[FROG] Magic - Supercharge Your Class Mechanics!

Introduction

So who likes magic? No one? Oh well, I guess I’ve got nothing to share then. Wait, what’s that? Oh, sorry. I’ve must have heard you wrong. You make RPGs, of course you like magic! Who doesn’t? And even if you don't, you'll still like this plugin.

RPG Maker gives you some nice tools to build that RPG you’ve always wanted to make and the Skills system is fairly robust. But there’s a problem and it’s actually kind of a big one. All of the actors typically feel, well, samey. I mean, I have this Fighter. He uses skills which cost MP to perform special attacks until his MP runs out. I also have a Mage. She uses skills which cost MP to cast spells until her MP runs out. In fact, all of my actors follow this same exact mechanic. It would be much cooler if actors of different flavor felt and played differently from one another and had their own unique mechanics to work with. There are plugins out there to change up the Skill system but you end up with the same issue. All of your actors now use this new system but your Fighter still functions pretty much the same as your Mage. You could try to add in several of these plugins that change the Skill system in different ways but that sounds like a risky proposition. Conflicts seem likely in this scenario.


Enter Frog Magic, the one-stop shop for all of your skill/magic needs. With my latest plugin, you’ll be able to create a wide range of class mechanics to make your characters fun, unique and memorable. So what can you make? How about a Fighter who has range of various attacks that can be used At Will, operate on a cool-down every few turns or more powerful maneuvers usable a certain number of times per day? Alongside this Fighter, you can have a Wizard who has spells slots like in Dungeons & Dragons or Final Fantasy 1. Maybe your Wizard only learns a few spells but can buy scrolls to add to her spellbook. But hey, you also want a Sorcerer class who is born with natural magic ability. He can’t learn spells from scrolls and only gets a small subset of his choosing but is graced with a larger allotment of spell slots per day to work with. Your cleric doesn’t even need to choose which spells he knows or learn them from scrolls as his god has already bestowed on him this knowledge. He does need to pray for his spells each day to prepare them. Perhaps your Druid or Mimic can only learn spells from the creatures you encounter out in the wild. When she witnesses a spell or ability being used in battle enough times, she’ll learn it herself and can harness the same power. How about yet another class who can equip magical items that teach them skills by absorbing the essence of slain enemies (like Espers in Final Fantasy 6)? Or maybe hybrid classes like the Paladin who have a small list of spells that use slots and several class abilities that are usable a certain number of times per day? That would be crazy right?

Not any longer. If you know me and my work, you’ll know that my plugins are powerful, versatile and allow you to combine properties together to make your game totally original. Frog Magic will give you the power to add the following to your game.



Features

• Each class can be assigned any number of Skill Types that use whatever skill or magic system you create.
• 3 different caster types: prepared, spontaneous and hybrid.
• 3 different resources: spell slots, magic points and powers.
• Actors can automatically know none, all or only zero-level spells.
• Spellbooks and schools of magic. A class skill type can be restricted to specific schools. New schools can be added dynamically.
• Spell levels. Each spell in a spell list has a level which is used to determine when a class is able to learn it. The same spell doesn't need to be the same level for every class.
• Define number of spells known, prepared and/or retrieved per day. If you’ve ever played D&D and know what 4/4/3/2/1 represents, you know what I’m talking about here.
• Allow or restrict acquiring spells by learning (player choice), items (learning from scrolls), exposure (learning by seeing the spell used in battle) and essence (slaying monsters while wearing special equipment).
• Spell components. Does that spell require Eye of Newt? Your heroes better go find some newt.
• Spell prerequisites. Maybe you require your caster to learn Fire 1 before they can learn Fire 2.
• Mix and match all of the above however you want. Make your own creations.

Terms of Use

This plugin can be used in commercial or non-commercial projects. You also have my permission to write and share plugins that add to or extend the functionality of this plugin. While not required, if you use this in a commercial game, a free copy of the game would be nice as I put a lot of work into this and would love to see how you used it in your game.

Credit Frogboy in your work.


Changelog

• Version 0.9 - Beta release
• Version 0.9.01 - Bug fix
  
• Version 0.9.02 - Added more plugin commands.

Download

My Plugins Page - https://frogboymv.github.io/
FROG Core (v1.0.3 required) - https://github.com/FrogboyMV/FROG_Core
Magic - https://github.com/FrogboyMV/Magic

Demo project available containing 9 different classes with unique mechanics, and that's just a small sample of what you can make.

Time to start a new project.

I'll be that guy. (I'm sorry)

Is this compatible with Yanfly's plugins? ;)

IOW, is there any potential obvious compatibility issues you know about?
Or did you write this using any of Yanfly's plugins you can give the all clear for?

This looks really neat, terrific idea!

It's beautiful! Especially love the attention paid to units who learn by copying enemies.

@Roguedeus
It's a beta release so getting it to work on its own took priority over compatibility with other plugins. I did do a couple quick tests to see if there were any crashes with Yanfly's Core, Battle Core and Skill Core included and didn't see any. I try to avoid potential conflicts upfront in my coding but any plugin that messes with UI of the Skill scene/window is going to be at risk. Let me know if you find anything and I'll see what I can do about working around it.

