More Spells Brainstorming

[Gedwyn]

The problem with this, is that it doesn't fit with nature. That's kind of what the Enchantment sphere is for, I'd say. Recon units are most known to spend a lot of time in the outdoors, and know hot to make poisons, etc, so something that benefits only them is good in the nature line.

I don't really see the nature link for Enhanced Weapons. it kind of just sounds too similar to Enchantment I

Agreed, although I see no reason the poison effect can't be expanded. Why can't melee use poisoned blades? Why can't archers use poisoned arrows?

That's much more along the lines of what I was getting at...though I can see Warkirby's point about dumb melee types dying by the truckloads from biting their fingernails before washing their hands.

I would just like to see Poisoned Blade expanded so that all units get a bonus from it, and was trying to come up with a way to keep it like it is - Nature based - but give all units some type of bonus. Hence, better bows via better wood, better armor or shields via better wood, poison as it...all nature based.

Nature - at least imo - is one of the weakest spell spheres out there atm considering how popular it is and needs some buffing.

There are other good ideas though as well. I like the entangle idea - a mass root essentially (I hate to say this coming from a hating CC mmo background - but this game could actually use a little more CC) - is a good way to buff this line too.

 

[odalrick]

Nature II - Tangle Vines
A fairly weak summon, it passes a promotion that reduces chance to defend in combat.

The idea is that the summon isn't particularly dangerous, but takes a lot of time to defeat. In the meantime, other units will have to defend. The main use it to remove the strongest defender for long enough to attack the squishier core.

 

[odalrick]

Agreed, although I see no reason the poison effect can't be expanded. Why can't melee use poisoned blades? Why can't archers use poisoned arrows?

Because poison requires specialized tactics to work. You need to get a lot of poison into the body and even then it takes time to kill. There is also the problem that storing poison usually degrades it's potency.

For melee and mounted units, poison is utterly pointless. You can coat swords, axes, armours and teeth with poison; if you don't kill the enemy right in front of you quickly, knowing that he will die in horrible agony in a few days is cold comfort as his buddies carry your severed head around on a pike.

For archers, poison is slightly better. There are problems with delivering enough poison to be fatal with a single arrow, and with medieval healthcare sepsis is at least as big of a danger as trace amounts of poison.

Even today, with sarin gas, anthrax and LSD, poisons aren't used in military applications.

Recon on the other hand, always and only rely on the kind of tactics that make poison effective, hit-and-run ambushes, harassment and similar.

On the gripping hand, in a world with magic it's easy enough to postulate magical refinement of toxins so powerful that you'd die instantly just from meeting someone who heard about them. It's all about fun and gameplay.

 

[jacomanring]

I agree with most of WarKirby's ideas!

I personally don't like the Finger of death tier 2 spell, which seems to me overpowered, especially regarding the heroes issue...Though heroes would have double resistance against it, I don't like the idea that a Mage could kill one of my hero without even fighting! I think an Archmage casting Finger of death would be more reasonable, IMHO...

I love the burning blade one!! Please do it! Maybe it could be used same mechanic also for the other elemental sphere with some changes linked to type of mana (so something like Frosting Blade could give a chance to slow an opponent down)...

also, I had some (sketchy) ideas for Body sphere:

Body I

Toughness - temporarily/permament resistance to poison, disease and such.

Body II

Rush(?) - Gives +1 movement and blitz ability, 100% of chance to wear of at EoT

Body III

Beyond Life - Gives to the caster the elemental promotion removing other racial promotions. for this one, the best should be find a way to use such a spell on a single target. Giving elemental promotion to a stack of units would be exaggereted but giving it to an Archmage could be most useless...Maybe this one it sounds quite weird spell but if you consider the advantages of having elemental immunities + tower of elements, you'll see the point.

Just come to my mind, there could also be a type of elemental source linked to the racial transformation depending of the ones you own...it could add X (fire, cold...) damage immunity OR +1 Affinity...maybe THIS would be too much!

Last thought:

Entropy III

Polluting body: gives the caster a health malus (similar to the diseased corpse one) for nearby enemy (or even neutral) cities. It should be a consitsten malus, so that it could be used like an indirect-siege weapon!

Well, I just tried to be useful anyway !

 

[WarKirby]

I personally don't like the Finger of death tier 2 spell, which seems to me overpowered, especially regarding the heroes issue...Though heroes would have double resistance against it, I don't like the idea that a Mage could kill one of my hero without even fighting! I think an Archmage casting Finger of death would be more reasonable, IMHO...

I did mention it'd be based on level


For example, the chance of success could be a formula like....

