Where is the Magic?

Well I had some time away this month, and it allowed me to open my mind to other things. It seemed that one aspect of the mud in particular occupied most of my time away. Magic. I have heard others suggest in the past that perhaps we should path out the invoker or necromancer classes. While I am not against paths in any class, as I feel they add flavor to our characters, I would like to see a NEW class of magic user in Aabahran.

I considered the Idea of diviners, transmuters, and conjurers. Unable to come up with a complete spell list for all three, my mind decided to take a different track. I suggest that we create a new class of "Wizards". In this class we would create a base list of skills and spells allowed for all Wizards. Upon reaching a certain rank, much like a ranger, the Wizard will select one of the three schools of magic. Each of these schools will have spells unique to their aspect of magic.

While I have a few Ideas for spells for each school, I would like to hear some of your suggestions.

Edit.>

Thought I better define the three.

A transmuter can alter his physical reality by merely changing it to suit his needs. Spells of this school enable the caster to channel magical energies to cause a direct and specific change in an existing object, creature, or condition. Alterations can affect a subject's form (polymorph self), weight (feather fall), location (gate), or even his physical well-being (death fog/healing mist).

A diviner uses his ability to contact creatures on other planes of existance in order to give himself the advantages of Knowledge. This school involves spells that reveal information that would otherwise remain hidden or secret. Greater divination spells reveal the existance of specific items, creatures, or conditions(Legend), as well as information about the past, present, and future(Augury). This school also includes spells that contact creatures from other planes of existance, but do not induce direct action from those creatures.(Far Blessing, Divine Protection)

A Conjurer is a specialist who has learned only summoning spells sometimes calls himself a Summoner, but this is merely a matter of semantics and has no bearing on the specialist's abilities, restrictions, or effectiveness. This school includes two different types of magic, though both involve bringing in matter from another place. Conjuration spells produce various forms of non-living matter. Summoning spells entice or compel creatures to come to the caster, as well as allowing the caster to channel forces from other planes. Since the casting techniques and ability requirements are the same for both types of magic, conjuration and summoning are considered two parts of the same school.

Great idea. But I would not be to committed to your schools.

The General Idea of a Wizard with selections is excellent.

And it's really what come to mind, when on thinks of a Wizard. Someone with a vast spell selection that has to select his strengths and so it's weaknesses.

I think that the 3 schools of Maledictive, Mental and Afflictive would work better.

Add Restoration (healing/buffs) and Enchanting (or transmutation) for changing EQ/special spells (invisibility).

From Valek Major/Minor Example, we could have several specialization in fields of magic. Akin to Warriors weapon knowledge.

And magic is not all about spells. It's also about skills.

We could have branch skills for each school, akin to warrior Lores. For example AFF school could be +1 AFF-lvl.

Mal School could be Shaman level mal casting.

Mental School could be no gimp on Dispel/Sleep.

We could have a progressive list for spells in a school.

As in, you need to get the spells in that order. You can get the better spells if you do not get the worse spells. No access to Shield if you do not select Armor.

For example:

Protective School:

Armor -> Shield -> Stone Skin -> Protection -> Sanctuary -> Air Shield -> Mana Shield

LoreSkill: Barkskin or Sequencer

Restoration School:

Cure Light, Cure Blind, Cure Serious, Cure Poison, Cure Critical, Cure Plague, Heal, Group Heal

LoreSkill: Healing (monk)

Mental School:

Dispel Magic -> Summon -> Sleep -> Silence -> Isolate -> TeleLock -> Minister

Mental lore: +1 mental Lvl or no Gimp on Gimped Mental spells.

Malediction School:

Curse -> Blind -> Poison -> Weaken -> Hex -> Plague -> Blasphemy -> Hysteria

Mal Lore: Shaman mal Level

Necromantic School:

Energy Drain -> Flesh Golem -> Vampiric Drain -> Stone Golem -> Animate Corpse -> Soul Capture -> Death Graps + Power Word Kill (need both to work)

Necro Lore: Soul Tap

(NOTICE THE NO STRENGTH OF DAMANED, this is a school, not necro class)

School of Battle:

No mage is true without the option to take a more common aspect to battle, by using skills like a sword monkey. This is only a skill school.

Enhanced Damage -> Third Attack -> Two Handed -> Extra Weapon -> Extra Weapon -> Extra Weapon -> Extra Weapon -> Extra Weapon

Battle Lore: Dodge. If you take the stupidity of having all weapons. Good luck being a mage with no spells.

Alteration School:

Enchant Weapon -> Enchant Armor -> Bless Arm -> Curse Weapon -> Barkskin -> Flesh Armor -> Shadow form

Alteration Lore: Graft Weapon

I've always had this idea of a mage class that was something like a combination of BMG + Invoker with a minor in Necro.

The basic, high-level idea would be a mage who's main defense comes from a level 50 healing buff that also has an air shield effect (armor and physical dmg resistance). The buff would restore HP every round - only if in combat (think reflective shield but restore HP instead of damaging opponent)

Other defensive spells in the arsenal would be armor, shield, flesh armor, protective shield and a repulsion spell that works like a ninja's push on a solo target or like destroy undead if a group is fighting you.

This class would have a new spell/ability: ranged magic attacks from their wielded weapon. The basic idea would be a temporary enchantment on a weapon allowing it to fire ranged magic bolts.

And for the third flagship of the class, an elemental charmie of the caster's choice (water, earth, air, fire) that each do something unique besides damage type. Earth = extra defense, Water = lag with a wave attack, Air = hurricane/air-thrash, Fire = chance to fire blind

These are just a couple of the more flagship abilities, but honestly - with a playerbase that struggles to crack 10 people at once, I don't see the benefit of a new class.