Questions For White Mage/Conjurer Character

[LiadansWhisper]

 

 

While someone might not literally be a hearer, I think it's possible they could still damage their body by not conjuring spells correctly.

 

I really don't think so unless they were unable to channel aether at all, like the Lalafell in the THM questline.  For him, attempting to channel aether WAS detrimental to his health.  But there's nothing in the lore or story to suggest that Random Joe Bob attempting to conjure would automatically be harvesting his own life force.  Conjury appears to naturally pull from the lifeforce around you.

 

 

Selphie was actively rejecting pulling from the lifeforce because she mistakenly believed that it made the Elementals angry, because that's what her mom apparently told her.  But she really wanted to heal, so her innate ability at conjury turned to her own lifeforce instead, since aether is aether is aether.  Or something.

 

 

I would honestly liken a Hearer to someone with the Conjury switch defaulted to "on" even if it shouldn't be.  A regular Joe is more like someone attempting to decipher the Conjury switch so they can figure out how to flip it.

[Erik Mynhier]

I am not entirely sure this would work for the topic founder, this is just an offering to how I handle Erik when he puts on his white mage bootys. I state that the small amount of defensive conjury he has was learned in Stillglade and honed in Dragonhead as a priest, not a wht or cnj. He is a priest, simple as that. He uses the conjury skills in a limited way, focusing more in IC on priestly duties. In the time I have done this it has never been questioned rp wise, because I avoid the whole thing by going the FFT route. To me both jobs, White Mage and Dragoon are such minefields. I know many who play them well, but I am not that good so I hang back a bit.

[Nyx Ashkala]

Helpful or not, I still like to hear how others play their conjurers so thank you .

Right now, A'ria is more focused on botany and using her knowledge of herbs to help heal naturally instead of jumping to magic use every time someone bleeds.

 

I'm kind of approaching this like I did with my Blood Elf priestess on WoW. Not everyone then could wield the Light with 100% accuracy and precision, and using the Light to heal everything could exhaust the healer enough that they aged quicker, or even died (much like Arcane from WoW as well). Then, the Light could actually further injure the person it's being used on because it could heal the body too fast.

 

Correct me if the dangers of healing in this game are different, as I'm still reading up on lore. I just assume that everything should be used in moderation and that it can always be used incorrectly.

[FreelanceWizard]

I'm kind of approaching this like I did with my Blood Elf priestess on WoW. Not everyone then could wield the Light with 100% accuracy and precision, and using the Light to heal everything could exhaust the healer enough that they aged quicker, or even died (much like Arcane from WoW as well). Then, the Light could actually further injure the person it's being used on because it could heal the body too fast.

 

Correct me if the dangers of healing in this game are different, as I'm still reading up on lore. I just assume that everything should be used in moderation and that it can always be used incorrectly.

 

I can maybe help with the metaphysics lore, though there's not that much to go on (and some, like arcanima, is rather vague). Magic in XIV isn't very much at all like magic in WoW. Metaphysically, you have three different basic approaches to channeling Aether into magic:

• Conjury is the art of channeling elementally aspected Aether from the world around you.
  
• Thaumaturgy is the art of channeling your internal Aether into elementally aspected magic.
  
• Arcanima is the art of channeling Aether through symbology, geometry, and Aetheric crystals. While there's been no explicit statement to this effect, I surmise that it uses both internal and external Aether.
  

As Liadan noted, Selphie is an outlier in terms of what she does. A Conjurer suffers no risk to themselves (short of exhaustion, loss of focus, or however you RP running out of MP) through using their magic, as they're not using their own Aether to power their spells. However, learning Conjury requires an appreciation for and attunement to the elements (and Elementals). Thaumaturgy requires no such attunement, but it does require considerable reserves of personal Aether; those without such innate reserves can kill or seriously injure themselves by attempting to wield the art, which is why the Guild explicitly doesn't train a particular lalafell in the class quest line. Arcanima seems to be something you can learn if you have the innate talent and level of perseverance to obsessively study arcane geometries (thus the joke about arcanists being OCD mathematicians with magic squirrels ).