(4+(casterlevel - targetlevel)*10) - targetspellresistance

Since heroes have passive xp, they're quite likely to be level 10 or higher at any given point.

Say we have... a lv6 mage.

If he targets a lv3 axeman who has Combat I and II, the odds would be

(4+(6 - 3) *10) - 0 = 70% odds of success.

On the other hand, if we target an average hero, who's lv10. And has taken spend their promotions om Combat/Drill. Remember also that the Hero promotion has built in 20% magic resistance

(4+(6-10) * 10) -20 = -20% odds of success. In other words, automatic failure.


Let's try a hero and a mage of equal level:
(4+(10-10)*10) -20 = 20% success rate.

To be honest, I don't think even halving the success rate against heroes would be necessary. For a mage to be a high enough level to affect a hero, requires him to be pretty much heroic himself. The numbers are just random examples, but you can see the idea behind it. Since heroes usually have a relatively low base strength, the average melee unit is likely to stand a far better chance of instantly killing a hero if he's the same level

The same mage vs a random lv3 melee unit...

(4+(10-3)*10) - 0 = 110% Automatic success.

Moving it to lv3 wouldn't be very fun, because I already listed an AOE version of it at lv3. That one could have a base value of 2, rather than 4.


Also related, I think we need a Death Ward spell at Life II, which makes units in the stack immune to instant death effects, possibly including the AC events, and definitely including those spells mentioned above. Should have a chance to wear off too

 

[jacomanring]

mmh...if you put in this way, you're convincing me! Plus, I didn't thought about the Death Ward spell, which is a great idea...

How would the Finger work when cast onto a stack of enemy? would it point at the strongest unit?

 

[WarKirby]

How would the Finger work when cast onto a stack of enemy? would it point at the strongest unit?

That would be best. I'm thinking just like how ranged attacks, or the Dominate spell works. They just target the stack defender

 

[ExMachina]

Big Jim the Fighter is too dumb to correctly apply poison without killing himself

Isn't the spell supposed to apply the poison for him? And it is a tier II spell, I like the idea of it applying to a wider variety of units.

 

[Breez]

Burning Blade
Gives a promotion to all melee units in stack, which does the following.

* -3 Strength
* +3 Fire Strength
* +10% vs Melee Units
* 30% chance to wear off per turn.

Clarity of Mind
---------------
Makes units in stack more resistant to mind effects, removes Enraged from affected units

Greed
--------------
City buff spell
Gives +40% and +5
removed when caster leaves the city, etc


Charm
------------
unchanged, except Clarity of mind halves success rate


Crushing Despair
------------------
Resistable, but has a high success rate. Affects living enemies only
Affected units get:
40% spell miscast chance
-20% Magic resistance
-20% Strength
10% chance to commit suicide per turn (simply kills the unit)
35% chance to wear off per turn
Heroes are immune

Turncoat
-------------
Attempts to turn nearby enemies against allies. resistable. Affected units join your civ, but remain under AI control. 30% chance to wear off and convert back to their old team per turn. Loyalty makes you immune to it, Clarity of mind halves success rate

Love these! Would suggest 10% - (Unit Level) chance to suicide on Crushing Dispair.

Vitalize as a first level spell makes Spring garbage, though - Vitalize does the same thing but better.
Unless Water I gets a new first level spell, though...

Exactly the point of having more tha one spell right? Water can keep spring, they jsut get an additional one or two spells. Spring is still very useful if you have water mana but not Nature Mana.

Could do your Douse idea as a 2nd 1st level spell, doesn't have to be the same spell as spring.

I would add a spell like Force 2 (the one that effectively give the caster a ranged attack) to almost every line that has a resistance. Poison Blast, Fire Bolt, Water Bolt, Ice Bolt, etc and let the damage be reduced via magic resistance. Force 2 should just be physical damage, no resistance. Sure that leaves Force slightly "better" but it would mean you don't have to both with the force line if you didn't want too or have the mana.

 

[Breez]

Isn't the spell supposed to apply the poison for him? And it is a tier II spell, I like the idea of it applying to a wider variety of units.

That was my thought. Alternatively, could do +1 damage for recon and for everyone else have no extra damage (weaker poison for non-recon) but let them inflict the Poisoned Promo on units they fight.

 

[Randomness]

Entropy 3: Withered Lands

A reverse vitilize covering 9 squares (all ajacent tiles, and the tile of the caster), wich degrades terain by two levels.

Prehaps a weaker version at entropy 2?...

