[1.0] A RimWorld of Magic

[Holvr]

EDIT (06.12.2018): Added master spells.

Alchemist/Witch

Foreword: I really like what you've done with Technomancer, meaning the 3 paths to choose, and the duality of Warlock/Succubus, and both are a clear inspiration for this one.
The philosophy behind this class is that both Alchemist and Witch have to choose between Lore and Golemancy, and also they both use them in their own ways (therefore making this class kind of a 4-in-1). Generally, Lore is about crafting and changing items, while Golemancy is about, well... golems (surprise!), but in all seriousness, it's about creating (vaguely) permanent soldiers, haulers etc. On top of that, Alchemist is the "hard but solid" way of doing it, meaning that alchemist takes way more time with his craft in general, but gets rather permanent results, while Witch does it the "dirty but quick" and has to put less effort into her deeds, but also gets more sloppy results.



(Alchemist: Passives):

Path of Lore: Much faster smelting and smithing (Alchemist is thought out as "THE" crafting mage, while Lore is about metals and fine items, and Golemancy is about [mostly] stone and construction). I think that alchemist should have amazing crafting bonuses to low-tech items, so that it doesn't step into Technomancer's territory.

Path of Golemancy: Stonecutting, sculpting and construction bonuses.


(Witch: Passives):

Path of Lore: Drug production, plantwork and tailoring bonuses + isn't slowed down by plants (so much faster than others in, let's say, thinck rainforests etc.)

Path of Golemancy: Butchering speed bonuses, cooking bonuses.




(Alchemist: Golemancy) Sculpt Golem: The alchemist gains an ability to make golems at the sculptor's table. They take a ton of work to make, and I really mean A TON – far more than any sculpture ever. The outcome is based on alchemist's magical prowess and art skill.

Important: Golems should be treated as pets, rather than pawns, but with the highest training intelligence, and if possible, training them would fall into "Magic" worktype, rather than Handle.

Golems can be created out of the usual materials for a sculpture, but also some rare magical ingredients (I'm not much of an expert in your mod, so I don't feel competent to propose a precise recipe). They should also be enchantable, but honestly, I need to play more of the mod to be able to propose specific enchants, however the classic approach would be to:
Add some special attacks.
Add movement modifiers.
Grant sentience (COSTLY, but converts the golem from a pet to a pawn. Pawn golems don't auto-undraft, just like undead).

Depending on material, golems can have different properties (other than HP etc), but also different enchantment affinity (for example, a marble golem enchanted with gem X would yield a different result than a granite golem enchanted with the same gem [Sorry for being vague – I haven't gotten to enchanting with your mod yet]).

All golems would require mana to operate. Not necessarily from the alchemist who created them, but they'd need to be charged either by magical pawns or the mana-storing buildings.
Additionally, all golems would have a "power" to become statue-like. In this state they would literally convert to placeable statues (which would have a button to convert back to functional golem). The use of that would be that they'd be really, really beautiful and expensive, and a golem in that state wouldn't need mana to function.


(Witch: Golemancy) Raise Golem: The witch gains an ability to make wicked golems at the butchering table, using corpses (corpses, not just meat) as the material, and cooking + magic as the governing skills. The resulting abomination is a Flesh Golem. Unlike alchemist's golems, the abominations created by a witch would MUCH faster to create, but also less durable in combat (roughly sewn corpse parts VS a granite statue is rather self-evident).

Flesh Golems would also fall into pet category, but they'd also be considered undead for the purposes of receiving holy damage etc. and they wouldn't have an option of being enchanted or granted sentience. Basically they'd be far more disposable and less functonal bunch, but also FAR easier to create, and they don't need mana to exist, but once created, they have a limited (albeit not flash-quick) lifespan, as their physical form deteriorates, rots and falls apart.

These golems don't require training and the level of their pet-like abilities depends on how well the Witch does in the moment of creation. The rule is – animal corpse golems are more like rabid fighters (higher release and more resilient etc.) while humanlike golems are more of slaves (better hauling etc.).


