Demotheus

OOC: Who the **** are you and why is my name here? lmao

This sounds super neat. Correct me if I’m misunderstanding this but basically; These make it so you can do fire hands and stuff like that? How far does that extend? Can you completely self immolate yourself in this example? Or is it not a total immunity, but rather a resistance to your own magic? So, say you could hold “fire hands” for a while without burning your hands, but it eventually reaches a tipping point where the pain is too great to maintain focus? Sort of like slowly lowering your hand towards a hot candle flame or a burner, or slowly turning up the temperature of the water during a shower until it suddenly hurts too much to stand in – but isn’t hot enough (by the time most people will withdraw from such pain) to cause anything more than superficial redness or singing of the skin?

Judging by the comments so far this might be a hot take and a controversial opinion but here goes nothing. No.

I literally preach this **** all the time haha

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I don’t have too many problems with this. My only concern is that the lore team will not like the lack of spells (which I hope the realize is a huge task to undertake if we need to further break down the abilities of illusion and thusly restrict it further than it already is.) One thing I’d like to see added if possible is a certain idea/ability I had that was purely for fluff and fun purposes called “Hypnotists Boon”, as much of what I was writing involved a lot of comparisons to mundane hypnotism. Basically, while in a NON COMBAT environment/situation as well as while using illusions for purposes that in no way try to hide the fact that the thing being done is an illusion (Ie: anything more than a simple prank level of deception which would almost instantly be recognized by most as an illusion or at the very least harmless and not capable of deceiving most people for more than a few seconds) the abilities of an illusionist are effectively limitless. The mana requirement is basically non existent, and the focus requirement for Tier 4 and 5 for any given illusion(s) cast in this manner is also barely an issue. For an example: Standing in front of a crowd and suddenly disguising yourself as a clown. Or, putting on some kind of intricate illusory performance like a play or something else. If you can work in the word “whimsical” and if the intent behind it is obviously not any more malicious than a silly prank you can do it and you don’t even have to worry. Justification? The minds you’re deceiving are far less concerned with these sorts of illusions and therefore less critical. Furthermore they’ll tend to be more open to being “deceived” in these ways, especially if it is for the purposes of entertainment which carries no real risk of anybody possibly losing something they don’t want to lose. This also means these types of illusions can effectively be ignored and ‘faded out’ of the mind of someone who is unwilling to perceive them, becoming illusory ‘shadows’, muffled, and barely registering at all. An immediate example of this would be... If you disguise yourself as a clown in front of everyone nearby in the town square, but someone in that crowd is horridly terrified of clowns as some people tend to be. This illusion can either be immediately dismissed in that person’s mind and shattered for that person. They can still “see” it in a sense that they’re aware that you’re messing about pretending to be a clown so that it’s not confusing to see a crowd of people staring at you and laughing or whatever in a way that makes little sense, but it won’t be ‘vivid’ for them. It’ll just be a thought at most unless they decide they want to perceive it despite being terrified of clowns (for exposure therapy perhaps?). Why have this as a feature? It’s harmless and it is a ton of fun, opening up many opportunities to use illusion without having to bother yourself with redlines that would otherwise be imposed. You CAN make that 2 foot tall purple t-rex as long as either a) the expectation is set up for it to exist in reality somehow or b) it’s obvious it’s not real, not threatening, etc. These illusions can’t be used in a backhanded way to disguise yourself or anything from someone else. If someone wants to see “through” the illusion for any reason at any given moment they just CAN unless you’re using it with the intent to deceive or hide something or whatever in which case: it must follow all the redlines, restrictions, etc. that illusion follows and does not benefit from this boon. This is one of the ideas I had that I was kind of in love with and I hope we can fit that in. If you’re worried that it might delay the approval and acceptance of this rewrite I’m happy to submit it later as a lore addition after this is approved.

I wish I could have been more help or actually finish my rewrite but I suck so... I'll read this when I've got a break at work or after work and give my input but skimming so far looks good. ?

Okay awesome fantastic wonderful splendid. So now voidal mages have to basically flail their arms in the air, glow as a rule, and might as well be shouting “I’M CASTING FIRE MAGIC AT YOU GET READY!” While also being weak as noodles While also being unable to hold a weapon while connected!? In a server where I’m pretty sure people insist the rule is it takes a whole ass emote to draw a sword, but also takes a single emote to run 10 ******* blocks in an environment where fights are generally 20 blocks distance if the mage is lucky? I’m not throwing shade at tox I doubt he wrote the whole thing here or at least probably had to follow Flam’s “instructions”, but it seems to me that voidal magic was just nerfed to be even more useless than it already is in any given combat situation. Added note. While connected you can only walk. Well what does that mean? I’ve heard people say you can move 10 blocks in one emote, or 5 blocks, and anything in between. Never really specified what walking speed vs running speed is or anything.

