>Consider:
>
>1) Hide is one of the key skills of a thief or assassin. If
>you had to pick the top two or three abilities for either
>class that really define what they are and are most crucial to
>survival/killing, hide would make the list.
>
>Camouflage and rangers, same thing.
>
>Invisibility wouldn't make the list for any mage class. If it
>was a lot better, they'd have to lose out somewhere else.
>It's not useless, but it's not a key ability.

I can understand what you're saying about Hide being a top ability with regards to Thieves and Assassins. Being able to hide and surprise your target, either to rob them or assassinate them, is a mainstay of their way of life. I don't disagree with you there.

Same thing for Rangers. Their ability to blend in with their environment is a mainstay of their livelihood as well.

Mages on the other hand aren't like those other classes either. Mages, as a rule, usually don't make a living off of killing and robbing others. Mages are on the whole loners. No Mage really wants to share his knowledge with even a fellow Mage. Not to mention the fact that, as far as i can tell from the short time i've been playing Carrion Fields mind you, Mages are one of if not the most often attacked classes just by sight alone. I have a Ranger and a Warrior i play as well and neither of these classes have been attacked simply because they were Rangers or Warriors. Mages, on the whole, are the only class i have seen on the mud that are attacked onsight simply for being what they are.
This to me indicates two things.
1. Magic is so poorly regarded on Thera by the rest of the world that people will kill them just for being a magic user. Which isn't to bad considering the power and mystery that magic can hold. People often fear what they do not understand.
2. In a world that so despises you, as Therans seem to do with magic users, it would seem only logical that they would be more devoted to insuring their survival. Either by creating places only mages could go to train in their arts such as a school or academy of somekind or they'd created very powerful spells to help them defend themselves against a world that so hates them they would kill you just for being what you are. Orcs aren't, as far as i know, so badly hated as are mages.
I could be wrong about all this, but as i stated this is just from my experiences on Carrion Fields.
>
>2) You generally can't hide or camouflage other PCs as a
>thief/assassin/orc/ranger. You generally can't become hidden
>or camouflaged as a character who's not a member of those
>classes.
>
>An invoker can easily invis his whole group, his allies, any
>random person he passes on the street. Equally, those people
>could also come up with potions of invisibility.
>
>As a low level warrior, I'm not worried about the invoker
>sneaking up on me invis so much as I am the invoker and his
>twelve best friends sneaking up on me invis.

I can't disagree much here either. Yes, mages can make others invisible. But as stated above i have seen people who aren't even Battle rages, who as i understand it REALLY have a reaon to hate mages, attack a mage on sight for no other reason than simply because he was a mage. I mean realisticly if Mages are being attacked simply because they are magic users you'd think the more powerful members of the orders would band together to insure their survival as well as those who seek the ways of magic.

All of this is from an "In Character" stand point for me too. I would think anyone, not just mages, that was attacked for simply being who they are would find others of their kind and band together. Think about it this way. If a Warrior or a Thief was killed on sight just for being what they are don't you think that eventually word would get around and they'd take measures to insure their safety as well as those of their guilds? If a warrior were killed on sight just for being a warrior eventually warriors would travel in packs and assault others. Killing and slaughtering without any regard for laws. Why? Because they would rather slaughter someone else on sight under the assumption that they wanna kill them, thus becoming nothing more than raving savages going around killing people. Which, in turn, would lead those others to hunt warriors in massive groups as well.

Just from an IC stand point mages are so hated by everyone that eventually someone would start to band them together, create safe havens for people to train and learn, create even more powerful spells for killing off groups of people in just a few seconds. I just can't see magic users selling potions or making items that can detect invisibility when such a spell would become utmost important to their survival. Especially since very few mages are powerful in their earlier years of life.

And as i stated above this is just from my own observations and things i have seen with my own eyes. I am pretty much sure that it's not as bad as i make sound to be in regards to how hated mages are. But from my own experience and from the things i have seen it seems such is the case.

I'M DONE!