 

Thaumaturges have no ability to heal with their own spells, and they're the only mages who potentially risk themselves through their use of their magic. Both of the healers (conjurers and arcanists) don't channel Aether in a way that could be potentially harmful to the user -- bearing in mind that Selphie is stated to be a strange, worrisome exception to the norm -- so screwing up a spell is more likely to have no effect or unintended effects (as the channeled Aether does something you didn't want) than harming the user.

 

I'm explicitly leaving out Succor (White Magic) in the discussion above because it's not especially well-defined, the lore on it between 1.0 and 2.0 is dramatically different, and I don't want to start a flame war about it.

 

EDIT: And I'm excluding in my mention about the risks of Conjury anything about the ire of the elementals for similar reasons, though depending on who you ask, the misuse of Conjury may or may not have repercussions in that regard, especially in the Shroud.

[LiadansWhisper]

Helpful or not, I still like to hear how others play their conjurers so thank you .

Right now, A'ria is more focused on botany and using her knowledge of herbs to help heal naturally instead of jumping to magic use every time someone bleeds.

 

I'm kind of approaching this like I did with my Blood Elf priestess on WoW. Not everyone then could wield the Light with 100% accuracy and precision, and using the Light to heal everything could exhaust the healer enough that they aged quicker, or even died (much like Arcane from WoW as well). Then, the Light could actually further injure the person it's being used on because it could heal the body too fast.

 

Yeah...the Lifeforce/Succor is not the Light from Warcraft.

 

Correct me if the dangers of healing in this game are different, as I'm still reading up on lore. I just assume that everything should be used in moderation and that it can always be used incorrectly.

 

You're actually a hell of a lot more in danger of stripping the life from the land around you if you go around healing everyone and everything than you are of killing yourself in the process (though, of course, anything is possible, and the trees might also eat you).  The lore surrounding the White Mage questline mentions that the reason the Elementals currently restrict Succor is precisely because White Magic (of which Conjury is a very, very small part) is every bit as detrimental to the land and world as Black Magic - when abused and overused.  There's a reason why the Conjurer mantra is "borrow, then return."  You're expected not to overuse the lifeforce you're drawing from, because to do so is abusive and would actually harm the land around you.

 

From everything I've seen in-game, conducting a serious, in-depth healing as a Conjurer is no more "dangerous" to your health than being the surgeon in a several-hours-long surgery.  Are you going to be tired?  Sure.  I mean, everyone is tired after a hard-days work.  Is it detrimental to the surgeon's health to be conducting surgery to save the life of a patient?

 

Uh, not really.

[ArmachiA]

Yeah the Conjury storyline points out an outlier of a person, someone rare, someone able to draw from their own lifeforce to do anything - that doesn't happen naturally. There's just no support for that in lore. Yeah you can learn Conjury wrong, but it would most likely mean you accidently use wind instead of cure or your Cure's are worse than other peoples (But you give no care's because you're still helping people) using the same Aether as you. That stuff is actually kind of an interesting character development, since there isn't anything "tragic" in it - as people like to do so often.

 

The cannibalizing of your own aether isn't natural - while learning you just aren't going to do it accidently. It's implied that that is effing dangerous and weird, so I'm assuming they wouldn't just teach anyone as openly as they do if it was just a thing that happens in your first lesson (The THM storyline supports this, as they will turn people away without the proper Aether reserves). Is it impossible? Of course not, some students are going to do it naturally. SOME like 2%.If you play that 2% that's up to you, but don't try to defend it as not somewhat special snowflake-y.

[Nyx Ashkala]

I think I'm going to just go with an Aether allergy . I'm starting to get the impression that people are avoiding me ingame because they've seen this thread and while it's kind of ridiculous, it's serving to give me a headache more so than an urge to come up with a plausible character based on what I wanted. I hate changing something I was excited about for the sake of essentially breast feeding people, but it is what it is...