(Alchemist: Lore) Alchemical refinement: Alchemist can refine Mana Potions into a far more stable and user-friendly form. It's a somewhat lenghty process, but the resulting Fine Mana Potion is almost entirely purged of its addictive properties, and therefore is an amazing tool for a magic-oriented colony.


(Witch: Lore) Volatile Brew: Witch can ritually enhance a Mana Potion to restore FAR more mana and apply a hefty mana regen buff, but it's even more addictive than the basic potion, and can have some additional side effects. This process is far quicker and more cost-effective than the meticulous craft of an alchemist, but the hidden cost lays in the corrupting nature of the brew, thus being a tool for far more reckless and power-hungry colony.


(Alchemist: Both) Alchemical Casting: Both Loremaster and Golemancer have access to alchemical casting, perhaps with different spells available. The premise behind this type of casting is to give the alchemists a greater range of spells than other wizards, but at a cost of much more work and physical components, rather than just mana.

The alchemist would have to "prepare" his spells at a drug lab, using various reagents, like herbs, wood, gems, stones, metals or fine items like furniture, weapons, armor etc. The alchemists would have an unique worktype available at the drug lab (if it's not possible to make a worktype only show up in the list for one class, then just make it so only that class can work on it) called "Prepare spell (spell name)", and it'd require a relatively long time spent at the lab, using up resources and slowly pouring mana, but it'd result in alchemist gaining a spell.

Now it could either be a charge mechanic (you can only cast the spell X amount of times before it vanishes and you have to prepare it again) or simply a swapping mechanic - alchemist could only hold 3 alchemical spells at a time, and could forget them (by right clicking the spell icon and selecting "forget") to be replaced by another spell. The idea is, as I've mentioned before, that alchemist would have a big list of spells to prepare, but only a few could be held at once, so he'd be versatile, but it'd be locked behind slow work at the table.

Some of the spells could include:

- Transmute Stone: AoE target, transmutes all stone and steel chunks in the area into their respective stone blocks / steel. Preparing requires 1 stone block of any kind, 1 steel and psychoid leaves.

- Create Water: AoE target, changes mud and sand into shallow water, and shallow water into deep water. Preparing requires rice and some gems.

- Alchemical Fire: Offensive spell, single target. Sets target ablaze for a certain amount of time, but can't be extinguished by any other means (if that's possible to implement), even rain or swimming. If targeted at a friendly building that needs fueling, it'll fuel it for a certain amount, depending on alchemist's prowess. Preparing requires some wood, chemfuel and gems.

- Crown Acid: A short-ranged cone of acid that absolutely wrecks structures and armor/clothing, as well as applying some burn wounds (but is still FAR more dangerous to unanimate objects than to organics). Amazing against mechanoids... or non-flesh golems. Preparing would require chemfuel, smokeleaf, any stone block, steel and jade.

- Transfiguration: Cast on anything that can be sold (not living beings, though), and it'll turn it into its (relatively) equal value in silver. Cast on silver, and it'll turn into its (again, relative) value in gold. Cast on gold and you'll get (yes, relative) value in jade. By relative I mean around the market value, depending on how good the alchemist is. Preparing is LONG, and requires some silver, gold and jade.

In addition to preparing, each casting would use up mana, of course, but far less than any other mage spell (it's used simply for activation of a spell meticulously prepared beforehand, rather than for its spontaneous creation from scratch, and as such is far less taxing on the caster).

As for the cost of preparing: if you go the "prepare and cast X times" route, then all spells should be lower in cost, but if you go with "prepare and keep until you choose to forget" then the cost should be noticeably greater. Especially for Transfiguration.


(Witch: Both) Witch Rites: This is a variation on alchemical casting. While thematically similar (use resources to cast), it'd be functionally different. First, the witch uses a campfire (y'know, the closest thing to "witch's cauldron"), instead of drug lab, for her casting. Also, her spells would be rituals - they'd still require reagents and quite a long time to cast, but they'd fire off immediately after the work is done, so no "prepare and fire later" like alchemist - you cast them immediately after finishing at the campfire.

