Ingame explanation for Magic

[Plectrius]

Hi guys,

I'd like to discuss the explanation the game gives to Magic, basically a mage is capable of perceiving the "Sea of Eventualities" which is called the Glance (am I right here?) and bring back to its actual dimension a part of this alternate realities which he has access to, this allow him to invoke fireballs and the like. My question is why just not bring back to reality the eventuality of your opponent(s) being dead instead of conjuring creatures, lightening or anything else?

[BigElectricCat]

An interesting idea. Not sure what to make of this "Sea of Eventualities" either. Smacks of a kind of secular or fantasy predestination thing imo.

My take on it probably sounds crazy, but here goes.

From what little I can understand about quantum physics (which isn't much) perhaps more accurate might be 'Realm of Probabilities' -- some more likely than others, but in theory...

So maybe 'magic' is a spell caster somehow being able to understand, or manipulate this quirky sub-atomic realm, and then conjure up an ice spike or something. But killing enemies outright...

...Maybe that would be too complex, take too much energy, or the 'outcome' (eventuality?) is just far too improbable!

Hope that made sense. ; )

One of my favorite Sci-Fi writers is Kim Stanley Robinson, and (wish I had the copy with me) in the Mars Trilogy he talks about something he termed "coincidentality." As I understood the idea, it all boils down to random chance.

A Wild Mage's fireball kills everyone in a tavern except a guy who was bending down behind the counter to get a big iron kettle or something. What are the odds of him doing that at the exact moment in time when the fireball exploded? So people will no doubt tell him, "Wow! By Melphas! You're lucky to be alive!" And who knows... maybe they're right!

[TheKharjo]

thats possible, you can do that, and its in the sinistrope school of magic.
However that may be a huge spell that is hard to conjure and use since it takes full understanding about how life works ( biology maybe)

[Plectrius]

Yes that's also what I was thinking, on the order hand it's pretty easy to revive dead enemies so why it would be so hard to kill them right away instead? (from a lore perspective I mean, from a gameplay perspective it's obviously a game breaker).
I can imagine a legendary grade sinsitrope spell (or talent?) that can take down any enemy at the cost of :
- huge mana requirement
- 95% of the caster HP
- long casting time

[BigElectricCat]

Maybe raise Arcane Fever dangerously high?

Don't really like that part of the game, but guess it makes sense. If understand correctly "mana" is spell caster's ability to understand all of these "possible outcomes" and select one. Arcane fever is over-doing it where health (life) is concerned? Pretty complex and difficult to understand?

Spell to take out a Bandit liar. Woah! Game buster like you say. So Master of 'sinistrope?' school of magic and you have to rest for a week or something?

[Plectrius]

You're right, I've completely forgotten about the arcane fever! That kind of spell should definitely have impact on arcane fever. My question is what makes a spell hard to cast? What are the criteria? I guess the more unlikely to happen it is the harder it is to cast?

[Xandariel]

You're right, I've completely forgotten about the arcane fever! That kind of spell should definitely have impact on arcane fever. My question is what makes a spell hard to cast? What are the criteria? I guess the more unlikely to happen it is the harder it is to cast?

Jespar and Firespark explain that quite nicely during your first encounter with the latter. There are basically 3 criteria. How many eventualities/how far away from your own can you see, how well you can cope with it and how well youre able to let them come true. Slight variations of a scenario(someone running around with untied shoe laces for instance) would be relatively easy to see and conjure up. Setting someone on fire is probably gonna be a ton harder compared to that and something like letting fire rain from the skies would probably require an insane amount of experience and control.

Restoration spells are hard to use and thus cause your arcane fever to rise because they focus on the casters own vitality and as such are a huge strain on their mental capacity.

It makes sense aswell when you compare it to a "raise the dead" sort of spell aswell. After all, youre not bringing that person back to life. Youre just reanimating their dead body. They dont have a mind and will of their own anymore.