[Chris Byler]

Originally posted by Nagot Gick Fel:

quote:

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Originally posted by Chris Byler:
There was a proposal a while back to give some pretender forms a new ability: increasing the level of a magic path would cost less (or more) points. If humanoids paid only 50% of normal points to increase the level of a path, in addition to their low new path cost, they could be real magical powerhouses and have strong blessings too.

If you go that route too far, there's a risk to get unbalanced results, with human mages getting mid- or high blessings effects cheaper than other pretenders that are supposed to be proficient in these paths (eg, nature-9 earth-9 would cost less on a Master Druid than on a Great Mother, which isn't something you want).

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Actually I *do* want that. Fat Mama has 10x the hit points, regeneration, trample and higher dominion and is a SC with a few turns of research (or no research at all if indy strength is low enough). The Master Druid has squat aside from his magic - no physical power, no dominion, weak special ability (I think he gets poison immunity and extra vinemen?). If he can't be magically stronger for the same amount of points, or equally strong for less points, what's the point of taking him? Isn't that what this thread is about?

Half cost may be a bit too powerful though. It might make three or even four 9's achievable and that would be a bit much.

To eliminate this issue, I'd suggest something like:

Increase in a path the pretender (any type) starts with: 6 points * extra level

Increase in a path the pretender (human mage type) doesn't start with : 8 points * extra level

Increase in a path the pretender (other types) doesn't start with : 10 points * extra level

That's the idea, the numeric values are just examples and may be altered. The base value used in 'paths you don't start with' could also be a function of 'new paths cost X'. Thus a Naga would also pay less than a Virtue to increase her magic in paths both aren't initially proficient in. Finally, you might want to change the cost of new paths if you make extensive use of this system.

The main effect of this system as you have presented it is to strengthen *non*-humanoid pretenders by cheapening the paths they start with. The humanoids start with few or no paths and would receive little if any benefit. Non-humanoids would pay a bit more to add extra paths, but I don't think that's good - instead of non-humanoids paying more for added paths, humanoids should pay less.

You could make cost to increase magic paths depend on new path cost based on something like the following:
Pretender with 1-24 new path cost: 6 * level
Pretender with 25-49 new path cost: 7 * level
Pretender with 50+ new path cost: 8 * level (the current cost)
(You could extend this and make pretenders with very high new path cost pay 9 * level, but that makes it more difficult to buy up their starting path, which they're supposed to be good at. Besides, I don't think those pretenders need a nerf, rather, the weak ones need improvement.)

Buying up paths you already have already has a cost discount (instead of level it's (level - starting level) *each time*, which is pretty big), so I don't see a reason to give a second discount on them.

The main beneficiaries of this change would be the humanoids, and to a lesser extent liches and nagas. Most pretenders would be unchanged.

Unfortunately this kind of change isn't moddable - it requires new code. So if Illwinter doesn't think there's a problem with humanoids then this kind of solution can't be done.