Glad to see that Robert's attempt is getting some action.  I'm updating my document (linked at the top). 

I wonder if acquiring spells could be made similar to a formula like Magic: the Gathering.  Finding a spell book through dungeoneering, or buying it at a magic shop, would be like buying a booster back, with several common spells like lighting strike or fireball, and then one or two of the rarer spells.  "Cards" could be traded with other factions through diplomacy.  It means spells would have to be balanced according to rarity so it is not an automatic win for the first guy that gets infernal or summon frost giant.  Similar level spells would need to be equally potent yet perhaps used in different ways or situations to get maximal benefit.  You would also need to be at a certain magic level to cast the more powerful spells that you find, however if you happen upon a very good spell in the early game you could get to work increasing your magic level ASAP.

The D&D style that exists now is fine when leveling up an RPG wizard, but creates a "samey-ness" of magic spells from game to game of Elemental.  Buffing up the lesser used spell might fix some of this, as well as offering greater benefits from crystals.  If you don't have fire crystals, infernal should be pretty weak, and only be the nuke it is if you have two fire crystals or more.

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Also, I think there has been too much of a focus on earth spells with mud, boulders, and ground shaking.  Earth magic feels too "dirty."  Maybe broaden earth magic out to include life magic--like healing, or conversely, toxic effects that nerf certain attributes.  Earth type spells could entrap with roots, and have beneficial effects on the fertility of the land.

^^RE: Earth & Life: that's fine, if there is both.  But there are only four types of crystals, so all magic is going to have to get shoehorned under those four, and according to the fluff in the intro movie, crystals should be pretty prominent in regards to spell casting.  Maybe keep earth and life/nature separate but have them both powered by the same crystal, or have life magic powered by, I dunno, a combination of crystals?  I'm seeing precious little healing or druid-like spells.

Earth and water should be very defensive and buff focused when it comes to strategic spells. Makes a kind of logical sense, the earth and water is what is responsable for life so why shouldn't it be the two of the more powerful strategic buff schools?

I was also thinking along the lines of moats, rivers, cliffs and the mountain walls; they have always been natural defenses, so why not for spell schools as well? With that kind of logic earth & water cross school spells could grant some form of 'ultimate physical defense,' at least on the strategic map.

{Enchant items}

I would still like my enchatment of items idea to be used -

It would make the weapons alot more interesting when you suddenly find a Death/fire sword in a dungeon and it apart from doing massive damage and causing health to transfer also would have koool glowy grafics on the character (oh yes bring the glow)

{spells}

Life :
Shining light : this spell targets any summoned creature and stuns it for (stats+others that makes sense) number of rounds (if the creature happens to be of the death tree (demons imps etc ) they are stunned and hurt by the light (stats + others that make sense) damage

Life force : Imbues the target with increased health and regeneration

Transference : target caster gains  (essence - ) (non permanently - a spell that allows for essence to be traded between casters (though some loss might be like if you caster the spell you loose 5 essence and the other target gains 4)

Chosen of (insert map name here) : This target becomes one with the world (ONLY ONE TARGET AT ALL TIMES ALLOWED) - gaining massive essence bonus - and mana regen - for each shard owned it boosts increasingly (ULTRA END GAME SPELL)

Death :

Cold death : This spell cause damage - and if the unit dies from this damage awakens as a zombie unit instantly (would require zombie creatures - though adding a dark aura to the same unit and transfering it to the casters control for the rest of the battle could work.

Unholy aura : The unit affected causing massive morale penalties around it - things that attack get penalized increasingly

Steal essence : The caster picks a enemy target and saps him of his essence - transfering it to him self - (this spell can be cast in combat and OFF map - targeting friendly units is possible

Death incarnate : The target of this spell becomes death itself (ONLY ONE TARGET AT ALL TIMES ALLOWED) - gaining massive essence bonus - and life stealing / for each shard controll the unit when killing other units gains a massive boost to its essence pool.(melee only)

Juggernaut / Avalance (still looking for a decent name for it.  Something earthly, implying increase or momentum)

Earth Elemental... effect 

This is a powerful ability so it would only work with strategically summoned "greater elementals".
Being able to tactically chain-summon throwaway elementals just as a vessel for the superbuff could be too nasty.

This is a spell - not an ability of the elemental - that must be channeled.
After the spell is cast, the channeler must maintain it, fueling mana into it every turn and being unable to attack/cast otherwise.  Only moving at half speed is allowed.
A lesser version could be an innate ability of all earth elementals, including lesser elementals you could summon in tac battles.

This is "only" a stat buff for the elemental. Except that it gets stronger every turn, increasing attack and defense but not HP or speed.
The elemental "grows", picking up momentum like an avalance.  If your enemy does that it would be a good idea to kill it before it becomes an unstoppable juggernaut.

When the spell wears off, the elemental crumbles, turning that tile into "broken ground".

