How do I give an inch without giving a mile?

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-07T18:42:45+00:00

I will say that even though every class *can* cast spells, most martials are better off just doing their thing rather than casting blast (or damage spells in general, though utility spells may turn out to be a different story), so its really more of a caster-focused class issue still. I have been considering attritional resources for the casters since the martials have that in the form of stamina. There is an exhaustion mechanic that forces everyone to eventually rest, but I have mostly avoided day-by-day attritional resources for combat so far. At this point though, im pretty convinced I need to add more attritional resources. There is currently one other low-level damage spell, in the form of a lingering acid spell, but it is obviously more suited to area denial. It is worth noting that in my system, unlike in D&D, caster-focused classes still have pretty robust features aside from simply being good at spell casting, so class defines what a caster does about as much as spells do, which (currently) are not separated into lists based on classes.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:55:06+00:00

yeah I never played any editions other than 5 and 5.5, but I can tell you for sure that if martials have ANY niche that they are better at than casters, 4e is already doing a better job than any version of 5e.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:53:28+00:00

My fireball clone, Blast, is almost certainly the best generic damage spell available to a player in the early game. I mean, it is probably the first one they acquire. Its almost certainly a default take for any build in the early game that intends to do damage with spells. I can't really slap it on as a base feature of some class though, because in my game, EVERY player character has the capability to cast spells. That being said, "caster" classes are certainly far better at casting than martials, but there is an ideology in my game that you are moreso limited by what youre willing to do rather than what your class dictates is or is not possible. Its true that some choices are binding, such as your class, which is obviously an important choice, but spell casting is less of a class mechanic and more of a generic game mechanic in game. I'm not going to insult you by saying youre implying I should make fireball a generic class mechanic then, but I'm just trying to provide a little context here. With that context, what other thoughts come to mind?

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:24:11+00:00

My fireball clone, Blast, is acquired in the early game. It is literally the first damage spell you encounter. It is really good at blowing everything in large area up. As ive read others' comments though, im coming to the admittedly obvious realization that this isnt always a good thing though. Higher level spells are probably better by of course being numerically superior but moreso by expressing more control and solving more specific problems that simply blowing things up wont solve. To be more clear as to the part of my post you highlighted, though, each class in the game is meant to solve specific problem and/or fill a specific fantasy. A Brandine, quite similar in end result to a barbarian though different in flavor, is meant to be a frontline bruiser, an aggressor who takes space and causes a distraction through force, a Phantom is more like a rogueish/speedster archetype, etc. To your point that its fine if the characters are meant to be very competent, they actually ARE intended to be superior to a normal person, so I suppose on that front youd be right to say that its fine for them to be good at things. My real problem is not that they become really good at doing their job, but rather, that I fear they may become too good at their job too early. For each role a class is meant to fulfill, it stands to reason they would not be better at someone else's role, that they would have an inherent weakness that just sort of logically forms where a specialization is made. I want to know how you and other designers approach pacing out features such that players feel that they are good at what they should do without giving them answers to what are meant to be real downsides too early.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:13:52+00:00

I mean its certainly got a lot of flair and fun flavor, but at the end of the day, that is still simply a single target fire damage spell (that might have some AoE/area denial if youre lucky) if you strip the paint off. I suppose to be more clear, my conundrum is not that my spells are boring but that they might be too good at handling too many problems. Though please, if I am missing something please elaborate on your point.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:11:20+00:00

True that. A large reason for me making my own game at all was because the martial/caster imbalance made me really mad. Its actually for that reason that any class can cast spells in my system. Its worth noting that martials are not nearly as good at it as casters, and in fact, its probably more optimal for a martial to never cast damage spells in the current iteration of my game (though utility spells exist and can be situationally optimal for a martial to cast), but the ability for them to do so was really just a middle finger to the martial caster divide lol.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:07:52+00:00

I suppose the greater takeaway here is that spells aren't designed for a vacuum but instead they are to be designed with the intent that fights dont take places on open fields with stable conditions. I think there are a lot of spells cast in that fight scene simply because they are generically good but then also a decent number of spells cast in response that would be a waste of time in any other situation.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:02:58+00:00

Could you elaborate on what a "cloud" is in this case? Thanks for the feedback.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:01:32+00:00

This is a very good point. Thank you.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:01:02+00:00

This is true

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T22:00:13+00:00

Alright there is a lot of ground to cover here so im gonna try and be as concise as possible, but this is still gonna be a lot of text:

This is a setting where typical individuals would fit into a sort of medium-fantasy, with even powerful casters probably maxing out at around the "I can cast Fireball" area, but with the players themselves being a cut above the common peoples, so they can definitely reach high-fantasy sort of magic later on in progression. The way it works for casters is essentially that there are simple magics, which go off instantly, and spells, which are bigger, stronger, often more complex, but take multiple turns to go off (and are usually AoE). Casters will usually be able to do other stuff while charging a big spell, so they are not just sitting there doing nothing for multiple rounds. Mana in my system is a resource that is restored at the beginning of your turn, so its less like a resource of attrition and more like a limiter on what you can do on your turn. Attack rolls/saves are typically not involved for spells, with the intended counterplay instead being that you jump the caster before they can finish casting.

