A Modest Proposal for the Magic System in Elemental: Where is the Magic

Introduction 

Given the nature of Elemental: War of Magic, a player should expect that magic makes up an integral part of the game.  Your character has his divine right to rule, so to speak, based upon the fact that he is a channeler – an incredibly rare trait which grants him the ability to cast spells.  The historical background features a magical cataclysm, and emphasizes that all of the magic in the world is now bound up in “shards.”  

Current player experience shows that magic is not a very useful part of the game at all.  A “melee” hero is grotesquely overpowered and cheeses the game, whereas a spell-focused channeler gets his tail kicked all over the game.  

Something has gotta change. 

Having played the game extensively, I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that the entire spell system should be utterly scrapped.  That’s right – every single spell needs to be thrown out and the whole spellbook rethought from the beginning.  And I, your humble poster, offer the following suggestions:

Attributes 

Before getting into spells, we first need to add a Magic Resistance attribute.  I don’t know how to work it in on the current unit setup – but for a game ostensibly focused on magic, it makes no sense to have spell calculations take armor into account but nothing else.  This leaves us with the following attributes: 

• Strength (affects Attack)
• Intelligence (affects Spell Power)
• Charisma (affects recruiting cost)  Charisma should have other benefits, as it is basically worthless.  That, however, is out of the scope of this post.
• Constitution (affects HP)
• Combat Speed (affects the number of actions that you can take in combat)
• Dexterity (affects Defense)
• Sight (number of squares a unit can see)
• Wisdom (this is worthless, and should be done away with)
• Essence (Mana points for spell casting)
• Moves (number of spaces per turn that can be moved on the World Map)
• Magic Resistance (Defense, as applied to spells.)
• Morale (no idea how the mechanics work on this.) 

New Schools of Magic

Time to redo the current schools of magic.  I’ve got a revolutionary idea – let’s use the Shards to determine what magic you are able to research.  In other words, if you want to research Fire Spells, you have to have a Fire Shard.  

• Having a Fire Shard grants you access to research spells in the Fire School. 
• Same thing for Earth, Air, and Ice.
• If you lose your shard, whether it is by having your shrine destroyed, your city taken, or your influence overtaken, you can finish researching your current spell in that school and still cast spells from that school.  You will not, however, receive the bonuses from having that shard or be able to research further spells in that school until you obtain another shard of the appropriate type.
• Futhermore, owning multiple shards of a specific type (up to say, 4) will grant you extra spells to research or perhaps grant you a special ability.  Or both.

 Hybrid Schools

In addition, owning shards of different types allows you to research Hybrid spells. Here are my recommendations: 

• Fire Shard + Air Shard:  School of Flight.  Focusing on transportation spells.  I shall go where I want, how I want, and when I want.
• Fire Shard + Ice Shard:  School of Deception.  Focusing on illusion spells.  The fog comes and we shall vanish from the sight of our enemy.
• Fire Shard + Earth Shard:  School of Strength.  Focusing on buffing spells.  Fire to quicken, Earth to steaden.  You shall stand fast!
• Air Shard + Ice Shard:  School of Sight.   Focusing on Clairvoyance and Seeing Spells.  Before the Cataclysm, the Titans sent Air through pools of Water to spy on their enemies and know what they were doing.
• Air Shard + Earth Shard:  School of Shield.  Focusing on protective spells.  None can hurt he whom the earth shields from wrath and whom the air deflects all anger.
• Earth Shard + Ice Shard:  The School of Nature.  Focusing on terraforming spells.  The master of earth and water can bend the earth and the sea to his will, sending them as he will.
• Fire Shard + Air Shard + Ice Shard:  The Firestorm School.  Focusing on damage spells.  My wrath melts the very glaciers.  There shall be no escape.
• Fire Shard + Air Shard + Earth Shard:  The Beckoning School.  Focuses on summoning spells.  I call, and you shall do as I will.
• Air Shard + Ice Shard + Earth Shard:  The Sinking School.  Focuses on debilitating spells. I shall make you weak even unto death.
• All Four Shards:  The Titan School.  Grants access to a mix of extremely powerful and rare spells.  The Lord of all four elements shall be as strong as the Titans.  

Thus, there are four Primal Elemental schools of magic, and ten more hybrid schools of magic.  I don’t see any need for the hybrid schools of magic to have as many spells as the Primal Elemental schools. 

In addition, there will be three other schools of magic, two of which every caster (depending on Kingdom or Empire) will have access to from the very beginning.  These spells are:  Life, Death, and Common. 

