ToME WikiRavenRed: Partially due to the revamped way in which most player spells can be used by monsters, I thought I'd throw a revamped Mind school into the mix, especially as it seems that Mindcraft as a single, unified school is no more.
(Apologies for creating a new thread, but as it's a complete school rather than individual spell suggestions, I thought it was warranted)
Mind Attack
One of the central tenets to attack skills in the "Mind" school, would be a customised damage type: MIND
Does only 1/2 damage to monstes with WEIRD_MIND=true, CORRUPTED=true ANIMAL=true or UNDEAD=true. Does no damage to monsters with EMPTY_MIND=true
Effects: A mind attack may have many different sub-effects. Fear, Sleep, Stun, Confusion. What's more, more than one effect may apply on any one attack. It works like this...
Each attack has a percentage chance of ((<Damage Done>/<Monster HP>) * 100) in 100 of any of the sub effects (chosen randomly)
e.g. You do an attack totalling 30 Damage on a monster which has 200 HP. Therefore there is a (200/30) = 15 in 100 chance of one of that monster becoming stunned, confused, slept, etc.
However, that is not necessarily the end of it. Once this effect is determined, and the saving throw checked, IF the monster is actually affected (i.e. fails saving throw) a second check at half the previous (<Monster Max HP>/<Damage Done>) in 100 is made. Therefore, after our poor monster has found himself confused, there is a 7 in 100 chance that he will also become stunned, slept or afear'd. If the monster is unlucky enough to actually recieve the second effect, they are then checked to see if a third is applied (at 3 (rounded down) in 100).
This same progression applies to players on the recieving end of a "MIND" attack, with the additional chances of a "Forget" effect or the attack doing an equivalent "Sanity" hit.
Therefore, although the effects of MIND are limited to the minded, the effects upon their target is potentially devestating.
Spells
Life Sense, Mind, Level 1, Cost (Min: 1, Max: 20) "Senses the minds of monsters around you..."
Grants ESP, essentially a detect monster spell. Fairly limited to start with, but grow very powerful as you learn to distinguish minds very different from your own...
Detects Orcs, Humans, Humanoids At Level 1 Detects Animals at Level 10 Gives ESP for Orcs, Humans, Humanoids and Animals for <Spell Level> + 1d<Spell Level> at Level 15 Gives ESP for all living beings for <Spell Level> + 1d<Spell Level> at Level 25 Gives ESP for all creatures without EMPTY_MIND=true for <Spell Level> + 1d<Spell Level> at level 40
<no monster equivalent>
Neural Blast, Mind, Level 8, Cost (Min: 3, Max: 40)
"Blasts the minds of your foes!"
The bread and butter mind-attack spell. Grows steadily more powerful, with more damaging side-effects as you go up in damage.
Basic Damage Scale: <Spell Level> d <Spell Level>/2 Damage Type: Mind
Effects on Monster: At Level 10 becomes a 0-radius ball rather than a bolt. At Level 25 becomes a ball-spell with <Spell Level>/25 radius.
Flare Aura, Mind, Level 25, Cost (Min: 15, Max: 60)
You flare your aura, aweing those nearby!
A caster-centred ball of confusion, radius (<Spell Level>/10). At level 50, becomes CHARM. At level 80, becomes LOS.
Effect from monsters - Sanity hit of (<Spell Level> / 10) d <Spell Level>/5 if not resisted. You may become a gibbering monster, serving your new master.
Invisibility, Mind, Level 36, Cost (Min: 10, Max: 20)
Befuddle the minds of your enemies to make them think you're not there!
Shifted from "Air". Personally, I think it slots better into this school.
Armour of Fear, Mind, Level 45, Cost (Min: 20, Max: 80)
Creates an armour of fear. Mosnters atacking you must save or flee!
As per current. A level 60, becomes a "storm" style effect with a radius of (<Spell Level> - 10) / 30. Duration and fear damage as per current.
For monsters - Excatly the same.
Possession, Mind/Udun, Level 55, Cost (Min: 80, Max: 120)
Take control of another's mind and powers.
As per the Melkor-school "Mind Steal". Another option is to make this a dual-school Udun spell rather than Melkor.
For Monsters - Does you a serious hit of Sanity if not resisted. <Spell Level/3> d <Spell Level/4>.
Mindstorm, Mind, Level 65, Cost (Min: 60, Max: 130) [Sanity]
Your mind explodes out of you!
The most terrible attack possible to a mindcrafter, with devastating effect and equally devastating consequences.
Initially, it does a "Cone" attack of "Mind" damage type of the amount:
<Player Sanity> * ((<Spell Level> / 20) - 1)
This spell also consumes the spell cost in Sanity rather than Mana. This means that it can't really be used repeatedly without replenishing your Sanity somehow. To allow for a user-based source of Sanity replenishment, the Nature School "Recovery" spell could restore Sanity at Spell Levsl 50.
At Spell Level 80, this becomes an LOS attack.
For Monsters: Estimate Sanity as the monster's MANA_MAX level and deduct the spell cost from that.
Other School Effects
At Mind Level 50, gain Fear Resistance. At level 70, Confusion Resistance. At Level 90 permanent Full ESP.
2c worth and counting
Chatter
DarkGod: Life Sense is redundant with the divination school, so I'd scrap it.
RavenRed: True enough. ESP is just so thematically ingrained in Mind-related stuff. Dual School spell?
Possession could be a dual Mind/Udun, but then Melkor needs a new spell. Invisibility I'm not quite sure, it can be seen as either a physics altering effect(Air) or a mind altering effect(Mind).
RavenRed: It's a bit of a toss up, and there is already a minor discussion along those lines on the Pipedream page.
For the rest I like them. Note though that the mindcrafters are no more, Mindcraft is now a skill that allows to learn some spells(semi-random) directly into memory, removing some restrictions (like books)
RavenRed: I'm aware of that. I just think that there's room for a magic specialist along the lines of the Warper. Perhaps Mind, Nature and Temporal? Nature-Mage (I'd say Naturist, but that has <ahem> other connotations).
Zonk: Didn't really read all of this(I'm not really an expert on balancing magic)...Bt I have a little observation to male. Are you sure you haven't inverted the formula you actually wanted to usethe use? (Monster HP / Damage) * 100% basically means that, the LESS damage you do compared to the monster HP, the higher the chance of a sub-effect...Using your formula, if a mind effect caused 1 damage to a monster with 100 HP, there would be a 100% sub-effect chance...while if the effect caused 99 the chance would only be 1%! If you reverse the formula, using (Damage / Monster HP) * 100%, it works fine though - if you damage a monster for 10% of it's HP, there's 10% of a possible sub-effect...
RavenRed: Hmmm... let's work this through again.
Guh. You're dead right.
Memo to self - do spreadsheet modelling before posting to wiki.
A formula which seems to work is ((Damage/Monster HP)*100) in 100 which works out like you said. Thank you for pointing out this not-exactly-subtle flaw.
KhymChanur: ESP has a radius in T3, so the Mind school could grant permanent ESP at a very low level, but with radius 1 (for melee-attacking minded monsters while blind), and the radius would increase as the skill increased. When the radius increased to 2, you'd be able to see monsters with minds which were immediately on the other side of a wall or door.