Mages are illogical......

[Zuvio]

Mages use INT to memorize spells per day. If you memorize your phone number, you can write it down any number of times. However, and you feel it coming,
when a mage remembers Magic Missile once, he can only cast it once and then only again the next day. Why cant he cast it infinitely? Its even possible to memorize it 5-6 times and not be able to cast it more than that.
And then some: he scribes a scroll into his scrollbook and then scribes any number of spells in his spellbook to actually cast spells. So why doesnt he just use his spellbook and be able to cast any spell any number of times? Or buy a really big spellbook and write all the spells down fifty times? Would make our life much easier....

Sorcerer on the other hand is more logical: he memorizes a certain number of spells per spell-level and can cast only a certain number of spell per level per day, for he is then depleted of auric/auroral power.

I pondered this all this morning, before going to college, on the toilet, after NOT playing BG2 for almost a year. Silly how the mind works isnt it?

[ 12-30-2004, 12:55 PM: Message edited by: Zuvio ]

[JrKASperov]

That's because magic doesn't work like a phone-number. When studying a spell you don't just remember the hand gestures and words, you let the magic settle in your head. When you really go and cast the spell, you let loose that settled magic, making it only possible once.

[Cerek]

All conjectured explanations aside - the bottom line why mages can only cast a limited number of spells per day is GAME BALANCE!!!

This goes all the way back to the very earliest days of PnP AD&D. Mages are very weak at low levels, but they are easily the most powerful class at higher levels. Limiting their spells is one way to limit their power (although it is still impressive). Having unlimited spells per day would make them demi-gods (or better) on the power scale.

[Zuvio]

Well, true Cerek, I totally agree with you on that one. But just like with most things, couldn't they have come up with something more plausible?
They invented Aura Cleansing because otherwise Casters would become Spell-Turrets (I made a cheat cloak for a sorc once that gave him 12 spells per level and permanent IA, nyahahahaha....), this whole conjuration seems so lame. Like Matrix 2&3 [img]tongue.gif[/img]

[Illumina Drathiran'ar]

I'm with Zuvio. Game balance is fine, but then use mana points or something. Do they expect me to believe Elminster "forgets" how to cast Magic Missile, when he must have cast it literally a million times in his life?

[Kestrel Daystar]

I must concur with Zuvio and Illumina, mana points and magical energy levels seem more sense then remembering how to cast spells day after day.

I am not contesting the way it is set down now, it works perfectly fine, but I think that mana points and the like seem more plausible. But its really a fect of; if it aint broke, dont fix it!


--Kestrel--

[Q'alooaith]

Take a read of the description, it's less about knowing how to cast the spell, but the mental energy to do so.. Now sorc's do this with just mental energy and pull power out of the either, mages on the other hand use componets each time they cast a spell..

So imagine for each fireball spell your mage is useing a bit of sulpher or guano (both are referenced in diffrent fictions as being used in fireball spells)..

Now imagine these componets have to be measured out and altered in a certain way for them to be usefull in a particular spell. Now he's limited by how much of the componet for the spell he has..


A spell on a scroll is complete magic in itself, part of the writing is the spell itself, the other is to power that spell though componets imbedded into the parchment, when a mage copys that spell to his book he's taking the incantation (the words) and writing them, then he's got to work out what componets that spell needs to power it and make a note of that, and then what gestures he's got to make to form the raw energy of the spell into the desired effect..


So each spell for a mage is in effect a pre made pouch of componets, a vocal command componet, a mental componet ("seeing" what the spell) and then arcane gestures to form the energy of the spell..


So think of it more like trying to remember a persons name, date and place of birth and how you first met them, while at the same time making a model of their face in clay while chanting their telephone number..

And when that's all done think of it like you've just talked to a jansen for three hours solid, only your not talking.


BG2 you rest for 8 hours, not all that time is spent asleep, maybe 4 hours sleep, 6 at most the rest for mages is spent preparing spells, relearning the gestures and buying componets, chopping them up and so on..


Don't look to computer games for logic.

[Cerek]

Those are good points, Q'alooaith..but JrKASperov really hit the core reason given for mages being limited in the number of spells they can cast.

The fact is that casting a spell is very exhausting mentally for the caster. When a mage memorizes a spell, he/she also generates passive (or latent) magical energy that is stored until that spell is cast. Focusing this energy and shaping it to be released in the desired form when the spell is cast requires a tremendous amount of concentration and mental effort. And that lead to mental AND physical exhaustion - which is why mages have to rest before they can regain their spells.

As mages gain levels, their ability to focus and control this magical energy improves - allowing them to memorize and cast more spells than before.

Gary Gygax did make a LOT of very poor and rather arbitrative decisions in the original design of AD&D (the original write up of dragons and their powers and abilities was pathetic in the 1st Edition Monster Manual), but overall, he did a masterful job of creating a complex game that encompasses a myriad of rules for different characters and classes and allows the player to literally enjoy hours upon hours of gaming - with each game being a completely different experience than the one before.

[Rikard T'Aranaxz]

There are catsers in DnD who use manapoints or "powerpoints" as they are called
These are the psions and psionic warriors. its a same no-one ever bothered putting them in BG :/

[Q'alooaith]

Mages started life as catapults, or was it cannons.. never can remember..

*Grabs a haddok and beats Cerek about the face and neck with it*


I said that casting a spell is like talking to a Jansen for three hours, if you know of somone more mentaly exausting I'd like to know what it is so I can stay the hell away from it.