(10-11-2014, 09:06 PM)Jazz Egi Wrote: I read a lot about swordplay and armors and weaponry in an effort to better understand how these conflicts go. Â My biggest issue is getting a feel for what sort of punch goes into various spells. Â Does Ruin pierce armor? Does Bio make you sick? Â Melt your face? Â Its a bit of a crapshoot, and magic is the only defense my character has.
More importantly, just how powerful can a magician get if they are not legendary, just competent? Â How much is skill and how much comes down to winning the Aether lottery? Â I am spoiled by tabletop manuals explaining such things to levels that exceed the pedantic.
Ok I am in front of my PC now, Â so can try and go over what I have put together, and my general opinion of things. first off, from the spell animations themselves, we have two different types, those that are projectiles and those that manifest around the target. I for one feel that the ones that manifest around the target, attack the target directly, bypassing armour. However, the projectiles I believe would encounter some resistance.
The ammount of protection provided by armour however is dependent on what it is made/coated with. This piece of information was gained through looking at the description of the Gilded Magitek Armor in the Mount Guide.
Quote:it only took a few heated skirmishes with the allied city-states for Grlemald to realize that the magicks wielded by the realm's mages were too much for even the thickest of magitek armor plating. Alloyed gilding has since been discovered to dampen the effects of elemental charges and is now standard issue.
So, Although armour may provide /some/ defence against magic, it isn't much. unless it is gilded (and with the new gold dyes available, it can even be represented ICly).
Now, with Bio and the like, I would say thats down to your personal take on the spell. Those that rp with me know that I don't like to use the actual spells provided, so Nako will never cast Fire I, he will throw a fireball, he won't cast Aero, he will attack them with Air.
Secondly, for how powerful you can be, it depends on the style of magic that you wish to cast. Thaumaturgy is the only one that states categorically that it comes from your internal aether, so for thaumaturgy, winning the aetheric lottery is king. That being said, I have alway played Nako as not having the largest internal aether, but being able to get maximum results from minimal effort. Arcanima comes down to smarts and tactical thinking from the looks of things, and Conjury seems to depend on how strong of a connection you have with the elementals.
Magic, unfortunately for us is one huge grey area of lore.
Aduu Avagnar, The Wanderer: Wiki
