[DrPraetorious]

I decided to move this out of the Modders wishlist thread because I didn't want to crowd it with in-depth discussion, or with stuff that, realistically, probably won't make it in until-dom4-if-ever.

The idea here is to describe spells that you can't make using the current spell effect *engine*, and then figure out what new effect #s you'd need to make them.

I realize that most people probably are not clear on what the engine is currently capable of - especially as there are some features of the engine not currently available to modders.

Anyway, feel free to give feedback on the ideas I'm floating below - can you think of a simpler way to achieve the same spell? Are there any of these that you would actually use in your own spells?

-- Specified Transform (new Effect #)
Two effect #s here - one transforms you (or whoever it gets cast on) for the duration of combat, the ritual version transforms you permanently.
The damage is the unit # you get.
This effect # may actually exist in the engine now - there are magic items (pebble skin suit, lycanthropos amulet) which do this but they don't appear to call hidden spells to do it.
Example spells:
* Become Daemon, Become Lich, Become Vampire, etc.

-- Overland spells for other damage types
As far as I know, there is no way to make fire from afar / flames from the sky type effects that do holy or age damage.
The aging version is what interests me, but sending a cloud of sleep onto the enemy army before combat even begins (I *believe* that the enemy army would show up stunned at the start of combat if they fought the same turn they were hit) is a genre classic.
Example Spells:
* Mass Youth (I want this as a national spell for a nation I have in mind)
* The Great Sleep

-- Binary Logic - the "FORK" effect
These effects let you make compound spells with more than one effect in them. In the descriptions below, I'm going to assume that the secondary effect field is modable.
When a spell with the FORK effect goes off, it checks each target against it's own #spec field. If the spell is MRN negates, it makes a penetration roll; if the spell "does fire damage" it checks the fire resistance of the target; if the spell is "only vs undead" it checks if the target is undead, etc.
If the test succeeds (if the penetration roll passes, whatever) the spell is treated as having two secondary effect fields.
Here's an example spell:
1. Reap Soul uses effect FORK, with the spell number of Reap Soul II as the damage field. The #spec field of Reap Soul specifies that it only works on living, non-mindless targets and that MR negates. If the penetration roll succeeds, and if the target is living and minded, the target will be hit by Reap Soul II.
2. Reap Soul II also uses effect FORK, with the spell number of Reap Soul III in the damage field and the spell number of Reap Soul IV in the normal secondary effect field.
3. Reap Soul III is instant death.
4. Reap Soul IV summons a ghost.
Tada! You have a spell that kills someone and gives you their ghost.
The reason that this effect is FORK rather than "IF" is because you can already do "IF" just by stringing secondary effects together.
An IF-ELSE effect where the secondary effect field is ignored if the predicate succeeds might also be useful.

-- Custom Enchantments
These would actually be damage values for the x8x family of effect #s, rather than new effect #s.
The general idea is that you have enchantments which, in turn, cast other spells, either with a chance in every province in the world, with a dominion-proportional chance in your dominion, etc.
The enchantment #s past 1000 are reserved and each automatically looks up the spell with the same ID #.
The obvious use for these is to make soul-gate type spells.

-- Customized Unit Lists
This is not, technically, a
These would actually be negative damage values for the various effects that reference units by unit #. Ideally, these would also work for the transformation spells I describe above.
This would entail consolidation of the "summon from list of uniques", summon animals and summon crossbred effect #s into a single effect with negative damage values.
Firstly, I don't know how (internally) different nations get different lists of custom undead. I also don't know how the lists of which units are elemental royalty (or amesha spentas, or whatever) are done, or if those are handled the same way as the soul trap summons.
So, each unit list has a numbering, and may be a secondary list (marked with a B).
Each nation has the option of overwriting each unit list - so, for example, you could allow Abyssia to summon sacred versions of the Kings of Elemental Fire, if you wanted (although I don't think the uniqueness would work.)
Unit lists -1A, -1B and -2 are reserved and special. They determine which kinds of undead you get. -1A is armed soul-less, -1B is unarmed soul-less, each draw from these unit lists "eats" a corpse and fails if no corpse is available.
Unit lists -100 through -200 work like crossbreeding; unit draws are modified by fortune.
Unit lists -201 through -300 are divided into blocks of 10 which correspond to different terrains.

... TO BE CONTINUED ...