Depends on the character for me. A'rklonn is my strongest magical character, and he uses most magical disciplines because his goal is to learn all sorcery. The thing is, he primarily excels in offensive elemental magic, meaning that his conjury is basically devoid of most healing, as is his Arcanima/Summoning formulae. He's good at combining elements into multi-level effects (Such as combining Aero and Fire to widen the effects or burn up oxygen so melee combatants have a harder time), and he studies Void-Aether, or what he calls 'Negative Aster' as he's trying to actually create a new school of magic that's more akin to the umbral-element Thaumaturgy of 1.0.
Still, thanks to certain weaknesses, he is incapable of using cold or water magic, or any kind of 'light' or holy based magic. Basically, he's very good at doing all sorts of things with the magic he's got understanding of, but has great difficulty doing things with magic he doesn't have a predisposed affinity for. His magi-surgical enhancements also help with his magery, allowing him to do things he normally could not, but at a large cost. He tends to be cocky though, and often uses up too much power in flashy spells too early depending on who or what he's fighting. One of his biggest weaknesses is his ego and self assurance in his power, so he's just as likely to defeat himself.
In a sense, A'rklonn using varied magic is much like the Avatar or an Elemental Bender by way of example. Combinations, situational changes, and environmental adaptations, just without the martial arts element in most cases. A larger effect area or more than one or two elements naturally takes more time and focus unless he expends a huge amount of aether to compensate, but of course he cripples his other options later. This leads to the second limit, which is basically a no brainer: His Aether pool is finite despite being quite large, and since he can't access certain elements of nature like water from the land around him, his conjury is limited depending on his environment as well. Arcanima, while he uses it to a point, is mostly used for Egi-summoning to aid in his spellcraft.
His own perceptions of what's honorable in battle or proper in a fight keeps him from using poison or disease magics. Basically, I try to keep my spells within the realm of the magic used in the game, but don't stick to the actual 'spells' on my hotbars. Hotbar-linking or only using in game spells is some of the laziest magical combat RP there is IMO..I use it more as a guideline of what's possible, and go from there with creativity. You can do so much with fire than just fling balls of it.
Much the same here, Faye. Ark is my 'big flashy egotistical exploder wizard' type who relies on chaos and destruction and intimidation but sometimes lacks insight despite his experience, because physical and magical power's always solved his problems. I have another mage in the works who will deal totally with 'precision' magic; spell effects meant to disable, demoralize, and debilitate rather than outright kill. She's going to be a pure Arcanima caster with some Conjury knowledge on the side just for its use in biology. As a scientist she won't be the type to fight outright. Think of her like the TF2 medic; she'd fire the magical equivalent of 'syringes' with various negative effects in them to wear people down over time while using an Egi to defend her otherwise frail body.
Still, thanks to certain weaknesses, he is incapable of using cold or water magic, or any kind of 'light' or holy based magic. Basically, he's very good at doing all sorts of things with the magic he's got understanding of, but has great difficulty doing things with magic he doesn't have a predisposed affinity for. His magi-surgical enhancements also help with his magery, allowing him to do things he normally could not, but at a large cost. He tends to be cocky though, and often uses up too much power in flashy spells too early depending on who or what he's fighting. One of his biggest weaknesses is his ego and self assurance in his power, so he's just as likely to defeat himself.
In a sense, A'rklonn using varied magic is much like the Avatar or an Elemental Bender by way of example. Combinations, situational changes, and environmental adaptations, just without the martial arts element in most cases. A larger effect area or more than one or two elements naturally takes more time and focus unless he expends a huge amount of aether to compensate, but of course he cripples his other options later. This leads to the second limit, which is basically a no brainer: His Aether pool is finite despite being quite large, and since he can't access certain elements of nature like water from the land around him, his conjury is limited depending on his environment as well. Arcanima, while he uses it to a point, is mostly used for Egi-summoning to aid in his spellcraft.
His own perceptions of what's honorable in battle or proper in a fight keeps him from using poison or disease magics. Basically, I try to keep my spells within the realm of the magic used in the game, but don't stick to the actual 'spells' on my hotbars. Hotbar-linking or only using in game spells is some of the laziest magical combat RP there is IMO..I use it more as a guideline of what's possible, and go from there with creativity. You can do so much with fire than just fling balls of it.
Quote:I try to find a certain... magical niche for each of my magical characters.
Much the same here, Faye. Ark is my 'big flashy egotistical exploder wizard' type who relies on chaos and destruction and intimidation but sometimes lacks insight despite his experience, because physical and magical power's always solved his problems. I have another mage in the works who will deal totally with 'precision' magic; spell effects meant to disable, demoralize, and debilitate rather than outright kill. She's going to be a pure Arcanima caster with some Conjury knowledge on the side just for its use in biology. As a scientist she won't be the type to fight outright. Think of her like the TF2 medic; she'd fire the magical equivalent of 'syringes' with various negative effects in them to wear people down over time while using an Egi to defend her otherwise frail body.
![[Image: ihatehim2.jpg]](http://i215.photobucket.com/albums/cc129/Inverse_Entropy/ihatehim2.jpg)
