, I suggest the only ones that can join are elementalists from the Accadamy, so The acadamy would be a pre-school to the Mercs Casters, and former mercs could choose the caster path aswell. Or you would have to have some knowledge from somewhere to join, perhaps it should be required to be a spell casting merc, you will have to Graduate from the Acadamy..? just so there is a meaning with the Cadet elementals still. and they can go from newbie spells to game spells, then on to serious spellcasting if that what they want..? I just think there needs to be a path, little forced perhaps, so that you dont get an empty acadamy.

[Rhaegar]

What you're mentioning Alorrana is a different problem entirely.
Right now the Academy does seem to have some members while Cadets are empty (why join Cadets when you can merc up right off the bat?), I believe setting both mercs and this mage guild I propose here to accept only people of adept+ level, a bit like the old mercs but without the possibility to buy your way in.
The seconds can grow to adept very fast while newbies could use their time in the Cadets/Academy and find Mercs/Mages as a natural progression before sealing their deal with a more dedicated guild.

I mean, what about all those currently in the Academy? They graduate, they wish to continue on their path and what do they get? A big disappointment for most of them, that would be my guess.

[Alorrana]

Donno how to solve this one dude. I just think a join here Caster guild would be dangerous, Casters usually are.

just saying i think they should have a path of sort. Join here, pay plats, go nuke.. just a bit to.. much i would say.

[Rhaegar]

Well, it wouldn't be that simple.
1. Join here.
2. Improve skills.
3. Need to go and do the knwledge stuff if I want to be any good at this.
4. Need to spend a lot of time, mana and fatigue researching spells and if of the first few none are going to be nukes, I'm screwed.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 multiple times.
6. Now I just need guildstat so that my spells won't fail all the time and will do some damage.
7. Ahhh, finally I can enjoy this awesome guild!

The path of magic isn't as simple as 'learn skills -> go nuke'.