Dragon Age Magic System

Very much Origins style. Some of the implementation is Inquisitions magic system made no sense at all.

The Ice school has the “blink” power? So...ice (which in RPGs traditionally has the chill/slow effect) gets the super speed ability? Biower plz.

Origins system was exactly what I would expect from a society that is ‘mature’ in its use of magic. They study it, and experiment. For me - it just felt like the natural way for magic to be sectioned. And it meant mages could be many things to their party, rather than just one, which was what DAI felt like it was limiting us to.

First, any talk about the magic system inherently is also about the combat system. While we would like magic to be more utilitarian, even BG2s vast array of spells had nearly no use outside preparing for or engaging in combat. I was working on a combat topic but it's not ready to fly yet so I'll try to keep everything within the 'pure' magic realm but that's fated to be a somewhat hobbled topic.

Of the three systems, I preferred the DA2 system the most for a couple of reasons. First, didn't have to do specifically with the magic system, but the fact that different mages had access to some 'schools' of magic and not others was a nice, personalizing touch. It gives different mages a different character which can be a real help when there's a larger pool of spells than were available in DA:I. Second, DA2 introduced the idea of enhancements for base spells, something DA:O didn't have. This option gives the Player choices with meaning in the character advancement phase: enhance a given power further or branch out? Specialist with a mean kick or generalist with a large set of tools? Third, the less linear structure of spells in schools also added an array of choices to the Player over advancement decisions. In DA:O, if you wanted cool spell at level 2 in one discipline, you just went and picked it up the spell before it then your target. With DA2, you might have to get two different level ones that led to different choices and a certain 'feel' for your mage. It also gave the developers a chance to tell a bit of story and give each school its own flair with the structure.

On the other hand, I voted a different system because I had some thought that we hadn't seen with a DA system before. One thought was what if we brought back the spell combos from DA:O in a BIG way? Simple list of spells that can be cast together to create completely new effects. For example, casting Immolate with Wall of Fire lead to a Wall of Fire expanding out for the targeted point instead of sitting passively in front of your mage. It would reintroduce the fun of exploring the magic system looking for combinations and synergies. A different thought: what if instead o one spell or enhancement per level, we got a number of points to buy one or more options? Options within schools that you already had spells in were cheaper as you went up in level, encouraging some more specialization. Kind of picked up the thought from old 4X games like Master of Orion. On a more specific note, actual summoning spells might be neat. Also could make people really uneasy if you start summoning demons as a "good guy" (or undead as a Nevarran say). One big idea: make enough of different kinds of spells (or combos) where a mage can be designed to be a Tank or melee-style DPSer as well as the traditional Blaster and Support. I'll spill more ideas when they come up I'm sure. Thanks.

I'd like a return to the Origins system but I would also take something new based off what has gone before. I definitely want a return to the old magic schools and being able to take more than one specialisation. I wouldn't mind having a bit of DA2 as well when it comes to our companions. Giving them their own unique specialisation makes more sense than having you duplicate one of them, particularly when the choice is so limited as it was in DAI. At least in origins, whilst we could all potentially have the same specialisations, in practice you could mix and match so we were never exactly the same. I can understand them slimming down the number of spells available, particularly if their research showed that some were hardly ever used, but DAI was far too limited in its scope.

I don't really like that "force melee by invulnerable shield" concept in games much. Though if it is a thing, I'd prefer having an inverted version as well, say a shield/aura which either nulls melee attacks (for a limited time at least) or heavily discourages them, via strong debuff, melee damage reflection/thorns or a prohibitive life drain effect.

I usually thought that staff usage was a kind of cultural thing. Either a force of habit or an enforced habit as far as southern circle go, as an element of control. "I have been taught to cast with staff. Templar dude took my staff. I cannot do anything."

DA: O's magic was far too restrictive, in my opinion. Some of the spells felt very underwhelming, and you had to get them to get the ones you wanted. Take the fire spells. The first one was a cone that did damage over time (even if I ignore the asethetics of the spell where there's no reason to believe it goes like that), it really was underwhelming. Then you got flaming weapons, which felt situational at best. I only ever used a few spells from things that weren't my specialization.

