Designing a Magic System - Part Eleven (Re: Choices)

(You'll probably want to read parts one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and ten before starting this).

So with the principles I've discussed in the first ten parts of this article, by combining elements with shapes to create unique array of attacks, and increasing damage balanced by using the exponential curve, was I able to resolve the design problems of Angband and create a compelling magic system for UnAngband?

I don't believe I've achieved this. Because not every spell effect is amenable to the same type of analysis that you can do with attacks. Take the example of Phase Door. Phase door teleports the player a short distance (10 grid squares on average), allowing the player to get distance between him and enemies attempting to reach melee range. But increasing the range doesn't make the spell more useful - because Phase Door has two distinct uses.

The first is escaping: and increasing the distance travelled by Phase Door usually benefits the player. The benefit is not guaranteed - you could potentially teleport into an unexplored section of the dungeon filled with monsters more dangerous that you currently face, but in general greater distance is better.

But the second function of Phase Door is tactical: to continue allowing you to use ranged attacks against nearby enemies without risking their more powerful melee attacks. In this circumstance, the limited range is ideal - tailored to the Angband 'average room size'. Increasing the range diminishes the likelihood of staying within ranged attack distance of the enemies, and so increasing the 'damage' of Phase Door (the range you are teleported) is of limited benefit.

So it seems that it is not possible to provide more choice for Phase Door alternatives: the spell is as useful as it possibly can be, and any spell which attempts to supplant Phase Door must offer the same two functions, or do one of them significantly better. If this is the case, e.g. Phase Door alternate A and Phase Door alternate B, the first which escapes better, and the second which provides a better tactical alternative, can both be learned, superseding Phase Door completely.

The same problem occurs with being able to learn multiple attack spells: we're just able to dodge the bullet by providing more elemental types and shapes, so that all the attack spells of the same tier are useful in some set of circumstances.

So what functions does a mage need in Angband? The following spells are available in the Angband mage's first spell book:

Detect Monsters
Light Area
Magic Missile
Phase Door
Cure Light Wounds
Find Hidden Traps/Doors
Stinking Cloud
Confuse Monster

Detect Monsters detects all monsters, with the exception of invisible ones and is critically useful for the starting mage. Light Area allows the mage to light up rooms and engage monsters at range. Cure Light Wounds provides low level healing, Find Hidden Traps and Doors helps protect the mage from traps, which can be deadly to them at low levels. Stinking Cloud is the second tier of attack spells that the mage gets access to.

I can suggest alternatives for each of these spells, but making the alternatives equally available renders the designs less distinct. Take Detect Monsters. Because it is not universal detection - it has one distinct drawback, I could equally propose a number of monster detection spells, each of which detects all but a class of monsters - living monsters but not undead, intelligent monsters but not mindless ones, spell using monsters but not warriors and so on. Unfortunately, by providing these alternatives to the starting mage, the drawbacks are mitigated. By learning two spells, the mage can cover the detection holes of a single spell, and so on - unless they are fighting an invisible, undead, mindless, spell caster of course. This means I am forced to make universal monster detection for the mage available immediately - even if it is my intention to force the mage to proceed cautiously due to the detection holes I've designed in.

I've picked this example deliberately, because there is a way of overcoming this problem, one that Sangband adopts (and from which I shamelessly borrowed the alternate detection magics). There is no design problem if there is a separate decision for the magic user, that allows them to only learn only one of the detection spells. If this is the case: say the mage is limited to one detection type, two first tier attack spells, one Phase Door alternative and so on, I can be as creative as I want to be with the spell designs, while being assured that the overall progression of spell acquisition will leave the mage with the appropriate weaknesses I want designed into each spell.

So what does this decision look like?

Well, I'm embarrassed to say, it looks a lot choosing a player class.

I could choose to explicitly force the player to choose for each category. 'What monsters do you detect?' when choosing the detection spell, and so on. However, this feels like exposing too much of the bones of the design, without achieving the consistent suspension of disbelief that I wanted in part one. So instead, I design a thematically consistent set of spells, wrap them up in a catchy moniker, and ensure that the design requirements are fulfilled for each set of spells I allow the player to choose from. And I don't have a good word for this other than a class (I call it a school, but this is a class by another name).

Using classes to delimit choice about magical spells is the best reason I can see for supporting a class design over a skill design system (or the classless, skill-less design I had previously advocated). Even Sangband (A contraction of Skills Angband) does this - surely an indication that the class based approach is necessary for providing alternative magic choices. Remember, I am talking about providing a framework for enabling interesting spell choices, and I am open to suggestions for alternatives. Angband's spell books are too easily swapped in and out- and to provide at the alternatives at the start of play means that they could all be purchased early; the process of learning spells needs to be made both more flexible and strict to be interesting (perhaps allowing less spells to be learnt, while allowing them to be flexibly forgotten, with some drawback to prevent instant re-specing); and I've worked through spell pre-requisites and exclusions enough to not believe that a talent tree approach has the flexibility to incorporate all the different magical effects I want to include. Are there other mechanics out there that I could take advantage of?

I'll talk in more detail about the UnAngband spell classes in part twelve. [Edit: Now more probably part thirteen - I digress slightly in the next part].