The following was an oversight on my part in breaking down the initial details of the spell. The mana costs for Mage Armor work a bit differently than traditional spells so I created this post to break down those costs.

Previously when we associated a lore effect to a spell you had to have a minimum number of ranks in any given lore to trigger the effects, usually around 20 ranks. You guys have explained in great detail how much you loved that setup and splitting your lores 4 ways, so with mage armor we took a different approach. You can access all lore benefits of the spell regardless of lore training, but if you're under trained in a lore (see under 20 ranks) and aren't using an armor of your attunement, then you will be penalized and have to pay additional mana. Every rank below 20 that you are will cost an additional 4 mana when casting the spell, though this mana penalty is capped at 99 mana.

Some of you have been seeing a cost of 99 mana for this spell, this penalty is why. Do consider before lighting up those torches that the alternative would be a hard lockout of aspects for which you are under trained, so hopefully this system is more palatable.

On spell messaging, you will only see the aspect message "You shift the focus of the surrounding energies into xxxx" when first casting the spell and no previous 520 was on you, or when switching from one aspect to another.

Viduus

I don't love it, but I'm fine with this mana cost setup as long as there can be a check set such that if you don't have sufficient mana to cast the spell, you would get messaging to that effect similar to the check for 950 and 550. I say this only because I'm sure you're well aware that have -50 or more mana results in instant death, which seems excessively severe for a possible mistake.

This minimum check is also in place for quickstrike uses, so I don't see this as being OP.

99 mana for a level 20 character casting a level 20 spell is insane. They literally cannot have that much mana.

>Do consider before lighting up those torches that the alternative would be a hard lockout of aspects for which you are under trained, so hopefully this system is more palatable.

This is a false dichotomy. There are plenty of alternatives:

You can cast the aspects you're undertrained just fine! The game keeps working!

You can cast the aspects you're undertrained for, but it's an additional 4 mana per, capped at triple the cost, 60 mana. That's still a ton of mana!

You can cast the aspects you're undertrained for, but it's an additional 2 mana per.

etc.

>Every rank below 20 that you are will cost an additional 4 mana when casting the spell, though this mana penalty is capped at 99 mana.

Uh, 20 base cost + 20 ranks * 4 mana/rank = 100 max mana. A 99 mana cap is not exactly helping anything.

The mana penalty has exactly two effects, one major, one specific.

1. Major: It takes way longer for low-level wizards to spell up in between hunts and after dying. They might need an empath's help to do so (?!).

2. Minor: If you get dispelled in the field or want to change aspects in the field, it costs more mana to recast.

I don't have a torch to light, in fact I'd suggest you look at revising several of the lore updated spells to work this way. Either penalize non attuned/under trained but still allow the wizard to use that aspect OR perhaps just give an increased bonus to those with attunement/training over a threshhold.

I would stil be happy if its the penalization route just fyi. :)

My point is that the implementation of 520 is just about perfect for the ways lore should work with wizards and our 4 way split/attunements with wildly divergent combat utility for some paths.


Thanks for the clarification!

<potential +79 mana cost> -- Viduus

That's a pretty serious oversight, neh?

.

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"if you're under trained in a lore (see under 20 ranks) and aren't using an armor of your attunement" -- ibid

Do I correctly understand from your post, that if you are attuned to an element in which you have fewer than 20 ranks, you do NOT pay the extra 4 mana per rank?

Since 'mana spellup' is 'free' casting, do you get around the surcharge this way, too?

I really like the implementation of this spell but I wish there was some other effect besides variable mana cost. There seems to be something flawed in the implementation of variable mana costs in this game that I can't put my finger on. I think it's because there is a penalty for overcasting, which is unusual in other games. Variable mana as it exists today seems to penalize players for doing nothing wrong. At best it's a lesson in diligence.