I am also looking forward to the rumored magic system. I have seen a few spells cast, such as those by Jahlad and Delia, but the rest has all been priestly magic. There is a fair degree of balance that needs to be considered of course.
Scrolls in chain might work, but I think that by and large magic should be limited to leather or lighter. Some systems have rationalized this by saying that metals interfere with the channeling of the power, which kind of makes sense. Perhaps mithril might not interfere, or at least do so less, and thus make it more attractive to magic users? Just a thought.
It should take quite awhile to get combat magic, of course, but there should be some thought given as to how it should be learned in the first place. Scribes certainly deserve a more comprehensive magic system, but not all magic is learned by study, and there might be some possibility for "wild talent" and the like. Here I'm thinking of faeries and the like who are known for their magic but own no books (at least in most worlds).
Perhaps an emphasis can be placed on enhancement. For example:
Enhanced speed: lets you attack faster (though maybe it also adds fatigue at lower levels?).
Enhanced vision: lets you see details when you look in a direction. As in "look east" "you see Jezz and Blizt nuking the crap out of one another"
Enhanced hearing: lets you listen into conversations in the next room (a really good spell for a spy!). Or lets you overhear whispers.
Enhanced strength/constitution = speaks for itself
Enhanced skill (improve a skill by 5/10/or 20 for a time)
Enchant weapon - increases the damage a weapon does, or increases the chance for a crit
Enchant armour - to protect better, to be lighter, to protect against certain types of weapons better (arrows for example)
Light spell - a must for every magic system
enchant boots - decreases fatigue spent on walking
enchant cloak - increase chance to hide or sneak
Those are just a few examples of non-attack magic that is still incredibly useful. I would also think that identify might be good, except magic items are quite rare. As I said, that's a random selection of ideas.
Spells should be sorted into groups, for example:
Light spells - light, continual light, lightning bolt, searing light, blinding light, whatever
Dark spells - darkness, deep darkness, shadowbolt, etc
fire spells - you get the idea
personal enchantment - enhance speed, enhance strength, enhance endurance, enhance senses, etc.
weapon enchantment - enchant sword, enchant arrows
armour enchantment -
and so on and so forth
The main thing I would suggest is that each group of spells (armour enchantment, personal enchantment, fire spells, light spells, water spells, etc. should be its own skill. This would have one primary benefit, balance.
If a person decided to take up spellcasting he might do so, but most likely with only one or just a few spell groups that would provide a real benefit to him. Perhaps there should be advanced skills for more powerful types of spells, the way that there are improved specials for the shao skills. If someone wanted to learn a huge selection of spells he could certainly do so, but the advancement would crawl along.
An archmage or a powerful wizard would be possible, but only if he sacrificed other skills for his magic and devoted himself to it almost constantly. Such a person would not be able to instakill any player (at least hopefully not -- instant death spells have always been a pet peeve of mine). But he should have a fair chance of holding the fighter's blows at bay and hopefully slashing him up with a few attack spells (the way I've seen Xexo do to me with that exploding ice thing).
More than likely a mage would have to, at least initially, depend on fighters to hold the front line while he launches attack spells from the rear. Later, he might have a defensive spell that minimizes the damage that enemy blows can do (never immune though, that's just cheezy) and he will have a high enough discipline to not lose his concentration from those small blows. All in all a good magic system wouldn't disrupt game balance tremendously, I have not found that clerics are so vastly superior to a non-magic using fighter that they are invincible (and clerics can do some seriously cool things).
If the magic system can extend beyond attack spells to enhancements for other skills, then magic can be tailored to suit the individual character. If magic also uses many skills than it would make anyone think twice about learning too much of it. And if a few people do try to take on a ton of spells, best of luck to them, for they will not be able to wear metal armour, their advancement in other skills will diminish, and if they are not careful they will get spread too thin.
Just a few ideas on how it might fit in and remain balanced. Magic is the staple of any fantasy game and a good, balanced, magic system will certainly bring in some more players to Geas. Please don't take any of this as a criticism or one of those "it's so obvious why hasn't it been coded yet?" kinds of comments. These are meant to be helpful.
for more ideas on magic: the rolemaster series has an excellent system and it is very similar to geas as far as combat goes, in a lot of ways. Right now all the magic is pretty much bound up in the holy characters, and so the world is divided between gods. It would be interesting to see a magic system that forces people of differing backgrounds to come together on neutral ground to do research (Like the towers of high sorcery in Dragonlance where good, neutral, and evil wizards had to coexist).
If anything, Geas' combat system is unparalleled, and if there should be any question of balance it should be in favour of the warrior with the sword rather than the wizard without it. But an unarmoured warrior with a little bit of magic will benefit tremendously from a few enhancement spells.
Okay I'll stop talking. Let's see some magic!
-Alamar
