RMMV Magic and worldbuilding

[Rayhaku808]

Had trouble setting no prefix so this is gonna have to do. Or if this doesn't deserve its own thread, then please move it. Sorry.
I've wanted to separate how magic works into 2 ways.

1. Magic Attack - Affects damage output.
2. Magic Defense - Magic damage mitigation and healing magic output.

They will not be named as such. All of a sudden I thought, why are they separate anyway? Why do a lot of games do this? Well, not all games have healing affected by magic defense but regardless. So this is a little bonus lore I want to add into my game should the player care enough to learn more about the magic system of the world that they're in.

I started thinking about how one can be more suited to offensive magic and defensive magic. I realized that how the human brain works can be tied to how it works with its left and right hemispheres. So this is how I'd want it to work! As I was reading up on them in various articles, I started struggling about which side would be more suited to what type of magic the user has an affinity for.

To sum up what I've read (If I'm getting this right):
Left side is analytical, deep yet linear thinking, logical.
Right side is more creative and artistic. It can run wild with imaginations and dreams.

I would think that the left brain dominant people would be more effective at defensive magic, while the right siders will excel offensively. This may also carry over to other stats in my game as well, I obviously haven't thought this through completely yet. But I thought it could make sense even in a fantasy world. It could be easily relatable and understandable. Thanks for taking the time to read this, what do you folks think?

 

[MushroomCake28]

Interesting!

Personally I would associate the left side the magic attack and the right side to magic defense. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it just seems more natural to me. Perhaps someone more analytical would be able to tailor his/her spells to the enemy, making them more potent and more dangerous? I don't know to be honest, but something in my brain just tells me that left = offense and right = defense >.<

 

[Grunwave]

I like the idea of your brain affecting your magic. That is how it is in my world too. There is even a special node that is what creates your mana pool.

My MAT and MAD function just like yours. Does MV default to that for heal spells? I cannot recall.

I am coming at this from a D&D prospective. There it is Intelligence and Wisdom. Wisdom is the healing stat, but also helps with resistances. Intelligence adds to DPS.

A mechanics point: I have a necromancer in my world/game. They are similar to druids in a lot of other games, half healer half dps. Since the necro has both healing spells and nuking spells, I found it essential to separate the two founts. Otherwise he would be too powerful.

 

[CrowStorm]

Magic is maximum spoiler territory for my game Malleus Maleficarum. All of the biggest spoilers in the game have to do with how magic works and where it comes from. But if I keep this post restricted solely to numbers and don't even talk about the different kinds of magic in Malleus, it shouldn't be able to spoiler anything.

I see a lot of thoughts here that I also have or have had. @Grunwave's D&D analogy has informed MOST of the mechanics in MOST of my games to one degree or another. It's usually relatively somewhat subtle...except when it totally and absolutely isn't. I have lit. crossed out Luck and had LUK function as Charisma. In other cases I made a change that I think the actual game of D&D should have done a while ago, which is merging Charisma and Wisdom into a single stat called Charisma, and using that for my MDF.

In my current project--the first in a while where LUK is actually uh, Luck--MAT is Insight and MDF is Spirit. So, Insight (MAT) is perception, reasoning, logic, and knowing things (wo)man was not meant to know!! whereas Spirit (MDF) is force-of-will, charisma, determination, etcetera.

Insight mostly influences magical attacks but also influences nonmagical healing (one of the characters is a Plague Doktor so his abilities are based on (medieval) science, not magic). Spirit (MDF) functions as magic defense and also influences magical healing but occasionally also influences the damage of magical attacks. In general, many (but not all) skills are influenced to differing degrees by both Insight AND Spirit. Clerical magic (viewed by most in this setting as inherently good and holy and not possessed of the SUPERFLUOUS K OF EVIL) is mostly depending on Spirit, whereas Arcane Magick (viewed in this setting as inherently evil and unholy) is mostly dependent on Insight.

Attack (which I just left with its default name) and Insight are unique in that they are the only stats in the game never used to mitigate damage. In addition to Armor and Spirit, Agility and Luck also reduce damage from various attacks (the defensive influence of Agility is akin to a "Reflex Save" in D&D, whereas Luck effects just about everything in the game to a very small degree).

My MAT and MAD function just like yours. Does MV default to that for heal spells? I cannot recall.

If I recall correctly, MV does not have any stat effect healing spells, just the recovery panel. If I'm wrong about that, then I'm still pretty sure MV uses MAT for determining the strength of healing magic by default, not MDF.

 

[WaywardMartian]

I would think that the left brain dominant people would be more effective at defensive magic, while the right siders will excel offensively.

Personally I would associate the left side the magic attack and the right side to magic defense. I don't know how to explain it exactly, but it just seems more natural to me. Perhaps someone more analytical would be able to tailor his/her spells to the enemy, making them more potent and more dangerous? I don't know to be honest, but something in my brain just tells me that left = offense and right = defense >.<

Ha, it's just neat how everyone's got different views on this. I'm with Rayhaku808 - attack is absolutely the emotional response, defence is the one where you have to sit back and think out how to make it work.

MV uses MAT as the heal stat by default. So it's more like MAT is 'how much energy can you output' and MDF is 'how much energy can you block'. Which of course can be changed in the spell formula if you'd rather have MDF be your heal stat.