more expensive magic

[Lynkfox]

is there a way to code something that would, when the party reaches a certain point, make all spells more expensive?

 

In my scenario i have a section were magic has become thicker due to other circumstances. The party (and all other mages) find it hard to work with. Is there any way (i'll even go with an item, though i dont really want to if i dont have to) that causes an increas in magic costs?

[Khoth]

There's no easy way (I think). One option would be to have something in the start state for these areas checking to see if each character's MP has gone down since the last turn, and if so, taking a bit more off. Alternatively, you could reduce the party's intelligence, thereby reducing their SP and making their spells relatively more expensive.

[Micawber]

I'm not sure precisely what you mean here. If you want to increase the cost, in terms of spell energy, every time a spell is cast I don't think you can do that.

 

However if you want to increase the cost, in terms of gold, of purchasing spells in a shop, yes that is very do-able. In the seller's dialogue, test a stuff done flag and direct the PCs to the shop, but vary the cost argument according to the stuff done flag.

[Lynkfox]

gold, nah thats an easy one.

 

See my scenario has 3 plateus, on the third one magic is harder to reach, harder to use, and harder to mold, and i want to represent this with spells costing more SP to cast.

 

on an alternative way to do this, could you have (on the main screens of only some of the areas) a call ever x steps that takes off a magic pt. and ever turn in battle loose x sp. Im pretty sure thats possible. But i was hopin for something else. Oh well

[Drakefyre]

You could just take off 5 SP every turn, and maybe two intelligence when you reach this plateau. You could always put permanent dumbfounding on the characters, too.

[Fyora Toast With Roamer Butter]

You could also increase the monsters magic and other resistances considerably so spells simply are not as effective. Not as much damage or effect.

[Overwhelming]

If I understand, you're talking about a place that negates or makes magic difficult to be produced/cast.

 

I think it's possible to script for each cast, to deduct x SP. (If you cast a fireball, the script finds who cast the spell and takes the extra SPs, so it will spend the standard SP plus the x SP).

 

However, never tried it, don't know if it's possible.

[Kelandon]

There's no state that runs when spells are cast. You can get states in terrain scripts to run when two specific spells are cast, but that's completely different.

[Micawber]

I'm not clear on the purpose of all this. Which spells do you really want to limit? Are you mainly interested in reducing the damage done by offensive spells - if so use immunities. Or do you want to limit the player's ability to heal themselves - you could drain their health instead, which is pretty much the same thing.

 

If your intention is to totally rebalance magic/non-magic combat, that's do-able by other means: define an event, after which the principal monsters are replaced with clones where you've cranked up their non-magic abilities. You could use a special encounter to do the same for the PCs - add 20 levels to each of their non-magic stats - with the option to take it away again, when the crisis is over. And offer the party souped up weapons, giving them someplace to store their existing weaponry until it's all over.

 

It sounds like a lot of work, but the effect would be really striking for the player.

[Lynkfox]

basicly whats happening in the plot is this. There is a group that have found a way to siphon power off magic capable individuals. There is some leakage from this proccess however, so un used 'power' is flowing out into the world. The group is pushing it off their plateau (there are 3 platues in a stairstep like setup) and ignoring it. On one platue its created Elementals, on the other its made every beings connection to magic twisted, so that its harder to use magic and any creature that is somewhat connected to magic is getting a sort of constant buzz. Making them go crazy after a time. For humans, who can tap into magic, they are finding it harder and harder to use magic - its just not as effective as it used to be.

 

Since both Priest spells and Mage spells use the same SP pool, i wanted to affect them together. I think i may give many mobs a resistance to magic while the party is in that last plataue. I dont want to reduce their stats, cause thats not really the issue - they are still as smart as they were before, just now magic is harder to work with.

 

Think of it like clay, and normal magic is a very mallible clay and easy to mold. Magic on this level is an older, dryer clay, and is very hard to mold. It takes more energy to do.

 

Im liking the resistance to magic bit - its pretty similar, but i dont think there is a way to make heals less without affecting a characters skills.

[Donald Hebb]

What you COULD do is something like what I did to the party in the Shroud fight- subtract all of the party's spell levels by their current spell levels minus one, meaning that all spell levels become one. Set flags to the spell values so that they can be re-added when the party leaves the plateau. This way, you'll still be spending the same amount of SP, but depending on the party's level, you will do significantly less damage.

 

Alternatively or additionally, you could give all PCs +10 to Magical Efficiency at the beginning of the scenario and take it away when the party is on the plateau- this way, the party would be far more restricted with SP usage. (But remember to take it away at the scenario's end.)

 

And of course, you could take down every PC's mage and priest skills levels down to the level required to cast the given PC's highest spell, cutting SP down significantly. Intelligence could be halved and magery could be eliminated, etc.

 

...okay, some of these methods are evil. Use them with caution, I suppose.

[Dahak]

I always wondered. If you remove spells or levels from a character, how do you give them back to the correct character? I mean, what if the party order is swapped?

 

Edit:

Always check your spelling BEFORE you post....

*Grumble*

[Donald Hebb]

That's a loophole, yes. Why you would ever WANT to do something like that is beyond me. Hm. Perhaps one could keep track of party member NAMES, or something... Well, it's sorta possible. Point is, it could never profit the party too much, so I'm not sure why anyone would try to do it.

[Dahak]

I often switch the first two characters. I hate going in and out of combat, so I just walk into them enemy to kill them. Combat mode is for long-range enemies. When I tire of using the first, I swap them.

[Fyora Toast With Roamer Butter]

If you want magic to not work at all in certain places, you can always put in antimagic fields at certain points. One or two dead spots might make sense.