We haven't actually started playing yet, but on paper, magic seems awful.

Just casting a spell takes several rounds where you have to be completely isolated, and when it's done, it's got the same or lesser effects of what other things accomplish in one round (particularly psychic powers).

To top it off, you can only cast a few spells in a given month, since zeon comes back so poorly.

Magic is a costly path and this surprises people when they first look at it. Dabblers don't get their value for DP and this encourages practitioners of magic to be focussed. Personally, I think this is a good thing as it allows for niche protection without providing absolute restrictions of some other RPGs.

For a focussed wizard though, there are many ways to increase one's magical ability. Superior Magic Recovery doubles your recovery rate and and Elemental Compatibility increases MA by 20 in a path. Taking an MA Multiple or two really helps as well. If you are a Warlock Magic Projection as Attack and Defence are a good investment.

Also, a Wizard need not cast spells in seclusion. The half MA arises only when other actions are taken in the round. If you get your magic shield up early (remember Fatigue can give you +15 MA) then you have time to fire your other spells off.

In exchange many of their spells are pretty awesome. Remember that blocking many spells is tough, perhaps impossible for many PCs, due to their sueprnatural nature. Armour tends to be weaker against Energy too. Even if a spell can be defended against, area effects have a -120 to Block and -80 to Dodge. Just look at Fireball. It costs 50 Zeon, which means it can be cast every round or so. If hits everyone in a 15ft radius and has a decent base damage, both of which can be increased if the caster has more time.

Sure, a level 1 Wizard will need to be careful as zeon will be a precious resource, but they can be competitive out of the gate. Plus, after a few levels they start to blossom, especially when innate magic kicks in to a decent level (MA 100 or so).

How does a player gain innate spells?

Its automatic based on your MA, see table 55 on page 111. You can increase this with Improved Innate Magic at PC Creation. You could crank it up to Innate Magic of 40 Zeon Points if you wanted to play a natural magician. This would cover a number of starting spells.

FWIW I am not suggesting Innate Magic as a solution to increase magic power as it is limited. However, its one more factor that will kick in to help balance out the matter..

I completely misinterpreted that paragraph on Innate magic. I thought you needed some way to access it, not that every one with MA gets it.

Am I correct that you can't accumulate Innate zeon though?

DarknessEternal said:

That's right. On a turn you use Innate Magic, you do not accumulate Zeon. Essentially, its a cap of Zeon that you can spend in a round for free. Given most spells have zeon 30 or 40 minimum, it only really kicks in when your MA gets to around 100.

Lol I didnt think id ever hear some one call magic weak in anima. Magic is the strongest of all of the 3 paths of power in anima. It is also more versitile within each book. If you dont believe me you need to take into account the rules reguarding magic and psychic powers.

First off, you can charge up spells and make them much much MUCH stronger than any other type of power in the game. It only takes several rounds to cast a spell if you didnt set up your stats right or didnt put DP into MA, or didnt take proper CP advantages to boost your MA.

Mages start off with more spells than mentalists or ki users will start off with there respective powers which lends them a nice amount of veristility.

Magic also never fails in anima, so once you are happy with how strong your spell has become, simple aim and shoot. The alternative is with psychic powers you have to make a potential test before you aim and shoot.

Dont get me wrong, Im not saying that magic is better than the other two powers, but I think they are all balanced rather nicely. Psychic powers are your middle weight abilites that you can almost always rely upon in common circumstances. Ki powers are your customisable combat powers that can either be a nice buff or a very powerful one hit wonder. The draw back to Ki powers is while they offer the most versitiliy in there construction they are not versitile once you make one and apply it to your charecter. Magic fills in all the other holes that are left to fill by the other two powers. Magic can be as weak or as poweful as you need each spell to be, and you have a wide array of spells to cast at lv.1. Magic is also the only way to really heal some one fully. Sure Ki Healing, but thats only half the damage delt. And you cant really do that in combat like you can either of the two healing spells in creation and essence.

quick question about magic... with the schools that dont have affinity with each other, is there a "rule" that says which ones oppose each other or just common sense?

if there is a "rule" does it have to do with the lines connecting the schools on the character sheet?

thanks heaps

Umm... in the book where it lists magic paths... it shows the opposed paths for every single one of them...

im an idiot.... that'll teach me for not reading it properly

thanks heaps

probably another stupid question..... what do all the lines going between schools on the character sheet mean?

One of my players wants to play an Illusionist.

Can that class be useful enough? It doesn't look too much less focused than a Wizard. Any suggestions on how should he build it?

moridin said:

As far as I know, it's only really important for the Half-Attuned to the Tree advantage. Consider it the links by which you the paths for the advantage. otherwise, it might just simply be for artistic reasons.

Elric of Melniboné said:

I don't know about the other guys, but I see magic as a backup for an Illusionist, who relies on the secondary abilities more than anything else. This is perhaps the class (maybe also with Warlock) who wants to spread the points wide, by selecting individual spells rather than specialising, except eventually into Illusion. My advice is: don't get into fights : /.

PS: Sorry for the double post, it seemed easier to do it this way.

moridin said:

The diagram has little mechanical meaning. However, it is clear that it is based on the Sephirot being the Kabbalah diagram showing the 10 attributes/emanations of the divine by which one can described one's soul. This has been seen in Neon Genesis Evangelion and the name also is the basis for Sephiroth in FF7.

