Mana and endurance
There are values for hit points, mana and endurance in most role-playing games. In Ren’s Underworld there will only be two of these bars; hit points and endurance.
A spell costs endurance, same as a sprint or an evasive roll. So you will be more likely left with the choice between a spell or a movement action. In short, the mana and endurance bars are combined. Endurance restores automatically, regeneration can be improved by skills and items.
Spells
Spells can contain up to three different applications: active, passive or weapon enchantment.
- Active effect: can simply be dragged to the quick bar.
- Passive effect: can be socketed to a so-called magical focus. Then the passive effect of the spell will be executed.
- Weapon enchantment: Spells can be socketed in some weapons. This spell will be executed after a successful attack.
There can only be one of these applications for this spell active at a time.
I. e., if the spell is used as passive, it can’t be used active anymore.
Example: Healing (Disclaimer: Values and UI aren’t final)
In this example you have to choose which of the three effects you want to use. However, you can change your decision anytime and remove a spell from an enchantment or a focus.
But there are quite some spells which do not contain every application.
E.g. the spell swift; it’s only passive and gives faster speed and multi jumps.
Skilltrees
When it comes to actual magic, there are adapted skill trees for every particular gameplay.
For the ones that rather surprise foes in the dark, there are spells for extinguishing fire in the tree Essence of Water. There will also be an aura that makes nearby foes wet; this is very useful in combination with a specialization in Essence of Lightning because lightning spells make more damage to wet enemies.
The skill tree Essence of Earth aims more to tanks and offers e.g. shields. The Essence of Metal is the best skill tree for close combat fighters who rather contend straight with their blade.
Besides, it’s helpful to pay attention to the spells by magically capable enemies. A foe with an active fire shield could be very susceptible by a steam explosion triggered by a waterball…
…the same counts for the player though.