Drawbacks of the spell:  Costs 1 greater elemental, which means strategic casting time (and reagents?) and possibly having to transport it to the front if you could only summon major creatures at Summoning Circles.
Takes one channeler out of the battle while the elemental is growing in power.  It would also do that early in the battle because obviously you want the elemental to have grown some before it hits the enemy lines.
If the channeler is interrupted/stunned, the spell "wears off". Well, there goes your elemental.
The list of restrictions is pretty harsh but I can really only guess what will work out best and how all the rules work out at the end.
Better have the functionality for these in place than having to nerf the spell... and not having a way to do so.
Besides, making spells better doesn't get the kids crying like over the Teleport nerf.

And I know just the sound effect for this spell. =P

i would write under the various spells and sections

Air resists EARTH

Earth resists AIR

WATEr resist fire

fire resist Water! -

it would play out the elements against each other more - so when you a water mage run across your fire nemesis you go "yooou damnation!"

also - that new schools of magic might be interesting - i would rather see combo spells due to shards in your posseion.


Earth / water would give you access to (forest type spells - etc)

this would again inforce this is ELEMENTS game -

Lots of updated spells, mechanics, and uhh... stuff.
 
 
Spell:   Path of Inferno  -  tac:
    Unit buff, most likely an innate to a powerful fire elemental.
    Could also be very "interesting" as a debuff on something that is not immune to fire...

    Every tile the infernal unit steps on will be set on fire for 5 turns or so, doing damage comparable to a Fireball.
    That unit should ideally have a negative  Vulnerability.Fire  so it creates it's own healing device as it moves.
    Probably fitting for a very powerful elemental. Setting adjacent tiles on fire could be it's sole means of attack.

Spell:   Brittle Armor  -  strat / tac:  Proc Buff
    reduces the efficiency of the target's armor by 10%,  5% if it saves against  Vulnerability.Water.
    Armor hit by the "cold weapon" is more brittle and liable to break.

Spell:   Brittle Weapons  -  strat / tac:  Buff (OnHitProc)
    reduces the efficiency of the attacker's weapons by 10%,  5% if it saves against  Vulnerability.Water.
    Blades dull/break more easily and clubs could splinter.
 

Spell:   Blood Boil  -  tac:  Irresistible Debuff / DoT.
    Slowly heats up a unit's blood, starting with 1 damage / turn. 
    Every turn, the unit gets to save vs Vuln.Death.  If it fails, the damage doubles and stays at this higher level.
    Since the spell damage doubles, it can reach regions where it is still effective against the 1200+ HP units in the late game - unlike
    "regular" nukes that do hurt such a unit for maybe 3-5 %.
    The starting damage could also be related to the unit's max HP instead of being 1.

Spell:  Heroic Resolution:  tac:  Buff.
    On cast, the unit gains +15% max HP and +15% current HP.  Every turn afterwards, the max HP are reduced by 3 %.
    A hurt unit like at  78 / 100  would be at  89 / 115,  not at 93 / 115.  That should limit the use as a plain heal spell.

Spell:  Divine Intervention:   strat / tac:  Adaptive heal spell.    Should have considerable casting time.
    This spell heals   (( HP.Max - HP.Cur ) * 0.6 )
    A unit at 90/100 heals to 96/100  but one at  10/100 heals to 64/100.

Spell:  Engulfing Mound  -  tac:   Tile enchantment. A mound of earth rises from the ground swallowing any unit that might stand on it.
    An enemy unit can resist that and be moved to a random adjacent tile on success.
    Once a unit is swallowed, it is out of the fight. It can only attack the mound form the inside, eventually reducing it's HP to zero and destroying it.
    Units on the outside cannot attack the swallowed unit so friendly units can be protected with that.
    Hostiles would have to hack through the mound from the outside to uncover the hidden unit again.

Spell:  Entangling Vines  -  tac:  A forest square gains the ability to "attack" adjacent units, entrapping them.
    This is a Life spell attack, that the target unit can resist completely.   On failure it is trapped.
    It can not move or attack anything but the adjacent forest square (an invisible unit perhaps?), freeing itself once the "vines" are destroyed.
    As a result, this "forest" can usually only attack one unit. If it is not destroyed quickly, it could entrap more
    than one (weak) adjacent unit,  one per turn.

As you see, even the boring Life or Earth books can have some interesting effects.

Just bumping this back to the top for a revisit as it brings up a huge amount of great ideas.

Life spell:

Defender of the People - strat.
In some ways this is related to the Guardian Ward unit from the 1.1 patch. Only less of a blunt "fix".

A unit in a city can be enchanted to become a DotP. (I bravely resisted the temptation to call it Defender of the Commoners or DotCom)
Could be limited to 1 / city.

It negates the unit's ability to leave the city.
The spell can be turned off anytime but the unit will still not be able to leave the city (or be disbanded) for like 15 turns afterwards.

The spell ties the life force of the unit to that of the entire city, making the unit very sturdy... but at the risk of feedback through that magical link.
The unit gains attack/defense/resist based on the population count of the city. Since population levels can cross several decimals, most of the spell's power needs to come from it's base values and/or the population-based share needs to be SQR(population) to keep the range within scale.

So why would anyone not make all units Defenders?
When a DotP takes damage, so does the population. That added power has to come from somewhere.
At a HP level of 100 - 75% the feedback is minimal but gets more severe the more the Defender's HP drop.
It should not de-populate the entire city but the loss should hurt.