Template(Magic): High Human(Secret Background)

Base Stats:

Level: 0(0%) Health 100(Rec 5) Mana 210(Rec 7)

Str 10 Dex 10 Con 10

Cha 14 Wis 14 Int 21

Mem 14

Stat Points: 0(35)

Skill Points 0 Archetype Points 4

Ability Points 8 Template Points 4

I suppose I should explain. We were given the same info that a regular player would get in the public release plus extra for bonus template features. M60 as one of the earliest ever VRMMOs, perhaps a bit too early financially for the company, stuck to a relatively simple character system. If you are an old fart you might have played Dungeons And Dragons, and the system was roughly based on that as you can guess from the stat names.

Ability points correspond roughly to "Feats" in D&D while Template points might be similar to backgrounds or domains or something like that. Templates are sort of like classes or archetypes although in the case of Secret Backgrounds they are a bit more comprehensive and pretty unique. I was given a Secret Background as part of a lottery and it was a very strong one. Not only did I have special template talents but I had access to special NPC interactions and so forth.

I really prefer to do crafting in RPG games but you can't always get what you want. M60 was a little early on to go full sandbox and run players farms and forges and all that, just a little bit more combat oriented than I prefer, but you don't get to pick the company who gives you an all expense paid 8 month VR deepdive. Even worse, my Secret Background was actually magic focused. Sure I wasn't a fighter, and magic classes had some synergy with crafting but not ideal.

Now every character gets access to the basic template features. Base stats are typically around 8 for all characters and then you select a template and assign points to other factors. My template and its points were pre-assigned as I had a special class. Since the system was loosely inspired by D&D you could gain new templates in the game in various ways. In the public release you would need to gain access to the special templates in game from actions or quests or other methods.

While my stat pointswere assigned automatically my other points were not, so I'll go over what I did any why. As a magic archetype High Humans gain access to the standard magic template options as well. A basic magic class like a Wizard would get Arcanist and probably another unique tier 1 skill, while Warlocks would get Summoning and Regresser. I'll highlight the basic template options in a different color.

Here were the choices I had:

High Human Template Talents|

Metamagic(Tier 1): A master of higher magic, beyond ordinary practioners, you can boost components of spells to create shock and surprise

Chronomancy(Tier 1): A master of time magic, you can create unique positive and negative effects and achieve diverse results to make up for personal or party weaknesses

Gravity(Tier 2): A master of weight and movement, gravity and other forces are your allies, providing unique effects which ignore standard protections

Arcane(Tier 2): A master of arcane magic, which lacks an elemental alignment, versatile and with some unique effects but not as strong at pure damage spells and lacking the benefit of significantly countering an opposing alignment

A typical high mage might have access to Arcane and Metamagic after years of study but as a high human I got them at the start, as well as two powerful fields of magic to go with them. Another major boost was my bonus to selection points and skill points. Selection points allow you to take spells or skills.

Skill points allow you to level them. Ability points are for Template Features. After your initial Feat selection you get 1 per 5 levels. As a "Secret Background Template" I gain an extra Ability point on levels that end in 5 but not those that end in 0. You gain 2 skill points per level. You gain 1 selection point per level. They are not split into Template and Archetype outside of Character set up or gaining a new Template. You also receive 2 stat points per level.

Thaumaturgy(Tier 4): A Talent focused on elemental damage, with access to all the basic elements but a small scope within each element

Illusion(Tier 3): A Talent focused on light and sound magic and their interactions, with a small ability in sonic damage and light based buffs and debuffs

Abjuring(Tier 4): A Talent focused on defense and clearing debuffs but with little offensive capacity

Vitamancy(Tier 4): A talent focused on buffing and support spells with a wide scope but weak intensity

Letharmancy(Tier 4): A talent focused on weakening and diminishing enemies with wide scope and weak focus

The magic schools are distilled from tabletop but they are like most talents more focused than tabletop magic. Most basic magic Talents are quite weak and I chose to focus only on Illusion. I would end up learning some Tier 3 magic skills through training but I focused my Templates primarily on those with Tier 1 or 2 Talents.

