The Magic Statistic

[asomath]

I know this seems like a slight nuance of an issue. But I would like to propose that we change the "Magic" statistic back to "Intellect". I know it was changed to Magic so it would accompany the "Might" statistic, thus making the two statistics "Might & Magic", but while Might is a synonym for strength, thus being a suitable statistic, Magic seems kind of silly as a statistic.

~Asomath

[schveider]

Personally, I like Magic ability much more than Intellect since Intellect doesn't sound as an indicator of character's magical skills but rather like Intelligence from D&D where it indicate char's ability to remember spells.Nevertheless it can be changed by editing localization file MMTGame.int setting magicStr to requested string

[asomath]

Well, I definitely see your point in not having it be named Intellect. However, just simply "Magic" doesn’t seem like its good as a statistic either. For example someone having might, endurance, speed, accuracy, or luck sounds like a characteristic, while someone having magic sounds like something their wielding rather than an attribute. Do you get what I mean?

~Asomath

[schveider]

I'm afraid this is not question for me because English isnt my first language.But if you want to know my opinion, I don't have the same feeling.For me Magic is good.

[asomath]

It’s all good. As I said, it’s only a little nuance for me and I’m sure it doesn't bother anyone else XD

Out of curiosity, however, what IS your native language?

~Asomath

[schveider]

It's Czech

[Akkarin]

In traditional M&M games there was intellect/personality to determine the number of spellpoints, but "magic" sounds more meaningful to me.
But maybe I also didn't get that nuance, since I'm not a native English speaker either.

Akkarin

[Guest]

I may well be "teaching my granny" here, but in the early days of fantasy roleplaying games, there were two classes of spells. Casters of "arcane" spells (approximating to the elemental and mirrored path spells in M&M) had to know how the world worked and how spells influenced it. They had to acquire the knowledge and learn the spells, so the more intelligent they were, the better they could do it. So the governing ability was intellect, and the mage could decide precisely what spells he/she wanted to learn. (And success in learning the spell was not a "given" either.)

Priests, however, got their spells (approximating to M&M's self magic) directly from their God(s). This meant that they had less control over what spells they received, and their ability as spellcasters depended largely on their relationship with their God. Wiser people were assumed to be better at this, so the primary attribute became wisdom.

I do have one suggestion, however. If you have a problem with the intellect/wisdom/personality/magic debate and you want to combine the two, why not call magic "mana"? I must confess I still think the division between clerical and arcane spells makes sense and I would prefer to retain it, but if the balance of the opinions are against it, I'm quite prepared to go along.

[asomath]

I also would have liked to keep the two statistics seperate, especially considering that MMT has a much larger diversity in magic than previous official MM games.

~Asomath

[Sinbad]

I suppose the only problem with keeping the two stats seperate is that certain classes in MMT learn spells from both self and arcane schools and it would be hard to decide which statistic will influence the spell points of these classes. Ofcourse, in this case having a single stat makes more sense, however we could always go through the class tree deciding which classes should use which stat.

Then again, I always found it a little redundant having both, since you always set one or both the minimum during character creation anyway...

[Akkarin]

As Sinbad said, sorcerers would probably have a high intellect, clerics would have high personality.

Since the only thing those stats influnce is spell points, I don't see why there should be two different statistics.
That division between arcane and clerical attributes would make sense, if those attributes would influence the effects of spells as well. From what I know, spell effects are only influenced by the number of skill points in the respective magic skill.

Actually I like Peter2's suggestion of naming it "mana", as that states the fact, that it is only about spell points more clearly.
(And we could name the game Might&Mana then )

[asomath]

Well, in previous games, the stats also influenced the ability for a player to gain maximum profficency in a skill. For example, Merchant required a high Personality skill, as they were better with dealing with people.

Thinking of that, how about actually adding the personality skill. Have the magic/mana statistic effect spellpoints, and then have personality affect the buy/sell value and work with reputation to determine a characters ability to talk to certain civilians.

~Asomath

[Guest]

OK fine, but as I've said this before (although not on this board!), one thing we must not do is overcomplicate matters. As game designers, we can have great fun juggling the stats to make fit things with the world we're creating, but we mustn't forget the guy who will play the game. He (or she) won't want to have to find out the hard way that those skill points should have gone into e.g. personality not might!

Peter2

[asomath]

Right, the two things you dont want to do is confuse the new guy and alienate the veterans with large changes. But I think this will turn out fine, and we'll be able to do stat changes without confusing anyone.

~Asomath

[Sponsored content]