Life Circle

[Aaron]

Alright, as I talked about before, I'm going to start doing a few posts fleshing out details here and there before I begin loading up the Wiki with all the tentative information about the game. I decided to start with the life circle for two reasons. The first, I almost always use life magic. I try other things now and again just for the fun of it, but life is really where I'm at my best. The second reason is our Necromancer circle. I want to start drawing a clear line between the two at this early stage so as both concepts grow they will grow in the right directions.

Life is the mastery of positive energy. It's spell list is going to include spells that heal and resurrect (duh), buff, protect, summon, etc. all from a “positive” point of view. You'll be able to summon the classic goody goodies like angles and craft weapons of disruption. You'll be able to bring heroes back from the dead (even if they were disintegrated if you have the power).

Now, necromancy is going to be covered in another post, but I want to explain the big distinction between necromancy and life here. Necromancy is concerned with the living body and the manipulation of it. So, it doesn't bring things back from the dead, it keeps them from dying or reanimates their corpses so they can serve a useful purpose.

Life uses positive energy to effect body and soul, Necromancy uses positive energy to effect the body (and negative energy for that matter.)

With that ground rule in place what would you like to see in the life circle? Is there anything we could throw in there beyond the cliché (not the the cliché is bad, but there's always room for growth.)

Ideas?

[John Madlock]

Maybe a spell that causes an enemy is unable to hurt anybody? I think I havn't seen spell like this in any game.

[Krakizbad]

MoM had a 'pacifist' type spell IIRC, it was hilarious.

[Aaron]

That's a good idea, lol. I like it.

[James Davey]

Well, like I said to whoever was talking to me on kickstarter, life can be used beyond the goody goodyness, you could introduce a mutation sort of thing which will give units extra things like wings or horns and things like that you could also have spells like "banish" which gets rid of a summon and perhaps if you're having mana give life a "Soul Siphon" ability which steals a targets soul and adds to the mana of something, then link that into crafting aswell and have someone carry round an "Elder Scroll" esc soul gem which allows them to save that soul for later

[Mardagg]

i wonder if will get a spell like Summon Torin the chosen from master of magic in the Life circle.
Ridicilous overpowered but warm memories!

[Trudd]

What was a really must have in MoM, was "Crusade" and "Incarnation". i wish theese spells are in WoM
A Super-Paladin-Crusader-HelpingTheGrandmotherCrosswalkingTheStreet-DemonCrusher must be a 9-tier life spell.
In fact, this spell was so specific to MoM (I don't remember such in any other game) that I can't imagine WoM without it.

[Asmodai]

Well, like I said to whoever was talking to me on kickstarter, life can be used beyond the goody goodyness, you could introduce a mutation sort of thing which will give units extra things like wings or horns and things like that you could also have spells like "banish" which gets rid of a summon and perhaps if you're having mana give life a "Soul Siphon" ability which steals a targets soul and adds to the mana of something, then link that into crafting aswell and have someone carry round an "Elder Scroll" esc soul gem which allows them to save that soul for later

I asked about the meaning of "Life Magic" a while back and the answer I got indicated that they do in fact want it to be "goody goodyness" in opposition to the death magic concept of pure evil. They do not intend for it to be life as in nature (which instead is the combination of the four elements which I really like Air+Earth+Fire+Water = nature.) I think the suggestions you make are great but they belong in other schools they have. The mutation sort of thing fits in well with what they are currently calling their Necromancy school (though we're trying to get it changed to something like Biomancy to avoid confusion with Death magic... see the Necromancy thread.) "Soul Siphon" and trapping souls it typically "Death" magic not life, in D20 it's called "Soul Bind" and is very evil because, like undeath it prevents to soul from moving on, blocks resurrection, and using it to power things is essentially enslaving the soul.

[Tekkion]

If we're talking about Life Magic I'm thinking about the whole christian religion stuff which also includes some "cool" spells like excorcism which when you use enough mana can banish death creatues or stuff from the TV series supernatural were they use salt to stop demons from entering a house which you could transform to a global spell like "salty borders" which prevents death creatures from crossing your realm borders.

[James Davey]

ahh right thanks Asmodai for clearing that up, in which case how about spells like "Holy Ground" which blesses a terrain and exorcism like Tekkion has said there quite aggressive spells for life, so you can probably mix it in with a bunch of "buff" type spells like religious fervor which increases movement and then a large spell like "crusaders blessing" which is a mass increase in damage i'm trying to avoid the stereotype of life is only good against death otherwise no one will ever use it that much :/