Magic

[murphylawson]

I know this has been suggested before, and I'm actually drawing a lot of inspiration from a world one post. Hearth Magic is based around dreams, but it seems we only have beautiful dreams so far. I propose a new set of skills, for more advanced players. They will be based on dreams, (with new types added) potions, and possibly talismans/relics.

DREAMS
Dreams are wonderful for magic, they are concentrated wishes, and energy. However, beautiful dreams can only go so far. Right now, dream catchers are harvestable every ten minutes, this is a little too much, perhaps "A Beautiful Dream Catchers" (ABDC from now on) should be harvestable every in game midnight. Possible future magic should require different types of dreams. Another type of catcher, possibly made with only slightly different materials could be a "Day-Dream Catcher," this could be refilled every noon. For dark magic, maybe nightmares would be needed, these could only be collected on midnights or crescent moons and the catchers need to be made out of bone and intestines, possibly even human bone.

POTIONS
We have cauldrons already, so that solves that. Ingredients could be strange, or expensive items. Most potions should have dreams, or some sort of magic item in them. There could even be special rules for potion brewing, such that a certain potion must be made on a full moon, or within a certain proximity to certain things, like skeletons, or 100 bear carcasses. The following could be a pain in the code, but should be kept in mind in case a large overhaul has to be done anyway. It would be really cool to have ingredients like "shirt of an executed murderer" or "stolen cavebulbs." Traditional magic has always had these weird specifics. This would be a problem as in order for it to work, items have to have histories. This could work if when an item is taken from claimed property, or from a knocked out person, a small note is attached to this item that denotes that it was stolen. Of course drugs go in this category, magicians could smoke large amounts of hemp buds before performing a ritual, or hallucinogenics could be added. Perhaps antlers could be used in white magic potions (discussed later)

RELICS
These could be certain items that provide buffs to magic performed near them. This could necessitate a magic altar of sorts with relics placed on and around it. Skeletons, (perhaps just skulls taken from the skeletons) cursed items, or holy symbols could all be used. For white magicians (discussed later) items involving antlers would be important, perhaps giant racks holding up to a hundred antlers could be used. Bear, boar, ram and human remains could all be used as symbols of dark magic. Candle holders made of human skulls, and staffs with bear and boar teeth could be possible relics.

WHITE
White magic would be healing. It would use antlers to channel the ability of the deer to heal animals. It would also possibly involve the requirement of a "clean" shaman. To be clean, one must not kill any life for a certain period of time, and must have never opened combat with a human. An alternative to living such a clean lifestyle would be to cleanse oneself before a ritual, a bath in the river, assisted by certain relics, and an offering to the spirits could cleanse a shaman of sin. White magic would encompass such things as blessing a village so certain negative buffs placed by unclean life could be removed. It could also be used for general healing. There were certain rituals that needed to be completed on a daily basis in the ancient world. In Rome the vestal virgins had to keep their fire going, they believed that should the sacred fire die, the Romans would fail in war. White magicians could have to perform certain rituals to keep a village going, a suggestion is to cleanse the village idol to reduce authority drain temporarily, or bless the walls to make rams have a harder time tearing them down. Of course white magicians would work in the villages. This could create an interesting opportunity for village involvement. For certain spells, like a protection spell (when trolls get implemented, and if dragons ever do) could involve all the villages standing around the magic alter, and donating stamina to the spell. This could also be used for the healing of severely injured players. Animal healing could also be a possibility. One strange suggestion is for the shaman to keep several pet deer, that have been "tamed" to help him with his magic.

