Curse Of Ages Tweaking

[Conflee]

Ill be brief here, because im not majorly involved or active anymore but I had a conversation about this and it gave me ideas.

My suggestion can be boiled down simply to: Make it so the Curse of Ages increases the maximum lifespan of whoever is being made younger by the spell.

Curse of Unlife already fills the slot of 'look young your whole life' as a side effect of its immortality effects. Personally I dont think Unlife is even worth it to be honest given how difficult it is and how hard to use it would be on an OOC level but thats besides the point: Curse of Ages is at the moment just a less useful version of Curse of Unlife. It needs something to further distinguish itself.

Both Curses, as it stands now, keep you young for your whole natural life span, then you die when you hit your max age. I feel like this was done for balancing reasons, because Death Magic was released a fair bit before proficiencies, but the way I see it now, there is a cap on proficiency points anyway, so having a 300 year old Ailor has no 'gamey' functionality, only potential for backstory and character.

Of course, since this would be putting the Curse of Ages on par with the Curse of Unlife in terms of power, though in different ways, the requirements for the Curse of Ages should probably be upped slightly, though again the only real use for this added bonus to Ages is the longer life, so allowing Trustees to write it into their backstory and them then being filled in on some background details they might know IC would help them out.

 

[Magivore]

Ill be brief here, because im not majorly involved or active anymore but I had a conversation about this and it gave me ideas.

My suggestion can be boiled down simply to: Make it so the Curse of Ages increases the maximum lifespan of whoever is being made younger by the spell.

Curse of Unlife already fills the slot of 'look young your whole life' as a side effect of its immortality effects. Personally I dont think Unlife is even worth it to be honest given how difficult it is and how hard to use it would be on an OOC level but thats besides the point: Curse of Ages is at the moment just a less useful version of Curse of Unlife. It needs something to further distinguish itself.

Both Curses, as it stands now, keep you young for your whole natural life span, then you die when you hit your max age. I feel like this was done for balancing reasons, because Death Magic was released a fair bit before proficiencies, but the way I see it now, there is a cap on proficiency points anyway, so having a 300 year old Ailor has no 'gamey' functionality, only potential for backstory and character.

Of course, since this would be putting the Curse of Ages on par with the Curse of Unlife in terms of power, though in different ways, the requirements for the Curse of Ages should probably be upped slightly, though again the only real use for this added bonus to Ages is the longer life, so allowing Trustees to write it into their backstory and them then being filled in on some background details they might know IC would help them out.

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I think they're quite fine the way they are. Ever since the introduction of Curse of Unlife, many characters have pursued royal blood, but been unable to obtain it because of how logically impossible it is for a criminal to obtain it, even with things like bribery and threatening. The Curse of Ages, however, also gives the mage the ability to make themselves utterly unkillable if they think they're going to get executed. Their body will be stored away or buried, and somebody will just come by later, whether it be a successful heist or a corrupt guard, to free them. It also provides the opportunity to offer characters options of "beauty at a cost," and ways to directly ruin knights. How many people are using 35 - 45 year old Ailor right now just for the +30 and +40 in weapons? 20 superficial cuts on the body will make their combat almost useless since their older and weaker bodies will be unable to maintain their previous builds. What about a 25 year old general? 10 small nicks on the shoulder and they'll be a laughing stock by everyone around them, and will also be unable to maintain a build above athletic. Sure, it might not work as well on Dwarves, Elves, so on, simply because they don't get the effects of age quite like others. However, that has the potential to create massive plotlines in which the afflicted has to gather a party, an assassin, or bargain with high wages to have their life returned to them. I don't expect to ever see someone use the Curse of Unlife, but Curse of the Ages can be used by the mage at any time so long as they have an altar or a careful plan.

TL;DR - It's not underpowered, and it's just not meant to be used as a cheap proficiency bonus. What makes it so powerful is the implication that you can force a great warrior to live exactly the way he will the day before he dies... for the rest of his life. No added experience. That's pretty powerful to me.

 

[MippyMoo]

The Curse of Ages is stated anyway to not give any proficiency or experience, just alter the physical age of the castee.

 

[FireFan96]

Curse of Ages is basically the best beauty product in Aloria. It's not supposed to give you extra live, just make you look younger.