[ArmachiA]

I never avoid anyone, but if you already had the idea set in your head why did you ask for advice?

 

you asked in the thread

 

"That being said, are these ideas too out there or do they actually work?"

 

And when a lot of people went "It's too out there" you say you have to breastfeed people.

 

I don't know, it feels like you wanted an echo chamber of "Yes" then actual discussion.

[Nyx Ashkala]

I never avoid anyone, but if you already had the idea set in your head why did you ask for advice?

 

you asked in the thread

 

"That being said, are these ideas too out there or do they actually work?"

 

And when a lot of people went "It's too out there" you say you have to breastfeed people.

 

I don't know, it feels like you wanted an echo chamber of "Yes" then actual discussion.

I never mentioned anyone specifically in this thread avoiding me, but I have noticed an increase of people genuinely going out of their way to avoid talking to me.

 

Yes, I asked for advice, but there are people who have seemed as if my newness to the lore has been an inconvenience to them or a complete turn off. My point isn't that I'm upset that people didn't agree (there were also as many people saying the concept was fine as people not so I really could care less one way or the other), it's that someone else who may be newer than even I might find the treatment and responses as a complete turnoff to other RPers.

 

I know several people have approached me after this thread telling me that they're afraid to voice questions and concerns because they're afraid they'll get jumped or make someone angry and that is what I mean by breast feeding. People shouldn't have to change characters constantly to appease the ones that disagree.

 

I have mentioned that I am grateful for the help and I mean it. However, I didn't post this as a way for people to determine if I'm an irredeemable RPer and that feels like the outcome.

[LiadansWhisper]

I think I'm going to just go with an Aether allergy . I'm starting to get the impression that people are avoiding me ingame because they've seen this thread and while it's kind of ridiculous, it's serving to give me a headache more so than an urge to come up with a plausible character based on what I wanted. I hate changing something I was excited about for the sake of essentially breast feeding people, but it is what it is...

 

Believe I said in my first post in this thread, "You can play whatever you want with your character."

 

And this is true.

 

But there is a corollary to this, and it is, "But other people are free to not want to play with you."

 

Welcome to life and RP!  No one is required to associate with or RP with you.  And if they choose not to associate with you, or not to RP with you, that doesn't mean you need to breast feed them.  I mean, really?  That's rather insulting.

 

If you have to ask if a concept is too "out there," 9 times out of 10, you already know the answer.  And other people aren't to blame.

[Naunet]

For what it's worth, A'ria, I don't think your concept is too "out there", and I think the disability, conflict, and threat of your character gradually killing themselves (something you can make take as slowly or as quickly as you'd like) could make for some fun RP, especially if other people get involved to help her. Perhaps I'm just more open to character concepts that involve things that don't benefit the character.

 

I really think the piling on against you was unnecessary and certain posts in here come off as way too hostile.

[ArmachiA]

People are free to play whatever they want though? If people ask for advice in a thread, why wouldn't people who know the lore really well answer?

 

I certainly appreciate when people come in and ask for how to be lore appropriate and SEE that people answer honestly rather than "Play it! Who cares about lore! Don't listen to those fuddy duddies." I also appreciate people listening to others advice and not getting mad when it's not what they hoped (The Blue Mage thread is wonderful for this, I threw out a bunch of constructive criticism and she worked around what she felt were valid concerns to help make the idea much more future lore friendly - which was my greatest concern. She didn't just go "I have to cow-tow to you people!" just because I didn't agree.)

 

If getting people think getting jumped on is coming int a thread and explaining why your character concept may not work in lore, then those people are awfully sensitive.

 

I really think the piling on against you was unnecessary and certain posts in here come off as way too hostile.

 

I didn't see any hostility. I saw people coming in, explaining lore and then explaining why it may not work.

 

I'm unsure why people think disagreeing is automatically hostile.

[LiadansWhisper]

 

 

I never mentioned anyone specifically in this thread avoiding me, but I have noticed an increase of people genuinely going out of their way to avoid talking to me.

