Magic

Note : This is the first concept i made for the spell system, it is only partially finished and mostly obsolete too. I will not update it until i have refined it (A LOT), but ill leave it lying around so people can see that i am at least definitely planning to have magic in the games.

Magic will be divided into INT and WILL based magic, and magic schools which will be specialization skills or as i'd like to call them in this context, sub-classes. The requirement for being able to use a spell will be based on both your Magic skill level and your Int/Will levels. Certain spells will require you to specialize in more than one school of magic to become accessible.

The spells themselves will be divided by difficulty into 7 levels. Level 0 being available to anyone who has 1 or more skill level in the magic school for that spell. level 5 being very high level, and level 6 being mastery level, god-like spells, depending on the spell type it may also consume 100% of your mana. The spells will also scale depending on your skill levels, so that if you're playing a level 1000 character, your level 0 spells would be strong enough to kill any level 100 monster. (Note that most players are not gonna play for 1000 levels as that would take a lot of time)

Spells will be a very powerful, but also dangerous tool to rely on because of the limited mana pool, but there may be high level perks that will allow you to cast low level spells for free or almost free. Without perks to assist a spellcaster, all offensive spells will have a chance to backfire at the caster (with reduced effects) and all other spells will have a chance to fail, or cause random unpredicted effects.

Inspired by classic EverQuest, to find a spell you need to find a caster that knows the spell and pay him to teach it to you. Level 6 spells will be extremely difficult to come by and if they can be learned from NPCs, it will be from very very special ones. During combat you will only be able to have a limited amount of spells equipped, and equipping a different spell will cost you 1 turn. Outside of combat any spell can be casted at any time and on anything you can target. Results may vary though. You will have a spellbook where your spells will be divided by classes and levels.

There will not be any classes in the game really, the player will just create a character and distribute his skills/attributes/perks depending on how he/she wants to play. There will however be presets, and presets will be named similarily to classes from other games.

Leveling
During character creation, players will be able to choose what sub-classes of the magic schools they will use. The limited number at the start of the game is 3 sub-classes but they can select any subclasses within the magic tree they select, one tree being intelligence based magic the other being willpower based magic. This rather complicated system was made to simplify balancing for me. I want to have a ridiculous amount of spells available in the world of Amodos, and they had to be divided into sub-classes to prevent one class being in some way superior to another (for example, if alteration got teleportation magic, buffs and healing next to the destruction magic which will only be able to destry things at various speeds and mana costs) it also helps create this feel that there are different kinds of spellcasters in the game to divide this down into so many categories.

When the magic skill hits 25 (one specialization is at 100) the player can choose 1 extra magic type every 8 magic levels. (Ends at 97). when the Magic skill hits 100 you will be able to add 1 extra magic type every 8 levels again in the other magic tree (so if you were using int based magic, you can now start using will based magic).

This system was made to avoid locking a player down to slow leveling if he specializes only in one magic school.

At magic level 196 the player will have unlocked all the magic types. It is however up to the player to use all those types or specialize in just one. Specializing in just one will make you ridiculously powerful, but being a jack of all trades could be much more fun at the expense of making the gameplay harder.

Presets
These are the spellcaster presets a player can choose during character creation. The presets can be compared to a class system, however the player can just make his own custom class and ignore the presets.

Wizard focuses on  balanced  destruction and  nukes  and alteration based  teleportation

Summoner focuses on elemental  and Item  summoning, and  balanced  destruction.

Necromancer focuses on balanced  destruction, DoT and undead summoning.

Illusionist focuses on all forms of illusion.

Healer focuses on all forms of Life magic.

Druid focuses on Alteration (Healing, Buffs) and MISSING

Psychic focuses on Mental (Manipulate, Control and Damage)

Shaman focuses on spiritual conjuration, shapeshifting and healing life

Warlock focuses on shapeshifting into and conjuring demons as well as mental damage

Cleric focuses on healing and defending life as well as conjuring angels.

Magi focuses on all forms of alteration.

Spell Types (Elements)
This list is primarily here for resistances, but also lists what spell classes use them, and what bonuses they typically grant. Bonus effects will start to kick in for Level 1 and higher spells.

Fire (Destruction, Elemental Summoning)

Fire spells will deal small amounts (depending on level) of damage over time on their targets. This effect will stack with your DoT if your fire spell was a DoT.

Water (Destruction, Elemental Summoning)

Water spells will

 Earth  (Destruction, Elemental Summoning)

Earth spells will cause an agility debuff slowing your oponents.

Air (Destruction, Elemental Summoning)

Air spells have a knockback effect, this effect is not 100%, but it can knock back or sometimes even knock down your opponents to keep them away from you. Air spells generally deal the least damage.

Electricity (Destruction, Elemental Summoning)

Electricity spells have a stun chance. At higher levels nukes and balanced spells will be able to cause a knockback effect too.

Magic (Destruction, Alteration, Life)

Magic spells have no bonus effects, but they tend to be more powerful than other spells (destruction) at the expense of more mana consumption. Certain spells may have a dismemberment chance.

Mental (Illusion, Mental)

Mental spells consume less mana than any other spells, and they are also much harder to resist than other spells except for those who have specifically trained themselves to resist it. (Opponents that use this kind of magic will probably be the biggest pain in the ass to deal with out of them all in the final game.)

Note: You can not resist an earth elemental's (quite heavy) punch, but you can resist his magical effects no matter what they are if you have earth resistances.

Destruction
Nukes are powerful spells and at higher levels they have an Area of Effect. They use Fire, Ice, Rocks, Cold, Pressure, Electricity and Magic.

Balanced spells deal straight single target damage at managable mana costs. They use Heat, Water, Wood, Air, Electricity and Magic.

Damage over Time spells will deal damage every turn, if stacked they're extremely deadly. They use Fire, Poison, Acid, Weeds/Thorns, Cold, Air, Electricity and Magic.

Conjuration
Conjured creatures will have to be despawned when entering public areas/safe zones, transportation and other certain locations. Conjuring a creature is going to cost extreme amounts of mana and often a component too. So if one dies you won't be able to just respawn it. At spell level 3 and up, your summoned creatures will have a personality and memory.

Elementals have elemental bonus effects at higher levels and sometimes spells of their own.

Undeads will have the same bonuses and similar spells as their NPC counterparts.

Items that are summoned can come with magical effects and are fairly strong. They do however come with a time limit too. Summoned items can be sold as a service (not as an item) and the player can build a business around it.

Illusion
Manipulation magic is about tricking other people into doing things that they normally would not.

Command magic is giving you limited control over others, they will resent you after(if) the effects wear off.

Disguise magic is there for your benefit of decieving others into thinking you're something your not. This can both be used for stealth reasons, for pure fun, and to give you access to places where you'd normally get attacked on sight.

Alteration
Alteration can temporarily alter the properties of living things, heal them or move them to other locations.

Summoning
Summoning magic is different from conjuration magic, as it calls upon creatures and relies on the user's willpower to control them.

Life
Life magic manipulates life...

Offensive life magic at higher levels will introduce life-steal

Mental
Manipulation mind tricks will  trick a person into doing what you want or thinking what you want. Mind Break will max out the victims submission meter making them agree to anything and everything.

Control spells will give you limited control over your victim, the level 6 spell will make them your willing slaves, this means they start with 100% loyalty and will be marked as "servants" rather than slaves. If the spell effects wear off your victim is going to greatly resent you for it.

Damage spells will do harmful things to your victim through mind manipulation.

Shapeshifting
Shapeshifting (Unlike Illusion: Disguise) actually changes you into another creature temporarily. The strength of your creature will be scaled by player level or skill level (undecided).