Proposed rites:

- Rite of Night: During the day, forces the Eclipse event to start. During the night or eclipse, puts non-allied pawns to sleep (every pawn gets individual chance to resist, moreso if psychically dull (100% if psychically deaf), less chance if psychically sensitive). Beware - while it doesn't put allies to sleep immediately, it'll rapidly drain their "sleep" need.
Requires smokeleaf, psychoid plant and a bedroll placed near the campfire.

- Rite of Fright: When cast during a raid, every enemy on the map gets a chance to flee. I'm not an expert in the vanilla game's morale mechanics, but this spell should take it into account, so if cast at the very start of the raid, it'd probably do nothing, but the more of the raiders are hurt, and the more of them are downed and dead, the greater the chance to break the will of others.
Requires psychoid leaves and a few human organs (variant version: requires a corpse belonging to the raiding faction, somewhere in the vicinity of the campfire, if that's possible to implement).

- Rite of Flight: Depending on what functionality is less covered by this mod already, it could either  give the pawns and pets around the campfire a temporary buff that increases movement speed and allows them to ignore any surface-based slow (fly over the water, trees etc.) OR it could basically act like a launch pod with starting range of local (just the map you're on), which would be useful to drop on sieges, and then - as the witch gets stronger - it could be used to travel a few tiles away. In this case you'd choose who gets launched, instead of launching everything around the campfire.
Requires jade, smokeleaf, and chemfuel.

- Rite of Blight: Chance for enemy pawns across the map to get sick and start vomiting. Also a chance to poison the food on the map, and in the most extreme cases - force the "Blight" event to start. Powerful crowd control, but as many other witch's spells, can backfire on you.
Requires human meat, human stomach, herbal medicine and any prepared meal.

- Rite of Light: Infuses pawns around the campfire with inner light, making them shed light in a radius around themselves, and giving consciousness and learning bonus. Also refuels all fueled light sources owned by the colony, as well as stops the Eclipse event. Can backfire cruelly, causing all around the campfire to go blind for some time, causing all fueled light across the map (no need to own it) to set things around it on fire, and even cause the Solar Flare event to start.
Requires wood, chemfuel, and gold.

- Rite of Sight: Can be cast on other villages, towns and quest sites to see what's in them and see what threats lurk in there as well as the layout of the map. Not sure if possible to implement, as it'd have to load the site before you actually visit it, and then keep it unchanged until you actually get there.
Requires jade, psychoid tea, and herbal medicine.

- Rite of Pride: Cleans the colony (removes all filth and trash from the floors) and temporarily enhances beauty of every room in the colony (if not possible on a per-room basis, then maybe just bump the beauty of every item, plant etc? But then you could do that so all your statues, and sell them to a caravan for more, because they're more beautiful, so I don't know...) for that nice mood boost across the colony. Can backfire and literally COVER your colony in filth and trash.
Requires silver and psychoid leaves.

- Rite of Sprite: Summons vengeful spirits from the graves around the campfire. The spirits are fast and resilient, depending on their power* and can't be harmed by non-magical ranged weapons (so wands and enchanted gear can still harm them, but bows, guns, grenades etc. cannot). Can backfire and raise non-allied wraiths from any grave or humanoid corpse on the map.
Requires: Graves (with corpses inside, ofc) in a certain radius around the campfire, smokeleaf and jade.
*Power - the spirits are better, the older they are. The longer ago someone died (since every grave has a date of death on it, I think it'd be possible to implement a check to compare the current date with date of death), the more powerful the spirit, so if you have just dug and filled the graves, the wraiths would be wimps, but if you have cultivated a graveyard since the beginning of the game, the wraiths will kick ass mid- to late-game. They should also receive bonus to power if:
- They're in a sarcofagus.
- The "tomb" room beauty and wealth.
- If they're colonists they're more powerful than non-colonist ghosts.