 

Unless they outright told you that they're avoiding you cuz they think you're terrible, you very well may be taking what's going on the wrong way.  There are a variety of reasons that people can be ships passing in the night, and only one of them is, "I really think you suck so I don't want you to get cooties on me."

 

Yes, I asked for advice, but there are people who have seemed as if my newness to the lore has been an inconvenience to them or a complete turn off. My point isn't that I'm upset that people didn't agree (there were also as many people saying the concept was fine as people not so I really could care less one way or the other), it's that someone else who may be newer than even I might find the treatment and responses as a complete turnoff to other RPers.

 

You said you played WoW and RPd there, so I'm a little confused that you think your treatment on this board has been harsh and cruel.  I mean, this place is very, very, very tame compared to the WoW forums.  Just because other people have corrected your confusion about certain lore bits, and/or disagreed with your explanation of your concept, doesn't mean that anyone hates you.  If being honest and blunt with you means I've been grinding you beneath my heel, well, I guess I turned into a Domme while I wasn't looking.

 

I know several people have approached me after this thread telling me that they're afraid to voice questions and concerns because they're afraid they'll get jumped or make someone angry and that is what I mean by breast feeding. People shouldn't have to change characters constantly to appease the ones that disagree.

 

No one told you to change your character.  You are choosing to do so.  You asked questions, and they were honestly answered.  If you don't like the answers, that doesn't mean you have to change your character.  You can, quite literally, play whatever the hell you want.  But, again, corollary - no one is required to play with you.  Roleplay is a game of mutual storytelling, and that means that you need others to play it.  If you want others to play with you, you probably need to give them a reason for doing so.  Someone is always going to have an issue with your character concept, no matter what concept you choose.  That's the nature of playing with other people in an MMO.

 

As for the several others who are scared of coming here for fear that the posters will rip their faces off, well...I have yet to see anyone's face ripped off, no matter how nuts their concept was.  So if they honestly think these forums are that scary, then they have bigger problems.  Because an MMO is going to eat their soul.

 

I have mentioned that I am grateful for the help and I mean it. However, I didn't post this as a way for people to determine if I'm an irredeemable RPer and that feels like the outcome.

 

I really don't know where you're getting this.

[LiadansWhisper]

For what it's worth, A'ria, I don't think your concept is too "out there", and I think the disability, conflict, and threat of your character gradually killing themselves (something you can make take as slowly or as quickly as you'd like) could make for some fun RP, especially if other people get involved to help her. Perhaps I'm just more open to character concepts that involve things that don't benefit the character.

 

I really think the piling on against you was unnecessary and certain posts in here come off as way too hostile.

 

No one was piling on her.  If disagreeing with someone is "piling on" them, then I guess threads like these are only for yes-men.

[Miza]

I'm rather new to the community too. And yeah, it's disheartening to see people walk right by you and go RP with someone a few feet away. But I think you are quick to assume that they are avoiding you. As a new player, no one knows anything about you or me. So it makes walk-ups harder to get, especially when everyone already has their established relationships they want to spend their time on.

 

When I was RPing in Guild Wars 2, I felt similar to you. I had no guild and had taken several months off from the game, so when I came back, I was more or less an outcast. I started to think there might be something wrong with me or my characters. But then one day, I tried whispering someone reputable within the community if they wanted to RP and they said sure!

 

Yes, it's nice to have people come to you, but it's much easier to get into communities by making the first step. And from what it sounds like, you are discouraged because no one walks-up to you. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but hey if you're ever in Limsa Lominsa, I'd gladly RP with you.

[LiadansWhisper]

I'm rather new to the community too. And yeah, it's disheartening to see people walk right by you and go RP with someone a few feet away. But I think you are quick to assume that they are avoiding you. As a new player, no one knows anything about you or me. So it makes walk-ups harder to get, especially when everyone already has their established relationships they want to spend their time on.

