Fallen
03-21-2008, 02:28 PM
An X-post of mine concerning the sorcerer's ability to sacrifice. I am hoping to hear from the few PC sorcerers who don't frequent the Officials all that often.
----
In my opinion Sacrifice is a great match for the sorcerer profession. The feel of it, and the manner of price we pay seem right to me. I believe the ability was developed in part to help us to be able to have an ample enough mana supply without relying on the Council of Light. However, I also believe that while Sacrifice does help in this effort, improvements could be made which would enrich the ability, as well as further enhance our mana pool with the applicable costs and dangers.
That being said, let us look at the various ways in which Sacrifice could be improved.
1a - Have the timer between Sacrifices be influenced by our ability to control mana. The standard for pures is (I believe) 1x. Most choose to have either a combination of 200 ranks, or somewhere close to that number. Staying AT or below that number of ranks would keep your timer as it is now, and increasing your training BEYOND 1x per level would push the timer down to as little as 5 minutes between attempts at being 2xed in both controls.
1b - An alternative approach to this using the same theme is to make the separate spheres of mana, and the ability to control them continue to be a differing factor in the spell. The more Spiritual mana control you have, the faster you can regain the ability to regain the ability to sacrifice. The more elemental mana control you have, the more mana you are able to convert from the animus of the creature you sacrifice, leading to greater gains.
----
2a. Remove the timer from Sacrifice completely, but institute an increased cost for each successful attempt. Your first successful attempt would cost 2 spirit, the next 3, the next 4 or 5, etc. Messaging similar to what we have now would reflect how recovered you are from your attempts to sacrifice.
2b. Remove the timer from Sacrifice, and instead increase the difficulty in successfully sacrificing a target. With every attempt made the chances of sacrificing a creature using the same criteria drops, forcing the sorcerer to either choose lower and lower level targets, or pushing the creature further towards death. Eventually, either the loss of spirit, or the difficulty of the attempt would render the ability useless for some time. Messaging similar to what we have now would reflect how recovered you are from your attempts to sacrifice.
----
3. Remove the timer from Sacrifice, and instead institute a reduced returns system which would sharply curtail the amount of mana you are able to receive for your attempts. This system's rate of decline could either be static, or it could be based upon your combined Mana Control thresholds.
----
Keep in mind that all numbers used in the above examples are arbitrary. I chose what feels right to me, but if you've a different opinion and still enjoy the general idea of a suggestion, feel free to offer an alternative set of numbers.
Now that I've exhausted my ideas on how to improve sacrifice, I would enjoy hearing which method other sorcerers would prefer. If you've your own ideas, or a blend of different ideas you have in mind, please share. If you would rather the ability not be improved, then state your opinion as to why, and let us all try to respond to Querthose with the courtesy and respect he deserves.
----
In my opinion Sacrifice is a great match for the sorcerer profession. The feel of it, and the manner of price we pay seem right to me. I believe the ability was developed in part to help us to be able to have an ample enough mana supply without relying on the Council of Light. However, I also believe that while Sacrifice does help in this effort, improvements could be made which would enrich the ability, as well as further enhance our mana pool with the applicable costs and dangers.
That being said, let us look at the various ways in which Sacrifice could be improved.
1a - Have the timer between Sacrifices be influenced by our ability to control mana. The standard for pures is (I believe) 1x. Most choose to have either a combination of 200 ranks, or somewhere close to that number. Staying AT or below that number of ranks would keep your timer as it is now, and increasing your training BEYOND 1x per level would push the timer down to as little as 5 minutes between attempts at being 2xed in both controls.
1b - An alternative approach to this using the same theme is to make the separate spheres of mana, and the ability to control them continue to be a differing factor in the spell. The more Spiritual mana control you have, the faster you can regain the ability to regain the ability to sacrifice. The more elemental mana control you have, the more mana you are able to convert from the animus of the creature you sacrifice, leading to greater gains.
----
2a. Remove the timer from Sacrifice completely, but institute an increased cost for each successful attempt. Your first successful attempt would cost 2 spirit, the next 3, the next 4 or 5, etc. Messaging similar to what we have now would reflect how recovered you are from your attempts to sacrifice.
2b. Remove the timer from Sacrifice, and instead increase the difficulty in successfully sacrificing a target. With every attempt made the chances of sacrificing a creature using the same criteria drops, forcing the sorcerer to either choose lower and lower level targets, or pushing the creature further towards death. Eventually, either the loss of spirit, or the difficulty of the attempt would render the ability useless for some time. Messaging similar to what we have now would reflect how recovered you are from your attempts to sacrifice.
----
3. Remove the timer from Sacrifice, and instead institute a reduced returns system which would sharply curtail the amount of mana you are able to receive for your attempts. This system's rate of decline could either be static, or it could be based upon your combined Mana Control thresholds.
----
Keep in mind that all numbers used in the above examples are arbitrary. I chose what feels right to me, but if you've a different opinion and still enjoy the general idea of a suggestion, feel free to offer an alternative set of numbers.
Now that I've exhausted my ideas on how to improve sacrifice, I would enjoy hearing which method other sorcerers would prefer. If you've your own ideas, or a blend of different ideas you have in mind, please share. If you would rather the ability not be improved, then state your opinion as to why, and let us all try to respond to Querthose with the courtesy and respect he deserves.