Mage Spells, the Technical list

Herein again, you the programmer can help me. Feedback is always good, because that helps the progress of the project. Please, let me know if anything here is unclear or could be worded better.

The next blogs will be brief, technical descriptions of the abilites for class. I plan to release one every other day. If you haven't already, check out the list of terms

I still have not learned UML.

Lets start with the Mages. Mages are the generic spell casters. They rely on magic to both dish out damage and defend themselves. Their spells are divided into the categories of Enchantment/Charm, Evokation, ad Manipulation.

Enchantment/Charm

1. Sleep (DeBuffer)
   Sleep places the Sleep (Debuff) on the enemy. While under the effect of Sleep (Debuff) the character cannot perform any actions and their dodge/block is set to 0%. Defending characters have a chance to avoid sleep with a saving throw. If the fail, the Sleep (Debuff) will last for x rounds. At the end of those rounds, the character can make another saving throw to wake up for the next three rounds. The penalty for the save diminishes each round.
   The Sleep (Debuff) is a magical debuff.



2. Clarity (Buffer)
   Clarity casts the Clarity (Buff) on any ally. The buff increases the intelligence of target character by x. Clarity (Buff) is a magical buff.


3. Confusion (DeBuffer)
   Confusion places the confusion (debuff) on an enemy. While under confusion (debuff) the target will do one of five random things each round. 1) Melee attack a random character, enemy or ally. 2) Cower in fear, receiving –x to armor, 3) stand idle 4)swing weapon wildly, 5) use random ability on random target. If an ability is on cooldown, the target will simply go to their next random ability. No abilities that are “channeled” may be used. It is important to note that the targeted character can buff an enemy or debuff an ally.
   Confusion (Debuff) is a magical debuff.


4. Hypnotize (Debuffer)
   Hypnotize places the hypnotize (debuff) on an enemy character. Characters under this debuff cannot attack or target the caster in any way. They may make a saving throw to resist the debuff. Hypnotize (Debuff) is removed by Confusion (Debuff).


5. Enchant Armor (Buffer)
   Enchant Armor places the Enchant Armor (buff) on any ally. Characters under this buff will receive +x to all defensive saving throws (this excludes catching stealth, but includes resisting sleep for instance) and +x% resistance to shadow and arcane damage.
   Enchant Armor (buff) is a magical buff.

Evokation

1. Ice Bolt (Debuffer, Direct Damage)
   Ice Bolt does direct damage(frost) to an enemy. Characters can avoid by dodge, block, or frost resistance. Any character who does not completely avoid the Ice Bolt, the character receives the Ice Bolt (Debuff). This debuff gives them –x to all initiative rolls and –x to DEX.
   Ice Bolt (Debuff) is a magical debuff.


2. Firebolt (Ddot, Direct Damage)
   Firebolt does direct damage(fire) to an enemy. Characters can avoid by a dodge, block, or fire resistance. Characters hit by Firebolt receive the Firebolt (debuff) for two rounds. The first round they will take another x% for the damage(fire) from the corresponding Firebolt. They second round they will take another y% damage(fire) from the firebolt. Firebolt (Debuff) is a magical debuff.



3. Detonate (AOE)
   Detonate is an explosion that damages all enemies. The damage is fire. Defending characters may make a saving throw for half damage. The damage can be completely avoided by fire resistance.



4. Lightening Storm (Channel)
   Lightening storm causes x bolts of Lightening to strike random enemy targets. The targets will take electrical damage unless they make a saving throw for half. The damage can be completely avoided by Electrical Resistance.


5. Arcane Bolt (Direct Damage)
   Arcane Bolt deals Arcane damage to the enemy. The Damage can be avoided by Arcane Resistance, but NOT by a dodge or a block.

Manipulation

1. Freeze Armor (Debuffer)
   
   When Freeze Armor is cast it immediately interrupts all actions performed by the defender whether that be a spell, attack, or ability. It also deals damage(frost) to the defender. It also places Freeze Armor (debuff) on the enemy. This debuff lowers DEX and initiative.



2. Freeze Armor (debuff) is a magical debuff.
   
   There is no saving throwing against this spell, but it may only be cast on metal armor and can be avoided by frost resistance.



3. Ray of Enfeeblement (Debuffer)
   Ray of Enfeeblement places Enfeeblement (debuff) on the target. This debuff lowers STR. Enfeeblement (debuff) is a magical debuff.



4. Displacement (Buffer)
   Displacement (buff) is a buff that affects only the caster. It will increase the caster’s chance to dodge by x%. Displacement is a magical debuff.



5. Stone Skin (Buffer)
   Stone Skin places the Stoneskin (buff) a friendly target. Stoneskin (debuff) lowers DEX, but increase armor and provides X% resistance to electrical and nature damage. Stone Skin (buff) is a magical buff.



6. I had placed "haste" here, but I'm actually open to suggestions.

Technical descriptions, technical terms.

Over the last few days, I've completed technical descriptions of each ability for Fighter, Paladin, Warlock, Mage, and Rogue.

I will be posting them in a few days, but for now I leave with only some terminology.

1. Buff/Debuffs These are ongoing attachments to a character that provide some benefit (such as increase in attributes) or harm (such as damage over time). If multiple Buff/Debuffs of the same type are cast on the same target from the same source, the last one cast takes over. Multiple buffs/debuffs of the same type may be present on the same target if they are from different casters. They are further qualified by the following.

a. Curse: this is a type of debuff. A single caster will have several different spells that will place their respective curses on an enemy. The caster can not place more than one curse on an enemy. If multiple are cast, the last one takes precedence. For instance a Warlock can caste "Curse of Torment" on one target. This same Warlock then casts "Curse of Fumbles" on the same target. "Curse of Torment" is replaced with "Curse of Fumbles." The only way to have more than one curse on a single target is if each curse was cast by a different caster.

