Erebus
Arcane
- Joined
- Jul 12, 2008
- Messages
- 4,780
In PnP, magic (or psychic powers, or whatever) has countless possible uses. But in CRPGs, it's all too often limited to ways of beating the crap out of your enemies. The games just don't allow you to be creative. Of course, that doesn't just apply to magic : whereas a DM can always react to whatever idea the players come up with, the makers of a CRPG cannot think of everything in advance, and even if they could, they couldn't have their game allow every possible action the player can think of.
Still, it's quite frustrating to have these mystical powers that just don't seem to matter much outside of traditional combat.
It struck me a few days ago, when I was playing a sorcerer in a NWN2 module. Almost none of my spells had any possible use outside of combat. I could kill my enemies with fire, lightning, cold, acid or magic force, yet I couldn't use these mighty spells to destroy a wall, a floor or a plot-relevant door. I could cast plenty of protection spells, but it wouldn't really matter outside of combat. I could cast spells that affect the minds of my enemies, but not the minds of non-hostile beings that I might want to manipulate (merchants, for example...). I could summon monsters to fight for me, but not to open a chest that might be trapped, or to scout ahead, or to act as a distraction. Etc.
While it's obvious that a game cannot allow every possible use of a spell, it would be nice if magic was more often useful in non-combat situations.
There are a few spells that are meant to be used outside of combat. For instance, the invisibility spell, which can allow you to avoid combat completely. However, invisibility spells have a mysterious tendency to be completely ignored in plenty of situations.
The transportation spells usually work fine. The M&M have plenty of those : Jump, Flight, Teleportation, Lloyd's Beacon... But these spells are mostly useful for saving time or avoiding minor obstacles. In many areas where they might be really useful, they suddenly stop working.
So I'm wondering if there's any CRPG that really takes into account the mighty magical powers that your wizards/mages/sorcerers are supposed to possess, or at least gives you a few occasions to use spells in a creative way.
Still, it's quite frustrating to have these mystical powers that just don't seem to matter much outside of traditional combat.
It struck me a few days ago, when I was playing a sorcerer in a NWN2 module. Almost none of my spells had any possible use outside of combat. I could kill my enemies with fire, lightning, cold, acid or magic force, yet I couldn't use these mighty spells to destroy a wall, a floor or a plot-relevant door. I could cast plenty of protection spells, but it wouldn't really matter outside of combat. I could cast spells that affect the minds of my enemies, but not the minds of non-hostile beings that I might want to manipulate (merchants, for example...). I could summon monsters to fight for me, but not to open a chest that might be trapped, or to scout ahead, or to act as a distraction. Etc.
While it's obvious that a game cannot allow every possible use of a spell, it would be nice if magic was more often useful in non-combat situations.
There are a few spells that are meant to be used outside of combat. For instance, the invisibility spell, which can allow you to avoid combat completely. However, invisibility spells have a mysterious tendency to be completely ignored in plenty of situations.
The transportation spells usually work fine. The M&M have plenty of those : Jump, Flight, Teleportation, Lloyd's Beacon... But these spells are mostly useful for saving time or avoiding minor obstacles. In many areas where they might be really useful, they suddenly stop working.
So I'm wondering if there's any CRPG that really takes into account the mighty magical powers that your wizards/mages/sorcerers are supposed to possess, or at least gives you a few occasions to use spells in a creative way.