- Rite of Might: Improves the combat capabilites of pawns around the campfire, and if they are also stamina-based class, all their skills are more powerful, and they have enhanced stamina. A small chance to backfire and send the affected (individual chance, based on mood and mental break treshold) into berserk... AFTER applying the buff, so you'll have an even more powerful madman to deal with.
- Requires human heart, psychoid tea, and some leather.
(Variant: Instead of immediately affecting people around campfire, it could just produce a "wicked tea" drug that induces the above effects when consumed).


Master spells:

(Alchemist: both) Philosopher's Stone: The legendary Magnum Opus of alchemy, Elixir of Life is a substance as rare as it is powerful. An object of many a tale, sought after by the most powerful personas of the world.

The ultimate would allow the creation of philosopher's stone (dunno what recipe would it require exactly, but boy, would it be EXPENSIVE, in fact, probably the most expensive stuff in the entirety of Rimworld) and then its use by the alchemist. Some of the proposed uses:
- Resurrecting the dead (true resurrection, like a cleric, not a necromancer).
- While holding the stone, the user would not age, nor become sick in any way, as well as gradually healed of any and all wounds and illnesses.
- Rapidly rejuvenating wounded and sick creatures.
- Turning materials into solid gold.

The catch? It'd be only usable once in a while (except for the "passive" healing and immortality for the holder), and the cooldown would depend on the effect it was last use for (from a few of hours for the healing spell, through a couple of days for the gold creation, to a season or more for resurrection). Additionally, every use would have an increasing chance (how big the chance would directly correlate to the power/cooldown of the ability performed) of "spreading the word" that your colony is in possession of such artifact, and you might get bombarded by different factions requesting you to either sell it to them (allies, neutrals) or even just hand it over (hostiles, neutrals). Denial would worsen your relations with neutrals, and cause hostiles to raid soon after. Allies might request bringing their gravely sick or dead comrade to you for healing or resurrection using the stone. Denial would worsen the relations.


(Witch: both) Witch Coven: A witch of sufficient power would be able to become a matron witch by forming a coven by using this ability as an AoE targeted spell on at least 2 other casters. A coven would consist of 3 witches (including the matron) up to 5 (via leveling the ultimate skill up). There is several options for who'd be eligible to become a coven member:
- Only witches.
- Witches, Warlocks/Succubi, and Necromancers (and other "evil" casters added in the future).
- All magic classes.
Of which the best middle ground would most likely be the second option.

The coven would give the members quite a few neat buffs, but they'd only work as long as at least 2 coven members are in a certain proximity (10-15 squares?) of the Matron, and only those who are would receive the bonuses. Also, death of a coven member doesn't break the coven, unless the Matron dies - in such case, the coven is disbanded, or worse (see below), and the whole coven gets an enormous negative mood (and possibly some other issues).

The buffs would consist of:
- The coven shares their mana pools, and every spell cost would be equally divided among the coven members.
- The matron could activate a Blood Bond that'd work just like the above, but for physical wounds. Example: If one of the bonded coven members would receive a wound that'd destroy their liver, instead all bonded members would receive a smaller wound to their livers (the damage would be spread equally). Drawback: If the Matron dies whilst bonded, the whole damn coven follows suit.
- Every coven member would receive a ONE TIME ability to choose one of their class-specific non-master spells. The chosen spell would be shared with all other coven members, and they'd be free to cast it on the same level as the member who has shared it.
- While the coven is surrounding a campfire, all Rites cast from it would either be more powerful or have lesser chance to backfire.

The drawback, other than the possible mental breaks or even death of the coven, resulting from a dying Matron, would be that the more your coven uses their magic, the more of a chance there'd be for a group of raging clerics and paladins to show up (a new, special event) to ruin your day and kill the coven, as well as possibly your relations with the Arcane factions (the ones added by this mod) would worsen.

[TheJinx]

While this is fairly thorough and well thought out a lot of these seem very op considering that you'd be able to make as much gold as you want simply by turning stone into steel then transfer it into gold also making deep water sounds like a horrible idea since you'd just be able to block off entire portions of the map.
In regards to the witch a lot of those spells effect large amount of enemy pawns and can mostly stop entire raids
So I think there would need to be more expensive prices for the spells for for there to be more downsides than this simply because it seems to viable for any situation and takes out needing to use some of current classes ie. Summoner,Arcane mage,Geomancer, and using classes for some of the buffs they over ie. AMP while fighter classes and msge with strong offensive options oldefensive options remain somewhat on par simply because there moved will be more consistent up until a point where an alchemist/witch would be able to stop most negative events from happening.

