Miscellaneous Magic Ideas

[RedRover]

Just a few more random ideas...


“Sudden Death” Global Spells

This type of global spell ends the game instantly if it is in effect a certain number of turns after casting. The endpoint is random after a short period—say 6 + d24 turns. The idea is to put everyone under the gun of a ticking clock. Existing candidates include:

Rimmetursar. Once the ultimate winter descends, game over. With no dominant god to protect them, all mortals perish.

Astral Corruption: An Ultimate Horror, the Unnamed One, appears and eats all the Pretenders. It cannot be stopped. [It arrives, ending the game—nobody needs to sit through the bloody bits.]

You don’t need a lot of these spells, just one or two.

Theft Spells
In general, I don’t care for the idea. While it sounds neat to be able to lift opponent’s items in multiplayer, IMO it would be an absolute fun-killer when it happens to you. This spell will annoy and frustrate at least half the players involved in the transaction. And does a solo player need this type of advantage against the AI? Seems to me the AI has enough problems. Big thumbs down to the idea.

New Ritual Spells

Dome of Preservation: Ritual. Enchantment 7. Path D5. Cost: 10 Death gems +1 gem/turn.
The dome prevents corpses in the province from decaying. It Lasts for an addition turn for each Death gem spent over the base cost. If the caster is killed, the dome collapses and all corpses in the province are destroyed.

[Design notes: This is synergistic with the Night Gaunt spell. One side effect it would have is to give an advantage to an undead nation in multiplay without giving a corresponding advantage to an AI-run nation in the single player game--the calculation of retrieval and casting for enhanced undead production is beyond current AI tech.]

Night Gaunt: Ritual. Conjuration 4. Path: D3. Cost: 10 Death gems.
This spell dispatches winged ghouls to retrieve corpses for the caster. The bodies are returned to the caster's laboratory.

[Design notes: Corpses from the targeted province are brought back to the province in which the caster's laboratory is located. The number of Corpses retrieved is 5 per caster rank in Death magic, up to the number of corpses in the target province.]

Rot: Ritual. Alteration 4; Paths: D3N1; Cost 5 Death gems
Reduces the supply capacity of the target province for one month. Appears to be a random event.

Flavor Text: “A mysterious blight strikes, causing vegetation and food to spoil and rot quickly.”

[Design note: Blight reduces available supplies in the target province by 20%, but has no effect in Wasteland terrain. It is not cumulative with itself. Also, add a matching random event.]

Void Stalker: Ritual. Conjuration 5. Paths: S3B1, 10 Astral gems.
This spell summons an invisible assassin that looks for a hidden commander in the target province. If there is no hidden commander in the target province, the void stalker may return and attack the caster.

[Design Note: Hidden commander = commander under a Sneak or Hide order—the Void Stalker’s tracking is faultless. If more than one commander, then equal chances. If the stalker doesn’t find hidden commanders, it returns and its chance to attack the caster is actually 100%; life is tough, isn’t it? This concept is based on a post that suggested Strands of Arcane Powers was one of the few spells that could find a hidden commander. This works along the same general principle.]

[Incidentally, since the stalker is invisible, it has a blank graphic, but sounds like a dagger attacking. It’s sure to freak out newbies. “My commander died! But I didn’t see anything!”]

[Void Stalker: hp=20, prot=10, mor=30, mr=15, enc=4, str=14, att=15, def=12, prec=10, mv 2/10; Special: stealthy +10, invisible*, need not eat, magical being.
Weapon: poison dagger x2 (strong poison)

*Defender takes the Darkness penalty or the equivalent, -75% precision, -50% att/def, undead are affected.]

Mystic Defenders: Ritual. Conjuration 3. Paths: 1 (any). Cost: 5 gems + 1 per point of province defense.
For one month, this ritual increases province defense by 1 point per gem spent over the base cost. All gems must be of the same type and match the path the caster chooses. The spell summons up to 5 province defenders per rank of caster in the selected path.

