Remove ads

The Lighthouses and the Pit (Fantasy Mage Quest)

Reader mode
[X] Sold me to a Trader

Don't care about the Orange Lighthouse as much as about others and I'd rather play as a greedy character than other options.
 
[x] Tossed Me Out At Birth

Now that's green lighthouse is out of options, I'd better go for a yellow/Shaderunner mage. And it sounds like Fear is what's needed for that specialty.
 
I personally don't like the magic options offered by the cities light house and would prefer either runecrafter of fireeye.
 
[x] Attempted Ascension

Either this or the Trader, since both are really interesting to me. I'd go with being thrown out for the chance of showing our family up later but the physical weakness hurts too much.
 
Last edited:
[X] Attempted Ascension

I like this option the best story wise. Our parents gave it all in a lighthouse and now we are driven to do the same. I'm curious how much these starting emotions effect our powers and how easy they are to change in the game. Since these emotions seem tied to the magic of a lighthouse.
 
drake_azathoth said:
I'm not keen on the Darkling thing. Stealth magic, precognition, and effect-stealing are all awesome.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Keep in mind the first two sound awesome, but grant very few direct combat benefits. Given how popular Ascension is, I'll argue against the Yellow Lighthouse (it seems to be very popular) and for Blue before moving on.

Firstly, precognition is not Worm-style awesome precog where you get percentage chances or amazing future sight, or powerful combat precog where it tells you what to do. It's more of a situational 'how does this play out if I do it in the next few hours' sort of thing, alongside the occasional thirty-second look ahead. It's still very powerful as any future sight is (it will require a more cautious approach to doing things in-game, a Glimpse can't just rush in, ever) but if you get caught on the plains against some Darklings and don't foresee it, you're just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Stealth magic likewise is good, but isn't perfect. You might be able to hide from one sense early on (and doing sight would be a huge strain you could only manage from a relatively small while), and the number increases as you gain skills, but if you're found, you're a squishy regular human.

Effect-stealing has a huge hole in it - you either need to fight other mages (very dangerous, likely to make you an outlaw and hunted by humanity), or trade with them. Which means you need to buy spells off them, which means you need to either trade spells between cities (a common use of the effect-stealing) or go make money some other way.

Blue on the other hand has three powers. Watersingers can move fast along rivers and the coastline, and if you get skilled enough you can carry water with you permanently, moving at high speeds all the time. A powerful Watersinger can also move a *lot* of water at high speed, enough to wash enemies away en masse. It's not very directly in combat, but has high utility.

Stormchasers are probably the most powerful offensive mages. Fireeyes can make walls of fire and things of that nature (giving them more defensive utility), and Coldhands are more defensive in general (ice walls, ice shells, etc). A Stormchaser can summon lightning, which has one major advantage. It's instantaneous, meaning missing is tough. You hit things, they go down. It has no real defensive or mobility potential, but the sheer raw offensive power is huge.

Lastly, Runesmiths are probably the weakest characters directly, but they're probably somewhat comparable to Tinkers in Worm. They can make a lot of stuff, though most of it is single-use at low levels. They augment, but can also build stuff for various situations. If they have prep time and foreknowledge, they're very very strong.
 
Last edited:
tbh the only ability from the blue tower that excites me is watersinging
shooting lightning is cool but otherwise useless. smithing is cool but like... I don't really want to be a smith in this quest. It would pair damn well with stealth or prescience and that one blade thing but i dunno
 
occipitallobe said:
Keep in mind the first two sound awesome, but grant very few direct combat benefits. Given how popular Ascension is, I'll argue against the Yellow Lighthouse (it seems to be very popular) and for Blue before moving on.

Firstly, precognition is not Worm-style awesome precog where you get percentage chances or amazing future sight, or powerful combat precog where it tells you what to do. It's more of a situational 'how does this play out if I do it in the next few hours' sort of thing, alongside the occasional thirty-second look ahead. It's still very powerful as any future sight is (it will require a more cautious approach to doing things in-game, a Glimpse can't just rush in, ever) but if you get caught on the plains against some Darklings and don't foresee it, you're just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Stealth magic likewise is good, but isn't perfect. You might be able to hide from one sense early on (and doing sight would be a huge strain you could only manage from a relatively small while), and the number increases as you gain skills, but if you're found, you're a squishy regular human.

Effect-stealing has a huge hole in it - you either need to fight other mages (very dangerous, likely to make you an outlaw and hunted by humanity), or trade with them. Which means you need to buy spells off them, which means you need to either trade spells between cities (a common use of the effect-stealing) or go make money some other way.

Blue on the other hand has three powers. Watersingers can move fast along rivers and the coastline, and if you get skilled enough you can carry water with you permanently, moving at high speeds all the time. A powerful Watersinger can also move a *lot* of water at high speed, enough to wash enemies away en masse. It's not very directly in combat, but has high utility.

