Planet rebirth:

All land on the map is converted to fertile land, natural resources that can be upgraded are automatically done.  (silver to gold, coal to diamond, mithril to adamantine)  Any "corrupted" places return to healthy land.  Any neutral monster layers that can be captured, become the allignment of the player casting the spell.  All friendly units are healed to full health and upgraded to elite vetran (or whatever the highest exp level for standard troops) and gain a random positive enchantement. 

Has a 15% chance that instead of doing the above effects, it will transform into another spell upon casting:  Cataclysm - All players lose the game (unless there is a 2nd world or something, which might be protected from the effects, in which case the map upon which the spell was cast is wiped clean of units, cities, resources, ect. and replaced with an empty unfertile map)

That spell seems to mainly effect earth. How would it use all 5? I could maybe see a mix of Earth, Water, and Life/Death but the others would not be needed it seems to me. 

The only reasonable action to take when all 5 (or 6) elements are combined is...... This

It's been discussed so much here, it took me forever to realize you might think I didn't know about it.

its because everybody forgot who you were.  It means you need to hang around the forums more.  

I get it now. My reply must have been from the other side of the looking glass or something. I sure wish the Atari idiots had at least thought of some Be Our Second Cousin deal that would have let Stardock post the PDFs for the MoM manual & spell guide. It'd be great to be able to reference them with confidence that folks could follow a link or three if they didn't already have their own copies.

On Darkodinplus' crit of landi's Planet Rebirth spell, I don't see any faults with it on the 5-elements level. Blasted lands surely include fouled air, and probably some 'inappropriate' fire (volcanism). Plus, you could use fire has that general-purpose destructive aspect that you could apply to purging undesirable stuff, including boiling water to leave behind a bunch of dissolved nastiness while clean steam escapes.

The scope of that spell could be a real problem, though, at least in terms of saving up enough mana to pull it off and the underlying question of how that would refelect the basic mechanics for using essence to restore lands. Reads like all 5 elements, stinking great heaps and piles and floods and hordes of mana, and maybe all your essence plus whatever essence all your children and grandchildren might have. But then I like really large maps...

Do I sense a spell of mastery, by any chance?....... with a few small modifications, it would be perfect. Namely, that the spell would cease if you got killed:

By making the entire world nice through your magic, you make the enitre world DEPENDANT on your magic.

... and then the Channeler dies upon casting, unless... he/she were to absorb the essence of 100,000 citizens who would die in his/her place...

the point was to revert everything.  Not just effect the land, but all water, life, and wind of the situation.  The cataclysm (as I understand it) destroyed everything (not just the land).

The goal was to have a basically "I win" spell (because it should be near impossible to cast) but such power comes with a price.  The original cataclysm (as I understand it) was caused by abusing magic.  So, this spell would have a chance to cause a 2nd cataclysm.

Perhaps we should add to Planet rebirth "all areas under caster's influence becomes properous, and all other areas have a very high chance of spawing a natural disaster like "earthquake" "volcano" and such as that.  The only reason I didn't add that the first time is I didn't want it to act as a scorched earth spell (that destroys the enemy land so much you can't really use it when you claim it as your own).   I was hoping that it would feel like all 5 elements by having random enchantments thrown on everything.

I should also add "reveals the entire map" as a wind effect.  "doubles food production in friendly states" for life, "increases wind and sea travel" and perhaps a few other global enhancements.    "Stops bad weather effects" is another.

(scoutdog can call it the "spell of mastery" if he likes.   In fact, I might too.  I was not intending it to be the spell of mastery exactly, which was a 'universal' spell, rather this one would require high levels is ALL elements, which would be a lot harder to pull off.  If it has a different name though, nobody can claim it is a rip off.  If it has the same name, even if it acts nothing like the original, people will claim it to be a rip-off)

@Kitkun:  I was joking.   I think most people on the forums know who you are  (even if only as "that foxy lady" or "the person with a fox on every post")

Purely based on his description the only two magics I feel a compelling argument can be made for Planet Rebirth is with Earth and Life/Death  (maybe water). He doesn't directly address water, wind, or fire hence I assume it is not part of the spell. I mean you could make some rationalizations using general systems theory but that is stretching it for me (not to mention the spell's scope is ludicrous). I believe the best path for spells that use all five (6) magics is non-elemental effects or huge scale multi-elemental effects. I've been thinking about such spells.