It also happens to give a Death Mage an "immortality" by having them go into a stasis, which could go for years on end. The only downside is that they can't move or react to anything.

Cure of Unlife I feel is fine as is. The ability to resurrect is something that is extremely overpowered, as as a result should be extremely hard to perform. I'm actually surprised that there is a way to become immortal now. All it takes is serious dedication, because the reward is extremely high, especially if you can hide the Corphus Jar in an "impossible" to find place.

That, and there already is a spell to extend life in the Construct Magic School. I wouldn't want to have a copycat spell, especially given how long it takes to unlock the 10th spell in construct magic.

 

[Conflee]

TL;DR - It's not underpowered, and it's just not meant to be used as a cheap proficiency bonus. What makes it so powerful is the implication that you can force a great warrior to live exactly the way he will the day before he dies... for the rest of his life. No added experience. That's pretty powerful to me.

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Using it to debuff people isn't the most, practical in my opinion, I doubt it will ever come up IRP. Using it to 'buff' people is the better of the options with the spell- but beyond that its not a cheap proficiency bonus, since you have a proficiency cap. For Ailor it would mean Grandmasters can perform in combat instead of being almost entirely relegated to teacher characters, but beyond that mos tother races live long enough that it doesnt matter.

That, and there already is a spell to extend life in the Construct Magic School. I wouldn't want to have a copycat spell, especially given how long it takes to unlock the 10th spell in construct magic.

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I wasnt aware Construct Magic had a solution for long life, though it still only increases it by 40 years, which is good for an Ailor but for someone like a Nelfin who can live to 200 anyway its a little less useful to slap 40 years on. Still good but not as much of a shift for them.

Beyond that, the Construct magic for Age Stealer is again redundant on the Curse of Ages and Unlife. It doesn't make you look younger, but it makes your abilities that of a younger person, so its again just a worse version of Curse of Ages, which does the same but makes you LOOK younger too.

A lot of redundancies here IMO. Could be reworked to give say Construct Magic a way to increase ability despite age (So the look 60 strong and energetic as a 30 year old thing it has now, Plus some minor age boost like +10 years or something?) then give a proper full immortality to Death Magic where they revive 24 hours after death thing, and as their buff live up to 100 years longer than naturally. And just straight remove Curse of Ages since its being consolidated into Curse of Unlife in this proposal.

Cut the fat, buff what there is to compensate and take up some of both effects, and free up a spell slot for something less samey.

 

[Magivore]

Using it to debuff people isn't the most, practical in my opinion, I doubt it will ever come up IRP. Using it to 'buff' people is the better of the options with the spell- but beyond that its not a cheap proficiency bonus, since you have a proficiency cap. For Ailor it would mean Grandmasters can perform in combat instead of being almost entirely relegated to teacher characters, but beyond that mos tother races live long enough that it doesnt matter.

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The point of the spell is it upsets how life is supposed to be. In fact, debuffing is one of its most practical uses. Think of how many times people kidnap others, and imagine that each time you did, you used that spell. After long enough, now half of your real enemies are 12 years old or 60. "Buffing" is one of the additional bonuses it may serve. In this case, the spell is doing three different things: buffing your friends, debuffing your enemies, and giving you a disengage. Almost no spell has three different types of effects, nor does a spell come close to its potency. In fact, there aren't any spells that really make it "redundant," because it's the only one that can be used for three purposes that all make the side of the mage more threatening. The point of a death mage is that your abilities only have subtle effects in long-term events, but each effect you have is extremely spontaneous and dangerous. Adding a spell/changing its effect that boosts someone's proficiency is just asking for minmaxing galore, and makes them less interesting. It's unoriginal, in my opinion, to have it change into something that adjusts modifiers. Then we all could just choose a Darkwald knight and claim we lost against a death mage who made us young (oh nooo).

 

[Conflee]

Adding a spell/changing its effect that boosts someone's proficiency is just asking for minmaxing galore

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This is not a concern at all because Prof Cap. It would make an Ailor Grandmaster fighter slightly better than a Nelfin of the same level just on physical ability, but only barely. If you can only get 60 total then living 100 years longer is meaningless for Proficiency, it can only barely be gamed.