One variation that I thought of: Drawing magic boosts your stats (up to a point, depending on the spell), but casting it doesn't make you lose those stats.

Another: You can junction spells to stats, but instead of the bonus being based on the number of spells that are remaining, it's based off the number that have been cast, so you actually need to use magic to get stats from them rather than just hoard them.

(Another idea: Take out conventional leveling and make junctioning the *only* way to increase stats.)

By the way, in SaGa 1 and 2, martial arts attacks (such as Punch and Kick) get stronger as the number of uses remaining decreases; the last use does triple damage on top of that. In SaGa Frontier 2, the power of martial arts increases when your WP runs low, and the power of spell arts similarly increases when your JP runs low.

Nope, just FF7 and 8, since they also had PC ports. I think those would be the only actual JRPGs, though Septerra Core and Anachronox may also count, despite not being made there.
I took issue with the very idea of needing to draw magic from enemies like that. But yeah, could have... tolerated it way less badly if use wouldn't decrease the stats.

I'm gonna have to be that guy and break the ice, Magic the gathering has the best magic system. :)

I really do recommend that you try Final Fantasy 2 (with the caveat that the game is a little rough around the edges and that you should avoid heavy armor), and any SaGa games you can get your hands on (Final Fantasy Legend 3 doesn't count here, but Final Fantasy Legend 1 and 2 do).

4x Blacker Lotuses, all activated, use the mana to cast Mox Lotus (saving 1 red mana), use Mox Lotus for infinite mana, then Fireball for Graham's number worth of damage.

This is actually possible on the first turn, provided we allow Un-set cards, and we assume that none of the cards are banned or restricted in the format. (The Un-sets are Magic: The Gathering expansions that are intentionally not tournament-legal, and which are clearly meant as jokes.)

A man of magic culture as well, you played beta days?

Guild Wars does have levels 1...20 (limit). The vast majority of the game takes place once you're at max level though. The lower levels are training/tutorial/intro. You do still get XP, and at periodic intervals you get new skill points that are spent at vendors to acquire new skills. (Think of skills in GW like cards in MtG.) XP also rinses away your death penalty (which is just a global % reduction in max health; and also clears entirely when you enter a town). Gear also doesn't keep going up either. You get your level-20 gear and that's it. There's a little permutations here and there, but not a lot. I bet you'd like it.

GW is actually an amazingly good game [with plenty of flaws... mainly its last expansion, Eye of the North]. If only it'd be de-MMO-ified to play offline/with mods/not having to deal with "economy"/etc.

FYI, dtgreene's user text says: "Nasty Woman she/her"

? I don't see anything under anyone's names. I use edge browser and it has issues with the site but I live with it.

and btw,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKS08GSJ3ow

Enjoy.
Do you play the MTG Arena game?????

1. I'm not a man.
2. i haven't played the game much. I collected during 4th edition, but otherwise am just content with looking up information on the game, particularly since it's easy to find images of magic cards online (the official site even has them, I believe). I do like looking into how the game works, including edge cases that have often required a judge to rule.

I would recommend the game, they are very generous with giving away free decks and cards and a ton of booster packs. never spent a cent and got almost 2 grand worth of digital cards. and they do these cool events that allow you to create a deck with 1 of each card.

and there is a ton of codes online you can redeem to get a lot of free stuff right away! but yeah, hope you give it a shot.


4th edition was a good set, still have a few kicking in my shoe box :D

None of which (bar the new Scarlet Grace, and a recent remake of Romancing SaGa 2, plus I see an announced remake of 3) are available for PC. And no, won't bother with emulators, never did, if the dev didn't care I won't either, way too many games out there to play.
Plus, too old, those you mention specifically. Now I do generally play older games, but there is a limit, there are things that tend to be characteristic of games made before at least the late '90s that I'm not willing to put up with, not anymore at least. Even with my so very fond memories of Betrayal at Krondor and Quest for Glory 2 (train through use and possible complete mastery, thank you very much! also, in BaK, magic uses stamina and once depleted HP, as does everything, including getting hit, the 2 being basically a single pool, with stamina being safe to deplete and HP lowering stats correspondingly as it drops), doubt I'd play them now.

Considering sport watching people aren't usually... well, nice; I would say it's a smart choice. However, I do believe that just by reading the rules, you can't actually understand them without seeing their practical applications.

There were the Magic releases -- "Archenemy" that are team-vs-1, which were fun. Yes, someone is still the 1, but a good one will not be super competitive but try to maximize fun. Sadly, it didn't sell well, I don't think. (And there are plenty of other tabletop card games that cooperative play better, including not having randomized packs.)

EDIT: Anyway, this is a strong veer away from the original topic. To rehash my contributions:
* Good magic systems serve the story/game as wanted.
* Guild Wars is a good example. [Shame it's still only an MMO and not replicated in a legit game.]
* Depending on the genre I'm okay with "pick a color" magic.
* Slot-based magic like in D&D works because it is very convenient at the table, and is a good way to evoke the feeling of "vast tomes of spell books with narrow, niche spells for just when you need it" that a lot of people want. (Vs, e.g., point-based magic that can be troublesome to track at the table and leads to a few, broader, usually more generic, spells.) But points work fine in most video games!
* The desire for an inverted system where martial is stronger but limited, and magic is "trivial" (weak, but goes on and on).

You could try that Romancing SaGa 2 remake. I haven't played it (and probably won't for a while, as I am not willing to support DRM, and the original game has not been fully translated), but it is a SaGa game, and it should have the same type of mechanics. One notable aspect of that game is that you won't be using the same characters throughout the game; every now and then, a new generation starts, you get a new main character, and abilities learned by your old party can be easily given to the new party. (Two situations that can cause the new generation include the main character running out of LP and getting the bad endings of certain quests.)

I know nothing about that Scarlet Grace game.

(Incidentally, my tolerance for certain things differ from yours; I am not willing to buy games from DRM stores such as Steam, but I am willing to emulate, particularly if the game is old or if I already own the game in question; the SaGa 3 remake, which I am playing right now, falls into at least the taller category.)

the dnd ive seen the spell casters have the ability to spam low level cantrips for damage when they use up their spell slots. from a rp point of view that makes sense as big spells need time and concentration to pull off. from a players point of view its nice to be able to contribute once you've used up your spells.

in other games ive enjoyed spell casting based on mana rather than having to watch cool down timers on a crowded tool bar. the game becomes a click fest of watching the tool bar. immersion wise its nice to just fire away when you have full mana, like in the case of warrior with stamina. less clutter that way.

ive played games where they tried to emulate the casting and weaving needed by sorcerers by implementing long timers to get the spell off, which is cool but what ends up happening as a player you just spam the fastest burn spell.

its a quandry