Binding spells

[divinefistoka]

May or may not have been suggested before, but for mages, what about binding a spell into a trigger? (thought spawned by the old melkor-near death summoning from tome... saved my life too many times to count.) It would provide some extra strategy for mage characters. spells could be designed to trigger when your life drops below x%, or your mana drops below x%, if your stats are drained, if your weapon is destroyed, etc... to pretty much anything really. Could bind a healing spell for when your health drops uner 40%. (or any number) Bound spells are triggered once then vanish... could provide balance by either making bound spells consume a spell slot (thus adding more use to the abilitys that high-mages get for extra spell slots), or you could make it INT based... at Int X you can bind 4 spells without penalty, at int X + 20 you cna bind 5... binding more then the limit could detriment your max mana the way wearing heavy armor used to. The stronger the spells you bind over the limit (and the more of them) the more of your max percentage you lost. Presumably binding should only be able to be set up in town, and each binding should trigger only once. Example: i drop below 40% health and my summon greater dragons binding triggers, summoning 10 greater D's, which last for 20 turns... (this is just an example) I get out of that bad situation, heal up and continue exploring. I drop below 40% health again, and nothing happens. Would also provide better strategic magic use for fighting type characters.

just a thought, and it probably needs some work.

[Variaz]

This reminds me of Baldur's Gate II!

Mages had a spell just like that that allowed you to prepare other spells in advance, and then choose a certain trigger that would unleash all the spells!

It wouldn't be too hard to code in Portralis. How it could be done is the real question. It might eventually be a High Mage ability, because eventually, I want to make specialist mage classes, and give school specialization abilities to these classes. Since we'll need something to replace them for the High Mage, Spell Trigger could be one of them.

[divinefistoka]

I know i suggested Int based but after seeing the obscenely high int that can be gained by monsterst that might be overpowering... Ability is certainly a possibility... and things to consider would be repeated bindings to a single trigger... should or should it not be possible? Case in point. 40% health or less. 2000 power healing spell, completely filling health... 40 of those bound to the same trigger? maybe only one effect of each type per trigger? (so could do meat sheild summoning at 40% health, and helath recovery at 40% health, and health recoveyr at 30% health, or wherever else, but not a second health recovery at 40%. on the other hand, a warp-circle spell at 40% would still be okay... as would anything else. Just no identical effects on identical triggers.

Maybe also add restoration effects like cure poison? Paralysis/stunning? A spell trigger that auto-removes those elites cursed blows? (one bound to blind that removes all... one to paralyze... one to fear... could get three auto-uncurses with above mentioned cap...

I still think i like the idea of having a certain number that can be safely bound with no penalty, and each additional spell deducts a percentage from maximum mana based on the bound spells power. Any chance that could tie in with the ability? 4 points = 4 bound spells, no penealty, 5th spell and above trigger percent-based penalty determined by the overall power of the spell? (somewhat offset by high int or wis maybe?)

[Variaz]

If I add Spell Trigger, you will be able to bind any spells you can create and are capable of casting "safely"(meaning either you have enough mana, or you have a wis equal or higher than mana cost). There might also be a maximum mana cost for the spells though, based on the ability's level.

Yes, placing points in the ability would allow more bindings, and it might not be too strong to let the player use the same condition many times. However, all would trigger at the same time and would be lost afterwards, so if your hp drops below 40% and you trigger 10 healing spells, well, they're gone. In the case of offensive spells, taking into account that later enemies can block them, and that enemies can have extra lives, it's not too bad to allow repeated offensive spells.

As for the number of binds, I'd say that it's based on the ability's level, and that it's always "safe", but you cannot bind more than your ability allows.

[Gando]

btw Contingency is a common old school AD&D spell that did this sort of thing...Originally it appeared in Eldritch Wizardry (late 70s) and then again in Unearthed Arcana. 3rd edition brought some more like spells to the surface...though I think most appeared in Dragon issues first. Ok history lesson done.

Interesting idea. The only difficulty would be do we put this spell on an item and trigger that? or do we make it a statebased effect.

triggered effects are appealing in one sense...(cast a spell on successful hit? bam sudden fireball!, cast a spell on being hit? bam! heal for x hp etc)

but statebased effects are intriguing as well...Did I become poisoned/confused/blind/afraid? Restore me. Etc.