Note that we can do this in part by manipulating the classes that have access to those realms - for example, it's not a huge deal if the arcane realm can do everything if the only class that has full access to it is greatly hampered physically (as our current Mage class is). If we're going to add even more realms, then it behooves us to overhaul all of the realms and make each one have its own strengths and weaknesses. These are both really pretty scattered, honestly. * Holy: small number of widely-applicable attack spells powerful healing lots of duplication in spell list has Detection and Magic Mapping. * Arcane: wide variety of narrowly-focused attack spells haste and temporary resistance buffs many niche spells many narrowly-focused detection spells. My main concern is that all magic realms should be distinct from each other. It's late here and I'm maybe not at my most coherent, so I'll really stop now and ask for opinions. How about classes that could cast from more than one realm? How would this affect spellcasting stats and mana? One strong related theme in Middle Earth, which is not dealt with here or in Angband (although it is in Sil) is song - is that something we should be considering, and if so, how? This doesn't consider different combat style (eg ranged vs melee) at all - how should that figure in classes? So here are a bunch of questions we could consider: One thing I do think is that we should not throw away good things that we have, and we should not feel obliged to put in a class because we need to fill in a box in a grid. What I've outlined is really a framework in which to do stuff, rather than the stuff itself. What seems to be emerging is an understanding of much of the game in terms of an "alignment" system a bit like D&Ds Good-Evil and Lawful-Chaotic (but in my opinion more coherent).Īs far as classes go, we have lots of choice. If you look at the monster list, many of the monsters can be better understood under this scheme - vortices and elementals are purely Arcane creatures, for example. But there's probably also deeper implications. So how does all this apply to the game of Angband? Well, we already have two schools of magic representing the major themes of Middle Earth - adding Nature and Necromancy would in some sense be just completing those. I could keep quoting this stuff forever, but I'll stop now. On destruction of the hröa (that is, death) the fëa would normally return to Valinor, but could refuse to do so, or be persuaded not to - this persuasion was necromancy. Tolkien wrote every explicitly about the elves (especially, but also other sentient beings) having two parts a hröa (body) and a fëa (spirit). So there's a spiritual spectrum from Holy to Necromancy, and a physical spectrum from Arcane (technology) to Nature.Īnd there's more. In a similar way, the Ents represented Nature in its purest form in Middle Earth, and were opposed to Saruman, with his "mind full of wheels". Gandalf - representing the will of the Valar - was the enemy of Sauron, the Necromancer. It turns out that these have very strong representation in Middle Earth. Variants have more realms in particular I'm most familiar with Oangband's Necromancy and Nature magic. Currently Angband has two, which I'll call for now Arcane and Holy (mage and priest). Over in the plans thread () I promised some thoughts on classes - here is a part of what I'm thinking.
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