Hmm... From a thematic (not gameplay) perspective, I've always favored a more ritualistic form of magic. I don't like the idea of Dwarves casting magic missile at the darkness. I think of Dwarves either nonmagical, or using magic runes and prayers to summon divine smiting.
I guess this means that I'd like to see magic implementation vary dramatically by race.
Dwarves engrave magic circles and magic runes into items and rooms and weapons. Circles can easily be intentionally destroyed by raiders unless made of cast steel.
- Circle of Water slowly (but unceasingly) generates water once complete.
- Circle of Weakness all units in this area deal less damage. Early on you can use it to make training safer. Later on, you could make it out of more durable material and use it as part of your defense.
- Circle of Rebirth. Put a corpse in there, and it raises as a zombie. Put a living but injured dwarf in there and they heal faster. Perhaps shaving years off their life?
- Rune of Flame makes weapons and armor and booze barrels more resistant to fire if engraved once. If engraved twice, they burst into flame until the engraving is damaged.
Etc.
Elves would of course have nature magic. Their power would be dependent on familiars (trained kitties?) and their options would be considerable dependent on nature and biomes. They might be able to summon wild wolves to their defense, or shape trees and briars into a living, healing, but destructible wall capable of attacking intruders or perhaps it would be passable but hostile...
Goblins would have a very basic system of magic with limited but powerful effects. For instance, they might sacrifice dwarven babies (veal) to get favors from their demon/dragon gods. They might build up magic based on how much violence they commit, and then store that magic in totems, fetishes, charms and idols. A blood idol might give prisoners nightmares, but goblins happy dreams of bloodshed and slaughter. A elf skull totem would scare or enrage elves based on their personality, and also act as some sort of sentry or alarm system. A dwarf ear necklace might given them some symbolic benefit such as toughness based on how many they've added to their collection.
Humans? Maybe they'll be the standard wizards or whatnot with the magic concept outlined above, casting classic fireballs.
I'd imagine kobolds as a more primal shamanistic form of magic. I could imagine them summoning the spirits of their ancestors, or burning herbs to confuse their enemies or send themselves into berserk rages. A shaman's strength might be influenced by the number of their ancestors, though somehow limited so you don't end up with magic always getting more powerful as the game history goes on.
Anyways, those are my two cents on the subject. I'm not in any hurry to see magic implemented and I don't really care whether my ideas get any use or not. If i was programming the game or magic (which comes after interface, after all) arc was nearing, I might care some. But instead I'm throwing out the ideas so they have a chance to germinate and grow or die off, rather than rot in my brain.
In the end it all revolves around what sparks Toady One's vision, imagination, interest, and what he figures is a good investment of his time. As there's plenty of magic point magic or memorized spells in games today, I would be interested in seeing things head in a different direction, though I don't have a personal stake in the matter, and whatever option isn't likely to negatively impact my DF experience since the base gameplay is already solid, and I've enjoyed more typical magic systems. But there is a huge batch of fantasy literature concepts of magic vastly underutilized in games today, including the concept of ley lines and magic flows, but also focusing on the ritualistic and artifice and etc...
[ January 22, 2008: Message edited by: Lazy_Perfectionist ]
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Topic: Magic and Wizard Mode (Read 2065 times)