Cosmic Rain

Spell Type: Direct damage with massive area of effect

Description: Uses large quantities of all five (6) magical forces to summon 4 large meteors embodying the elemental forces of fire, water, wind, and earth. One meteor would be made completely of fire and plasma, another of Ice and water, the next of oxygen and nitrogen, the last meteor made of Iron and titanium. The spell would last 4 turns one for each meteor and the player would have to select the targeted area for each meteor the turn before it could be used. 

Time Stream

Spell Type: Indirect Support 

Description: Uses hugh quantities of all five (6) elements to stop the passage of time except for the nation casting Time Stream. No other spells can be cast during Time Stream. The resulting affect is the player takes 7 consecutive turns with other nations only being able to react if the player initiates a battle. Starting a battle would not end the spell but merely allow enemies to temporarily rejoin the flow of time.  After 7 turns time resumes as normal. 

Anyways, I'm all for huge late-game FU spells. Perhaps one so powerful it simply wipes a portion of the map away entirely, forever. As in, miniature black hole kind of thing.

the cloth map could get a scortch mark (like a burn through to the table) and the 3D map could have same sexy looking black hole or bottomless pit (I perfer something with particle effects, but I'd take a great pit)

"Universal spell" sounds like a spell that uses all four (or five, whatever) elements. Care to explain the difference?

one takes any kind of mana you give it, the other requires all 5 specifically.   Think "artifact" fram Magic the gathering vs. multicolored (gold) with all 5 colors

Having the magic shards give different mana just like nodes in Age of Wonders seems worse then getting just "mana" that works for whatever spellschool you got like in Age of Wonders 2 and AoW: Shadow Magic.

Having multicolor spells might work but the backside is that people would feel shoehorned in taking f.e Air & Fire for Fireballs that fly extremely far instead of something weaker like Air & Earth for stones & rocks that fly far.

We first need to know if they will keep the magic shards giving different mana or if they'll do it the AoW: Shadow Magic way.

I believe the Shadow Magic way is superior. Having Fire magic and finding air and earth shards is a bit of a downer 

Definately all four specifically, then. (The number five has become the bane of my existance).

I've also been thinking for the spell Cosmic Rain it would be cool if the 4 meteors changed the terrain of their impact zones. Where the water / ice meteor makes a arctic tundra landscape the iron / titanium meteor makes a rocky / mountainous landscape, etc, etc. 

Summons?  Not sure how summons are going to be designed in this game.  I only assume that there will be summons.  But an enchanted army or super-units could be a multi element comprised.  Just have to figure out how each element would be used.  IE in making different unit types or making mostly a single type of unit but with more elemental originated abilities.  Hmmm maybe a certain card game could trigger some ideas...

I suppose that summons will appear whether the devs include them or not, do it's just a matter of patience. However, to save time and probably some work for myself, I would like to see limited summoning ability in the game.... parhaps as a rush-build option.

How about this spell?

reset button

Press this in case of impending defeat, reverts back to turn 1

//Executed by saving the game at the start and loading....//

HAHAHA

Just realized.  I don't see where the actual elements are listed.  Is the game for sure using the MOM concept?  Or a more traditional Fire, water, earth, Air, Spirit (life/death)?

They've been listed, it's the four basics plus life bit.

If you kept your research artifacts and heroes (having them all teleported back to be around the field where the channeler starts) that might be really interesting.

In some games, certain data was carried over.   one example of this is the chaos emeralds in Sonic the Hedgehog 2.  If you pressed the reset button (not turned off, but the button) then you still had the collected emeralds when you started a new game.

BARA - A barrier akin to prismatic wall, only a barrier against anything. Whether that means in or out I guess would have to be balanced, as well as the barrier's size.

Transport city - uproots a city and moves it.  Whether or not it comes back down nicely ... again subject to balance since realisticly could effectively destroy two cities that way.  Hmmm, first time I ever thought as Dalaran as a weapon.

Wish - hard to impliment i know. And Dom3 had an interesting way.  Not sure if I like the one word guess or multiple choice.  Just a matter of time or modding that the mystery of one word guesses are no longer guesses and risk vs. reward concerns.  BUT I think it's a good creative outlet if someone wants to include it eventually, and for those that won't cheat, interesting results.

(More of a mental note if I get into modding myself: to do a survey of single words that people would guess with. No spell ideas or descriptions just single words to get an idea what player will use in-game.  Spell effects are up to the modder.)