One common mechanic in fantasy RPGs (and sometimes fantasy non-RPGs) is that characters have a resource called MP, which is used to cast spells. The question is, how easy should it be to restore that resource?
* Should MP regenerate on its own, or should the player be required to go to an inn? (Or, an in-between approach is to allow resting in the middle of a dungeon or similar area, something you commonly see in WRPGs but not in JRPGs (except at save points).)
* Should there be MP restoring items, and if so, how common should they be?
* Should there be abilities that characters can learn that would allow characters to regenerate MP, or to regain MP in certain situations? Should those abilities be self-only, or should it be possible to use them to restore the MP of allies?

Edit: Why the low rating? What do people have against game design topics on a video game discussion board?

That really depends on the kind of game you have in mind. If you want a fast-paced game with less resource management, auto-regeneration is a valid option. If you want more resource management, mana-restoring items are the way to go. If you limit those severely, and maybe only allow resting in few and far between spots, the game becomes more survival-like, and the players have to plan ahead more and weigh their risks (Go back to rest? Or push forward in the hopes to find a good spot?).

One thing to consider is: Is it a single-character game, or a party-based game. In a game with a single character, who is maybe a pure mage, there need to be enough replenishing options they don't run out easily - otherwise the player can get soft-locked.
In a party based game with different roles, or in a game where the character is a hybrid mage/fighter there are other options for the player when he hits OOM.

Slow regeneration, plus restoring items that a player can farm or craft. Passive abilities that speed up MP regeneration for mages are fine, the ability for one character to restore MP of another is overkill in my opinion.

(Assuming "traditional" RPG/jRPG and not sRPG that is very different.)

No regenerating on its own. Regeneration events/points. Slow regeneration means "waste player time while 'mp stroll' works its magic". Refreshing items? Cheap, plentiful, but low effect is where I've often had the most fun when they're around. Refreshing abilities? "MP steal" is fun, but it can lead to battles "I can't kill it until I fill up!", leading to feelsbad moments. So I'd prefer a set X after kills or X after battle type. MP sharing can be a problem in a lot of games, where a "hybrid" type character doesn't really utilize its MP (or doesn't as player set it) and it just becomes a battery to share it with other party members.

I prefer MP-efficiency type powers: "less MP cost if you hit a target with an element that is not resisted or its weakness" or "this spell costs half the MP if you're healing a target that is less than half its maximum HP".

(If y'all haven't been paying attention: I'm a guy who likes my dungeons to require resource maintenance to get to the end crawling with what you have left. Comes from my tabletop roots. FF4 when you have Tellah was great. He had tons of spells and a sad pittance of MP!)

Agree with toxicTom. It depends on your game. Specifically, lore (if applicable), how much resource management, what you want the player to do, type of players you in mind, and how it's executed,

FF:4HOL, Bravely Default 1 and 2, and Cosmic Star Heroine (CSH) are case examples of MP regeneration. In the first two, you use the action or brave point system where you use or replenish your MP to physically attack or use spells in each battle. You can defend to accumulate points to use for bigger spells. And don't have to worry about managing MP afterwards.

In CSH, you can only use your items and skills once per battle with soft and hard MP skills. The overpowered skills are a permanent one skill per battle. And the minor skills can only be used once or twice before needing to "defend" to restore the usage of them again. Usually this would slow the pace of battles where you have to act and wait repeatedly. But with CSH, it rewards you for playing strategically where timing your attacks on a specific turn count gives higher damage multipliers. I definitely would not use this MP regeneration system in a real-time action game like Dishonored, though.

Going to an inn is the default option. The only time I've seen poor execution of this is in FF2 where inn costs are proportional to the HP and MP healed. And I exploited the hell out of this by prehealing all my characters first so I only had to pay to just heal my MP.

If you have MP restoring items, I'd make sure to make them plentiful enough or buyable to encourage its usage. I suspect many players play too cautiously and end up hoarding them even in the final battle. Design Doc does a good video essay about item hoarding mechanic. And if you're making them plentiful, I'd readjust magic or skill damage to be proportional to how plentiful they are through encounter rates and battle difficulties.

Games allowing MP regeneration depends on the balance of the game. If MP-based actions are significantly more stronger than physical attacks, then I wouldn't allow skills to replenish MP. But up to you.

Personally, I'm a big fan of removing resource management from the game. As a cautious grinder, resource management is more of a nuisance than it is a gameplay feature. I never have to worry about most FF dungeons as I hoard MP restoring items and tents / cottages anyway. FF13 trilogy's battle system, Cosmic Star Heroine, and other games like Xenoblade Chronicles that replace MP with ability or item cooldown are examples of battle systems done right in modern times for me. Since your HP/MP are restored after every battle, every battle can be made difficult or challenging to overcome without having to spam attack commands.

