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alexandraerin...but then I wanted to refer back to it last night and couldn't find it.
Anyway, one of the things that came up in the discussions spawned by my "what's missing?" post was the idea that someone might want to perform some of the functions of an enchanter (putting magic into items for immediate effect; e.g., flaming sword, crackling electrical armor) without actually playing as a wizard.
My immediate response to that was to spin off that idea into its own CQ (which is now known as the Imbuer), which I'm still doing because the ability to quickly create temporary magical effects for equipment really is its own distinct thing and that's separate from the slightly more complicated and subtle basis for the Enchanter CQ. You could combine the two of them to give someone with short-term and long-term enchantment abilities, or pick one or the other.
But the whole thing got me thinking about how many of what I've considered to be "Magic Required" CQs actually work more like the "Magic Optional" ones (Alchemist, Tinkerer, Minstrel) that give a bonus to related spell work if you have points in Magic but otherwise just have a list of Stuff You Can Do.
Necromancer has a bonus to spells concerning the dead or undead, and then a host of abilities that let them talk to the dead, command the dead, make it more affordable to have undead or spirit companions, etc. Make a character without Magic and absent an arbitrary restriction (which I do not like) there's no reason you couldn't take Necromancer and get a lot of out it.
Illusionist likewise has a bonus to spells concerning illusion and deception and then a host of abilities allowing them to do things that the normal Spell Check rules simply don't allow or aren't meant for. The way they were originally written they were tied into the Spell Check mechanics and/or required a Magic Check, but it didn't take much to re-write them so that the requisite check can be done with Deception, Presence, or Magic. Now the same quality works for a magical but non-wizard trickster, someone using "Bardic Magic" or psychic illusions.
In all cases adding Magic points to such a character would increase the range of what they can do, but that's true for all characters. The major advantage of Magic is its flexibility. Removing the need for Magic means these same qualities can represent innate abilities, wild talents, blessings, etc.
There will still be CQs that are so closely tied to the Magic rules that they absolutely require it to function, the same way that Warrior requires fighting ability and Sneak requires Stealth: Arcanist, Circle Mage, Magic-User, Battlemage. These are CQs whose abilities essentially revolve around changing how Spell Checks work. But they should be pretty rare.
In between, there were some CQs--mainly the elemento-mancers--that fall into a sort of middle ground. As much as was possible, I reworked their side abilities to work without Magic and without Spell Checks, but the kind of transitory/instant effects that things like elemental evocations involve can't really be represented in a "you can do this stuff" type list because "you can slam enemies into walls with sudden gusts of wind" is something that is going to require a check.
But I did come up with a solution: allow them to use a related attribute as if it were Magic purely for the purposes of direct elemental manipulation. Air could use Agility or Deception, fire could use Presence or Prowess, water could use Healing or Persuasion, earth could use Toughness or Perception (HI TOPH!*), and any of them could use Willpower. That way if you want to make an ATLA-style elemental evoker, you have your choice of physical or mental attributes, and if you want more than one elemental specialty, you can go Willpower and not split attributes. I've also went ahead and codified that Willpower or Magic can be used for Magic Burn Tolerance (some characters already had this as an ability), just to make these options more viable, and also allowed Elementalist to use Willpower for any of the four elements so there's consistency with the individual speciaties.
The best thing about making CQs more flexible like this is that it means down the road I don't have to make any otherwise redundant "elemental superpower" or "spontaneous animation of the dead but you're also not a wizard" qualities.
* "It sounds like a computer screen, but I guess you're referring to what's on the computer screen."
Anyway, one of the things that came up in the discussions spawned by my "what's missing?" post was the idea that someone might want to perform some of the functions of an enchanter (putting magic into items for immediate effect; e.g., flaming sword, crackling electrical armor) without actually playing as a wizard.
My immediate response to that was to spin off that idea into its own CQ (which is now known as the Imbuer), which I'm still doing because the ability to quickly create temporary magical effects for equipment really is its own distinct thing and that's separate from the slightly more complicated and subtle basis for the Enchanter CQ. You could combine the two of them to give someone with short-term and long-term enchantment abilities, or pick one or the other.
But the whole thing got me thinking about how many of what I've considered to be "Magic Required" CQs actually work more like the "Magic Optional" ones (Alchemist, Tinkerer, Minstrel) that give a bonus to related spell work if you have points in Magic but otherwise just have a list of Stuff You Can Do.
Necromancer has a bonus to spells concerning the dead or undead, and then a host of abilities that let them talk to the dead, command the dead, make it more affordable to have undead or spirit companions, etc. Make a character without Magic and absent an arbitrary restriction (which I do not like) there's no reason you couldn't take Necromancer and get a lot of out it.
Illusionist likewise has a bonus to spells concerning illusion and deception and then a host of abilities allowing them to do things that the normal Spell Check rules simply don't allow or aren't meant for. The way they were originally written they were tied into the Spell Check mechanics and/or required a Magic Check, but it didn't take much to re-write them so that the requisite check can be done with Deception, Presence, or Magic. Now the same quality works for a magical but non-wizard trickster, someone using "Bardic Magic" or psychic illusions.
In all cases adding Magic points to such a character would increase the range of what they can do, but that's true for all characters. The major advantage of Magic is its flexibility. Removing the need for Magic means these same qualities can represent innate abilities, wild talents, blessings, etc.
There will still be CQs that are so closely tied to the Magic rules that they absolutely require it to function, the same way that Warrior requires fighting ability and Sneak requires Stealth: Arcanist, Circle Mage, Magic-User, Battlemage. These are CQs whose abilities essentially revolve around changing how Spell Checks work. But they should be pretty rare.
In between, there were some CQs--mainly the elemento-mancers--that fall into a sort of middle ground. As much as was possible, I reworked their side abilities to work without Magic and without Spell Checks, but the kind of transitory/instant effects that things like elemental evocations involve can't really be represented in a "you can do this stuff" type list because "you can slam enemies into walls with sudden gusts of wind" is something that is going to require a check.
But I did come up with a solution: allow them to use a related attribute as if it were Magic purely for the purposes of direct elemental manipulation. Air could use Agility or Deception, fire could use Presence or Prowess, water could use Healing or Persuasion, earth could use Toughness or Perception (HI TOPH!*), and any of them could use Willpower. That way if you want to make an ATLA-style elemental evoker, you have your choice of physical or mental attributes, and if you want more than one elemental specialty, you can go Willpower and not split attributes. I've also went ahead and codified that Willpower or Magic can be used for Magic Burn Tolerance (some characters already had this as an ability), just to make these options more viable, and also allowed Elementalist to use Willpower for any of the four elements so there's consistency with the individual speciaties.
The best thing about making CQs more flexible like this is that it means down the road I don't have to make any otherwise redundant "elemental superpower" or "spontaneous animation of the dead but you're also not a wizard" qualities.
* "It sounds like a computer screen, but I guess you're referring to what's on the computer screen."