 

When I was RPing in Guild Wars 2, I felt similar to you. I had no guild and had taken several months off from the game, so when I came back, I was more or less an outcast. I started to think there might be something wrong with me or my characters. But then one day, I tried whispering someone reputable within the community if they wanted to RP and they said sure!

 

Yes, it's nice to have people come to you, but it's much easier to get into communities by making the first step. And from what it sounds like, you are discouraged because no one walks-up to you. Maybe I'm assuming too much, but hey if you're ever in Limsa Lominsa, I'd gladly RP with you.

 

I'm pretty sure this actually happens to most players who aren't in an active RP guild.  It's a real shame, but if you aren't outgoing and pushy, it's hard to get RP (and some people get downright offended if you react/jump into their public RP, which is just...strange).  So if you're shy, like I am, about joining random RP, it can be really hard to get into it without a guild to kind of suck you in.

 

I really don't think it's people who have read this that are avoiding the OP.  The fact is, a lot of players simply won't acknowledge/won't engage with players they don't personally know.  I saw it happen in WoW a lot, too.  But 99% of those people never even visit here. They just avoid people in the game for personal reasons, as far as I can tell.  Don't wanna call them snobs, but sometimes it seems like it.  

 

Edited to Add: I should say, even if the player is outgoing and pushy, if the character isn't, it can be total hell.

[ArmachiA]

I don't see how being respectful of lore makes anyone unfun.

 

Lore is Fun, building around lore IS FUN. Why ignore something that is so in depth and rich?

 

If that makes me the Lore police, I guess I'm the lore police, but I think building around lore is way more fun then completely disregarding it.

[Naunet]

I don't see how being respectful of lore makes anyone unfun.

 

Lore is Fun, building around lore IS FUN. Why ignore something that is so indepth and rich?

 

No one's ignoring lore in this thread. Just want to point that out.

[LiadansWhisper]

I don't see how being respectful of lore makes anyone unfun.

 

Lore is Fun, building around lore IS FUN. Why ignore something that is so indepth and rich?

 

No one's ignoring lore in this thread. Just want to point that out.

 

No one is saying they were.  But apparently if someone asks a question, and you give them the lore, you're an evil Lore Nazi.

[ArmachiA]

The unfun police! How dare people answer questions about the lore!

 

No one's ignoring lore in this thread. Just want to point that out.

And I noticed not one person said the concept wasn't possible, they just said it was rare and to expect people to think it's special snowflake-y. THAT doesn't mean not to do it, thats just saying "It's not a concept I agree with because I don't like playing rare things" but no one told her not to play it at all.

[Warren Castille]

"Hey, is this idea too far-fetched?"

 

"No, that's actually established as having happened in the story, but you're not allowed to use it because reasons."

 

TL;DR for anyone just jumping in.

[LiadansWhisper]

"Hey, is this idea too far-fetched?"

 

"No, that's actually established as having happened in the story, but you're not allowed to use it because reasons."

 

TL;DR for anyone just jumping in.

 

Pretty sure you're misinterpreting what was said.

[ArmachiA]

"Hey, is this idea too far-fetched?"

 

"No, that's actually established as having happened in the story, but you're not allowed to use it because reasons."

 

TL;DR for anyone just jumping in.

 

Said no one in this thread.

[Unnamed Mercenary]

"Hey, is this idea too far-fetched?"

 

"No, that's actually established as having happened in the story, but you're not allowed to use it because reasons."

 

TL;DR for anyone just jumping in.

 

Slightly adjusted:

 

"Is this idea too far fetched?"

 

"Slightly. While it is possible, the chances of it are /extremely/ rare and not the norm. That isn't to say impossible, but don't expect that the other people who interact with that character will knowingly let her get away with it ICly." *some form of an explosion*

[Naunet]

It's all in the tone and manner of phrasing. Thinly veiled superiority disguised as "helpful" advice is not really how one should go about providing feedback.

 

There's nothing in lore that would prevent a character from RPing someone who drains their own life force to heal others. As long as it's roleplayed effectively, it shouldn't bother anyone else.