Lesson Seven: Weaponry & Magic
Weaponry
So you're planning on fighting, or, just on making your character, and you're debating on a weapon to use. The first thing that comes to everyone's mind is one of two primary stereotypes.
1.) Katana
2.) Desert Eagle
For whatever reason, these are the two most overused weapons in all of role-playing history. There are a multitude of other weapon styles out there. A little bit of research at www.google.com will reveal a good number of other various weapons that you can use.
Now, on to the rest of this guide. People automatically assume that a character can instantly switch from one weapon to another. If you have a specific weapon in your hand, and you switched to another one, you need to specify in your post if you dropped it. Or sheathed it, or simply laid it down. Why? So you know where this weapon is if you decide to pick it back up later.
In addition to the 'vanishing weapon' trick, we also see the 'weapon from nowhere' trick. Weapons have a weight, and too much weight on a character can cause the character to become sluggish, or move awkwardly. No, 'I have super human strength', is not a good excuse to carry multiple weapons.
Weapons have a specific size, and weight. You have to keep this in mind when you wear them. A plausible combination.
A sword at your hip, potentially even two swords, a staff across your back, and maybe some sort of other, smaller, light weapon attached to your other hip, or in your hand.
An impossible combination.
A sword at your hip, potentially even two swords, a staff across your back, a light weapon attached to your other hip, along with two more swords, a larger, more massive sword strapped to your back overtop of the staff, a shield on your arm, two full belts of throwing daggers..
Do I need to continue? By now you've got so many weapons on you, that you've become a walking arsenal, yes, but a very slow moving one, because of all of the junk you've managed to pile up on your body. More weapons does not equal a better fighter.
In addition, if you're going to use a specific weapon, study it a little. Study how its used, and things about it. Knowing more about the weapon you're going to use will help you better visualize yourself in combat. This will help in a number of different ways, including helping you keep your character alive, and how to land lethal, and non-lethal blows with the weapon you decide to use. Aside from that, studying weapons also lets you know what your opponent might be doing with their own weapons.
And what harm does learning ever do?
Magic
Now, magic can come in many forms. Magic does not always need to be a dominantly used force. Magic can be latent, or magic can be used via an item, weapon, or some form of object, or focus. A good number of people who use magic, do so without discrimination. Now, what I mean by this is not necessarily that they use it badly, merely that they use it without limit. Now, for an example, in AD&D, or any D&D system, a magician, be they a mage, or sorcerer, or some other form of spell-caster, has some limit to the number of spells that they can use. This is limited by day, by week, by year, by month, etc. In game systems, your limit is fairly concrete, and isn't flexible, except as your character grows, by story, by level, etc. Another primary example comes from video games, in which you use Mana, MP, SP, or whatever other name it is called, to determine how many spells you can use.
Few people limit their magic, and this causes issues. After five casts of a major level spell, you're likely to be getting tired. Magic is considered an external force for some, and an internal force for others. In some characters, magic is very draining, for others, it seems to take no toll upon them. Balancing a character with magic is difficult, especially in a free-form (which most role-plays are) setting. Now, my best advice for balancing a magical character is to give them some sort of magic related weakness. Now, finding a weakness in proportion to your strength is sometimes difficult. I tend to use, as a default, the spell per day route. I can use a certain number of such and such magic, before my ability to cast runs dry, and I'm forced to revert to whatever magical weapons I carry, if any at all. If not, I go to plain steel/wood/etc, depending on the type of weapons my character has at their disposal.
Now, we're going to discuss elements, and elemental weakness. As far as magic goes, there are usually a set number of elements. Always included will be the four most basic. Earth, Fire, Air, and Water. Along with these you sometimes have Lightning, Ice, Light, Darkness, and several others. In some gaming systems, and in anime, and video-games, your elemental range may be different. Regardless, always research the element you are going to be using. In the process, you want to learn more about the weakness, and strength of the element you want to give your character.
This sounds simple, but in some cases, it actually becomes very complex, as much as I hate to admit it. Balancing your character, if they are magically inclined, can be very difficult. But then again it can also be very easy. Here are a couple of examples:
Lets say Player A wants to give their character, we'll call the character Lynn, two varying magical abilities. She eventually decides that she wants Lynn to have the element of Earth, along with the sub element of Darkness. It seems a plausible mix, and indeed, is very simple to do. Along with her Earth powers, which rather than offensive, grant her a mixture of natural healing spells, Lynn can now also use darkness based spells to cause damage.