Curses are harder to remove than...

b. Magical: Magical buff/debuffs can be removed relatively simply compared to others.

c. Poison: Normally cast by rogues, these debuffs cannot always be removed by the same abilities that remove magical debuffs/buffs.

d. Disease: The most difficult debuff to remove. It will require a potion or a very specific ability.

e. Blessing The beneficial flip side of curses. A single character can cast many types of blessings, but cannot place more than one blessing on an individual target. Last blessing cast replaces the previous buff.

f. Persistent buffs/debuffs that cannot be removed in anyway. These will normally have a short duration, such as the "afterburn" of a firespell.

g. Aura-effect Aura effects are buff/debuffs that cannot be removed and persist as long as the Aura-source is present. The most common Aura Source is a paladin Aura.

2. Modes Some classes can switch between two or more mutually exclusive modes. Characters can change mode once per round and will still be able to perform one other action. Modes fall into three categories.

a. Aura-source Paladins and Warlocks have auras. Auras place aura-effect buffs/debuffs on other characters. They cannot be removed as long as the Aura is present.

b. Forms Druids and Warlocks can change shape. They will gain modifications and access to certain abilities when they do.

c. Combat Style Warriors, Rogues, and Rangers can all change between modes that modify their combat abilities and make available certain abilities.

3. Spell Damage spell damage normally depends on the WIL of the caster. Certian spells have a chance to hit -just like normal melee strike- that depends on INT.

c. Direct Damage These are normally "bolts" of something that can be defended against with armor, dodge, or block just as if it was melee attack or a ranged attack. Damage reductions works the exact same way. The chance to hit is based on the caster's INT. The damage is based on the caster's WIL.

b. DOT Damage over time. This is a debuff that deals damage each round until removed or expired.

c. DDOT Diminishing damaging over time. This is a debuff that usually follows a direct damage spell. Ddot normally have a short duration and will continue to deal a fraction of the initial damage dealt (after it is reduced by armor). The first round might deal an addition 20%, then the next round 10% and disappear on the third.

Saving Thorws part II

Hello friends.

After much discussion with James Shewey, I feel that I need to do another post on game mechanics. Specifically "ability checks." The biggest challenge of this project is for me to really learn how to communicate, so I really value all the feedback I get from programmer types. There are few things that should bedisccued first. Here's the goes.

First terminology: what I am describing is no longer called an "ability check." Ability check will get to confusing. This will hence forth called "saving throws." This is because (as will become clear later) what the throw is against will be more important than what ability is used.

Secondly, all the saving throws are character versus character, rather than character versus environment. In this blog I am dealing with "saving throw to catch stealth" "saving throw to resist fear" "saving throw to escape entanglement" etc.

Third, there are goals. These are guidelines, for expected gameplay, that any way of setting up saving throws should conform to:
Guideline 1: If character is making a saving throw against an ability of another character of equivalent level and equivalent relevant attribute (str, prc, etc) than the chance of success should be about 8-10%. This is for sake of player enjoyment, and a sense of action in battle. Players will become frustrated if their abilities work only 50% of the time, or even fail 25% of the time. In sum: success of saving throws should be fairly rare among even matched characters.

Guideline 2: If the defender's level > attacker's level that should increase the chance of a successful saving throw. The inverse is also true.

Guideline 3: If the defender's ability > attacker's ability that should increase the chance of a successful saving throw. The inverse is also true.

Guideline 4: Unequal levels and unequal abilities will affect probability of a save, as above, but it should be very difficult for the probability to ever reach 1 or fall to 0. For instance a defending player is only two lower, and his ability is two lower, than he should still have a chance to save (though it will be lower than 10%). This is because of a bit challenge in game play: it should be hard to have your spells never fail or your defending player always resist.

Guideline 5: Items, buffs, may increase the chance of the saving throw, but not the ability that the saving throw uses.

Okay, so hopefully that should serve as a guide. Keep in mind, gameplay and good gameplay is the goal of all the game mechanics.

The basic function (object? class? I don't speak programmer) is a very simple formula:

Probability to save = (a_d-p+b)/a_d
a_d = relevant ability of defending player.
p = the penalty. This must always be greater than 0.
b = the bonus to saving throw. This comes from equipment or spell buffs. The details of those things are for another blog.

The variable "a" will be whatever relevant ability is used in the saving throw. "p" is where all the work is done. How "p" is calculated will depend on the type of saving throw.

So the function for saving throw is (a_d-p+b)/a_d. What kind kind of saving throw determines both a and p.

So if the saving throw is "catch stealth" then:

p=s_a+(a_a-a_d)+(l_a-l_d)
a = defender or attackers ability
l = defender or attacker level
s_a = stealth rating of attacker. How this will be calculated will be subject of another blog.

If the saving throw is "resist fear" then:

p=m_a+(a_a-a_d)+(l_a-l_d)
a = defender or attackers ability
l = defender or attacker level
m_a = power of fear spell. Like stealth, how it is calculated will be for another blog.

Now right here, I think I need to slow down. I am not a programmer, and I need to explain my ideas to programmers.

So, am I on the right track? Is this way of handling saving throws making sense in programmer mindset?