The real trick would be to see if there is a correlation between the attributes and the schools of magic. I note that Malkuth (Kingship) has been moved from the based of the diagram to it centre (and attributed to Necromancy).

It is also important to remember that any given spell in Anima would likely be represented by a small handful of spells in most other rpg's. A wizards ability to pump extra Zeon into a spell and make it more powerful is way cool. It means that you don't need a weak, medium and strong attack. Your attack spell can be as powerful as you are willing to pay Zeon for.

This comes in handy with more than just attack spells. If you have a spell that has the right effect you can almost always pump it up to be as powerful as you need it, (to a limit of course) as long as you are willing to pay the Zeon for it.

I don't know about anyone but myself, but this seems to "feel" much more the way I would imagine magic working than so many other systems that never felt right. I also like that casting powerful spells takes more time than simply swinging a sword.

I agree with the other posters that Magic is balanced with the other supernatural abilities (I think it is balanced characters who don't use supernatural abilities). But on top of that I think it is really cool. The way magic works is actually one of the selling points that got me to buy the books in the first place.

The question I have relates to Free Access spells. If a mage ''buys'' individual spells using his Magic Level points, rather than put them into a specific path, how does he get Free Access spells? The only way I know of is precisely through path level, so a mage who solely buys individual spells misses out on a lot if he can't get Free Access spells.

Elric, having been giving the illusionist a close look lately I have some input.

Remembering that classes only represent templates, the illusionist is a great class to play a magic rogue basically. You don't have to choose illusion as a path, tho it's pretty nice.

I'd say the illusionist is equally divided between magic and stealth. The progression for magic is not that removed from a pure wizard, and certainly more devoloped than the warlock (combat and magic). At the same time the "rogue" stuff is very close to the progression the Thief get's. So regarding the costs provided by this "template" I think it's an awesome class.

Remember though, if player is doing a traditional illusionist (following that path) they need to play it smart. The illusionist is an intelligence based character. Smart ideas and outwitting opponents is how they succeed. A good illusionist (player, not the character) will make the GM hate them. lol.

I remember playing pathfinder as a wizard, we encountered a guardian whom was bound to answer a single question for each PC, my question was, what is your greatest fear. The DM hated that he had to come up with the answer, and tried to chide me for the question. After getting the answer though, it was all too easy to whip up an illusion based upon the antagonists fear, big bonuses and it worked out nicely. Being a good illusionist also requires alot of creativity.

All in all though, I'd say they are very mystically inclined, alot more so than a backup plan. at +75 zeon a level, they make nice spellcasters.

midnightprince said:

On the contrary, it's the GM that has to be good, not the player.

I've played in countless RPGs where illusions were completely ignored by NPCs because the GM didn't like them.

I got the impression that buying spells buy them self rather than through your path, didn't mean that you wouldn't spend any of you levels on a path. It isn't really against any rules, but such a character might lack a little flavor. That being said, if you are just going to buy all your spells one by one there is nothing stopping you from simply buying a free access spell just like any other spell. The difference (I don't actually have my book with me) would be that you don't get any free access spells for free, the way people who invest in a given spell path do.

Hrathen said:

That's my understanding. Getting free "Free Access" spells is the benefit of focussing on a Path. Its a cherry for remaining thematic. Essentially you gain 1 or 2 additional spells for every 4 spells purchased.

If you choose to buy spells then you can buy whatever spells you want, including Free Access spells. Its costs more but you get flexibility and you don't need to buy spells in the Path that you don't want.

Its a balanced approach.

Skywalker said:

Actually, I disagree. When you look at the cost for buying spells individually, then you'll notice that you'll end up with less spells overall than if you specialise. So if then the specialist ALSO get free Access spells, then there's a serious imbalance between both mages (since the other has more options available). And we haven't even mentioned the fact that the spells from opposite paths cost twice as much as they should.

I imagine that this method is for those who want to play Warlocks more focused on the combat abilities, so that they can their buffing spells and avoid the ''useless'' ones.

Arcaia said:

You are entitled to disagree If you equate number of spells as the sole criteria of balance then I think you are correct.

However, the ability to choose the 10 or so spells you want from any path and not have to worry about minor spells that are normally useful mostly as flavour, like Create Candle, can be balanced in terms of power levels, which I believe is a more appropriate criteria.

Skywalker said:

from what i can see from the book you dont actually get any "free" spell..... it just doesnt list the cost, ie: creat light (2nd point in tree), free access spell (4th point in tree) induce calm (6th point in tree) and so on and so on.....

i may be wrong but thats the way im reading it from the "book" of light section

Skywalker said:

Exactly, you shouldn't get more spells if you buy all your spells. But you do only get the exact spells you want. Basically if you buy all your spells one by one, you never pay any spell levels on spells that you really don't want.

In truth I don't think you are supposed to just buy all your spells instead of get your spells through your chosen path. I think buying individual spells are to supplement the path spells you get.

I don't think the rules explicitly say that you need to take a path, but they do seem to imply it.

I think you need a fist path, so that you can have an apposed path, from where you can not choose spells.

If you are buying your spells individually you don't really need to buy free access spells, because you can just get spells that do pretty much the same thing from the various path lists.