Playing the devil's advocate:

You can throw potions quite effectively especially if they are in glass containers. (Don't forget to add some damage for the glass).

Candles can be erratic because even a slight breeze will alter the course of the flame and the smoke. You could wind up choking on your own offensive magic with a shift in the wind.

Of course, that could make it more interesting...

Neranz Laverani, Seeker of Knowledge

Hail!

Although I am always a little leery of using things in games that have real world religious overtones, I have to say this is a very interesting idea.

The first thing that occured to me was that candles are particularly easy to create in ASCII. So a very graphic approach could be taken to how they are presented. If something can be made visually pretty, along with functional of course, it is more likely to really win player approval. In fact I could see a well developed system like this being a big draw for those of the female population. That is always a big plus in MU* land.

The form does not add much to the difficulty of implimentation, so on that score there are no big problems. It would take as much effort to create as any number of other magic or crafting systems.

A good idea though, and I commend you for suggesting it. We need more 'thinking outside the box' around here.


A.T
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It really depends on the kind of game you have Dre. If there is a strong competition element then the Classes have to be balanced. In an RP game of course what you describe would make perfect sense.

Traditional game magic is 'something from nothing', take a moment and imagine that if it was real. In any normal setting users of Magic would totally dominate. Ok, it would be a battle between the Priests and the Mages, but still. Warriors, please, they would be the most dominated type of all. Thieves, well being that what they do is inherently illegal, the best they can do is covert control.

In my view, about 75% of the people who began to study Magic would eventually use it for things that are less than honorable. Priests would at least be limited somewhat by the need to answer to their god. I have never seen a game where this dynamic really is part of play normally Mages are constrained and limited to allow the other Classes to have a fair amount of the spotlight.

A.T
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