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So, when using all the books (including the Arcana Exxet), it looks like 1st level players with a say, 8 int (40 Spell levels) and 2 ranks of + spell list (+10), can start the game with....3 Lv 80 Spells? Or a group of lv 50-60 spells? I can't see anything in the rules that prevents players from doing this, and it would be even easier if players spend advantages to get more int and/or more Zeon. Sure, their low MA would stop them from being able to cast a big combat spell, but a 1st Level character being able to cast a spell like "Tsunami" feels really wrong.

Is there something we are missing? It feels like the only way to reign in my character's growth is for me to put arbitrary limits on the spells they are allowed to aquire and grow in throughout the game, which feels just like I'm doing my own balancing on the fly. It's also problematic if I slip up and let a spell through that I should have blocked.

How should we be handling spell acquisition for our players, at creation and as they grow? I'm thinking of putting a limit on purchasing one-of spells, increasing the cost, or somehow making it so players can't just arbitrarily decide to learn powerful magic on their own without help or a library or something.

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    – V2Blast
    Commented Mar 30, 2021 at 10:58

2 Answers 2

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The setting is designed to reign in such players. Magic is feared and reviled in anima, so players who use a big flashy spell like Tsunami best be sure that their either far from civilization, have a really good escape route, or leave absolutely no survivors. If they mess up, they'll have the whole force of the Church after them, especially if they're throwing around particularly high level magic.

In addition to this, magic users tend to be quite vulnerable to physical attackers while prepping for a spell. Accumulating zeon takes time, time that a martial or ki based fighter can exploit to rip your mages to shreds. Due to the stats that are important to such characters, fighters tend to go first in combat, and they tend to have exactly the right tools to dish out some real hurt to mages. Mages can level cities, but they actually get overwhelmed in a lot of duels due their slow ramp up times.

Finally, it takes a long time to recover zeon. Your mage might have enough melee combatants around them to pull off some big co.bat spells, but how often can they reliably do that? If travelling through dangerous lands can they even afford to cast one heavy hitting spell a day? Zeon accumulates slow in terms of combat, but it recovers slowly in terms of travel time outside of combat. If you keep harassing your party with multiple encounters a day, your mages will have to seriously consider which fights are important enough warrant actual spells.

One last note: I would ban the Chimera spell, or at least let your players know you're ready and willing to use Paladins and Summoners against them if they do use it. The free stats that spells gives are very, very strong if you arent willing to use the systemic limitations it imposes against the players.

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Thank you - great feedback. I'm using Anima system in a homebrew game world, so I'll have to be a little more system-y in my limitations, but luckily my group isn't super min-maxy. Really appreciate the color! Thanks so much. \$\endgroup\$
    – Anima Player
    Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 0:15
  • \$\begingroup\$ @AnimaPlayer I haven't played the game in years, so my memory might be a bit off in terms of how magic works (I also played a ki-user, but did have a wizard in our party). The other thing I want to mention about anima is that it, frankly, isn't a very well-designed system. You'll probably make some mistakes, and find contradictions. Roll with the punches and work hard to get a "feel" for how the system works. Once you can get to the intent of the designer (a spanish otaku) you can start to internalize the way the game is meant to be played and have more fun :) \$\endgroup\$
    – lithas
    Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 1:56
  • \$\begingroup\$ @lithas Idk, it seemed like an exceptionally well-made system when we played it, but our literal interpretation of the rules doesn't seem popular with internet peeps. It works fine if you play it literally, though, but in that case "how do I reign in players" is never the right question, since it should be expected that the party has time travel and separately the ability to rewrite the physics of the universe. \$\endgroup\$
    – user66659
    Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 18:48
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    \$\begingroup\$ @user66659 There's no small doubt in my mind that the Spanish->English translation resulted in at least some of the confusion my table had, but if nothing else the rulebooks are a grammatical mess. sometimes mechanics change names, or are mentioned somewhere but never defined anywhere else. Naming is also a mess, things like Damage Reduction and Damage Barrier mean completely different things, and would benefit from more unique names. The game, frankly, has too many systems (especially with the Exxet books) that feel very disjoint. It's a fun game, but is definitely overloaded. \$\endgroup\$
    – lithas
    Commented Mar 29, 2021 at 18:55
  • \$\begingroup\$ @lithas Oh, for sure the naming is terrible, and we only ever played with the core rules anyhow. \$\endgroup\$
    – user66659
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 17:16
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Disclaimer: I have the books in Spanish, so maybe some names are not exactly the same.

