Kangband Spells Rationale
This page is under construction.
New Spell Set (starting with Kangband 2.8.2d - currently in development)
For such a massive change as altering the spell structure, I first had to understand the existing one. I started by categorizing the various spells as follows:
OF are offensive spells are aimed at and do damage to monsters
RS are resistant spells which give the caster resistance to something
DM are disorient monster spells which do not cause direct damage
HL are healing spells which increase the casters health and cure poison
MV are movement spells which transport the caster to other grids
AS are alter self spells which do not heal but instead grant attributes
KN are knowledge spells for understanding the dungeon or items
DT are destructive spells aimed at the dungeon rather than monsters.
UT are utility spells or any spell that doesn’t fit above. They are useful spells, do no damage to anything, and do not directly affect the caster.
Now that I had the categories, it was time to see how the spells were distributed between the mage and priest. Then, I could create my illusionist and druid as variations of the mage and priest respectively. Also, knowing that the mage may be strongest in offensive power, the illusionist should be strongest elsewhere if it is truly worth creating.
Here is how the original spell set fit the categories:
|
|
# of Offensive Spells |
# of Resistant spells |
# of disorient spells |
# of heal spells |
|
Mage |
16 |
5 |
7 |
2 |
|
Priest |
8 |
2 |
4 |
13 |
|
|
# of movement spells |
# of Alter Self spells |
# of Knowledge spells |
# of Utility |
|
Mage |
4 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
|
Priest |
6 |
4 |
10 |
9 |
|
|
# of destructive spells |
# of unique spells |
total # of spells |
|
|
Mage |
4 |
51/34 |
59 |
|
|
Priest |
3 |
44/33 |
58 |
|
Unique spells is number of spells that are not simply variations of others followed by number of unique spells available only to that class.
Here is the new scheme:
|
|
Mage |
Illusionist |
Priest |
Druid |
|
OF - Offensive |
19 |
22 |
12 |
9 |
|
RS - Resistance |
5 |
7 |
2 |
2 |
|
Dm - Disorient |
5 |
9 |
4 |
6 |
|
HL - Heal |
2 |
1 |
9 |
5 |
|
MV - Movement |
5 |
3 |
6 |
5 |
|
AS - Alter Self |
7 |
5 |
5 |
5 |
|
KN - Knowledge |
7 |
8 |
10 |
10 |
|
UT - Utility |
9 |
7 |
9 |
9 |
|
DT - Destructive |
5 |
2 |
6 |
11 |
|
Total Spells |
64 |
64 |
63 |
62 |
|
Number Unique |
28 |
35 |
21 |
21 |
Note: Unique spells are those that no other class possesses.
Of the offensive spells:
|
|
Total Beam/Bolt |
Total Ball/Area |
Max Damage |
Disciplines |
|
Mage |
8 |
11 |
|
|
|
Illusionist |
11 |
12 |
|
|
|
Priest |
3 |
9 |
|
|
|
Druid |
4 |
5 |
|
|
There are a total of 9 spellbooks for each class (4 regular and 5 special). But, from the original model, mages and illusionists each have a total of 59 spells while the priest only has 58 spells. Note also that each class is able to have a total of 64 spells. Also, via just the first four books, the mages and illusionists have a total of 34 spells while the priest only has 31. This seems a bit skewed to me and I have added spells to increase the total number and to bring the priest to an equal spell footing with the other two classes.
Every spell class has the following spells:
NOTE TO ME:
In building code, when greet elder, should be notified when spells are more powerful "you are more proficient with the [name] spell. It is more powerful" blah blah blah For ex: look at the orb of draining code - it uses a dice of 2 but when the character is >=30, the dice goes to a 3 = big jump in power. All spells should be similar.
Click here to go to the original spell set
Click here to go to the new spell set