by The Great Nevareh » Sat Jul 10, 2004 8:20 am
Well, the Dungeons and Dragons reasoning behind limiting arcane spellcasting in armor has to do with preventing mages from flinging themselves into melee combat, which they aren't supposed to do. Effectively, anyway. The D&D logic can't apply here, though, since D&D and Philsys have different points and outcomes. If there were rules governing the use of penalties for magic in armor, here, then they would have to work along the lines of some of the following.
1) It should affect ALL magic, NOT just attack magic. There is a reason why clerics don't lose healing spells, but since there are many, many people who sling both offensive and defensive magic here, then I don't think there should be a double standard.
2) If armor provides any protection against magic, and I mean any at all, then it should also hinder magic to a similar degree. One would think that the magic hindrance would be a disruption of the mana flows that allow for magic to happen, and it ought to work both ways.
3) Combining 1) and 2), healing magic should be as adversely affected as attack magic. The armor, being not necessarily part of your body, doesn't drop its resistance to your own actions just because you're wearing the armor. You might not be trying to shrug off the spell, but your armor doesn't know the difference due to it being inanimate. I can foresee enchantments that can make armor recognize the casters's spells as such, and a whole new branch of rules building on that, but let's take things as they come, eh?
One thing I'm trying to forestall here is the "I'm a big mofo with a big sword in full plate mail with knowledge of only one school of magic, and that's healing, biatch!" character who effectively has hundreds of hit points so long as they can heal themselves... at level 1.
Plus, I don't think there are enough penalties behind armor as it is right now. The At/Pa loss is a substantial penalty, I know, but armor should be enough of a hindrance that using it is an active choice trading some good for an equal amount of bad and not just an amendment to your character that makes them essentially better for a token loss.
Then again, I've never liked armor much in the first place. <p>"There is great disorder under Heaven, and the situation is excellent."
-Mao Tse-Tung</p>