It felt very trial run, a leftover from KOTOR style that didn't really fit.

DA2 and DAI had a better idea in the sense that you could move around the tree, and upgraded spells so that you could focus on the ones you really wanted. I would prefer a completely new type of system. Fewer spells, but more upgrades.

It's really just an example of how I think BioWare could make combat much more interesting and fun over all, I'm not married to that specific idea. Generally speaking, new abilities should open up new tactics. As things currently stand, across all the DA games, I've never felt like I ever did anything besides just cast abilities at random until the health bar hit zero (which on Easy is all you need), maybe there's a higher level of play on the harder difficulties that really requires players to engage deeply with cross class combos, etc etc, and there are special builds that let players take down dragons solo, and so on but speaking for myself, I don't even know when or if I have triggered a cross-class combo, because I don't see any meaningful difference in the progress and outcome of the fight. In particular, the Qunari and ogres in DAI just seemed to always take forever, no matter what I tried. Which is weird for a game that purports to be semi-tactical, and discourages me from trying to be tactical or creative.

Conversely, in a much more action-oriented game like Assassin's Creed Odyssey, even though it dispensed with many of its traditional mechanics focussed on stealth and careful planning, the benefits to speccing into certain abilities as early as possible were clear. The Spartan Kick ability, for example, could, under certain circumstances, make fights that were intended to be difficult much easier, or even render them trivial. And that's what I want. Clear and obvious benefits to thinking tactically and creatively, no matter the level of play.

Elemental differences, for example. Fire should absolutely ANNIHILATE an ice monster or, hypothetically, that hair demon from Tevinter Nights, while conversely doing nothing to Rage Demons (or even healing them). Status effects should be more prominent. If an enemy is "frozen" they shouldn't just be slightly slower, they should be encased in ice, and a good whack from the warrior should reduce them to giblets. Enemies that are ON FIRE should be panicking.

I would also like to see abilities suited to enclosed spaces, like ice field spells and trip wires, that visibly send the enemy slipping and sprawling. Abilites that yank an enemy's shield away and leave them defenseless. Boosted effects based on environment. If enemies are wading through water to get to you, a lightning bolt should obliterate the entire group, not just one. There's a bunch more ideas I've mentioned in the past, but I can't remember now.

I'd like more of an expansion on DA:O's system, DA:I was far too pew-pew & I didn't feel that mages got much love.

I'd like to see evolutions to powers too, let's take fireball for example, take one path, it fireball is bigger, hotter & does more damage, downside, it takes longer to cast, take a second path & it's smaller, does less damage, but can be cast in half the time, or a third path, it's now a glob of molten lava that explodes on impact & does AoE DoT.

This sort of thing could really add versatility to a lot of builds & make the player really think about combat

Also to add, out of combat spells, not just healing, but poison removal, burn salves & other buffs, really let us play with magic & see what we can come up with.


Just my thoughts on this

I’d like to see a return to the ‘glass cannon’ mages.
Their attacks should hit like a brick but they’re super squishy, unless you spec them to take damage better. Those top tier spells should be able to wipe out whole groups, but with the rub that they take time to charge and doing so draws enemy attention, this would force you to organise your party eg. have the warrior taunt away from the mage, rogues throwing blinding bombs at enemies etc. and make you consider how you want to spec you character. Moderate damage dealer but doesn't draw aggro, or AOE caster who risks getting mobbed in the wrong party set up.
My ‘pie-in-the-sky’ end game spells would look like Dragon’s Dogma:

You don't understand, it's the overclock school of magic. Like you pour liquid nitrogen on your CPU and it runs faster.

There's a codex from a Circle source saying teleportation is known as impossible (including Gaider's comments on the teleporting DA2 mages... At least the DAI mages seem to transform into... something and then swirl through the air instead of just... disappearing). Fade Step however can easily be seen as magically-charged short-distance dash. Haste is a thing in all three games.

It would think so; to some extent. His lute - in a way - acts as a focusing mechanism for his magic. The only question is how much of his design would even make it to the current iteration of Dragon Age. Since the next DA title is using Anthems engine, that means whatever programming went into Zither is likely lost and would need to be built back up again.

A magical bard specialization would certainly be something special!