Official: Strathspay On The Nature and Future of Sorcery

[Fallen]

No sorcery professional circle spell is purely elemental or purely spiritual. If there were such a spell, a wizard or cleric could learn it and cast it at full strength. Nor is any spell just a combined elemental and spiritual effect slapped together like layers of a sandwich. Otherwise you'd see rogues and warriors learning Blood Burst. Sorcery is unique in the way it combines and weaves together the two spheres into something entirely new. It's not like a double major in Engineering and Journalism.

Sure, we're "all purple", but there are infinite tints and shades and hues of purple. Just as there are a variety of combinations of redness, blueness, lightness and darkness in those colors, there will also often be a lore or other skill(s) that will dominate a spell's power. Thus you'll be tempted to think "this is a necro spell" or "714 isn't really elemental or spiritual", which is fine for the purposes of training strategy, but for a perspective on the concept of capital-S Sorcery, don't forget all the other mumbo jumbo I just said.

I owe you folks a long post on my devious plans for the 700s, but I haven't had enough focus to sit down and type up a good one. I know there's been a lot of anguish over the prospect of a sorecery lore review. The bottom line is that I want to do it after the elemental lores are done. More words on that (and other things) to come.

-Strath

[thefarmer]

Not playing a sorcerer I don't know if this is good or bad.

[Fallen]

It is good. Sorcerers have nowhere but up to go with their lores. Strathspay is a fucking coding ninja. Look at how many core systems are under his belt. My one worry was that he was "Assigned" sorcery, as opposed to having any strong feelings towards the profession. His posting style up until now kinda gave off that vibe. He would only respond to bug reports and basically ignore all other attempts at dialogue. As you can see he does have his own views on the profession, and a strong sense of direction as to where he wants to go with it. I'm looking forward to seeing what he plans to do after the elemental review.

[waywardgs]

This is the biggest non post post I've ever read. He says absolutely nothing and takes 3 paragraphs to say it.

[Fallen]

He says he means to do a Sorcerer lore review after the elemental review, and he has plans for new, or serious alterations to old spells. Before, it seemed he had no interest in changing sorcery aside from doing minor bug/feature fixes, and work on AD.

He did also kinda say that he needs a longer, more thought out post to explain his plans in full.

[Allereli]

I think you're getting your hopes up too much and that when he does post his "plans," he's going to regret it because people will try to hold him to it like it's a contract

[Fallen]

I think you're getting your hopes up too much and that when he does post his "plans," he's going to regret it because people will try to hold him to it like it's a contract

Patently false. I actually posted on the boards prior to the OP that should he post his plans for sorcery I wouldn't hold it against him if he didn't complete any of them. I just want to know what he has in mind for the class.

[Allereli]

Patently false. I actually posted on the boards prior to the OP that should he post his plans for sorcery I wouldn't hold it against him if he didn't complete any of them. I just want to know what he has in mind for the class.

I didn't necessarily mean you in terms of the contract part, just the hopes. There are a lot of people who still cite things prior GMs planned to do, or just mentioned as being a possibility, and really expect it to still be done.

[TheWitch]

Honestly, I want to be as optimistic as you are, Evarin.

But there's been a fairly long history of smoke being blown up our collective asses. I hold Strathspey in the highest regard as well - so far - and agree he's got a lot of talent.

That said, I think we fight a bigger battle here. I truly believe that no matter how much the player base of sorcerers wants something, no matter how much a GM might happen to agree and have the time/desire to do something about it, no matter how strong of a case can be made for that thing - whatever it might be - ultimately Warden has final say. And I think Warden is deathly afraid of a return to the overpowered sorcerer of the pre-GP and coversion era. So ultimately, either nothing will happen, or a very watered down version that passes muster on his Holy Alter of Balance will happen. Better than nothing, maybe. Maybe not.