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Making spellcasters more challenging
Atreya33
Posts: 4,429 Member
I really enjoy playing spellcasters, but sometimes they feel a bit to cheaty. When I came across this thread about self imposed restrictions for university, I started to think about doing the same for spellcasters.
Basically I want to play spellcasters in such a way that they are not too easy. For now I am planning to
- limit the linear perks to one of the 3 available columns, for the other two, I won't get perks of rank 3 or above.
- have my sims specialize in one branch. The perk to have spells always succeed at normal charge for only one type of spell. (in case of my sim she only gets the Practiced Practicality perk and not the corresponding one for mischief or untamed)
- no copypasto on potions. If my sim wants a potion, she has to make it.
- don't use the potion of plentyful needs
Is anyone else following similar rules for their spellcaster or have other suggestions how to play spellcasters.
Basically I want to play spellcasters in such a way that they are not too easy. For now I am planning to
- limit the linear perks to one of the 3 available columns, for the other two, I won't get perks of rank 3 or above.
- have my sims specialize in one branch. The perk to have spells always succeed at normal charge for only one type of spell. (in case of my sim she only gets the Practiced Practicality perk and not the corresponding one for mischief or untamed)
- no copypasto on potions. If my sim wants a potion, she has to make it.
- don't use the potion of plentyful needs
Is anyone else following similar rules for their spellcaster or have other suggestions how to play spellcasters.
7
Comments
1.Sims can only learn new spells by finding the books on the library. No practice magic, no buying them from the shop, no asking the sages..
2. Sims can get as many perks as they want but you have to pick every perk before you proceed to the line above. If you go to the next line the third for ex you can no longer pick perks from the previous one..so if you are in a hurry to become superpowerful you must sacrifice some perks.
3. If your sim gets cursed he has to make the curse cleansing potion himself or he must learn the decursify spell the way described above. No asking others.
4. If you play with multiple spellcasters you can have duel each other once they reach a certain level until someone of them gets a curse..sort of a competition..also the battle continues even if someone of them gets overcharged.
5. You can try and collect all the artifacts by dueling other wizards.
Hmm... I agree with you that potion of plentiful needs is too easy so that one goes.
Still experimenting but I will probably let my sims have a cap on how many spells they can know. Unlock a tree or perhaps lots in one tree and a few in another but your sim will then only have lower-lvl spells. So I can have a little bit of variation on the spellcasters.
No copy pasto on potions, good rule.
Haven’t decided on what rules I want to have in game for studying potions. Will probably add something in that way later on.
thanks for sharing. I like the your first rule. I think I will also limit the ways to learn spells. No more buying spell books or practicing magic. It is interesting how you came up with a different way to limit perks. If I should ever go for a spellcaster having every perk, I will do it that way. I suppose I already followed your third rule about removing curses. I did not know sims could ask others.
@SilentKitty
I was mainly going for gameplay, not mods because I want to limit my mods to the absolute minimum, but it can't hurt to mention them in this thread. The mod to tweak the plentiful needs potion sounds interesting, I want to give that one a try. Would you be willing to give a link if you get to your pc (where I presume you have your links)
OK. Good to know. Thank you for elaborating.
Of course, on the flip side, I also have them use magic to take care of things around the house - Scruberoo gets used a lot. Not so much Repario, Delicioso, or Herbio, since those don't build the related skills. But Repario does get used if I need whatever it is fixed quickly. And Florialoral only is used to weed when the weather's nasty. And Transportalate is only on when there's a baby in the house, since it makes getting to said baby faster.
Sure thing, will post links next time I’m on it
I also limit what spells sims can learn, so only the strongest/smartest can use them. Anyone can learn the first spells, but the other spells require you to win tournaments, have certain skills, befriend certain sims, or earn their Witch's License. (Which is a little test I made in-game - basically, they need to learn how to make a potion, learn a spell from a sage, and win a duel.)
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
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I like the limit to enter the magic realm. I think I will also use a limit, although I am thinking of only allowing sims in charged stage to enter. (except for their very first trip to become a spellcaster, of course)
So no learning the last spell in each category, then? I didn't think about it earlier, but that spell you can only learn via asking the sages. Of course, considering that the practical one is Rite of Ascension, that does make a certain amount of sense too.
Sorry for being late with the links I said that I would post
Zero's Sims 4 MODS
https://www.patreon.com/user/posts?u=23229453&tag=RoM Mods
Zero has a lot of different mods for ROM, swing by and take a look. Here are some that I am using, note that I have not updated my game to the latest patch.
RoM - Slower Xp Gain and Perks cost More
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rom-slower-xp-29993810
RoM - Stay Ugly Longer
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rom-stay-ugly-29987694
Quick Mod For RoM 2 - no NPCs in and out the portal
https://www.patreon.com/posts/quick-mod-for-2-29870970
Bienchens Mods
https://deichschafblog.de/bienchen/reich-der-magie-realm-of-magic/
invisiblefamiliarbuff - Sims will not get constantly confident when having a familiar.
I've had Realm of Magic since it came out, but I haven't played a whole bunch outside of a few test saves with it because of how easy it is, which makes it boring. I was really hoping to plan a whole generation of my legacy around Realm of Magic, but there isn't enough content in that pack to do so. I'm thinking of making it a Seasons content + RoM content generation, since I haven't done the gardener career and other Seasons related content outside of holidays yet in my legacy.
It'd also be really awesome if someone made a specific challenge for Sims 4 Spellcasters to make playing with them a lot harder. I haven't found anything like that so far, so I really appreciate everything everyone mentioned here already! I could possibly hybrid a lot of these ideas together for one of my legacy's generations.
I like to write my own rules/goals for each generation of my legacy, or pull a generation out of a different themed legacy challenge and make it the focus of one of mine (like I plan on doing the Mint generation only of not-so-berry at some point). So if there ever was a proper Spellcaster challenge made I'd love to stitch it onto my existing legacy.
I am currently playing with my first main-sim as a spellcaster. Had to wait until I got the right story going.
Hmm....You could have a bit of Lore like "As a side-effect, magic interferes with the operation of electrical or electronic devices; its severity depending on the complexity of the device and the amount of ambient magic" likein the Dreseden Files.
https://dresdenfiles.fandom.com/wiki/Magic
Then any spellcaster would have to devote time and energy to the Off-The-Grid life. All the power of the universe, but don't forget to get ice for the fridge. And doing laundry by hand.... You can be as high and mighty as you like, you still have to do laundry by hand on Thursday. We just got a bunch of stuff for Off-The-Grid in the latest pack so that would be nice.
That's a nice idea for whenever I get around to buying that pack. If I ever get it, that is. The NAPs are still glitchy where someone from Willow Creek can just show up and swipe everything in the local bar because NPCs in a neighborhood there voted for Sharing is Caring. So I'll maybe get that on sale sometime in the future after that's been patched, and even then it's not top on my list of things I'd like. There's some interesting things in it but I'm just not a big fan of watching my sims do chores all the time, unless it's a rags to riches, which I already did in Gen 1 and I don't want to make a new family. Though maybe my sims could lose their fortune in some sort of deal or a magic duel bet and have to live off the grid because they're homeless. But there's older packs I'd rather play through first before I get to something like that.