BLACK
There are always the dark magicians in mythology to combat the white. These are the assholes with superpowers. Black magicians either work alone, or in league with other sorcerers. They build their forts far away from civilization for some basic reasons. The spirits they employ are the same kind that are scared away by the white magicians. They also fear persecution from the city folk, especially as a good portion of black magic requires theft and murder. Of course they still have to live close enough to a town to kill its inhabitants and take ingredients for dark potions. I suggest that the ability to do black magic also comes with the ability to build a special type of wall, made of brick, bone, and modest amounts of metal. This wall requires a special blessed battering ram to break. Black magical relics focus around human and bear remains relics. Black magic can be used to do things like poison wells, and lower crop and product quality. Black magic could also be used to summon more spawns of dangerous animals near villages. If a sorcerer can sneak into a village (possible lock-picking spell/potion?) he can put curses on it, through prepared spells, and potions. Maybe simply using a nightmare on a village idol could place some sort of curse (lower ql, higher auth drain, faster decay) on the village. For less subtle effects, the sorcerer could put together some magic weapon. Including nightmares in the smelters with the iron could produce "cursed steel" this would then be used in the creation of special weapons, like the morgul blade from LoTR. These weapons would all place horrible conditions that would require the victim to find a shaman ASAP if they are struck by one.

MAGIC BATTLES
When a vilage finds out that they have a sorcerer messing with them they can consult their shaman for help. The shaman would then have the duty of destroying the evil fortress and cleansing the area. A blessed ram is required to destroy cursed walls so that is one job for the shaman. A shaman can always summon a sorcerer even without scents, by using certain spells at a black altar a sword can "kill" a sorcerer but it should take a much more powerful weapon to destroy his spirit. A magic blade would be required. Because of the peaceful nature of the shaman, this blade is useless on everything but sorcerer, it would have to be made from metal smelted with daydreams, and beautiful dreams. Perhaps even gold or silver.

MISC
I would think it fitting that a powerful sorcerer would make all nearby shaman's weaker, and powerful shaman would expel demons weakening nearby sorcery.
Most black magic leaves scents all over the place.
There are more high level dangerous animals near sorcery forts.
Night is darker around sorcery forts.
Higher level magic is an advanced skill set.
There should be attributes for sorcery and shamanry, possibly just "spirituality"

[kralmir]

dreamcatchers is the only magic the devs want it seem.(there was a item called wind and it seriously was the wind itself, and you could do stuff with it, it got removed cause it was to much towards magic)

and I'm gonna agree with them.
-1

[sabinati]

a little too much, i think, but there are some good ideas in there.

[murphylawson]

when I get thinking, I tend to create incredibly complex ideas. I did my best to express my thoughts in language. My method is to put everything out for discussion, and to let bad ideas be sorted from good in the brainstorming that follows. Sorry for the grammar, English is my native tongue, but with large things like my above post though, organization is difficult.

[Jfloyd]

dreamcatchers is the only magic the devs want it seem.(there was a item called wind and it seriously was the wind itself, and you could do stuff with it, it got removed cause it was to much towards magic)

and I'm gonna agree with them.
-1

Actually, just talked to Loftar a while ago.
Wind was removed because it was just a bad idea in general. Not because of the magic factor.

[sabinati]

when I get thinking, I tend to create incredibly complex ideas. I did my best to express my thoughts in language. My method is to put everything out for discussion, and to let bad ideas be sorted from good in the brainstorming that follows. Sorry for the grammar, English is my native tongue, but with large things like my above post though, organization is difficult.

i meant too "magicky" not too wordy.

[SacreDoom]

I like the idea. there's some pretty cool stuff.

[xweetok59]

Magic... As far as i know, Haven and Hearth isn't a fantasy game, with monsters, magicians etc.

[Winterbrass]

Magic... As far as i know, Haven and Hearth isn't a fantasy game, with monsters, magicians etc.

Yes, it's absolutely not any sort of fantasy game at all - we all know that deer can heal other creatures, that some types of constructions require dreams, and crimes leave smells by which the perpetrator can be tracked by the police. Jeez. Get more realistic, guys.

[murphylawson]

I think the majority of this post is too magicky to work, but I think that some aspects could be introduced such as nightmares, but most importantly shamans. Many cultures had holy men who would do strange rituals. The shaman would be the town doctor, which would be another incentive for living in a town. Black magic was a little much, but I think that the creation of weapons with slight perks would be cool. Nothing too much, but poison would be a very cool addition. And think about it, there is poison in real life, why not make poison that includes dreams.