 

[Vermicious Knid]

Agreed, although I see no reason the poison effect can't be expanded. Why can't melee use poisoned blades? Why can't archers use poisoned arrows?

You could actually make this easier. Have poisoned blades be a promo you buy at a Hunter's Lodge, requires Poisons. Could also have a Poison Arrow promo. Poison isn't very magical, really.


Change the Level 2 spell to "Wacky War Mushrooms". Give a flat bonus to mounted, recon, and melee (+30%?), chance of going enraged. Another options would be a lycanthropy spell...gives a combat boost, some chance of becoming a barbarian werewolf. Thae Nature combat spell should be wild and not completely controllable.

 

[Iskar Jarak]

sun II: Scorching Heat - exhausted promo to everyone in 1 tile.
Exhausted: -50% strength, +1 terrain movement cost

 

[WarKirby]

Some ideas for that ever tricky sphere, Metamagic



Tier I

Floating Eye - As is


Search for Knowledge
-----------------
City buff spell.
+25%
+10%
-10%

The people get lost in reading and learning, becoming too busy to work.


Lesser Dispel
---------------
A much weaker version of dispel that only has a 33% chance to remove each dispellable promotion, and doesn't affect mana nodes


Shell
-----------
Single target buff spell. Affects the caster first, and then each additional casting affects the strongest unit in the stack who doesn't have it.

Shell promotion grants +15% magic resistance, and resistance to all special damage types. 10% chance to wear off per turn


Tier II
------------
Dispel Magic
unchanged


Silence
----------
Resistable. Channelling promotions increase resistance (so archmages are very hard to silence, adepts quite easy).
Silenced enemies cannot cast spells. (there's a bCannotCast tag for promotions)
50% chance to wear off per turn


Spell Mantle
--------------
Vastly improved version of shell. Buffs entire stack, +20% resistance instead of 15%. However, chance to wear off is 35%, so you'll often need someone dedicated to recasting it.


Dismiss
--------------
Affects caster only. Instantly destroys all summoned units (regardless of allegiance) within a 2 tile radius, and gives the caster a 1 turn promotion which grants +10000% strength vs summoned units.


Tier III
----------------

Djinn
-----------
Unchanged


Antimagic Field
------------------
Disables magic within a 2 tile radius. Basically, the caster recieves a promotion which has a pyPerTurn effect. Every turn, this grants the Antimagic Field promotion to all units (friend or foe) within 2 tiles. It's effects


Cannot Cast
+100% resistance to magic
+100% resistance to all damage types
Passes a promotion to summoned units, which makes them die instantly.
100% chance to wear off per turn (but constantly reapplied as long as they're near the archmage who cast it)

Antimagic Field makes the caster unable to cast too. But he gains an ability which cancels the field when used.


Protection Field
------------------
1 tile radius, affects friendly units only. Affected units get +50% resistance to all damage types, (but NOT to general magic resistance)
30% chance to wear off.



Energy Drain
-------------
Affects enemies only. All enemy units within 1 tile permanantly lose (casterlevel*2) xp.
Ideally, it could be worked out if this xp loss would make them go down a level, and make them lose xp-purchased promotions if they do

 

[Tarquelne]

I like the Entangling Vines idea. Nicely unique.


****

Too much D&D in one place. Must lower density or RPG blackhole may result. (Which of course would lead to more D&D.)

I'm generally not nailing down many details. Spell levels can be adjusted based on RR rolls, exact modifiers, etc.

Air:

Wreaths of Foul Smoke: Clouds of smoke cover caster's tile, giving every unit +20% vs. Archers and resistance to collateral damage and/or Archer ranged attacks. Autocast like Haste.

Circling Winds of Protection: 75% chance of attacking unit suffering small amount of damage and "push" effect when attacking caster. (Works vis "oscillating" effect promo.)

Pull of the Skybound Winds: Destroys improvements over wide area.

Body:

The Chirurgeon's Healing Touch: Unit heals x% damage after combat. (Pythonless if "damage on removed" accepts a negative number.)

Strings of the Unwilling Marionette: Target moves, but will not attack, under caster's direction. ("Dominate" with a Duration and Defensive Only promo attached.)

Disguise of the New Form: Caster (stack?) becomes HN.

Chaos:

The Earth's Carbuncle: Imbue area with chaos. Harassment spell - Manifests as mobile areas of exploding earth. (Invisible HN summons with one-shot low damage spell.)

Bane of the Decrepit Body: Like Mutation, but targeted on enemy units and heavily weighted toward disadvantageous mutations.

Confusion of the Insane Vibrations: Large defensive bonus for stack. Autocast ala Haste.

