(01-22-2018, 05:44 AM)Valence Wrote:(01-21-2018, 08:38 PM)nicoraynor Wrote: Something you mentioned:
As for how hard it is to cast a spell... How hard is it to be a monk and open a chakra? How hard is to be a bard and sing a powerful and moving battle song? I'm afraid we don't have much clues about that except that well... it's a job, it has specific skills that have to be learned and mastered.Â
This is sticking with me; it stands to reason that if any class were simply too overtaxing in combat to be viable, it wouldn't even be viable from a lore perspective. Like becoming doctor suddenly requiring a storehouse of knowledge exceeding 100x the current needs and reducing the number of available doctors to near zero. I'd think that being a black mage/rogue/samurai, etc would be a job that anyone could train in and master with proficiency.
Yes you're right. To me it's more a problem of knowledge and skill more than resources.
You first need the knowledge to execute those arts, and this is why they are often locked behind job crystals that only open to their wielders if they have the required level of skill and knowledge to start learning. And continue to unlock new secrets when they are deemed ready.
I agree with this sentiment here. Especially considering - if I am recalling correctly - Black Magic is not actually a wholly new school of magic. It's instead a technique to allow you to case Thaumaturgic magic at previously inaccessible levels. Since, rather than utilize your own aether, you can now draw on the far vaster pool that is the planet itself.
I wonder if that's why the THM questline was set the way it was, since it details the story of the one Coco brother who doesn't have enough aetheric potential to cast magic on his own. I wonder how much of that mirrors Shatotto - who I believe developed the Black Magic technique to combat her own aetheric shortcomings. The Coco brother risks unleashing a voidsent into the world for his ambitions, Shatotto unleashes a new technique that (along with White Magic) risked draining the planet dry. It's a similar vein but on a much grander scale.
But I digress. Since the technique is forbidden for being one of the direct causes of the Flood after the War of the Magi, the two big difficulties in learning Black Magic are (as mentioned):
1.) Obtaining the knowledge on how to perform the technique, and
2.) Not basically aetherically burning yourself to death from serving as a living conduit of planetary-level aether (kind of like a reverse lightning rod, maybe?)
The Gem of Shatotto (the Black Mage soulstone) helps overcomes both of these. Providing the knowledge etched into the stone to both teach you the technique and also serves as a sort of "training wheel" system to keep you from burning yourself out practicing it. Which is why all those would-be BLMs in the 50-60 arc effectively off themselves in the pursuit of power.
However, there always seems to be some little hidden away treasures of knowledge to be stumbled upon. So I would think it theoretically possible that one could learn Black Magic the "regular" way using those sorts of resources, but it would take far longer and more careful practice - both to avoid discovery and the destruction of your research material and to also avoid offing yourself (either through Black Magic use or being executed for using illegal magicks). It makes me think of the classical DnD Wizard locked away in his tower studying and practicing his spells, honestly.
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