Re: Water Magic
Zen: Rain spell redux: The effect on flyers is also doubled encumbrance?
Sandman: I really liked most of these spells, especially Memory Focus and Sea Witch’s Coven.
Discipline: If Water gets a defense+ spell, would a protection+ spell as well be too much?
Amnesia: I would hope that Pretenders would be immune to this one. A Hall of Fame cleaner is a nice idea. Like reflection, this is a great potential water theme.
Endoperez: I like your thoughts on multiple paths, and this might have some T’ien-Ch’i-strengthening fallout as well.
My growing sense is that unless the Dom2 conventions are shaken up a bit, a Water magic track might always to lose out to an Astral magic track for the sea nations.
Astral gems are not only the most valuable gems in the game, but they have by far the most accessible gem-producing magic item in the system. Most gem-producing items are dual path, or unique, or penalized. In the specific case of the sea nations, the water-gem-producing item is unique, requires good fire-magic, is cursed and causes an affliction, which seems a pretty thorough lock-down to me.
But since the Astral gem-producing-item is not multipath, has the low cost of only 10 gems per item, and can be built in unlimited numbers, there isn’t room to do anything cheaper that wouldn’t be too cheap in comparison to the rest of the game.
Under normal circumstances I wouldn’t consider suggesting the following, but it seems to me that an edition change is precisely the time when a change this significant might be considered.
My thought would be to look at shifting the Clam of Pearls item up a notch (Con 4, W3, 20 gems) and stick in a lower-tier effect, such as:
Triton’s Horn: Lesser Item. Construction 2. Paths: W1E1. Cost: 5 Water gems, 5 Earth gems.
The horn produces 1 water gem per month. It can be constructed only in an underwater laboratory.
[Earth gems seem to be fairly available to sea nations, so ramping up Water gem production (and thus later Astral gems) might not an insurmountable penalty. At the same time, the Horn would offer sea nations the chance to choose a straight Water game instead of going for Astral gems.]
[A possible additional control to the Horn would be to require a strategic order (monthly ritual?)—so that creating the Water gem would be the user’s only action that turn, and also letting the horn cancel any user stealth when active.]
Reference List of Items Producing Gems:
Astral: Clam of Pearls, Con 2, Water 2, 1/ gem turn, no limit.
Fire: Fever Fetish, Con 2, 5 Fire/5 Earth, diseases owner, 1 gem/turn, no limit.
Earth: Blood Stone: Con 4, 20Blood/5 Earth, 1 gem /turn, no limit.
Death: Sickle/Crop of Pain, Con 8, 20 Death, 1gem/kill, only one per game.
Water: Ruby Eye: Con 8, 20 Fire, 2/turn, cursed, affliction lose an eye, only one per game.
Air: none.
Nature: none.
Blood: none.
Wauthan: Liked many of your ideas, too. The combat summons (Leviathan, Jaws) would be nice upper level effects.
Strangling Kelp: This would make a good W/N multipath spell.
Mermaid’s Gift: This one I’m not too crazy about. Aquatic water spells should, IMO, primarily benefit the sea nations. Like Thetis’s Blessing, this spell is of far more use to a land power gearing up to invade a sea power. I'd rather make the commander use an item slot to get waterbreathing capability.
Armor/Path: As ice spells, they are off-topic, but interesting, nonetheless.
Clarity: The +50 looks like overkill to me. Aside from the automatic casting hit, defined as precision=100, my reading of the existing spell list indicates that variable spell precision ranges go from –3 to +5, and the greatest spell enhancement to precision is +5. I could maybe see Clarity at +5 precision, possibly even stackable with the other precision-boosting spell, but +50 seems off a bit to me.
Waterform: I really like this idea—I think it’s the best variation on a water form spell I’ve seen.
Well of Youth/Sunken Treasures: Both way cool.
Call the Vortex/Waterspout: I think these could have some really nice-looking graphic effects in play in Dom3. Not sure that they wouldn’t make Water magic a little too tough on the battlefield, though. Worth a test.
All in all, very nice.
TWEAKS AND NEW STUFF
Call Lobster: Battle Magic. Conjuration 2. Paths: W1. Cost: 40 fatigue.
This spell calls a giant lobster to aid the mage in combat. After combat, it returns to the deeps. This spell can be cast only underwater.
[Design notes: Calls one lobster: rng=10, fatigue=40, prec=0]
[Lobster (642), weapon=claw (29), armor=none, sz= 5, hp=34, prot=20, mor=15, mr=4, enc= 2, str=20, att=6, def=5, prec=3, mv=3/8, Specials: animal, aquatic, trample.]
[I don't have a good sense of balance on this spell, yet. The creature is powerful, but it's slow and very vulnerable to magic. I thought about a ritual spell, but it seemed to me that Conjuration 2 would be the appropriate level, and Summon Sea Serpent is already there. The lobster stats, of course, are out of the unit database.]
Mass Swim: Battle Enchantment. Enchantment 7. Paths: W4. Cost: 200 fatigue, 2 Water gems.
This spell grants all friendly units the ability to swim like aquatic creatures. It can be cast only underwater.
[Design notes: area=battlefield, fatigue=200-/2 Water gems. This is an underwater “Mass Flight” spell.]
[I thought about a low-level caster Version of this, but that had such limited application (basically, it would prepare the caster to flee the field) that I decided not to stat it out. The Mass Swim spell would be useful to mobilize slower moving aquatics against land-based invaders, and would would be the equivalent of a fly spell if the aquatics get a land-invasion global spell.]
Note: This next one is a bit off topic, but if Rusting Mist is modified along lines suggested earlier (WWE), then Earth has no 2nd level Evocation, so:
Stone Spikes: Battle Magic. Evocation 2. Paths: E2. Cost: 30- fatigue.
This spell creates a field of sharp magical stone spikes in front of an advancing enemy. A unit that tries to move through the area takes damage and may be crippled. Flying creatures are not affected by this spell.
[Design notes: rng=15+, dmg=2 ap, area=2+, prec=3, fatigue=30-. Those wounded must make a successful mr check (+2 bonus) or receive the “Limp” affliction. The dangerous area Lasts 3 battle rounds.]
Monsoon Rains: Battle Enchantment. Evocation 5. Paths: W3. Costs: 300 fatigue/3 Water gems.
This heavy rain has all the effects of the Rain spell. In addition, precision is greatly lowered for all units due to limited visibility. No units can charge, and those other than amphibians and flyers struggle in deep mud. This spell cannot be cast underwater.
[Design notes: The precision modifier for units is –4, and 25% of missiles are discarded, i.e. Air Shield (25). The monsoon counts as a storm for the purpose of casting other spells. Normal Rain spell penalties apply. Movement and melee encumbrance for non-amphibian or nonflying units is doubled. Action points for all units are halved. The Lance bonus is negated and Trample damage is halved. Aquatic/amphibian creatures are +1 morale, non-amphibian/aquatic creatures are –1 morale.]
[Special notes: In cold conditions, the rain turns to snow, and all units except cold resistant ones have their movement and melee Encumbrance doubled. Action points are not adjusted. The morale effects of the base spell do not apply. The precision, fire, Lance, and Trampling effects remain the same.]
Global Haze: Global. Evocation 6. Paths: W5. Cost: 40 Water gems.
A great cooling haze rises from the oceans. It blankets the world in continuous monsoon rains, which creates poor visibility and muddy ground throughout the world. The haze also can reverse the effects of the Second Sun global spell (Evocation 8). The spell energies drain each other, mutually destroying both global effects.
[Design notes: See the Monsoon Rains spell for the battlefield effect of this spell.]
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