[TheJinx]

Chronomancer just seems completely underwhelming and there's a lot more interesting things you could do with that idea but I do like the idea of that random hastening/slowing thing they do all other abilities just don't seem right to me in comparison to the alchemists/witch and most other mages and fighter

[TheJinx]

Sorry for my spelling typed this all on my phone and my brightness is allbthe way down.

[Holvr]

Thanks for your input, TheJinx!

Going point by point:

- Transfiguration: I know that having gold "readily" is OP at a glance. The thing is - it all boils down to balancing it against other methods of aquiring gold and other resources. It's meant to be balanced against the market value and alchemist's skills, so in general it's like buying gold, but without having to have the actual merchant at hand. You still pay for it, though, and it should take an obnoxious amount of time.

- Deep water: As far as I'm aware, pawns can swim now, can't they? It just slows them down considerably, so you couldn't prevent movement. If I'm mistaken, however, and the deep water completely prevents movement, then you're right and it'd be OP, indeed.

- Witch's rites are supposed to be powerful, hence the drawbacks and possible backfire. Yes, you can stop a raid (you'd still have to deal with it for a moment beforehand, since the Rites are supposed to take a considerable amount of time to complete. It's not "click a button and cast instantly". And the witch herself pays for it by not having powerful instant spells like other mages - she's more of a "stay-at-home" caster.

Furthermore - all the abilities are proposed as more of a guide towards the vision and "feel" of the class. I don't expect Torann to implement it unchanged, if at all.

- And as for the Chronomancer: Yes, he'd be on somewhat weaker (offensively) side of the wizard bunch, but would definitely have some utility and would fill a specific niche. I admit, however, that the class was specifically thought out for the Commitment Mode (no saving/loading) as the means to grant the players a limited tool to repair their mistakes (saving a colonist who was in a wrong place at a wrong time, or possibly saving the whole colony with an ultimate).

And thank you again for your thoughts. Much appreciated!

[TheJinx]

You're welcome and in regards to the trandmogify so was talking more in regards to being able to turn stone blocks into steel and then turning the steel would be op but in hindsight if it was tuned correctly you'd technically have a almost infinite supply of gold but taking the fact that it would be a lengthy process and might not actually give THAT much gold it'd probably be fine

[Skeletti]

Like the idea of some msgic furniture but I feel like another box would be a bit overkill especially for those who already run 20 other mods with UI

Yes okay, I didn't think about that (and that's exactly the problem I have myself ) But I'm really missing something with an overview for the classes, properties or skill points.
On the other hand, not everyone plays with xy additional mods, which would probably be practical for them. Maybe it can be arranged that you can activate or deactivate this button in the UI simply in the Mod Settings?

Why not magic recreation then? Magic chess for wizards only!

and that might even LOWLY increase or consume the mana.

Reason: Magic games also need mana if they will run magically. Games that focus more on concentration would be a kind of meditation and you would regenerate mana faster.

EDIT: another idea: magical events, or better yet accidents...

let's take necromancers, why not a necromancer or Lich who attacks the base and leads a horde of undead humanoids or animals?
or a crazy summoner raiding the base with his summoned creatures?
element magicians, e.g. a cult fire magician attacking the base, just with just fire magicians and the like

[Canute]

Skeletti,
you can use
Jernfalk's Skeletal Legion Mod
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46598.0
for that, so far i remember Torann allready patched the mod so necromancer or Lich's can appear with these skeletons.

Reason: Magic games also need mana if they will run magically. Games that focus more on concentration would be a kind of meditation and you would regenerate mana faster.

