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Hex Design Notes: Mantras
🕑 Added 2025-05-15 16:00:07 +0000 UTCMantras are meant to be more than just a simple RPG accessory, but not quite as influential as something like a class. A passive powerful enough to inform or enhance the way you play, but without encroaching into the design space of spell schools.
For the names, I was already using (dog) Latin for some of the succubus spell names, so I went with the other mystical language, Sanskrit, for the mantras. Because I think foreign words are sometimes hard to remember, I also paired each mantra name with an English epithet that captures some of the meaning of the word or the design of the mantra.
Mantras reserving a portion of your MP and the concept of manableed is a good balancing system, I think. It allows me to have a more flexible power budget for each mantra while also getting to introduce another durable core mechanic into the game’s combat that I can exploit to create even more unique abilities and interactions with in the future.
I'm happy with the way mantras turned out and excited to create some more. I have plans for a mantra that allows you to equip a third spell school (though there are drawbacks), a mantra that enhances your powers in different ways based on whether it's day or night, and a mantra with a very high reserve that allows you to weaponize manableed. Right now, in addition to the four already in the game, I have design concepts for 12 more.
In this series, I just want to provide some thoughts and insights into certain aspects of Hex's game design. These will be like tiny, topical devlogs. If this sort of content is interesting to you, like the post and I'll keep them coming! If not, feel free to comment to let me know what you might want to see instead.
