> Patrick,
>
> How many people are _REALLY_ going to be ABLE to create a magic fireball in real life anyway?!?
> Itsn't that sort of the point? ::Sorry, I couldn't resist ;-)
You ever play with ether? Flamable stuff.
>
> Anyway, my viewpoint on this is that there are some things that MUST be
> available to all classes to keep balance.
>
> Identify is probably NOT one of those as you could get a mage or cleric
> to do it for you. Detect invis potion YES. For tough mud's, some
> method of recall is a must.
> I think that it is silly for a warrior to be able to use a wand of
> fireball, or a scroll for that matter (except maybe recall.) but you
> have to keep the balance in mind. If a warrior doesn't have his own
> abilities that may be wanted just as much as a wand then everyone would
> be a magic-user. If you notice that 3/4 of all of your current players
> are clerics, perhaps your classes aren't balanced!
>
***Disclaimer...this is a gripe..feel free not to read***
*** if you don't want to. Critism _is_ welcome ***
This is just aimed at one of my main gripes that I have with most
muds - class balance is non-existant. Lets look at this particular
scenario:
Victim:
Red dragon in the next room..
Antagonists:
Party of three - a thief, a mage, and a fighter.
Before venturing into battle, the mage casts armor, strength, a few
other protective, and ability enhancing spells.. the battle then procedes
like this:
fighter leads the group and runs in and 'tanks' - takes the
majority of the damage because he usually has the highest hitpoints and
armorclass. Thief runs in immediately after the fighter and circles
(backstab while in combat) like crazy. He is the party's main source of
damage. The mage fights alongside, but rarely actually casts a spell - a
fireball requiring 25 mana is a waste if it only does like, maybe 10d6
damage at most. He's got a comprable Ac, and does pretty good damage, the
only spells he really uses are pre-battle.
This scenario happens alot - the mage usually replaced by a cleric
who heals constantly. But what are we missing? Well, lets see: Take the
warrior and put him by himself... No problem, we're well set, he can go
around and kill most of the creatures, expect for ones that require a
constant healing. The thief can do the same thing, only the percentage
that he's going to get his ass kicked if a circle/backstab goes up cause
he dosen't have as good hitpoints. Of course, in d&d the thief shouldn't
be the front-runner of damage, he's there for stealth, not for combat! The
cleric has about the same attack rate as the fighter, but usually less
attacks per round, and worse ac and hit ponts. He's there 95% of the time
just to heal and cast more spells. THey can do okay by themselves. But
the Mage - he gets didddly squat. Spells don't do enough damage to be
effective, and there's not enough of a variety to be used - usually one
spell per spell level ends up being cast 99% of the time. If he goes
adventuring by himself, he'll end up dead in short order, wands and staves
aren't really a good substitue for a weapon, and armor spells don't help
if you've only got 40 hitpoints to begin with. Mages probably still get
the majority of their exp from battles which have no magic in them
whatsoever! Hardly anyone is a mage because there's no advantage...Yet in
d&d, mages were useful, required usually, because they were the main
source of strategic fighting.. a single mage fireball would destroy an
entire mob of orcs. A flesh to stone spell would obliterate all but the
strongest opponent. You want Chain lightning? How about monster
summoning?
Summary:
But what do we have in circle? A mage is simply a weak fighter,
with near-useless attack spells who is only good for buffing up before
fights. Even with that, he still ekes out most of his exp -> thus levels
-> thus power -> thus etc, from straight fighting, and uses his spells in
a utilitarian way (summon, identify, locate, and then armor and
+attributes). Whats up with that?
PjD
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