When pawns are doing recreation they have time and don't need mana.
So why not recreation games that need mana and since any mana use give XP too, they gain some extra XP too.
Ofcouse a medition pillar to relax and regain some mana wouldn't hurt either.

[Skeletti]

Skeletti,
you can use
Jernfalk's Skeletal Legion Mod
https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=46598.0
for that, so far i remember Torann allready patched the mod so necromancer or Lich's can appear with these skeletons.

oha, thanks, I really didn't see that.

Reason: Magic games also need mana if they will run magically. Games that focus more on concentration would be a kind of meditation and you would regenerate mana faster.

When pawns are doing recreation they have time and don't need mana.
So why not recreation games that need mana and since any mana use give XP too, they gain some extra XP too.
Ofcouse a medition pillar to relax and regain some mana wouldn't hurt either.

yes, that would also be an idea, but wouldn't you be inundated with a lot of xp basically (i.e. unbalanced)?
the pillar, on the other hand, would of course also be an idea.

[Canute]

So long you can't force pawn's to use them i don't see a danger at this.
They will use different recretion all the time.
How often did you let your lower mages cast random spell to gain faster XP special when they got full mana ?
Ok since toran intruce the mentor system it is easyer once you got higher level mages.

[MemoriMento]

Hi, Faceless class is little bugged
Possess, points invested in Mind Maze increases Synchronization.
Possessing your prisoner will make him enemy after time runs out.
Possessed alied pawn will destroy items used to install bionic part if time runs out and operation isn't finished.
Skill copied by mimic is lost after loading a save.

Also, can you add a way to force pawn to enter magic transport pod? Eating a meal have higher priority, even when everyone else is packed up and pod is going to explode in few seconds...

[Jan2607]

I got this error log: https://git.io/fpbsG

Is it a bug with arcane folk quests? I wondered, why I don't get any of them. When I try to contact the faction, the faction leader is unavailable.

[TheJinx]

Don't know anything about that actually...could be an unfinshed feature or just for gameplay reasons

[Holvr]

I've got a bigger suggestion that I'd like to discuss with the community, so in order not to spam this thread, I've made a separate one: https://ludeon.com/forums/index.php?topic=47441.0

[Torann]

Update v2.3.1.0

** New class: Blood Mage - willing to sacrifice even their own life blood for power, the blood mages are definition of high cost / high reward

• Blood Gift: the source of a blood mage's power; Blood Gift is the mechanism used to infused blood with mana and fuel blood magic
  
• Rend: cause hemorrhaging to all targets in an area; not a devastating, single blow, but a multitude of attacks that will drain energy from its victims
  
• Ignite Blood: detonates all exposed blood in an area and blossoms like a wildfire to any nearby sources of blood
  
• Blood For Blood: heats and accelerates the blood in a target causing it to discharge from its target in a mist which is transferred to the caster; the process closes the wounds of both victim and caster
  
• Blood Shield: generate a protective barrier of blood that absorbs damage and slowly heals the wounds on its target; any damage absorbed by a blood shield will partially be transferred to the caster
  
• Blood Moon (master): summon demons of blood and terror to assault all enemies in a large area

** New class: Enchanter - masters of transmutation, enchanters are able to modify the composition and arrangement of almost any material, be it organic or synthetic

• Enchanted Body / Enchanted Aura: a self-enchantment that augments the capabilities of its caster, but only one enchantment can be maintained at a time
  
• Enchant weapon: enchants melee weapons with elemental attacks
  
• Transmute: converts stacks of raw resources into other raw resources
  
• Enchanter's Stone: created a minor enchanted artifact out of raw resources; each resource type creates a unique item
  
• Polymorph: an area affect ability that can change all targets into random animals
  
• Shapeshift: the enchanter shape shifts into a random animal and augments the physical traits of the animal in the process; the enchanter maintains most of the control over their body and can revert the shape shift at any time

New creature: dire wolf - rarely seen, and only in the coldest environments, the dire wolf is larger and more deadly than the timber wolf and possesses unique mythical qualities

Numerous tweaks and bug fixes.

--See mod discord announcements for full details! - https://discord.gg/4yUHMkk --