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Casting damage makes it hard for trainee/low ranked priests and mages to manage their meager resources.

It often leaves trainee characters frustratingly impotent - they can't help someone without killing themselves.

New members don't feel confident to ask for healing, or are afraid to waste party resources.

It is easy to forget about casting damage when you are trying to get the hang of all your new stats/abilities/vocals.

It can't be bandaged off, so it drains the trainee ranked healer's precious power after each fight.

By rank 30 it has become largely irrelevant, as skills/foci/talismans/life have been purchased, so it doesn't increase the challenge for higher ranked players.

Eich at Rank nearly 100 still takes casting damage and it is one of those things that has been around for so long it is a cornerstone of the rules. It is also one of those things that make casting a little bit more interesting...and yes it is an absolute pain, but if it were all easy, then where would be the fun in struggling to stay alive on adventures.

There is of course a training skill that stops casters taking casting damage.

As a rule, it makes neutral healing more of a tactics game and battle magic more useful as a second color of magic.
For most low level characters the training skill is less useful than others so is not really used.

Val'eth takes casting damage from his Evil Power and it seems kind of fitting as it's not really his thing

I can see what you mean, it was very depressing nearly exploding Gaite's 30 life while casting as many cure mortals as required but it was solved pretty quickly with a talisman anyway.

Admittedly Dampening Field and Good/Balanced/Wicked Heart do lose out to things like Additional Spells and Sect Invocations, but that's a character choice.

The training skill is a guaranteed way to nerf your character. Training skills are the most valuable type of skills in the system in some respects as you only get 4 by the time you are rank 100 and 3 by the time you are rank 60, to use one on a skill that becomes irrelevant as soon as you hit rank 30 is a complete waste.

The only people that do this are those that don't know any better (which is quite a lot of low level characters who are just starting out) and they inevitably end up regretting it.

If we are going to keep the mechanic I think dampening field/[blah] heart should be included as part of the sect invocations/additional spells pick or the free pick you get as being part of a priest/mage guild. This would mean that non-primary mages/priests would still suffer the casting damage (so Eich would still suffer it and Samuel would still suffer it for his magic only and so would Valeth), but anyone who wants to be a dedicated caster/priest wouldn't have to worry about it (the way it should be).

I personally think it should be gotten rid of. I know I pretty much didn't cast any magic as Nagarim at all the first two times I went out as every time I thought it would be really useful, there was no healing left in the party so I couldn't - this understandably got in the way of me getting the hang of playing the character (all for something that became irrelevant)....

So what if combat damage were done away with for those picking off the mage/Acolyte table (as appropriate) so that primary mages and acolytes have a specific advantage - Maybe we sell it as 'Acolytes and mages get taught the appropriate skill for free before being sent out as a safety measure' or something as Rob says...

Leave damage in place for warriors and scouts, but it gives mages and acolytes, who currently get fisted pretty hard as low-levels, a bit of a boost...

Actually Seb, Val'eth is working towards immunity to combat damage (well...some of it anyway).... now you mention it

I do think it should stay, but I like the idea of primary casters of X getting a free ride, especially for the lower levels. It does mostly become irrelevant at high level far as I can tell

OK its been 2 weeks, and to conclude there's a fairly strong split - members either love it or hate it, with more people in favour of keeping it. Many agree it creates a negative experience for primary priests and mages, but most secondary casters like the restriction.

Several people (including me) like the simple solution of giving dampening field/xyz heart to priest and mage guild characters. This could perhaps be combined with making the skill a mid rank skill choice for non-primary priests and mages.

Thoughts Anthony?

Ok I've not posted or voted on this.

My thoughts on the question are, I like it because it adds flavour.
I'm not massively hung up on it other than the ripple (not waves) it would cause skills changing/disappearing odd changes in use/behaviour and any subsequence balance

I find some of the arguments odd, I've been told by some that dampening field is so curtail yet others saying it useless, similarly in this thread its said to be useless after rank 30 yet at the extreme a sorcerer could do 60 points of casting damage in a hour casting 10's.

I disagree with Robs assumption that no one takes it that its a quick way to nerf your character or that training are the most valuable. yes you get less of them but they are minor skills that add to your skill set.
A significant proportion of the higher level characters have it priests more so than mages.

Currently wizards and priests already get more freebies and powers than warriors and scouts so adding it as a additional only further nurfs those further.

What the skill does is allows a choice, do you want no casting damage, make life easier less life lost and less curing, or do you want more spells/specialist sect invocations...