That seemed pretty simple, right? That's because it is. Earth and Darkness in no way contradict one another. Now, we have example two. Player B wants to give his character, James, two types of elemental spells as well. Lets see what he does with it:
Player B finally decides to work on writing up James magical spells. After a couple of hours in thought, Player B finalizes his decision, and gives James the Fire elemental spells, and Ice elemental spells. Both of these two spell types are typically offensive, for what he's wanting to do, and instead of having a good balance, Player B decides to use two spells at once, we'll use Fire Bolt, and Cold Bolt as an example. When Player B combines the magic of both spells, the Fire Bolt ends up melting the Cold Bolt, and turns both spells into a wisp of evaporated smoke.
As you can see, Player B made a bad decision on which spells to use. His biggest mistake was attempting to use both spells at once. As you can all see, combining ice and fire does not give you a flaming icicle. It instead gives you a melted puddle of water. While this is a great advantage for your opponent, the point is to balance yourself. Mixing elements can have varied effects. Mixing water and lightning can create an explosive effect when combined as an attack form. Water conducts electricity and causes the charge in the lightning spell to become stronger, making the attack itself more potent.
Combining fire and earth, just gives you a flaming rock. No, not a meteor, just a flaming rock. Combining air, and earth creates a negative effect as well, depending on your system. Always make sure you ask the person running the thread you want to join, what their limits on magic are, what they will and won't allow, and what types of spells they have. If you're uncertain on what kinds of spells to use, look some up. All sorts of anime have various magical attack forms. Or, if you're feeling really inventive, you can attempt to create your own. Your best bet though, is to do a little research on the various types of magic found all over the internet, first.
And then, you come to the non-elemental spells. These are a little trickier, because they don't have an opposing element to design, and balance them around. Instead, you have magic that works in a way very similar to Alchemy. non-elemental spells are balanced purely by effect. For example, Character A and Character B get into a fight. Character A immediately starts powering up to use a fire spell, while Character B prepares a non-elemental shielding spell. When Character A releases their spell, it smashes into Character B's shield, but takes a moment before it forces the barrier to shatter.
Now, in another case, you have too strong of an effect. In this scenario, Character A is again preparing a fire spell to use against Character B, but when Character A's spell hits the shield, it causes a chain reaction, which in turn causes Character A to suffer convulsions, and get flamed by their own spell, as well as adding some heinous result to it, we'll use freezing them as an example. As its pretty obvious to tell, using this kind of magic is more than just a little bit of an imagination stretch.
Effect can vary from spell to spell. And not every spell has to be combat related! Some spells can tell direction, conjure rope, create food, or water, allow you to understand another person, or races language. It all depends on what you decide to do with your magic. If you don't understand something about magic, find someone more knowledgeable than you, and ask them. Chances are, if you ask the right person, they'll give you a good answer. There's also www.google.com out there for those who prefer that route.
And now, we come to the hardest part of this guide to write. Its concerning 'time', and 'reality' magic. These two types of magic are very iffy, and are usually excluded from most role-plays, as very few people understand how to play them well. Time, and time magic is something that is not used lightly. Even a few seconds rewound can result in a massive effect. When using Time abilities, please understand that unless it comes in the form of a Haste, or Slow, or similar type effect, it generally shouldn't be used. Turning back time to reverse entire events occurring is difficult, and draining on the spell caster doing it.
Alright, now, reality magic is very similar to time magic in that it can cause problems in a role-play. Seeing another version of yourself, or causing someone to have deja vu, is generally considered a bad thing. Unless a role-play revolves around these types of events, initiating them in a role-play where you haven't gotten permission from the thread-owner can be harmful.
When other characters react to yours, you can force their reactions to change, because of altering reality with your characters magic. This becomes a form of puppet mastering, and as was stated before, that's a big no-no.
Healing. Healing magic is great, right? Right. But healing magic can also be abused as easily as any other form of magic. When you heal someone, keep in mind that heals should not be completely instant. They should take a little time to work, maybe leave the caster feeling a little drained. Either way, even a quick fix requires some rest to recover from. Always remember, when your character is healed with magic, to give a little time to actually play out the process of healing. It may seem slow, but it can develop into some pretty interesting play.
For other ideas on magic, of course, you can refer to Tyroki or GeneralSai's theories on magic, both of which are very good reads. Ultimately, what type of magic you can use will be limited by the type of role-play you're in. If the role-play is freeform, with no specific boundaries, then the sky is literally the limit.
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