Are spell books considered 1h weapons?

I plan on running Spellshield (Tank/Mage) and was wondering if one could equip a Sword and Spell book at the same time? Nothing on the wiki states if its a 1 or 2h weapon...unless I'm blind.

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Shenan

I believe that Spellbooks would fall under the Ranged category, so while you couldn't have a Bow and a Spellbook at the same time, a Sword and a Spellbook are fine because a Sword is a Weapon.

You can't have both out at the same time, you'd swap between them instead, but you can have them both equipped.

Tyrantor

If you're base class is tank you likely would not benefit from holding a spell book in your off hand - at least from what I can tell with the way arch types have been described. It seems likely that your characters abilities and attributes will favor tank equipment only. While the mage arch type will allow you to modify your tank abilities (should you choose) to become some combination of tank/mage function(s) versus +spell damage as an example.

An example they've beat to death on the exact subject would be the "Charge" and "blink" abilities being combined with that class combo and now instead of the Tank running to it's target he would blink/teleport there. In addition if the tank has some sort of slash attack ability you should be able to augment that with an elemental damage such as lightning or fire. While it's possible this augment would scale with the games version of INT or WIS it likely wouldn't be enough to justify building the gear to try and maximize that - mostly because from what I understand you won't get a mage fireball ability to shoot while being a tank.

I could be wrong but this is the best I understand it.

Tank4Hire

Shenan wrote: »

I believe that Spellbooks would fall under the Ranged category, so while you couldn't have a Bow and a Spellbook at the same time, a Sword and a Spellbook are fine because a Sword is a Weapon.

You can't have both out at the same time, you'd swap between them instead, but you can have them both equipped.

I feel like they should consider it at the very least. On the wiki it states shields won't be forced upon tanks, so what would be the harm in slotting in Spellbooks?

Atama

Tyrantor wrote: »

If you're base class is tank you likely would not benefit from holding a spell book in your off hand - at least from what I can tell with the way arch types have been described. It seems likely that your characters abilities and attributes will favor tank equipment only. While the mage arch type will allow you to modify your tank abilities (should you choose) to become some combination of tank/mage function(s) versus +spell damage as an example.

But you won’t be locked into that, and there may be situations where you prefer to use equipment not normally associated with your class. I’m sure we’ll see some interesting concepts come up where it might be to your benefit for a tank/mage to run around in a robe, for example. There may be a mage augment that makes it work well.

Khronus

I think it would be pretty great if we had the options to use different items as "tanking" items. Each of which could send us in a different tanking direction. Shield is an obvious physical damage mitigation, spellbook for anti magic/aoe tanking (maybe allowing for tank skills to be applied to the group or raid), daggers for evasive style tanking through parries and ripostes (although, this I am not too fond of), and flagon of mead which would do literally nothing except make your character miss everything and fall to the ground eventually to sleep it off. Last one is obviously a joke : ).

I really hate the idea of dual shield tanking. Not sure anyone actually ever did this in real life (not that I expect real life in a game!) but it just sounds really stupid.

Nagash

I would love to have a tome and a staff or a sword combo

Dygz

I think you should not be able to wield a Spellbook in your primary hand and a Sword in your off-hand, in general. Possibly, someone with a dual-wield skill could do so.
But, in Ashes weapons have weapon abilities and there will be some form of QTE to trigger those weapon abilities. Doesn't seem possible to do that with two different weapons.

And, seems like we would basically accomplish something similar to adding spells to Tank abilities via augments.

Tyrantor

Atama wrote: »

Tyrantor wrote: »

If you're base class is tank you likely would not benefit from holding a spell book in your off hand - at least from what I can tell with the way arch types have been described. It seems likely that your characters abilities and attributes will favor tank equipment only. While the mage arch type will allow you to modify your tank abilities (should you choose) to become some combination of tank/mage function(s) versus +spell damage as an example.

But you won’t be locked into that, and there may be situations where you prefer to use equipment not normally associated with your class. I’m sure we’ll see some interesting concepts come up where it might be to your benefit for a tank/mage to run around in a robe, for example. There may be a mage augment that makes it work well.

True and I hope that the interesting concepts have functionality because I love designing out of box or anti-hard counter class designs.

insomnia

I used to play Warhammer Fantasy Battle. I recall they did have heroes with a weapon in one hand and a book in the other

Damokles

Depends on their size i would say.

maouw

@Damokles
That one's a 4H weapon

daveywavey

I'm sure I remember seeing a spellbook wielder in one of the videos, but I can't remember if that's all they were holding. I mean, it makes sense for it to be 2H, cos you hold with one hand and turn the pages with the other, but.....
I think it may have been the video where they showed the Monster Coin transformation? Did one of the testers have a spellbook?

Tyrantor

I think I saw one in a video where they were showing how the exp from some cave was improving the small node then they started a caravan I believe?

Blrrgh

I don't see why a massive enough spell book couldn't be used as a shield in a fantasy world...hint hint to any class/itemization devs reading this

Atama

There are spellbook weapons in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtQ1eWxHPY
As you can see, the book is held in the right hand, but the left hand is blasting enemies with magic, which makes me believe it is a 2-handed weapon. The same way that you carry a bow around with one hand, but it takes two hands to fire an arrow from it.

daveywavey

Atama wrote: »

As you can see, the book is held in the right hand, but the left hand is blasting enemies with magic, which makes me believe it is a 2-handed weapon. The same way that you carry a bow around with one hand, but it takes two hands to fire an arrow from it.

Yeah, cos you're effectively reading the spell book to cast your spells.

Thanks for the video link

daveywavey

Wow, that "Village" notification was intrusive...! Hehehe

Edit: By the way, what's that red blob on the cast bar?

Damokles

It would be interesting if spells would require you to have a focus (wands, staffs, orbs, books, scepters, etc) equipped.

Tyrantor

Atama wrote: »

There are spellbook weapons in this video.

Sweet my memory was on point lol. I think it's important to note the mage never once appeared to melee during this video, maybe because it would be a useless +1dmg or maybe because they're unable to attack with a spell book equipped. I still believe it's unlikely anyone who takes a mage archetype would want to equip a spell book in main or off hand in place of more functional base class equipment regardless of attribute/augment builds.

Also without understanding what attributes/augments can be applied to equipment it may not make a difference such as if you can craft or augment shields with +int + mana regen and still benefit from +def why would you carry the spell book.

PlagueMonk

Atama wrote: »

There are spellbook weapons in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqtQ1eWxHPY
As you can see, the book is held in the right hand, but the left hand is blasting enemies with magic, which makes me believe it is a 2-handed weapon. The same way that you carry a bow around with one hand, but it takes two hands to fire an arrow from it.

Damokles wrote: »

It would be interesting if spells would require you to have a focus (wands, staffs, orbs, books, scepters, etc) equipped.

So lets combine these two things........you can use a spell book "barehanded" but you could ALSO channel the magic through an appropriate focus. Operative word there is appropriate. So while you could cast through something like a wand, orb or staff, a sword would not work normally. Maybe if you were a mage that had a fighter secondary, then that weapon would be an allowed focus.

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