KoboldLord wrote:Your suggestion will simultaneously break several other schools at once.
Wow. So I suppose that dispersing necromancy (or some other strong school) spells among other schools would break several of the other schools. If not, I wonder how charms is different.
KoboldLord wrote:Dual-skill spells are, in principle, less desirable than single-skill spells because they cost more xp for the same amount of spell power. In principle, having all buffs being part charms will make them all harder to cast than they would be if they were just air or necromancy, much like how conjurations already works. The problem is that spell power is currently meaningless to most charms spells.
Yes, definitely. This fact surely affects the game and is a reason to have dual-skill spells.
Two observations. First, getting rid of the charms school doesn't mean that all current charms must become single-schooled. Deflect missiles could be tloc/air, to give a (maybe not so great) example. Keeping spells dual-skill, just without being a charm, might prevent other schools from becoming broken. I have a soft spot for Condensation Shield precisely because it's not a charm.
Second, the additional XP needed for a charm spell is very low because every caster already has a few levels in charms for other schools. Suppose a mage wants charms only for frost brand, regen and flight. Suppose also that frost brand requires 4 levels between charms and ice, regen requires 6 levels between charms and necromancy, and flight requires 8 levels between charms and air. To cast all three spells, I could train charms to 8. The additional cost of flight, given that I already want to cast frost brand and regen is 2 charm levels. Suppose instead that charms was dropped from all three spells. Then frost brand requires 2 levels in ice, regen requires 3 levels in necromancy and flight requires 4 in air. To additional cost of casting flight, given that I'm already casting frost brand and regen, is 4 levels. Now, I know that higher levels require more XP, so this thought exercise deviates somewhat from how things actually work. But the fact remains that the marginal/additional XP costs of any given charms spell is lower because there are so many other good charms spells.
A good example is frost and flame brand. Having memorized frost brand, the additional XP cost of flame brand is zero, or close. (I rarely need levels in fire or ice to cast them after the early game.) If frost and flame brand were ice and fire only, I would need to invest in both ice and fire, rather than relying on charms. (And I was going to get a few levels in charms, anyway, so I could cast regen....)
I hope this makes sense to everyone. If not, please ask me to clarify.
I don't think this is the most important issue with charms -- spell power is. But is could be important nonetheless.