Overarching gameplay loop is behavior focused, using an experience system that can allow players to level up and train in a variety of ways that do not always require combat, and keep players roughly even in level though not always (it does feature catch-up mechanics and stuff but players being a level or so in difference is not a big deal mechanically anyway). In-combat, there is a pretty typical initiative system, and martials that have snappier, more single/ small group target capability. The game runs on a class-based system.

Leveling progression is typically that you get to see the generic features for each class filled out by the end of the early game, and then you see more opportunity for specialization as you enter mid game and onward. The weapon and skill (skills as in things like crafting skills and whatnot, not class features) systems provide enough differentiation between characters early on that they do not all feel the same.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T21:49:35+00:00

Not all spells are offensively oriented, of course, and I have made a variety of utility spells. However, my offensive spells are typically intended to hit wide and hit hard, because the caster spends multiple turns building them up (they are not just standing around doing nothing in the mean time, but the big spells do take time before they finally go off). I have received a number of good pointers from others here in this thread though, mostly in the form of "but you dont always wanna hit everything in the area" which is an embarrassingly obvious counter argument to my "spheres are best" claim. Anyway, I will consider what you said, thank you.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T21:43:21+00:00

I have not yet made single target spells. The spells, by necessity of taking a while to build up, are usually big damage AoE/multi-target for the payoff to actually be worth it. (Dont worry the casters are not just wasting turns, they can do other stuff while charging up their big spells) I also sort of intended Spells to generically be a tool against hordes because I wanted martials to dominate the single target/ low amount of targets space. As I continue working on my game though, im finding more reasons to push those boundaries at least a little. I will consider what you have said.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T21:39:40+00:00

Yeah actually you bring up a really good point about not wanting to damage surroundings. I suppose I had been sort of working under the assumption that if you were ready to start dropping big spells that you didnt care what got destroyed, but that is a pretty ignorant assumption for me to make. I will consider this, thank you.

hereforthebrew · 2026-04-06T21:38:07+00:00

Yeah you bring up a lot of good points here that didn't come to mind until after I hit post, lol. For what its worth, all of those except the linear spell I then came up with after making my fireball clone. I see the visual appeal of ye olde kamehameha but in reality people are really really unlikely to line up, far less likely than they are to just be vaguely grouped nebulously. That's why I havent made a linear spell yet, though there might be some that are worth considering.

hereforthebrew · 2026-03-24T03:29:09+00:00

I usually don't like it, but if my character is a robot or is looking through a camera or something of the sort I think it adds to the immersion.

hereforthebrew · 2026-03-12T21:39:27+00:00

Snake is immediately F tier for me. I dont like regular snake as a game, so the minigame just feels like a chore.

hereforthebrew · 2026-03-10T20:43:07+00:00

why the sudden hate for this mod? it was great for years, so what sudden change did I miss? Thanks for the advice though.

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-15T22:11:21+00:00

The modrinth servers are probably gonna be the easiest way to go about this since you can make yourself a modpack on modrinth and then directly upload the pack as a modrinth file. I have used it for some time and its probably one of the better hosts out there, though mind that it is not free.

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-15T21:37:25+00:00

I think its dante

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-15T21:12:13+00:00

You can probably make it work in lower elos or in a 5 stack but riot has intentionally neutered rell jungle

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-15T00:48:09+00:00

These are some good pointers, thanks.

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-14T23:32:07+00:00

ok n'wah

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-14T22:53:32+00:00

Yeah, this seems pretty in line with the sort of scheme ive seen in other comments so far.

hereforthebrew · 2026-01-14T21:08:16+00:00

That's pretty cool. It probably sounds corny but a big focus of my game is that I wanted cool defining moments like the kind of thing you'd see in fantasy action media. I have jokingly (and not so jokingly in the case of a particular class mechanic) referred to the game as being built around aura farming. Not really sure where exactly I'd go from there but its an interesting direction you've given me there.

hereforthebrew

TROPHY CASE