I've been talking to ZomgPonies about his alchemy ideas for the librarian and about a magic system rewrite I was working on previously. There has been some consolidation between the two and now I'm looking get some ideas from you all on spells and such. But first a little bit of an explanation.
The wizard's magic spells are now broken up into several magic schools, here they are with a couple of spells each that you might find available:
Abjuration (Abjurer) - Spells that protect, block, or banish.
Conjuration (Conjurer) - Spells that bring creatures or materials to the caster.
- Low-rank spell: Summon Animal
- Low-rank spell: Conjure Smoke
- Med-rank spell: Summon Lesser-Monster (Hivebot, Space Carp)
- High-rank spell: Summon Greater-Monster (Spiders, NPC Aliens, etc)
Divination (Diviner) - Spells that reveal information.
Enchantment (Enchanter) - Spells that imbue properties or grant power over other beings.
Evocation (Evoker) - Spells that manipulate energy or create something from nothing.
- Low-rank spell: Disable Tech (EMP)
- Low-rank spell: Magic Missile
- High-rank spell: Disintegrate
Illusion (Illusionist) - Spells that alter perception or create false images.
- Low-rank spell: Invisible Wall (Mime's abiltiy is moved here and they get this for free)
- Low-rank spell: Hallucinate
Necromancy (Necromancer) - Spells that manipulate, create, or destroy life.
Transmutation (Transmuter) - Spells that alter the physical appearance or properties.
- Low-rank spell: Blind
- Low-rank spell: Flesh to Stone
- Low-rank spell: Ethereal Jaunt
For further information on schools and spells that could be added, check out: School Specialization
There are also a couple of schools that deal with non-spell related magic:
Alchemy (Alchemist) - The ability to brew magical potions and salves.
Artifice (Artificer) - The ability to forge arcane devices and constructs.
- Some way to create soulstones?
Now for an explanation of how this will affect wizards. Wizards will have to unlock or improve themselves in their selected schools via school advancement points, a wizard has a limited (although as of yet undetermined) number of these points. By advancing magic schools they can unlock new spells and passives via another limited number of school mastery points (or some other name I don't have to properly represent this). These two aspects are designed to introduce a more diverse set of wizard play-styles and to set the grounds for a variety of new spells.
There is however one part I didn't mention; when a wizard spawns they are prompted to select any school as their mastery which will start completely unlocked (they still have to buy spells though), and then have to select two -SPELL- schools (not divination) to become their prohibited schools (they can't advance in the school at all).
Now, one final section to talk about that we've been talking about previously: The Librarian
There are plans to add old tomes to the game that the librarian has the task of deciphering via a small but likely difficult minigame. These tomes are recovered through xenoarcheology (although other sources are open for discussion). Under (very) rare circumstances the Librarian may discover a lost spell and if he goes through the steps of recreating it he can claim the spell as his own. It should be noted that the practice of magic is highly illegal in NanoTrasen and the Librarian can likely find himself in a world of trouble if he is caught with such knowledge.