Death:

Grip of the Choking Hand: No RR. A little damage, a duration 3 penalty to combat.

Return Stroke of the Reaper: Hard RR. Doubles already suffered damage to all units in AoE.

Whispers through the Black Gate: Caster learns any 1 spell not currently known if it was known to caster killed within 1 tile.


Dimensional:

Invisible Hand of the Thief: Small portal opens, allows chance of stealing an item from adjacent tiles. No declaration of war results.

The Seventy League Stride: Caster (stack?) gains invisibility, can cross impassible terrain, 9 movement for 1 turn.

Opening the Intangible Tunnel: Invisible summons created. Units adjacent to it are considered adjacent to caster.

Earth:

Pit of the Gaping Earth: Units in target tile (another invis. summons spell) "held" for 1 turn. No RR. (Doesn't work on flying units.)

Ward Against Metal: Units with metal weapon promotions can't attack caster's tile.

Stone to Falling Dust: Destroys Forts, Walls, randomly destroys buildings in adjacent tile if no Fort or Wall.


Enchantment:

Supple Iron and Rigid Rope: +X% hammers while caster is in city.

Waiting Spell: "Stores" 1 spell at a time. Gives 2 castings in one turn in X turns.

Statue to Animal: Caster can buy (x gold) a "Statue" promo at any friendly city. Requires Stone. "Statue" promos are stackable, and several varieties exist based on different animals. Each casting perma-summons 1 animal, removes 1 statue promo.


Entropy:

Demon's Eternal Oblivion: Turns demon's strength back on itself. Long duration combat penalty. RR, but "curse" promo is stackable.

Passion's Lost Feeling: Long duration combat penalty for adjacant units. If cast next to enemy city the city gets a long term hammer penalty and large cultural penalty.

The Great Rot: Anti-terraforming spell. AoE. Destroy's Bonus resources?

Fire

Arc of Fiery Ribbons: Like Fireball, but less damage and really large # of units hit.

Heat of the Searing Forge: Cancels metal weapon promos for 1 turn.

Circle of Encompassing Flames: Flames in adjacent tiles until caster moves.

Force

Failing Ire: Caster becomes Defensive Only. Any unit attacking stack has x chance of becoming defensive only for y turns after attack.

Sigil of Banishment: Grants "Sigil of Banishment" to units in stack. Units killed by Sigil-ed units don't become Angels or Manes.

Ward Against Ill Intentions: "Aura" spell. Enemy units have chance of becoming Defensive Only temporarily. (Or maybe "Pushed.")


Ice

Unchanging Champion: Golem-ish spell. Unit cannot gain xp, any promotions, be damaged, heal, or be effected by any spell (with several exception). Dispell, Sanctify, (most Fire spells?) and other spells damage or will outright destroy unit.

Icewalker: Like Water Walking, but on whole stack.

Winter's Icy Touch: Destroy adjacent agricultual Improvements. An "aura" spell.



Metamagic:

Wizard's Communion: Every caster with this "spell" gets bonus (TBD) increasing with every other caster possessing same "spell" in tile.


Wind of Mundane Silence: AoE. Break's spellstaffs (no extra spell granted), chance to Dispell effects, destroy magic items.


Ach! Bored! Hungry! Maybe I'll finish another time.


****

The only drawback I can see to adding a LOT of spells, btw, is lowering the interesting opportunity costs of pursuing different spheres: The danger being every sphere has a spread of direct damage spells, for example, or strength boosting spells.

 

[WarKirby]

Enchantment:

Supple Iron and Rigid Rope: +X% hammers while caster is in city.

I was thinking of a spell exactly like this, but more for the creation sphere.



How about..

Creation I
Arcane Fabrication
+3 per turn while caster remains in city.

I figure a spell that gives a direct amount, will be far more useful in the early game (which is when you use T1 spells, generally) than a percentage. And also doesn't conflict. In fact, the two of these spells would have a nice synergy

 

[Exsequien]

Now, I'm fairly new to FFH, so if any suggested spells already exist - sorry!

Shadow
- Disguise: Adds the Hidden Nationality promotion to the strongest unit in the casters stack for 3 (+1 per Spell extension level) turns.

Sun
- Reveal: Removes the Hidden Nationality promotion of enemy units in adjacent panels and kicks them out of the border (except if you're at war or have open borders of course)

Air
- Wind Fist: Does moderate (~20%) air damage and pushes the targeted stack 1 tile away from the caster (if that's possible?)

