Magical Ranged Weapon

[eisprinzessin]

In GD I’m moving away from the typical feeble staff / wand wielding caster image and towards a more badass image as a specialist soldier type. To that end, casters will wield either melee weapons or guns but there will be a left-hand item called a [focus] that will function as a sort of supporting piece of gear similar to a shield for warrior, but probably more oriented towards boosting offensive power and energy.

I’m not afraid of players ignoring melee weapons or guns, I just see staffs and wands as being sort of redundant, not fitting that well with the fiction, and really kind of taking away from what a real spell caster should be - a class that relies primarily on spells instead of a weapon. I mean a staff in TQ is basically a bow with different art and animations. So since we already have a ranged weapon class, I think it is a lot more interesting to have the pure archetypal caster classes using spells instead of an alternative ranged weapon.

[…] Art does matter in terms of the psychological feel of the character. If people object to the look of a caster holding a sword, then we could potentially think about adding in right-hand items with more caster-like art such as a grimiore or something to that effect. Although, like I said, we’re trying to create something a little different than the standard fantasy setting and as part of that, casters are taking on a slightly new form.

I have to be honest though, the chances of me ever making a game with wands in it are very low.

I originally didn’t want to create a class of caster weapons, so they’re late in coming to the game. Originally we didn’t have them partially because I wanted to keep the world lower-fantasy and gritty but also I wanted spell-casters to use actual spells, not just fire a staff or wand. I figured regular weapons with larger %dmg bonuses and off-hand focus items could work fine. Another big factor was that earlier on, we just didn’t have enough money to go around making all kinds of art for many different weapon classes.

You did not miss them. Equip a gun or an implement and put a component in it, which provides you with the mid- to far ranged spell you desire - in addition to those you can get from the masteries - and play to GD’s strengths.