Mastery

[Jazerus]

Mastery, as one of the forbidden arts, is a lot riskier to level up than most skills; I've even been expelled solely from demerits gained while trying to unlock all four subskills during a particularly nasty bit of RNG screw. However, the "big-ticket" spell, Master, is not worth the months spent leveling and researching. While controlling someone sounds cool, the practical limitations make it virtually useless. You're unable to pick locations/targets/etc. for NPC actions when you assign them through Mastery, which dramatically lowers the usefulness of Control and also contradicts the various pieces of Mastery-related lore in the game. You're entirely unable to do something such as force the character to Befriend you (rather than a random person), cast nasty spells at specific people, cast beneficial spells on you, etc. The only actions that you can guarantee their target for are self-applying, and how often are you going to control someone for their gain rather than yours? Also, the action Hypnotize is useless. The description implies that you can control them for a short time, but it's not possible to specify any action for an NPC on the day that your control expires; hypnotize never lasts for even a day past use, so it does nothing.

 

Devs, are these UI limitations, or were they simply overlooked? Or did you plan to make target-choosing part of the next stage of Mastery learned in Year 2? If so, it would probably be a good idea to make it clear in Year 1 that Master is not the '100% domination' described in lore.

 

The inability to influence professors makes a certain amount of sense, as they are far too powerful for our 13 year old selves to control, but some way of influencing classes and relationships with instructors might fit in with Mastery as well.

[Legate of Mineta]

Jazerus;

 

It's definitely the case that your powers related to Mastery will expand over the years. Although at the heights of your understanding of the magic in Year 1 you can influence your Targets, your level of control isn't fine-tuned and is more akin to a suggestion. This needs to be better represented in the Description, I agree.

 

Hypnotize, on the other hand, is definitely not intended and needs to be reworked.

 

Thanks!

[Jazerus]

Legate;

 

Thanks for the quick reply! I apologize if I came off as a bit harsher than I intended. I really think that you guys have created the core of what could be the most expansive and interesting life sim to date and I'm really interested in providing bits of constructive help to make that happen.

 

Since Mastery will expand later, perhaps renaming Master to Suggestion or something along those lines would more properly represent the scope of the present spell. Also, a spell to force someone into your clique would be much appreciated; that was honestly the reason I began studying Mastery in the first place, in the hopes that I could maintain essentially a pure spellcasting-skill character who would also be able to have a meaningful number of clique members. I don't know whether it's something that could be implemented in Year 1 or not, but it would certainly be nice to have a magical route to a large clique, as opposed to one based solely around the social skills.

[Legate of Mineta]

Jazerus;

 

You didn't come across as harsh at all: it was useful feedback.

 

I think in DLC 2 we can accommodate your wish for such a Spell.

 

Warning, though: large Cliques have their problems, and can be difficult to keep from breaking up....

[Torolf]

All these poor students out for world domination via Mastery, when doing it through Calligraphy is so much easier...

[Unwyrm]

There already is a spell for forcing someone into your clique.

I'm not sure whether this is something that belongs in the spoiler room, so read at your own risk:

 

 

Common Ground, which I believe comes from getting Infiltration to 11. You need a pheme from Mastery Methods 6 to cast it.