The options I had for Features were as follows:

High Human Ability Options:

Manawell: Your soul innately magical, boost your mana recovery by 50%

Highmage: 50% boost to metamagic spell effects

Bloodmage: Pay damage spell costs from health and add +20% damage

Charismatic: NPCs regard you as having 1 level more reputation than you do

Thoughtcaster: Ignore Silence and Restraint debuffs for the purposes of magic at a 50% cost penalty

Manaboost: Double recovery of pools but cap Mana at 50% max for 4 hours

Tricaster: Cast 3 spells simultaenously but become silenced for their combined casting time afterwards

Enigmatic: Gain an extra selection point per level in a magical talent

Of the High Human options I took Enigmatic, Highmage, Manawell, and Charismatic. I planned to grab Tricaster and Thoughcaster when I had more magical options available.

Magic Archetype Ability Options:

Manapurge: Cancel 1 debuff for double the mana cost

Spellfocus(Talent): Ignore 20% of enemy magic resistance for spells from one talent

Cantrips: You can cast basic utility spells like Light, Cleanse Water, Clean, and Mend regardless of Talents

Longevity: Your spell durations increase 20%

Identify: You can determine the nature of items based on your Mem

Arcana: You can determine the nature of enchantments, runes, and environmental effects based on Wis

Concentration: Your save on disruption when casting is doubled

For the Magic options I took Longevity, Cantrips, and Arcana.

Basic Ability Options:

Perception: See items, traps, doors, monsters, and players as though you had 20% intelligence

Linguist: Speak the common languages of the world and thus gain bonuses to reputation and bonus dialogue

Persuasive: Gain a bonus to interactions and cheaper costs

Geographer: Be aware of the world and its important locations

Historian: Know the history of the world

Skilled: Gain 5 skill points

Cook: Get more from food benefits

Alert: Engage faster with circumstances

From the basic options I took Perception.

Now we get to the key aspect. Selection points. What kinds of spells do I want to focus on early? Here are the options for my 4 Template selections:

Chronomancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Timestop: Stasis 4s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Stagnation: Slow 5s | single target | ranged 20ft |Cast 2s | 40 mana

Quicken: Haste 5s | self | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Accelerate: Haste 5s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s |40 mana

Haste and Slow are opposing effects which function the same except for the polarity. +/- 1 Cast time, +50%/-25% move speed, +/- 1 attack time. Cast time and attack time can't drop below 1 second regardless of effects except when a spell explicitly grants instant cast.

Metamagic Phase 1 Spell List:

Reach: Boost Range: 10ft | 4 spells| Cast 2s | 1.25x spell cost

Focus: Shorten Cast Time: -1s | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 1.25x spell cost

Boost: Increase Damage: 50% | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 1.75x spell cost

Extend: Increase Duration: 25% | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 1.5x spell cost

Gravimancy Phase 1 Spell List:

Lockdown: Root 4s | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Yank: Move 40ft | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Burden: Weight 8s | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | 50 mana

Weight is an effect slowing move speed by 25%. It has an opposite Lift, that boosts move speed by 50%. Like Haste and Slow, Weight and Lift can't be modified, even by Metamagic. Their movespeed effects stack multiplicatively. Being under Slow and Weight degrades movespeed to 56.25%. Being under Lift and Haste increases it from 150% to 225%.

Arcane Phase 1 Spell List:

Arcane Usurption: Ignore Type Disadvantage | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Endowment: +4 mana cost _ +4 damage _ +8% damage | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Stupefaction: Stun 5s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Stun is superior to Stasis in a lot of ways. Stasis puts a target outside of time. Time doesn't move and you can't interact at all. Stun allows time to move forward and you can both unstun allies and continue to target enemies. Both have their pluses and minuses. Stun is generally more useful. For instance Stasis is pointless in a fight with 1 enemy in most cases. Arcane is to some degree a poor man's Metamagic but they synergize well. And Stun of course is quite useful. Tier 1 Talents have 4 abilities at Phase 1, Tier 2 have 3. Tier 3 has 4 but they are weaker and Tier 4 also has 3 but they are generally much less powerful than Tier 2.

I can only pick 4 options right now from my Template skills/spells. I go with Quicken(Haste) for obvious reasons and also Arcane Stupefaction(Stun). I also take Stagnation(Slow) and Lockdown(Root/AoE). I don't, ironically for a master mage, actually have any Template based damage spells which is why I took Control and not Enhancement spells. In theory I could take Thaumaturgy spells but Tier 4 is pretty mediocre. But I might be better off waiting for Phase 2 Arcane and taking Arcane Missile or even trying to find a free Talent. At my level Control plus physical attacks is still an acceptable option. Hard choices.

