Casting without reagents?

No, I'm talking about fantasy roleplaying and fantasy roleplaying games. Not "most games".

I'm saying that when you ask yourself, what is magic? Who performs magic? How is magic performed? Historically, traditionally, that involves the required use of reagents.

I'm saying THAT is a fact.

 

There are outliers throughout history. But I doubt the majority of fantasy genre fans would say D&D and Tolkien are not pillars of the genre. I doubt many fans would say "I look back to the cave drawlings for my inspiration and definition of what magic is."

 

Reagents for magic please

 

they could just copy&paste UO, no way to go wrong there...

 

This is quite true, we don't know what the intended lore for magic is and how they intend it to fit in the game, beyond skills themselves.

I think many of us feel like that. Let's be sincere here, the devs could just make magic work like any other skill, requiring anything special, and it could work and be balanced.
Baron Drocis said in another topic that having no reagents on low-level spells would mean, for example, free light to all characters, and he's right but, what if that's the intended way for the world to be? I recall a dev saying that magic would be common in New Britannia, but some aspects of it would be rare. That could mean that, in fact, being able to cast a light spell is a normal thing to Novians so, of course every player should be able to do so! And if everyone is able to cast simple spells almost free, they become instantaneously balanced.

The problem with that is that if everyone is able to cast simple spells for free, they stop feeling like "magic" but as an everyday action. If they make magic cheap, it would lose all the appeal it has for us prospective mages. And don't get me wrong, I feel the same for fighting skills... if everyone is suddenly able to perfectly do complicated sword moves, I'd feel disappointed as well. The botton line here is that, I believe, most of us want magic and weapon skills to feel and play different but each to feel special in its own way.

I'd personally warrior-type players having to seek master after master to learn new skills, fighting many foes to hone them, while mages would need to spend months in their libraries researching and discovering new spells to use, I don't like neither of them styles to be just "skills in a tree" or at least, I don't want them to feel that way, even if they ultimately are. I want gameplay to be part of the roleplay, and not something unrelated.

 

If they really mean this, they should build the world that way. If everyone can cast light spells, why do candles exist?

I think it makes sense that some magic is common -- in the sense that towns have apothecaries that can provide them potions, and maybe there's a town mage that can cast some basic cantrips and low-level spells. But it still has to be a little beyond the point of everyone being able to do magic. Magic still should need a cost, even if the cost isn't extremely difficult or the reagents aren't rare. Someone (a mage) should be willing to pay that cost, while others may not be willing.

Plus, if magic is common, why are we going to have a completely player driven reagent economy?

 

I agree that right now the world degisn feels as if magic is something with a cost, not freely available to everyone. But then again avatars are not "everyone" but a special kind of person there. I still think that all magic should have a cost and not be so common, but that's up to the devs and their vision for the world.
That's why we need a firm stance on what magic means on New Britannia and to the Avatars. Until then all we can do is express our preferences and point out obvious balance issues that could stem from different styles.

 

The way magic is handled now is like in a shooter. Quake for example. Fast PvP battles with lots of weapons whereas in SotA the weapons are spells. Nonetheless they "fire" like from a machine gun or flamethrower or grenade launcher. Just because it is called magic and the characters don't hold a gun in their hands doesn't change this fact.