Category talk:Spellcasting Objects

While we're re-evaluating the structure of the wiki I want to spend some time working on this category. First of all, it seems like we're getting strict about the "only put articles in the most specific category" rule again. So, this category would no longer contain every single spellcasting object, instead it would contain subcategories for pill, staves, wands, etc (yes I know it already does that).

In the early days you could search for "heal" or "water breathing" and get a list of all the items that would cast that spell on you. Now that we have individual articles for all these spells (good thing, don't get me wrong) this trick doesn't work any more. I don't think it's fair to ask our users to wade through the list of spellcasting objects, clicking on each one until they find the spell they want. This probably won't come as a surprise to anyone, but I think we should use categories to regain this functionality.

So, we'll use categories, but how?

At first I was thinking of making categories like:
objects that cast offensive spells
objects that cast defensive spells
objects that cast healing spells
objects that cast curative spells

But the more I thought about it, I realized there are problems with this approach. There's some spells that don't fit into this kind of layout. You could lump refresh in with healing spells, but it doesn't quite fit. Where are you gonna put a pill that gives you fly: defense, curative, or another category altogether?

Instead of this, I think we should just make a category for each spell that can be cast by using an object: "Objects That Cast Cure Light", "Objects That Cast Acid Blast", etc. Each of these categories would be a subcategory of "Spellcasting Objects". We would also link to "Objects That Cast Water Breathing" from the Water Breathing article.

I would say not to operate under our usual strategy of "create a bunch of categories and eventually they'll be populated". The main reason for this is that you can't distinguish between a empty category and a populated one, and I don't want to reduce the usefulness of "spellcasting objects" by filling it with empty categories. Also, there's a ton of spells that can't be cast by using an object, so those categories would never get populated.

Sound like a good plan? --Waite 14:37, 14 February 2006 (EST)

On second thought, the categories should probably be called "Water Breathing Casting Objects", "Heal Casting Objects", etc, just so they don't all start with the same letter. Makes the automatic category layout work better.

Sounds OK to me. Another way to solve the problem could be to have a series of tables on the main spellcasting objects page which would be seperated into the aforementioned categories of defensive, offensive, healing, miscellaneous, etc.. with columns for name, level, spell, and charges. It requires a bit more overhead, but that could be done by the "regulars" whenever a new spellcasting item is added by someone else if they don't know the convention. I'm rather fond of tables I suppose :). Definitely not adverse to them being filed in a categorical system either. JonDooger 15:03, 14 February 2006 (EST)