Skills: Book of Magic (Wizard)

[Liche]

To me Wizard means spellcasting and Wizards should be masters of magic, but that can be difficult to pull off because there are many demands on a limited supply of Character Points. This suggestion is a way to give Wizards a chance to master more magic.

BOOK OF MAGIC (30 CP)
For 30 Character Points a Wizard learns the secrets of putting spells on paper, bound into a book. Their Book of Magic has a weight of 5; cannot be given away, destroyed, or otherwise lost; would have its own entry in the game interface (similar to what Basic Actions or Spell Casting has); and has 30 pages.

By sacrificing a spellgem a Wizard is able to inscribe that spell into their Book of Magic. This process costs 1 AP and 3 MP per Character Point it would cost to learn the spell the spellgem contains. For example, inscribing Reveal into a Book of Magic would cost the Wizard 10 AP, 30 MP, and the spellgem.

The inscribed spell takes up a number of pages in the Book equal to its CP cost. In the above example, inscribing Reveal would take up 10 pages in the Book (leaving 20 more pages for other spells).

A Wizard can erase a spell from their Book at any time. This should have a minimum AP cost, perhaps 1 AP.

A Wizard can cast a spell directly from their Book for a cost of 1 AP; there is no MP cost. Casting a spell in this way removes it from the Book.

However, the real utility for carrying a Book is thus: a Wizard is considered to have learned any spell inscribed in their Book, exactly as if they had spent CP to learn it. For example, a Wizard has a Book of Magic with four Fire damage spells inscribed in it, and additionally has spent Character Points to learn two more Fire damage spells. For purposes of Spell Affinity (and other such mechanics) this Wizard knows six Fire damage spells. If the Wizard casts one of the Fire spells from his Book, he would know be considered to know five Fire damage spells.


TOME OF SECRETS (60 CP) (child of Book of Magic)
The Book of Magic gains an additional 30 pages, for a total of 60 pages. Additionally, if the Wizard also has the Arcane Affinity skill, the MP discount is increased to 50%.


ANCIENT GRIMOIRE (90 CP) (child of Tome of Secrets)
The Book of Magic gains an additional 30 pages, for a total of 90 pages. Additionally, if the Wizard also has the Cosmic Oneness skill, the Wizard will gain 3 MP per tick instead of 2 MP.

[NearNihil]

Maybe the numbers need tweaking, but other than the 1ap cost to cast a spell I have a hard time seeing why I would choose this skill.

If 30CP for the book translates to 30 pages which in turn translates to 30CP worth of spells... why not just learn the spells directly? Saves you a ton of AP and MP in the end unless you know you will need to cast a spell for 1AP and you didn't think to just... SM or drink a MR pot.

[Badziew]

If 30CP for the book translates to 30 pages which in turn translates to 30CP worth of spells... why not just learn the spells directly? Saves you a ton of AP and MP in the end unless you know you will need to cast a spell for 1AP and you didn't think to just... SM or drink a MR pot.

As it is written now, it saves you time and XP cost later if you decide to change your build. Instead of triggering Buyback and spending time gathering XP to pay for it, you would immediately switch your build by just a few clicks.

If you look at it that way, then such skill would definitely be useful for people who like to fiddle with their build "on the fly" instead of pre-planning everything in advance.
You could learn the skill, play with your build and test various combinations of spells until you are satisfied, and then finally buyback the skill when you feel you do not need it anymore.


PS> If there was ever a skill, no matter how expensive or inefficient, that would allow a character to (at least formally/technically) know all possible spells, then I guarantee you that at least one character in game would immediately jump at such opportunity just for style

[Alkasyn]

I for one like the idea.

[Liche]

Maybe the numbers need tweaking, but other than the 1ap cost to cast a spell I have a hard time seeing why I would choose this skill.

If 30CP for the book translates to 30 pages which in turn translates to 30CP worth of spells... why not just learn the spells directly? Saves you a ton of AP and MP in the end unless you know you will need to cast a spell for 1AP and you didn't think to just... SM or drink a MR pot.

To be honest, I wasn't sure a skill that let a character spend "X CP" to get "more than X CP" back would pass muster. If that sort of thing is open for consideration, then I would certainly tweak the number of pages higher.

[NearNihil]

A wizard getting a spell book type thing sounds in theme for me. It's probably too large of a change for this breath but I would consider it worth consideration for the free skill of next breath's Wizard. They're supposed to be all about slinging spells so why not?

As for adding it this breath, something like 45 pages for the first 30cp, up to 135 total (+90 pages) for the child skill (so 60cp for the skill itself and 90 in the tree total). I don't think it should be much more than that though since that's when we're crossing into bazonkers territory. Then it'd be worth picking up in a ton of different builds. Maybe 1.5x the CP is too strong and should be scaled to 1.1, 1.2 or 1+(1/3). But I like the concept.