SaGa 1-3 do this as well, though SaGa 1 and 2 (and 3 remake) only charge for HP. (These games, except original SaGa 3, don't have MP. There are, however, skills (available to non-humans) that recover their uses at the inn for free, which allows for the exploit you mention if you have a healing ability handy, which is really easy to get in SaGa 2 if you have an Esper.) "Sing" is a really nice ability even earlier in the series, as it lets you get some interesting non-damaging effects without using up any resource. Granted, the early FF implementations of this ability (in 2D FF3 and FF4) were terrible, but the 3D remake made those abilities quite useful. (Edward is no longer as useless as he was originally!)

If you want to make your game special, just don't implement any recovery at all, spell power is permanently fixed and can't be restored. And when it drops to zero, your wizard dies.
Or maybe have it restorable only by some truly vile means, like sacrificing innocent virgins to demons, so it becomes a difficult choice for good players.

Not a fan of MP myself. I'd rather have either extremely powerful spells in limited quantities (like DnD) or less powerful spells that can either be cast at will or require just a brief cooldown.

Thanks for the heads up. Still traumatized from 10 to go back to Spira again. This is interesting to know, thank you. If you are making a game, it's nice to know I can experience SaGa in a way without DRM.

GMTK made a very informative video about designers following the fun or failing faster: I'd prototype and experiment with different ideas, listen to how the game responds and how fun it is, and then go all-in on that idea. It's pretty much expected for indie games and the innovation that results anyway. Coincidentally, they also made a video essay about responding to [negative] player feedback regarding certain mechanics too. There's way too much focus on easy user solutions and it's be more creative to address problematic mechanics your own way instead. This is a great idea. I think Othercide does this where you have to sacrifice your daughters to heal your stronger daughters.

Why use mana points in the first place? :) Usage per day or intelligently designed ability cooldown might be a good alternative. It simplifies things because there's no need for inventory micromanagement of mana potions. This can be an advantage or disadvantage. It depends how we perceive these mechanics.

If I had to choose the optimal solution within the MP area however, I'd take a slow regeneration of MP with the option to speed it up with mana potions. Diablo 1 didn't have MP regeneration and the pace of the game suffered heavily when playing with a wizard class. What more the game was a lot harder when using this class. The mana potions should be quite easily accessible to provide the appropriate flow of the game. There's no fun in (role-)playing a wizard if you can't cast spells!

The Alliance Alive HD Remaster is available on GOG, and its combat and growth systems are similar to what you'd expect from the SaGa series. (Note that the game's structure is more typical JRPG, though the game actually has a world map, unlike so many other modern JRPGs.)

Also, I stumbled across a free little indie game on itch.io called Rxcovery, which also uses SaGa-like growth mechanics.

Uses per day isn't really different from having MP that recovers at the inn (which is when "uses per day" would recover, anyway).

This is a valid statement, and it's something that needs to be balanced when including magic-focused characters.

One option might be to make it so that only some spells require resources, or make it so that some spells only use a resource that regenerates quickly, perhaps faster than weaker (but still useful) spells deplete it. Another would be to have MP not easily restorable, but make it plentiful so that it won't run out even if you use magic all the times. (See Rune from Phantasy Star 4 for an example of this, maybe Hahn as well. PS4 is also interesting in that it has TP using techniques (which behave like MP using spells) but also has skills that have individual use counts that recover at the inn.)

Some games, like Dragon Quest 2 and later, and Final Fantasy 1/3/4 (and maybe 2 remake), have items that can be used to cast spells infinitely. Others (like Wizardry 1) have items that have a chance of breaking, or (like Bard's Tale 2) have charges. (Fire Emblem (not Gaiden/Echoes) even goes further and makes such charged items the *only* way to cast spells, and we see a similar mechanic in early SaGa as well.

Or, there's Paladin's Quest and its sequel, where spells use HP, and HP can easily be restored with healing bottles, with free healing being available later. (Actually, in Paladin's Quest, the female sidekick gets a helmet early on that acts as a free self-heal item.)

This literally happens in Eschalon. See, because the game was designed by someone completely mad with no regard towards balance.

So mages, rangers, and many play types get absolutely shafted, because the resource regeneration is awful.



Main Topic: As Tom says, it does depend, but I'd prefer situations where "shuffle about aimlessly" or "crawl out the dungeon" are your only two options to regen MP. Even if it was a soft cap until you teleported away to town, "Quaff the Energy Potion" shouldn't be the main strat outside of battle/battle prep.

depends completely on what kind of game it is