spell ideas from the muds. Non-Damage spells mostly. 5 of each

from Elemental Forums

Fire Branch

Coronal Glow: Units Defense is halved.  Negates any hiding abilities

Boiling Blood- takes 1 damage per turn -2 STR, attack speed increased

Wariness- area spell, double movement and combat speed costs in the area

consume- unit takes 2 damage per turn

nova- unit explodes when it dies

 

Water Branch

Healing rain- heals an area lightly

Frostbite- unit takes 1hp damage whenever it melees

encase- unit unable to move or be damage until str+1d(#turns encased*10) > int+(1d@turns encased*10)

dessicate- ignores defense, does direct damage to living creatures, but not summons

rust -att, -def until end of battle

 

Air Branch

windwall- unit gains a chance to avoid attacks from long distances, strongest vs long-melee missile strikes

hall of mirrors- unit needs to pass an int check to move on its turn

alteration- 2 units look like each other until they attack or do an action/move like the other unit cannot

flight- ignores terrain costs

suffocate- lose 1/2 combat speed, take small amount of damage, CON save per turn

 

Earth Branch

density- random chance to increase cost of attacks and moves by 1

stone shell- +INT/2 DV -25% attack speed, chance to give a -1DAM malus to melee attackers

earth to mud- can turn an area into a quaqmire, can't move in it unless flying/floating

diamond skin- gain one round of immunity to non-magic

metal to stone- makes a weapon heavy.  Melee/ranged attacks impossible

 

Just some ideas. 

4,084 views 3 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Buffs are good, they encourage actually fighting rather than just relying on magic (not that just relying on magic is all bad, but it should only be one strategy amongst many, that is occasionally how magic is used.)

Notable points- All abilities should scale. IE, flat numbers are almost always a bad idea, you should rely on percents or Int/X

Note that Encase, diamond skin and metal to stone will simply be used as perma stun. IE, everything will be hit by them in the first round, and the battle will be effectively over. Ice spike and friends are already too strong.While counters are well and good, hard counters (ones wherein one side eliminates the other at no cost.) are inferior compared to soft counters (ones wherein one side is able to inflict a better cost/effect ratio because he made the right choices).

I note the addition of flying- I would say that flight would hurt the games flavor and not really add to the mechanical depth. On of the ideas of elemental, is that some units use magic/associate with it, but the bulk of the people in your civilization are mundane. This is supported well by limiting magical effects, particularly flashy ones.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Some of these spells would be cheap, some costly, some area, some single-target

 

Left things open ended for balance's sake, though I do agree with your general gist of things.

 

diamond skin is an expensive defense spell.  Encase is a random stun, and metal to stone doesn't prevent movement

 

I just didn't know if EQ-destroying spells would be fair, as there's no way to repair equipment right now.

 

Some strategic spell ideas

 

Smooth Terrain (Earth) all terrain costs are 1 point to move

Scatter (Air) - takes a random unit in a stack, and not in a city and teleports it randomly anywhere on the map that is neutral or friendly territory (for the unit).  Teleported unit takes minor damage

Scry (Water) reveals where a sovereign is, even if covered by fog of war.  You must have diplomatic relations, even if it's war, with the sovereign

Smolder (Fire) makes a unit unable to regenerate hp or mana, breakable/resistable INT+(1*turns hit d6) vs CON+(1*#turns hit d6)

 

 

 

 

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Great list Arstal!

Other spells to consider (S=Strategic;, T=Tactical, if not specified then both)

Fly

Invisibility (attacking breaks)

Locate Magic (S)

Illusory Creature

Elemental Resistance (add when elemental damage types are added)

Read Magic (for adventuring, as not all texts should be readable)

Raise Dead (T - this would require not having tac combat automatically end when all of one side dies)

Alarm (S - alerts when enemies approach the area, where fog-of-war prevents vision)

Heck, I could go on for an hour but I feel it's not worth my time at this point, so I'll just point to the list at d20 which offers a ton of ideas to steal draw inspiration from -- especially non-combat spells (plus the spells suggest many good features the game could use).