Lotha, a very cute ginger dark elf of 4 feet in height crumpled up one of these fliers and threw it in a fire place in a huff, and then a cackle. "what a joke! Everyone knows the best women are the shortest women with the fattest a-" she stopped abruptly as she remembered the specifics. "why such a specific height requirement." she cackled again. "ahaha... What a catch." she remarked with only a single drop of sarcasm the size of which could easily fill a vast ocean.

Lotha started to read the letter she received – as an Ascended – and slowly drooped as she read it with shaking hands. Her posture, her expression, even her comically large ears – they all drooped and sagged. Lotha hadn’t really known Elvira too well, but she was a friend for certain. And perhaps...potentially worst of all...the thing Lotha pestered Elvira about on occasion...that delicious beverage...would be lost forev-hold on... Lotha turned the page over and saw on the other side...the recipe...the coveted...delicious mocha recipe...IT LIVED ON! Lotha squealed with mixed tears of joy and grief and stumbled around her kitchen through bleary eyed excitement. Many things were broken in that kitchen that day. However, Lotha had all of these ingredients handy as she had tried her hand at replicating Elvira’s secret family recipe ever since the blessed liquid touched her tongue for the first time. And then...it was done...she had a hot cup of that delightful happy beverage in her little hands. Lotha sniffed back more tears and nodded as she looked out her window at the moon. “This drink is for Elvira.” She said with her quivering, nearly quaking voice as she stood and enjoyed that drink in the company and view of the moon and – she hoped – her old friend as well.

Telanir, I really don’t like your wishy washy explanation for the staff downsizing. I don’t believe for a single second that you “miscommunicated” the concept. You would have seen the complaints and concerns and addressed them immediately if your intention was contrary to what the belief was. Instead – as you said yourself - you played into it. Don’t apologize for the wrong mistake. Own up to it. If it really was as you say then you dropped the ball – and the ball was made of dwarf star stuff. Which means either you are incompetent, or lazy, or do not listen to your subordinates and community well or at all, or some combination of all that. Or. You had an idea. Thought it would work. Gave it a fair shake, and realized it was a mistake. I’m more inclined to believe the later because I don’t think you’re lazy or incompetent by any means. So apologize for that instead of some made up or hard to believe mistake that most likely doesn’t exist given the evidence. Otherwise, good to hear changes are coming through with that and other things!

Seems hella dumb.

Yes, of course, but like any lore it’s all supposed to be part of a narrative. Being able to throw people around or choke them out with your mind doesn’t need to be over powered nor un-fun. Ways to balance it: Someone else tries to pull the person being choked down from their place in the air, or if on the ground they could shove or pull them harshly out of place. This triggers some kind of roll for an attempt to break the choke. Throw a good fist sized rock at the guy who’s force choking your buddy. Or run up to them and punch them in the face. Oh here’s a really easy one. Wear a fawking coif or some other neck armor. They could still pick a guy up by the armor, but since they can’t see the neck they can’t put force directly on it and thus no force choke or it’s at least harder. I could probably think of more. Plenty of options. Pretty much all the ways you can counter telekinesis can be used. If you lift a shield up to cover your neck that breaks line of sight. Take cover. Pocket sand!? The neck is the limit! I mean sky.

I feel like those aren’t even remotely related. First of all, you can just telekinetically throw objects and/or enchant an object to telekinetically throw objects at speed. Ye don’t need lore for a fookin railgun. Just don’t make it look like technomagic and ain't nobody batting an eye. As long as it follows telekinetic and enchanting lore/rules anyway. Second of all, force choking can easily be balanced. Even if doing the force choke itself isn’t that “hard” for the mage, there can be many built in ways to break this. Basically make I t like a mage hand, but invisible. The person can claw at the force around their neck – as they’d likely do as a reaction – and can roll to break the force down or “pull” it away. “But but but that doesn’t work with moving normal objects!-“ shut up. It’s magic. You can come up with a slew of bs reasons why it works inconsistently for something like this. All it needs to do is make sense and be able to be countered against.

So what? It’s always been that way and it’s always been stupid and felt unmagical.