[This spell actually represents a whole complex of path-specific spells that have an equivalent effect. Casting this would bring up a popup with the options relevant to the caster. For example:]

[Default Defender: hp 10, Prot 9, Mor 10, MR 12, Enc 5, Str 10, Att 10, Def 9, Prec 10, Mv 2/10. Specials: Need not eat, magic being.
Default Weapon: Dmg=5, att=1, def=0, lgn=2. No specials.]

Earth: +2 str, +2 defense, +2 hp.
Air: +2 shock damage, immune to shock
Fire: +2 fire damage, immune to heat
Water: +2 cold damage, immune to cold
Astral: +2 attack bonus, magic weapons.
Nature: Poisoned weapons. +2 poison damage/round for 3 rounds.
Death: Causes Fear (0), undead, spawn*=1.
Blood: Inflicted wounds bleed +1 damage/round for 3 rounds.

*Death-based defenders spawn at commander's location when killed. Number is total number of spawns. Commanders do not spawn.]

[Mystic Defenders have 1 commander per 10 defenders, with the following stats (and same specials, except commanders do not spawn):

Default Defender Commander: hp 12, Prot 11, Mor 11, MR 12, Enc 5, Str 11, Att 11, Def 10, Prec 10, Mv 2/12. Specials: Need not eat, magic being.
Weapon: same as basic type.

[This spell lets a player reinforce a province he thinks might get hit. Downside is it’s very expensive, especially if protecting multiple provinces. I wouldn’t mind if it turns out to be ruinously expensive in the long run—its role is to be an expensive emergency point defense. ]

New Magic Items

Ka Blade: Unique. Construction 8. Path: Astral 4, Blood 2. Cost: 40 Astral gems, 10 Blood slaves.
This weapon drains experience and gives it to the wielder. The creature struck is drained of 20 XP per hit. A creature reduced below 0 XP is feebleminded. The weapon has no special effect on mindless creatures (it is still magic and does physical damage).

[Design note: magic weapon, XP bonus, a surviving target creature drained below 0 XP has XP reset at 0.]

Bag of Holding: Very Powerful Magic Item. Construction 6. Paths: S3. Cost: 20 Astral gems.
This item adds two miscellaneous slots to the owner (for a net gain of one miscellaneous magic slot).

Horn of Bubbles: Lesser Magic Item. Construction 2. Path W1D1. Cost: 5 Water gems and 5 Death gems.
This cursed item permanently locks a miscellaneous magic slot when given to a leader.

[Design Note: Only one of these can be given to a leader.]

Ring of Weakness: Very Powerful Magic Item. Construction 4. Path W3D1. Cost: 20 Water gems and 5 Death gems.
This cursed item confers a Strength penalty of -4. It permanently locks a miscellaneous magic slot when given to a leader.

[Design Note: Only one of these can be given to a leader.]

[Vicious Love]

Old man! You seek the spell of mastery!

Heh.

...

Anyway, I applaud most of these ideas, and the thought of a Verjigorm-facilitated endgame is enough to bring a tear to my eye.

[Endoperez]

What is the use of Horn of Bubbles/ Ring of Weakness? Surely something equally cheap exists if you want to block slot of one of your own commanders, and something like Bane Venom Charm or Lycanthropos Amulet can actually kill that commander if you want to make him unusable.

As can Ethereal Crossbow, for that matter, but in a very different way...

[RedRover]

Vicious Love: Drat! Is it that obvious, then?

Endoperez: Fair question!

Actually, there's seldom only one reason for anything. So let's look at a few. First, though:

Reference List of Cursed Items

Slave Collar (Trinket. Con 0. Paths: B1. Cost: 5 Blood.)

Eye of Aiming (Lesser Magic Item. Con 2. Paths: A1. Cost: 5 Air.)
Knife of the Damned (Lesser Magic Item. Con 2. Paths: N1S1. Cost: 5 Nature, 5 Astral.)
Soul Contract (Lesser Magic Item, Con 2. Paths: B5. Cost: 80 Blood.)