Stormchasers are probably the most powerful offensive mages. Fireeyes can make walls of fire and things of that nature (giving them more defensive utility), and Coldhands are more defensive in general (ice walls, ice shells, etc). A Stormchaser can summon lightning, which has one major advantage. It's instantaneous, meaning missing is tough. You hit things, they go down. It has no real defensive or mobility potential, but the sheer raw offensive power is huge.

Lastly, Runesmiths are probably the weakest characters directly, but they're probably somewhat comparable to Tinkers in Worm. They can make a lot of stuff, though most of it is single-use at low levels. They augment, but can also build stuff for various situations. If they have prep time and foreknowledge, they're very very strong.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Wait, the shadow-runners do do the teleportation thing, right? Have I wildly misinterpreted this?
 
I don't want to be a smith that only smiths for ourselves only.

I actually prefer Orange Lighthouse, become Fleshcrafter, the Healer. Rare and useful, combat is not going to be a thing for us to deal eith. And I don't think SV's played a Healer yet, period.
 
occipitallobe said:
Keep in mind the first two sound awesome, but grant very few direct combat benefits. Given how popular Ascension is, I'll argue against the Yellow Lighthouse (it seems to be very popular) and for Blue before moving on.

Firstly, precognition is not Worm-style awesome precog where you get percentage chances or amazing future sight, or powerful combat precog where it tells you what to do. It's more of a situational 'how does this play out if I do it in the next few hours' sort of thing, alongside the occasional thirty-second look ahead. It's still very powerful as any future sight is (it will require a more cautious approach to doing things in-game, a Glimpse can't just rush in, ever) but if you get caught on the plains against some Darklings and don't foresee it, you're just as vulnerable as anyone else.

Stealth magic likewise is good, but isn't perfect. You might be able to hide from one sense early on (and doing sight would be a huge strain you could only manage from a relatively small while), and the number increases as you gain skills, but if you're found, you're a squishy regular human.

Effect-stealing has a huge hole in it - you either need to fight other mages (very dangerous, likely to make you an outlaw and hunted by humanity), or trade with them. Which means you need to buy spells off them, which means you need to either trade spells between cities (a common use of the effect-stealing) or go make money some other way.

Blue on the other hand has three powers. Watersingers can move fast along rivers and the coastline, and if you get skilled enough you can carry water with you permanently, moving at high speeds all the time. A powerful Watersinger can also move a *lot* of water at high speed, enough to wash enemies away en masse. It's not very directly in combat, but has high utility.

Stormchasers are probably the most powerful offensive mages. Fireeyes can make walls of fire and things of that nature (giving them more defensive utility), and Coldhands are more defensive in general (ice walls, ice shells, etc). A Stormchaser can summon lightning, which has one major advantage. It's instantaneous, meaning missing is tough. You hit things, they go down. It has no real defensive or mobility potential, but the sheer raw offensive power is huge.

Lastly, Runesmiths are probably the weakest characters directly, but they're probably somewhat comparable to Tinkers in Worm. They can make a lot of stuff, though most of it is single-use at low levels. They augment, but can also build stuff for various situations. If they have prep time and foreknowledge, they're very very strong.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Don't get me wrong, I love the idea of slinging enormous lightning bolts or smashing people in the face with water.

It's just that I rarely see a hero whose motivation is fundamentally hopeful over all other alternatives. Hope as a driving force is something I don't see every day, and certainly not done well.

If I could have a hopeful hero who echews the powers of the Yellow Lighthouse, I'd do it in a heartbeat. It's definitely my least favorite of the set. (Maybe they don't think hiding or seeing the future will do much good? It's hard to have Hope as a central theme when you're hiding away or capable of seeing thirty seconds into the future, rendering it a certainty rather than a possibility)
 
Re: Attempted Ascension -> Orange Lighthouse -> Fleshcrafter

It really does makes sense. We are a hopeful child, one truly loved, and our mother died of infection - Healing would have stopped that, and Hope is intrinsictly tied to Healing; It is logically, perfectly so. So much so that I think I'm voting for Orange Lighthouse and Fleshcrafter when it comes up.
 
I'm beginning to suspect that - More than simply determining powers, the personality and emotions of a person also determines success or failure. Hubristic Orothia failed at the Indigo and was supposed to die, but instead killed the Lighthouse; The Last Emperor also screwed everything up.
 
Shard said:
I'm beginning to suspect that - More than simply determining powers, the personality and emotions of a person also determines success or failure. Hubristic Orothia failed at the Indigo and was supposed to die, but instead killed the Lighthouse; The Last Emperor also screwed everything up.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I'm just kind of entertained that the color/emotion setup presently locks the avaricious character out of Orange and the hopeful one out of Blue.

This is some kind of reverse Green Lantern Emotional Spectrum stuff here.
 
How much we want to bet that the lighthouses represent either the virtues or the vices?
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top