@everyone
Thanks!

That's pretty cool and also a bit overwhelming :)

Whoa! Another awesome plugin, Frogboy!

I can see Dungeons & Dragons RPG coming closer and closer. As a big fan of DnD, I just love the stuff that you do!

While I always theme my plugins to present a clear use case, they are typically non-specific enough to almost be extensions to the base engine. This way, they can be styled and re-purposed however a dev needs them to be. My Health plugin was themed towards a hunger/thirst system but could just as easily be shields for a starship. In this case, while I could have made it possible to create 4 or 5 specific types of spell-casters, taking special care to get the design right made it possible to create a 100+ unique variants by combining properties together in different ways. It does add to the complexity (hopefully not too much) but I feel it's worth it. When people use my plugins, I encourage them to be as creative as they are with RPG Maker itself. In a weird way, I hope that people don't recognize my plugins if/when they're used in games.


It's getting there, thanks! It's always good to hear that others appreciate your work. :)

This. Is. AWESOME!

Have you considered creating a Patreon for those of us who'd consider giving you even more reason to continue making such great plugins?!?

Edit:

There are a few things I am curious about in regards to this plugin.

- Do you plan to add any way of adjusting Power Resource details? Slots and Magic Points, have obvious ways in which a skill can be increased in frequency of use. But I don't see any way of doing similar for Power resources. Is an Actor stuck being limited to 1/Day? (for example)

- Similarly to the above question, do you plan to add any way of adjusting a Classes Spell Slot allotment assignments? Similarly to something like a Ring of Wizardry would in D&D? (But not limited to it)

- You hint in the Learn From Essence section, regarding setting up equipment to learn spells from essence, like Espers. Is this not yet added? I don't see anywhere that details how to set this up. Also, would this be limited to certain equipment (Like a special Esper item) or any equipment, like a Sword or Armor that just happens to have learnable spells. (similar to Moogle's Equipment Learnings Plugin)

- Lastly, is there a way of allowing new spells to be added to a Classes Spellbook dynamically? Rather than having them defined before play.

Thanks again for this great Plugin.

That's the thing I like the most about your plugins. When a plugin presents a specific functionality like yours, it's almost always not detailed enough and I must add my own features to it. I still haven't done such thing with yours :)

I wont be using this coz Im still on Ace and I like making my own stuff anyway, but I MUST SAY this plugin of yours is SO AWESOME AND INSANE. Good job froggy

In your Demo when I cast a spell I get error: "Cannot Read Properyty of null undefined

I've thought about it but I'm not sure about the logistics of the whole thing. From what I understand about Patreon, it's more conducive to creators that can produce smaller chunks of content on a regular basis which is completely opposite of what I do. I also just like to experiment and do whatever it is I want to work on which might not work out so well. The day will come when I decide that I want to spend a couple years or more working on a game or two which is kind of what I'm working towards.


This can be done now but I need to make some script calls or plugin commands to make it easier.


I had this in mind and will likely add such functionality. I have to come up with a good design for things like this, though, which will be more difficult than it seems. While a PnP can just say, if you wear a Ring of Wizardry I, you get to cast 2x as many 1st level spells, when programming this, I have to figure out things like, "what happens when a player prepares double the spells and then unequips this item?". Which spells are removed from memory? This one turned out to be a significant addition with a fairly small return so it got axed for the initial release.


The Enemy Config and Item Config sections handle this. At the moment, that's pretty much all they handle but I foresee more features getting attached to enemies and Items in the future so they're not overly branded for such until you open them up and see the properties within.


This is another thing that's possible but not super straight forward yet. I plan to add a script call to make this easier. Initially, I am pushing more for having schools of magic that can be added and removed to manage lists. I may run into some obstacles to overcome when individual skills are added and removed. I don't think it'll be too bad, though. I tried to design with this mind.

@eXalted
Awesome! That's great to hear. I do try to be thorough and anticipate what things devs will want to do with my plugin ahead of time. Still trying to find the right balance. My Talents plugin had a lot of requests. My Health plugin probably went too far with added features that might never get used. I tried to land this one in the middle.

@Engr. Adiktuzmiko
Thank you! When someone who doesn't even use MV chimes in like this, that's quite a compliment.


Shoot! I must have accidentally put a bug in shortly before I wrapped up. I'll make sure I get an update out to fix this ASAP.

Well I do use MV, just not to "make" a game right now as Im working on things already in Ace. As a fellow scripter, big things like this really takes my attention. Im pretty sure this would be really useful to and used by a lot of the MV community.

When I do finally decide to use MV to make a game, I might be needing this (use it directly or as inspiration) so its also good to have a post here so that I can get updated on this. :)

PS: Plus your threads keep popping up in my "New Posts" list xD

Congrats on releasing a new plugin! As usual this one looks impressive :) If I wasn’t already too far along in my project I would definitely be using this :)

I just updated the project to fix the bug that @Krystek_My found.

@Frogboy does this work on its own or you need your other FROG plugins?

@AnimaScorpius
You need FROG Core. That's it. Check out the demo to see some example configuration.

@Drifter92
There always the next game. :)