>>To balance this out I suggest putting a penalty on players
>for
>>using a lot of non class dam redux. As the redux goes down
>>the mages ability to fast escape via word/teleport go down,
>>you can spin it as the magical barriers interfering with
>>transportation magic. So now mages have to choose between
>the
>>neccesity of more dam redux vs ease of getting away from a
>bad
>>fight, perhaps have this hinderment exceed the duration of
>the
>>dam redux in the case of barrier.
>
>This is an interesting thought, I'm not sure it's the answer,
>but still interesting.

Okay, how about this then. Instead of his hints idea, we do the above, and then simply give the spells to all mages. Then you have the ability to basically willingly turn yourself into a Villager with some of the same benefits and drawbacks; actually able to fight and own people toe to toe and NOT get two rounded, but with the drawback of usually having to escape fights on foot.

ABS already interferes with healing, so I think those two things are sufficient drawbacks to justify mages running around with ABS most of the time. If you don't think that's enough drawback, add something else like significant caster lag (three rounds? four?) associated with the spell version of aura, barrier, and shield.

I understand Nepenthe mentioned he wanted certain things like grease/theft/whatever to be able to interfere with mages as they currently can with the wand system. Okay, we can keep this too - make a mage merchant somewhere in a moderately hard to walk to ass-end of Thera - I don't know, halfway through Organia or something. He sells amber, sienna, and black "rocks." You have to then use up one of these "rocks" to cast the appropriate matching ABS spell, and you have to be holding it just as you would a wand. Or hell, just make him sell the wands themselves, add more lag to them as was proposed, and don't give the spells themselves to mages.

If you want to reward exploration for magi, you could keep traditional versions of the sleek ABS wands around with less drawbacks.


PS: Can I have a wand of deathblow immunity? Or a my-spells-get-through-spellbane wand? An unlimited-charges wand that grants me fluctuating dam redux based on the current state of the veil would also be nice. I would of course have those wands taken away from me for the duration of someone killing and holding a bloody battlerager head held by a brokenly powerful cabal inner called the Creator.