Vampires or Casters?

"Hermitgirl;c-17247228" wrote:
Your post doesn't ring true for me either @scoed. For me I'm given the tools to play the way I want to play. Yes the need potion is there but I don't need to use it.. do I want to? Sometimes and sometimes frequently on certain characters. Or I might use it to get out of a bind on others... or I might give it (and in the future sell it) to other sims to use when they need.
I know some players can't seem to restrict themselves and although that might sound disrespectful it isn't... I think for some if it's there you have to use it. I don't have that problem. I have made an all powerful spellcaster (they know all branches) mostly to see what's there. I still haven't had the time to use every spell and see both good and bad effects though.
When you make a caster you can decide to learn only one school if you want. You can practice it all on your own without the help of a sage.. you don't even have to go to the realm. You do have to make them a caster in CAS though or have them born of casters or have another caster who has the right of ascension make them a caster. You can decide to never practice the other branches at all... It's your choice as a player of the game. I started playing a witch last night that I had another sim use the ascension spell on. I don't think I'll ever send her to the realm. She has a cauldron and she's the stereotypical cackling green hag of a witch. I'm also going to have her practice mischief magic. I plan on limiting her myself.
I actually can't wait to see if challenges crop out from this and how people will navigate what rules people will have to follow. I've mused on a number of scenarios myself :).
I understand what you mean with it takes longer to make vamps powerful... but for me gameplay is playing all aspects of the game and I don't plan on limiting my witches to just being all powerful witches and done.
They will have failings some will want to be normal people who want to fit in. Some will use their gifts in secret.. Some will use them to become rich and powerful but undetected.. and I could go on and on. To me giving them so many options just gives me more possibilities not less.

I do have an issue as I tend to min/max my sims. I can impose limits to create challenges, but even if I ban most of the "cheaty" aspects of casters, gaining the non-banned aspects is not a challenge. Easier than most skills in fact. The one area casters can shine is storytelling. Some stories can only be told with casters.

Sadly EA limited some stories without a reason regarding this aspect of play. I wanted to make an elf and play as a displaced elf mage struggling to overcome urban life hiding who he is and the magic he was born with. But casters don't have assess to vamp and alien cas items like pointed elf ears. I know mods exist for this but with mads I can be a werewolf or fairy as well, or well a caster pre ROM. And worse no real RPG cas clothing. No story book wizard wear. No witches pointed hats unless you own the spooky stuff stuff pack. Why?, just why? Yes I found all this as CC, but a caster pack minus folklore caster type garb seems like a huge missed opportunity for the one area casters excel in. storytelling. It is why despite the utter lack of challenge in them I still love them.

But Vamps have just as many storytelling possibilities out of the pack, as do aliens, ghosts and mermaids for that matter. I just love all the occults. I love fantasy stories. They make them possible in my sims games. I love casters for that reason. I just feel they lack any form of challenge, thus limiting them to building god sims, and storytelling. I would have preferred them had the curses been harder to remove or even permanent like Vamp weaknesses. Restrictions breed gameplay in my mind at least.

Good luck seeing the backfires on all the spells as they happen very rarely. in fact I super maxed three casters, zero curses, zero failed spells, zero accidental overloads, and only one failed potion and it only lowered my needs in green to half filled and a second potion fixed that. If having non-bug related issues happened more often wen being a caster I would love casters more. Magic would be more fun if more random stuff happened when casting. More risk would do tons to fix the lifestate in my opinion.