Armor of Twisting Thorns (Greater Magic Item. Con 4. Paths: B3N3. Cost: 20 Blood, 20 Nature.)
Lifelong Protection (Greater Magic Item. Con 4. Paths: B3. Cost: 20 Blood.)
Lychantropos’ Amulet (Greater Magic Item. Con 4. Paths: N2. Cost: 10 Nature.)
The Heart of Life (Greater Magic Item. Con 4. Paths: B3. Cost: 20 Blood.)

Crystal Heart (Very Powerful Item. Con 6. Paths: E2S2. Cost: 10 Earth, 10 Astral.)
Flesh Ward (Very Powerful Item. Con 6. Paths: B2. Cost: 10 Blood.)

Amon Hotep (Unique. Con 8. Paths: F43S4. Cost: 40 Fire, 40 Astral.)
Aseftik’s Armor (Unique. Con 8. Paths: E3. Cost: 20 Earth.)
Harvest Blade (Unique. Con 8. Paths: B3N1. Cost: 20 Blood, 5 Nature.)
Sceptre of Corruption (Unique. Con 8. Paths: B4. Cost: 40 Blood.)
The Forbidden Light (Unique. Con 8. Paths: S3F3. Cost: 20 Astral, 20 Fire.)
The Gift of Kurgi (Unique. Con 8. Paths: B5. Cost: 80 Blood.)
The Green Eye (Unique. Con 8. Paths: N2. Cost: 10 Nature.)
The Ruby Eye (Unique. Con 8. Paths: F3. Cost: 20 Fire.)
The Sword of Aurgelmer (Unique. Con 8. Paths: S5. Cost: 80 Astral.)
Crown of Kataphagos (Special Unique. Con -. Paths: -. Cost: wish.)


Back to Reasons
1) There doesn't seem to be a lot of Water magic on the list.

2) You may be thinking like a player. A magic item is a tool, and maybe, if I'm designing a scenario, I may need a new tool to produce the effect I want.

3) No law says a player must be given an optimal solution in every case. I believe superior game design includes non-optimal solutions, to allow better players to distinguish themselves. (The fact that you are asking your question IMO puts you in the latter group.)

4) Nor need every game element have a defined use. Part of the fun in a game like Dom2 is being surprised by the applications the players work out, and part of the fun in play is turning an apparent sow's ear into a silk purse.

5) You may be thinking in terms of Dom2. Point 4 is especially true if the game is going into a new edition--an apparently useless idea might spark a new design feature from an unexpected source.

6) I might really, really like the Horn of Bubbles.

Recommended Reading: "What Good is a Glass Dagger?" by Larry Niven.

[deccan]

RedRover said:
Recommended Reading: "What Good is a Glass Dagger?" by Larry Niven.

Hah! I just read it a couple of months ago. I also read "Not Long Before The End", also about the Warlock.

[Endoperez]

I know now all items have to be optimal, but if the only way to use items is to give them to *your* commanders, send them to battle you know you will be using and hope that your enemy's commanders pick them up, blocking their miscellanous slots...

Besides, I don't understand Horn of Bubbles. Would it do *anything* at all besides being cursed item? Or did you mean that it blocks *two* slots instead of one? And Ring of Weakness could actually be usable, but not with W3D1! Even at W1D1 it would take 10 gems, and would have a big chance of not doing anything. Then, however, people would try it themselves and notice that it is not good.

Similarly, I can see the game having Horn of Bubbles which makes bubbles (precision -10 long-range missile that does no damage but causes Earth Meld whereever it hits), or Horn of Bubbles that gives the commander Awe -2 (even morale 10 units will often hit), or Horn of Bubbles that gives him +2 defence but -2 attack and precision. But it should have atleast *some* use, even if that use would be of no use to anyone.

Oh, and I will be reading "What Good is a Glass Dagger" when I get a chance.