Here are my spell options for Illusion:

Illusion Phase 1 Spell List:

Copy Self: Clone 8s | self | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 25 mana

Mesmerize: Sleep 5s |single target| ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 20 mana

Distract: Concealed 4s | group | Cast 1s | 50 mana

Charming: CHA +5 | self | Perk

Illusion is actually a mixed Talent. It has both combat and social options. Distract is purely social while Copy Self works in both areas. Mesmerize is also a split. Of course casting mind magic is considered morally worse than Distract which is used on the environment. Sleep is a lesser form of Stun in most cases. Damaging spells will wake up the target. Debuffs typically won't. Obviously I take all 3 of these, since I really have nothing better to do. Sadly I can't save selection points since they don't evolve into skill points. Charming is a bit mediocre, being Tier 3. Skill points can't be used on Perks but they do benefit from increasing the Phase of a Talent. For Perks a Phase Boost is +50% rounded up. So I'd end up with 5/8/12/18 extra Charm at the highest Phase. Not terrible but not amazing. However I don't want any tier 4 spells, especially from Archetype talents, so I might as well.

So now my character is fully created and it is time to spawn. Secret Background characters get unique spawns. I'll also spawn with some gear. In my case I get basic clothes and a Wizard's Staff. This staff is an inferior form of the staff I'll get if I enroll in the Guild Of Mages. I deal attack damage equal to strength + 5 + 1/4 INT. This is great since I didn't have any decent damage spell options and so didn't take any damage spells. I'll save you trouble on the math, 10+5+5=20. I can at least fight weaker monsters this way.

I suppose we have time for my to explain stats right now. You get health equal to CON*10 as your base and you get +CON health per level. INT works the same for mana. Mana Recovery is WIS/2 and health recovery is CON/20. These are both per second. Only sentient enemies have recovery. For non-sentient creatures/monsters those who can recover have explicit values under the "Regeneration" ability. Sentients can also have Regeneration, though.

MEM is used for knowledge checks as well as forming a cap for magic abilities and it affects crafting. Non-magic skills have no cap beyond selection points. STR and DEX handle damage of various kinds. INT handles magic damage. Also INT > WIS for spell saves. Armor blunts physical damage. There are also separate "Mitigation" stats for % physical and magic damage reduction. If enemy WIS is above INT you deal half damage. 2x above is 25%. INT 2x above WIS halves magic resistance/mitigation. Stats are also added to skill checks D&D style. There are spells, perks, and other modifiers that add or subtract stats in specific interactions as well. Something like +20% WIS on spell saves or something.

Experience requirements double each level. You gain 10% more or less per level below or above an enemy. It starts at 100. Once you pass Level 10 it becomes +50%. It becomes +25% at level 20 and then +10% at level 50.

I enter the game in a dark wood around mid day. I definitely want to be out of it by dark or at least find shelter. While later in the beta test I would enter truly unnatural environments of various kinds this was just a typical dark forest. I wandered around a bit looking for some kind of terrain feature likely to lead me out of the woods.

Then my boosted Perception triggered. Wolves. Shit. I saw them first so I had time to prep. 2v1 time. Lucky I didn't hit more.

Forest Wolf LV 1 25 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 40/s

Skills: Slash: 10 damage | Bite: 15 damage

Wolves were fast so there was no chance of running. Ah well, its an RPG so fighting is a big part. Wolves were damn fast so I couldn't rely on slows or kiting. They would be on me 1 second after I cast my first spell at them.

