Since we haven't gotten a lot of details about the MAGIC SYSTEM I thought I would post some thoughts I have had during the interminable months of waiting to hear more about the MAGIC SYSTEM .

Spells have a bunch of different attributes that give them their unique character. Some simple stupid systems really only have one or two attributes - for instance sure you might have similar spells among different schools, but there really isn't that much functional difference between a fire bolt and an ice bolt. One might do 2-4 damage and another might do 3-5, but really there is just no depth because not much thought went in other than to make a different graphic, twiddle with the damage amount and assign it to a different school.

To anyone familiar with me, this is predicatbly leading to an Ode to Master of Magic...

So I thought I would lay down some of the various attributes that COULD be included, please feel free to add any that I haven't thought of.

Attribute 1: The element or school that the spell is based on.

Attribute 1.5: Casting cost mana + essence(?) + ? (i.e. a spell might require you to sacrifice population...

Attribute 2: casting time spells could take multiple turns to cast, or in combat, it could determine the order of events, i.e. a quick spell might kill an enemy spellcaster or if not kill might interrupt their casting.

Attribute 3: duration of effect - permanent, until dispelled, # of turns, current tactical combat, # of sub-turns within current tact combat, instant, other?

Attribute 4: maintenace cost(s)

Attribute 5: Target type: enemy or friendly, single unit or stack, terrain square, spell, multiple terrain squares, town, current tactical battle or area of effect within a tact battle, global.

Attribute 6: Effect: Summoning, direct damage, heal, buff, debuff.

For the purposes of discussion, attributes 2 and 4 are not overly interesting - they are important pieces, but really don't help differentiate spells from each other that much. Casting time might have some relevance just because one spell might be advantageous over another due to a quick cast time (thinking dueling wizards here).

Mixing and matching the other attributes produces a huge variety of possible spells, and I guess that is what the spell creation aspect of the game will entail, although I do hope we have a large number of canon spells. Putting some thought toward even some unlikely combinations could produce some interesting results.

What other attributes could there be to diversify the spellbook?