Life and Death stand in opposition.  Their spells will generally do the same things, but have slightly different effects, costs, and consequences.  There will be at least one spell per level, however, which will serve to completely differentiate the trees.  Kingdom gets Life, Empire gets Death. 

The Common spells will be available to all channelers to research and will provide a utilitarian toolkit even if no shards are owned.  The Spell of Mastery (whatever we want to call it) will be at the end of the Common spell tree. 

Types of spells 

I’ve played a lot of games with spells over the years, and in my opinion, the vast majority of them fall into the following categories: 

Damage Dealing:  This is your traditional fireball spell, and so on.  These spells primarily do damage to the HP attribute (there was a reason why I listed the attributes) although they may have other effects as well.  These spells can be Tactical or Global.  Damage spells can be Ranged or Touch. 

Damage Dealing spells interact with the magic resistance attribute.  A calculation (up to Stardock) is performed using the caster’s intelligence, the spell’s level, and the target’s magic resistance. 

Buffing Spells:  These spells increase one or more attributes.  If done on the Tactical Map, they will have a temporary effect, if done on the Global Map, the effect will be permanent.  For example, Arcane Armor increases the Defense attribute.  Healing spells are also a type of buffing spells – they increase the HP attribute.

 Defensive Spells:  These spells keep enemy actions from having their full effect.  They may mitigate the damage or obliviate it completely.  They are kin to Buffing Spells in that a buffing spell which increases Magic Resistance or Defense would fall under either category.  However, a defensive spell could limit the opponent’s ability to counter-attack, make the unit immune to special attacks, make the unit immune to certain schools of magic, etc.  These spells can be Tactical or Global. 

Transportation Spells:  These spells help you move from Point A to Point B.  There is some overlap with Buffing Spells, as Transportation Spells can increase attributes such as moves or combat speed.  These spells also include various forms of teleportation, the ability to fly, and perhaps the ability to set up Gates between locations for instant unit movement.  This is primarily Global, but there are Tactical applications as well. 

            - I note that adding another attribute, Movement Type, would reasonably expand transportation spells as well as make another crossover with Buffing Spells.  One would reasonably assume that a ground unit would be unable to attack a flying unit. 

Vision Spells:  These spells can help you see things not ordinarily seeable.  This primarily affects the Global map – think of these as espionage spells.  Vision spells can reveal parts of the map, put a constant watch on enemy cities or important locations, reveal what the enemy is researching, what spells they know, what units they are building, etc.

Summoning Spells:  Perhaps the most self-explanatory, summoning spells add a new unit to your army.  While these are primarily Global in nature, having some tactical spells which allow for short-term summoning can increase tactical flexibility. 

Mental Spells:  These spells include spells such as Charm, making your enemy your own, or mind control spells which cause the enemy to do your will for a time.   

Illusion Spells:  These spells generally make your enemy see what isn’t there.  Casting an illusion spell might allow you to fool the enemy into thinking that your units are somewhere they are not, are something they are not, etc.  Advanced uses might be to counter vision spells, giving false reports of the size of your city, your improvements, etc.  Illusion spells can also cross over to summoning spells by summoning illusory units, defensive spells by increasing defense, etc.  

Debilitating Spells:  The counterpart to buffing spells, and a close cousin to damage spells.  Debilitating spells lower one or more of an opponent’s attributes.  Can be global or tactical. 

I’m sure I’m missing one or two types here . . . 

While the Hybrid Schools will primarily focus on just one type of spells, the Primal Elemental, Life, Death and Common schools will contain a mixture of all types. 

Basic Questions Every Spell Must Answer 

• What is the purpose of casting this spell?
• Why should I cast this spell, instead of another?
• In what situations is this spell useful or appropriate? 

Item Forging 

Magical Item forging will primarily consist of adding a spell to a piece of equipment.  In addition, units can be custom created with items that have specific spells bonded to them. 

Wrap-up 

I have been working on my own spellbooks for a while, and I have a lot of sympathy for the developers.  Making useful, balanced spells that don’t blatantly draw from other sources is really hard.  But at the same time, the magic system in Elemental needs to be greatly reworked.  Most of the game really ought to revolve around magic.  A channeler should be the most powerful thing walking – a true eggshell armed with a hammer.  

I don’t mean to suggest that what I have up here is the absolute best way to do things, although I think it would be a workable and unique approach.  I am certain that my suggestion is much better than the system as we currently have it.  

Going through the xml files, it seems like a lot of the groundwork is in place to redo the magic system.  But there needs to be a lot more spells, that are a lot more powerful, and are more closely tied to the shards than currently exist.  I hope that my modest proposal at least provides some inspiration to Stardock as they work to complete Elemental.  As for me, I’m going to figure out how to mod it anyway.