Here are my spells as a refresher:

Stagnation: Slow 5s | single target | ranged 20ft |Cast 2s | 40 mana

Quicken: Haste 5s | self | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Lockdown: Root 4s | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Arcane Stupefaction: Stun 5s | single target | ranged 20ft | Cast 2s | 40 mana

Quicken, then Lockdown, then Stupefaction. I had to get into Slash range to attack sadly, even with my staff. Not Bite range though, the benefit of a long weapon. Lockdown kept one wolf off me while Stupefaction kept one stunned so it couldn't attack. With Longevity active I had 6 seconds of Haste, 5 seconds of Lockdown, and 6 seconds of Stun. Once my spell chain was complete it was 4 Haste, 4 Root, and 6 Stun. My staff attack took 2 seconds, but only 1 with Haste, and needed 3 shots to kill the stunned Forest Wolf. Then I had 1 Haste, 1 Root, 0 Stun after the kill. I charged the second Wolf and used my last second of Haste and Root to cast Stupefaction. Down to 50 mana. 6 seconds. 3 hits with the staff at 2 seconds each and we were done.

I think I've made the first argument for my main point, which is that Time Magic is the best magic. Chronomancy is Tier 1 for a reason and Quicken and Stagnation are the reason in Phase 1. I was lucky this time because I had initiative in a sense. Unlike D&D or other tabletop games you can pre-cast more than once before a battle. Its time based because it is a VRMMO so turn based concepts like Initiative don't really apply. Surprise is sort of similar but it is not a mechanic just a natural fact of the world. Had I been facing 3 Wolves I would have had significant difficulty. Quicken/Lockdown would still work but I would have had to recast Quicken and also Stupefaction and I was quite low on mana. I probably could have abused Mesmerize a bit but not a ton.

For being 1 level under my enemies I got a total of 55 experience. Not amazing but then it was an easy fight. My next fight did not go so well. I was ambushed by 2 bandits.

Forest Bandit LV 2 40 EXP

Hp 50 STR 8 DEX 8 CON 8 MOV 20/s

Skills: Stab: 10 damage

Time Magic is the best magic so after taking 20 damage I had Quicken cast. I cast Stupefaction and took 10 more damage. I attacked for 20 and took 10. 60 to 30/50. Another 20 for 10. 50 to 10/50. 1 down, 1 to go. 50 to 50. This of course was a simple matter and I didn't take any more damage. I had 2 seconds on Quicken and 3 on Stupefaction. Attack, Quicken, Stupefaction, Attack, Attack. Of course I was down to 50 mana.

Longevity is an amazing Ability. That is a Time Magic Ability. Time magic is the best magic. It should be noted that if I was a weaker Template I would probably have been spawned in a basic area. "Forest" is a difficulty modifier making enemies tougher. Also I would probably have taken a damage spell of some kind which would allow for some wiggle room.

One of the major differences between a video game and a table top game is the grindy nature. I would probably end up spending quite some time grinding levels. Not much to be done about that though. Waiting for recovery and so forth was unavoidable.

For being 2 levels below my enemies I received 88 experience. 88+55=143/100.

+88exp (143/100) (43/200) Lvl Up!!!

You have gained 10HP, 21MP, and 2 stat points!

You have gained 2 skill points + 1 selection point + 1 magic point!

I now had 110 health and 231 mana. I put my stat points into CON for now. I wanted to avoid the trap of being too much of a glass cannon. I already had great magic stats in any case.

Now I had a few options. Selection points could boost Phases as well as pick new skills/spells. My skill points both went into Haste. Time Magic is the best magic. That was +.5 and +.5 duration. I didn't have any good mana synergy currently but I had duration synergy from Longevity. Plus I had already decided on my selection points.

Extend: Increase Duration: 25% | 3 spells | Cast 2s | 1.5x spell cost

Yank: Move 40ft | sphere 8ft | ranged 20ft | Cast 1s | 40 mana

Yank was a good synergy with Stagnation, and it was a base 1 second cost plus it was AoE.

Extend was an obvious pick since I was currently a Control mage and I already had Longevity. Plus High Mage pushed the boost to 37.5% Duration Increase without boosting the spell cost modifier.

I was pushing up against a Selection Point limitation however. 3 of my Enchancement spells were damage focused but I had no Damage spells. A few other spells were similarly out of place currently. I had few high Cast time spells and few high range spells making most of Metamagic useless. I really needed Magic Mentor to train me in some Tier 3 damage Talents or to find some rare Free Talents at Tier 2. Alternatively I could pick up another Template but that was a lot rarer.

Luckily for me I was close to a city and the chance to pick up a decent new Talent. After some work of course. This was a quest reward and not a Mentor Talent unfortunately. The nearest city was mediocre for mages. I'll detail that in my next log.