Originally Posted by Stabbey
Originally Posted by Rack
The way I inferred it there are 3 types of magic Offensive, Defensive and Summoning, and 4 elements. Battle Magic increases Offensive spells of all 4 elements while Fire Magic increases Offensive, Defensive and Summoning spells for Fire magic only.

Not to say a better explanation wouldn't help but it's a common problem with the way RPGs frontload character creation. Call me a heretic but I admire the way Skyrim deferred this kind of decision making.


Yeah, maybe, but it still seems kinda pointless to specialize. The vast majority of the spells are going to be battle spells, so going just for fire because there are one or two defense spells doesn't seem like a great trade-off compared to getting the ability to use all the elements with points in general Battle Magic. I do have an idea, though:

Maybe battle magic/ other magic would work something like this:

Skill X requires Fire Magic 3 to use, OR Battle Magic 6. Skill Y requires Water Magic 1 or Battle Magic 2. It�s the difference between a generalist and a specialist. Specialists can get those skills earlier, but generalists can use get skills from four schools at once.

I believe that would provide all the incentive you need for specializing in certain schools of magic instead of being a generalist.


To a certain extent you're pre-supposing that the Defensive Magic and Summoning Magic skills are under-powered. If Summoning and Defensive Magic are as good as Battle Magic (which they should be) then a Fire Mage can have 18 points in Fire Magic, while the generalist needs 6 points in each. If someone wants to be a Specialist Battle Mage he can have 18 points in Battle Magic but you should really miss access to those defensive and summoning spells, at least as much as access to different flavours of offensive magic.

The problem is I'm not sure if really gives you all that big an advantage. It doesn't immediately feel like you can really go pure Fire because if you meet a group of enemies that are fire immune then that character is useless. So you need to go Fire/Earth. In which case you are losing access to 2 elements for a 50% saving on skill points. That's okay I guess but given how integral the element shifting seems to be I'm not sure it's enough of an advantage. It could end up being a perceptual issue, and going purely into one element could be entirely viable on a second playthrough.