Chaos
- Summon Cultist: Summons a cultist who can enter enemy cities and cause unhappiness/unrests if he's left alone for too long. Has a 10% chance of getting detected and executed each turn.

Law
- Law & Order: -10 crime rate and +2 happiness as long as the caster remains in the city. Kicks out Loki and cultists.

Water
- Create Lake: Turns one tile into a lake and destroys all improvements. Water walking highly recommended. Takes 5 turns to cast.
- Tsunami. Why is that spell not Water III yet?

Body
- Conduct experiments: +50% faster military production, all new units start with Mutated, as long as the caster remains in the city.
- Third arm: Can only be cast on workers. Increases their work speed but they have a 5% chance to get +1 offensive strength and go barbaric each turn.

Death
- Another chance: Units killed in the casters tile get resurrected as 2 skeletons but still have all promotions.

Nature
- Haven: Creates a temporary ancient forest on the tile, does not destroy improvements, if cast on enemy territory that one tile gets your cultural border. (So you get defensive bonuses and heal faster)

Dimension
- Mark & Recall: Creates a permanent marker in the friendly city you're currently in. You can then later cast "Recall" to teleport the casters stack to that city immediately.

Entropy (or Death?)
- Doom: High range, affects the strongest unit in an enemy stack. Unit looses 1 every turn. Dispelable, the reduced strength however remains.

Earth
- Earth Wall: Creates an earth wall for 3 turns. Only your units can pass through it. Units on a tile with an earth wall can not be attacked. You can effectively have 3 earth walls at the same time. Can only be cast in your territory.

 

[Castar]

Spirit III: Charge!
Grants one extra move and a special Blitz promotion (which expires at the end of the turn and blocks this spell from being applied more than once per turn) to every unit in the stack.

Just an idea I had. I think it's pretty powerful, but then most of the spells in this thread are quite a bit more powerful than the wishy-washy magics we have at the moment

 

[Iceciro]

I really like the idea of more spells that don't boost combat units in the stack, but instead do damage directly or boost the caster. I don't want casters to always be a third wheel religated to just boosting your normal army, but to be a weapon on their own.

IE: Metamagic II: Focus Spell
This turn, your unit casts focus spell. Until end of the next turn he gains a promotion that gives +100% spell damage, -35% enemy resistance, Empower V to summoned units.
Basically spending a turn charging up for a bigger doom spell.

 

[Brokenbone]

Cut and paste of some old ideas I posted in FF+ Ideas thread:

(2) Some more "cast once for one permanent buff" tier III spells, for as many spheres as you can dream up, much in the theme of Death III being not just Wraiths, but Lichdom available. Examples:
(a) Shadow III keeping "Summon Mistform", but also getting an "Invisibility" available to your lucky archmage, basically meaning s/he would get the same promotion as Shadows do. If it's too unbalancing to have a permanently Invisible death dealer like that, a spell granting "Hidden" like Krakens or Ghosts get would be reasonable.
(b) Enchantment III keeping the Create Spellstaff deal, but also a "once per caster" type of generic magic weapon or armor they can create to have carried around by themselves or some other unit, just like a Golden Hammer, Orthus Axe, Netherblade, whatever (but not like the nontransferrable "Master" gear from the various pay-for-promo buildings). Alternately, just have a "Create Wondrous Item" spell that simply pulls a random, non-unique piece of equipment (or consumable like a potion) from a long list, and the Archmage becomes able to cast the spell again if that item is ever lost by your empire (such as it getting drank like a potion or captured in a war). If someone wanted to be really fancy, putting three buttons for "Create Weapon", "Create Armor", "Create Wondrous Item" on when you acquire Enchantment III, and once you blow any one of them off, the other two vanish, well, that might work too, knocking out the element of chance a great deal.
(c) Earth III getting some kind of "Stone Walk" promotion, effectively giving them double speed in hills and the ability to traverse mountains. Tossing around an Earth Elemental is fun and all, but tossing 'em from a mountaintop is better (well, at least until a dwarven druid or one of those flying units noted above comes and bloodies your nose).
(d) Fire III, get some kind of Fire Immunity promo, which hey, means immunity to fire damage, but also the ability to walk through fiery areas like orcs and demons. It's a minor thing, but at least fits the suggested theme that not only might you have water walkers, stone walkers, flying guys, but also guys who can traverse hell terrain etc. very well.
(e) There's probably dozens of threads around the boards with other Tier III ideas, I'm sure there's lots of good and/or better ideas than the above, but c'mon, wizards are supposed to fly, turn invisible, create magic items (other than just from a meteor falling and paying 50gp!), I'm playing to the classics here.