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Barehanded Casters?
Anyone know of any MMO's out there were i can be a caster class without resorting to using a staff, wand, orb, scepter etc?
I just want to play a Caster that casts spells from his hand(s). Kinda like Skyrim does it, for a recent comparison. Im fine with having rings or bracers etc as an equip-replacement for the normal weapons. I'm just tired of beeing a caster that uses a stat stick for no good reason.
Rift was ok you at least used that to cast the spells with, but other then that most other mmos just uses them as a "put on your back for stats". So.. anything out there? So far the only few games where this has been possible is Champions Online and Ultima Online. (as far as i can remember right now)
Comments
Would be hard to find because that would mean you would be passing on 1-2 "stat sticks" that other classes have.
TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development
I think this is something missing with MMORPGs.
Customization choices that make each player unique to themselves among the same class of players.
So, for your example, a fantasy game should allow for a caster that focuses less on casting implements (wands, staves, ect) to focus on incantations and symbolism (free hands). Or, you can choose to focus on material components or mental/blood magic.
The same can go across all other classes, like the differences between warriors, ninjas, and paladins.
The reasoning behind why you don't see this, I think, is the amount of work involved in implementing the wide array of choices that one can come up with due to resources and time available to the developers.
Unfortunately, developers must pick favorites to fit their budgets and a hand caster is not considered "popular".
MMOs Played: I can no longer list them all in the 500 character limit.
Pretty much you're best bet are superhero MMOs (Champions Online, City of Heroes / Villains, DC Universe, etc.)
The problem you're running into is that things like staves / spell books / etc. are pretty much staples of traditional fantasy. And as magic is basically a traditional part of fantasy, the two kind of go hand in hand. The influence goes back to early D&D, Lord of the Rings, etc.
There are exceptions, but I'm not sure how many of them are still around. I remember there was a pvp game where you could sling spells w/ out a weapon, but I doubt that's what you would be looking for even if it was still online. There's also monks in WoW (not ideal, but they do have spells), ninjas in FFXIV (again not ideal, and they use daggers so they aren't bare-handed).
You may also look into some of the asian F2P MMOs. A lot of them have quirky classes that don't always fall into standard western fantasy tropes.
- Other than that, I dunno what to tell ya. What you're asking for is similar to someone asking if there are any FPS games that don't involve guns. The answer may be 'yes', but they are very much in the minority.
Cheers, but had that game since early access.
But thats a good one aswell!
OP totally understand where you are coming from, with Skyrim, and Oblivion for that matter, magic was a really fun thing, it surprised the hell out of me that they dropped it from ESO, if they hadn't i'd probably have stayed with the game
Not many games really do magic without resorting to sticks and orbs or magic books etc, which is a shame, too often its limitations from the game itself, either because the weapon is used to define your class, in the case of FFXIV;ARR where you have to enable a 'stave' of whatever type to enable you to be a white mage, black mage etc. even WoW does to a degree, though.. come to think of it, i think you can still cast all your spells without having any weapons in hand in WoW, though it would probably nerf your toon a bit because of the stat losses.
Would be good to see a game that really did handle magic that well tbh, too often your lumbered with something that either belongs in one of those magical girl anime's or its an outsized piece of lumber that wouldn't be too far amiss in a caber toss.
Some I can think of have been mentioned already but I'll add my voice to them and throw in a couple others that might fit the bill.
1. The Secret World - There are a few weapons that don't focus on a stat stick that would give you magic like abilities. You choose two weapons and you pick abilities (passive and active) from their trees. Blood, Elemental, Chaos, and Fist all could scratch your magic itch in some form or another. Or you could go with Pistols, Rifles, Shotguns, Hammers, etc. which would give a different fighting style and mix them with more magic focused weapons.
2. Champions Online - There are a lot of powers that are obviously magic and a lot that could be thought of as magic. You have the ability to color the various effects, have auras, and huge variety of "costume". Picture what you think a cool character would look like and with some experimentation in the character builder you can do it.
3. Neverwinter - The Scourge Warlock, Control Wizard, and Devoted Cleric use magic and don't use a staff, but do have other focus items as a stat stick. The Control Wizard for instance has a little floating orb that hovers near their hand.
4. Guild Wars 2 - The Elementalist has a variety of weapons they can use each of which gives them a different set of skills. Staff is one of them, but there's also daggers, scepter, etc.
5. Star Wars the Old Republic - Light sabers and the force instead of a staff.
6. Lord of the Rings Online - The Runekeeper has magic but doesn't use a staff, instead having these little runes that you rarely see. The Bard has some magic abilities and uses a lute.
Whew... there are a ton more I imagine. That's all I can think of off the top of my head.