In Anima's Game Master Screen you have a few rules to limit the supernatural capabilities of character players, by limiting the amount of points they can spend on them.

So, for example, you can choose that your supernatural level is low, meaning that even pure mystic archetypes have a max cap on spell levels up to 40. Which means that they even if they have a ton of spells, none of them should be game breaking (I don't remember all the spells, so I can't be sure...)

The rest of the points, they go unspent, ready to be used when they level up, and learn from someone (or on their own, if they can), as per the learning magic table in the Arcanna Exxet. So, if they want to learn from 42 to 80 level in some magic path, well even if they are at the top of their magic knowledge is going to take a couple of months of studying. Which can have all sorts of implications in-game, of course. Bad guys just don't halt their plans just because you need to study a super-spell to stop them.

There are tons of somewhat hidden rules like this all across Anima, and for every "supernatural" ability. Ki users have the same "studying time" mechanic.

But as usual, the best answer is talk with the players, if they are there to break your game, then don't let them, period. It's your table, your rules. If they are just wanting some fancy spells that are going to make the story more awesome (and Anima runs on Rule of Cool), they, why not?

PS: check out the problems for accumulating to much Zeon if your players start using too many uber-powerful spells

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  • \$\begingroup\$ Even with low supernatural stuff, you can take character point advantages to get around that to an extent, and also Eriol's Chaos Stigmata can get around it pretty much comletely as well. \$\endgroup\$
    – user66659
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 17:42
  • \$\begingroup\$ (1/2) Well... that will be decided by the interpretation of the rules, if the cap is 40, then the cap is 40 and extra points do nothing. You can get the first 40 for one CP, but then you cannot increase it more. On Eriol Elan, you do need to spend 3PC on it, and the moment you loose 1 point below 50, you lose your supernatural powers (that cannot be essential abilities, so you cannot get the gift with these powers, that means, that gift + elan is five PC, you should be able to reign them in with all those defects). \$\endgroup\$
    – Random
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 19:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ (2/2) It is really difficult to keep if the character wants to look even remotely civilized, something as simple as "did you just pay for what you bought?" could be considered as "following the law" or "acting in an orderly fashion", which will make him lose his powers in the first minutes of gameplay, Shajads are not nice and do not expect their followers (or chosen, or whatever) to be either, ever. It is a fine line to walk, trying to live in some fashion of civilization and not losing the powers bestowed upon thee. You can make that line as thin as you want. \$\endgroup\$
    – Random
    Commented Mar 31, 2021 at 19:49
  • \$\begingroup\$ Eriol is the token good Shajad to Edamiel's token bad Beryl. Even if you want to pretend it's hard in general to synch a Shajad and be a decent and respected person, surely you wouldn't expect it to be hard to synch Eriol. I mean, if your player is so dumb as to support capitalism then, yeah, okay, they lose their powers. But that's not hardly just cause buying things is following the law. \$\endgroup\$
    – user66659
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 5:05
  • \$\begingroup\$ In my games, I'd dock a full 5 for supporting late-stage capitalism as a passive pawn (you aren't just following laws simply for being laws, you are also ordering yourself), or 7 for buying an object because then you are also disregarding the chance you find it for free. Except, I mean, I wouldn't actually do that, I'd tell the player to straight up make a new character because it'd be clear things weren't gonna work out with the Elan thing, but still. \$\endgroup\$
    – user66659
    Commented Apr 1, 2021 at 5:07

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