Spells that do no damage.

Invicibility

Time warp

Fear

Dispel

Spell Turning

Spell Absorbtion

Globe of Spell Immunity (immune to low level spells, can add mana use to cut through globe)

Stasis Field (can't attack or be attacked)

True strike

Imbue Weapon (temporary bonus to hit and damage).

Elemental Weapon (think fire ice elec, etc)

Haste

Slow

Damage Absorbtion (Stone skin or something)

Deflect Arrows

Summon Monster(s)

All types of Illusions

Pertify (and reverse version)

Mage armour (+defense)

Create barriers (quicksand etc)

Mind Control (for various types of units, monsters, people, etc)

Hypnotize (doesn't do anything till attacked)

Deep Sleep (auto critical hits)

Mirror Image

Grasping Hand (holds unit in place)

See Invisibility

Secret word (remove X Buffs/defenses from target unit)

All the spells that could help you get intel. Ghost spy, Voices afar, Infrared vision, etc.

Secret gate - this spell would put a secret gate in a mountain range that only the player who cast the spell could see.  this would create a permanent passage through the mountain.  if there is a detect magic spell in the game, it could be used to detect the passage.  then if the enemy player so chooses they could cast the spell that lowers the mountains and destroy any helpless units that are inside.

Sounds interesting, what would it do?

that would be a cool spell if it somehow let you take an extra turn that no one else gets.  powerful spell indeed.

I like most Single's list

Time warp could do one of two things:  free turn for the unit it was cast on (as in extra turn).   Or the second version could be to undo an entire turn completely.  Now that would be an epic spell to cast.  Reverse an entire turn!!

Tickle.

 Personally I'd like to see a blink spell of sorts for tactical battles. Don't know how useful or viable it would be... Kinda like the Combat version of teleport for short range jumps either into or out of combat. Or perhaps as a defensive spell that you cast and the next few melee attacks that would have otherwise connected are automatically changed to misses as you teleport off to safety.

That would be cool because it wouldn't take major player feedback, you just cast "Blink Curtain" or what have you and for the next two or three attacks you'll randomly evade through teleportation. It would be great for the softer, mushier, intellectual sovereigns.

Now that's a spell that deserves to cost some essence. A mana-only temporary version could be fun, too, with cost based on distance tunneled.

Re your OP, having plenty of spells that are not bland buff/debuff/damage things would definitely help Elemental stand out in the market. Your thread title made me think of overland magic first (including sustained unit enchantments). But tactical magic like illusions, hastes, holds, and slows would also help stave off that icky FPS feeling.

i agree!

My favorite part of MoM was how heavily non-combat magic could be used.  I'd really like to see E:WoM take that concept much further, especially with terrain modification (real and illusory) and spells that can rapidly dissolve a much more powerful stack's advantage.

Chaotic Mists - Covers a small section of the map in mist for some number of turns.  Any stack of units entering the mist loses all remaining movement and emerges in a random direction.  (Could be used to temporarily block a choke-point, but not reliably)

Guardian Mists - More powerful version of the above.  Affects only hostile factions and always returns them to the same side from which they entered.  Also hides friendly units that are within it.  (Much more costly, but more reliable and offering perfect cover for an ambush, particularly if a friendly army is teleported into it while the enemy is waiting for it to dissipate.)

Water Walking - Lets a stack move across water for a number of turns.  Units on water when the spell ends drown.  (I'm a bit surprised it hasn't been mentioned yet.  Could be an extremely powerful strategic spell depending on how it is used.  Could also have a unit-only, permanent enchantment version.)

Nature Attunement - Similar to Water Walking but increases movement speed through grasslands, forests, and the like.

Earth to Mud - Transforms a small region of land into swampland for a number of turns, restricting movement speed for units passing through it.  (Another strategic spell suited to choke-points, could be limited to Empires)

Dire Swamp - More powerful version of Earth to Mud, affects a larger area, completely prevents movement by cavalry and siege equipment, and inflicts damage/debuffs via disease to units passing through it.  (Definitely an Empire-oriented spell, could be used offensively as much as defensively, ie slow and weaken reinforcements heading towards your target)

Tremors - Causes small quakes, dealing minor damage to affected units and possibly damaging or destroying structures.

Grand Quake - Causes major damage to units and structures in range, randomly modifies terrain (just up or down a little bit), and can cause impassable fissures.  (Major spell, possibly essence-based.  Could severely weaken an enemy faction if cast in the middle of a heavily populated area as a prelude to invasion.)

Desiccate - Permanently turns an area into barren wasteland.  Units in affected area take minor damage.  (Another Empire-oriented spell, primarily used to remove restrictive terrain like forests and jungles.  Could also attempt to negate the mist spells.)

Gaia's Mantle - Produces impassable earthen walls around a town or across a stretch of land for a number of turns.  (Kingdom-oriented spell similar to Earth to Mud.  More potent, but shorter duration.)

Gaia's Rebuke - Tremendously slows hostile units in a large area and causes damage with every movement and turn therein.  Also randomly converts affected land to grassland, forest, jungle, etc. in a patchwork fashion.  (Think earth and nature actively hindering the enemy; stone spikes erupting from the ground, thorned and poisonous plants growing at incredible rates, etc.  More or less a Kingdom-oriented version of Dire Swamp.  Could be used similarly.)

Rise of Qin's Army - Creates a number of "Clay Soldier" units at the targeted location equal to the number of all humanoid units (friendly, hostile, or neutral) killed in the previous turn.  Clay Soldiers are immune to all status effects, buffs, and debuffs, are unaffected by morale or leadership bonuses (assuming such exist), and are immune to armor/resistance-piercing effects, but cannot be healed.  Clay Soldiers cause severe morale damage (again, if it exists) to opposing forces in battle.  Clay Soldiers lose one fourth of their initial stats each turn, any units remaining vanishing after the fourth turn from their creation (meaning they go 100%-75%-50%-25%-vanish).  (An epic, essence-costing spell only suitable to situations of total dominance or extreme desperation.  Empire-oriented since it involves binding the souls of the recently deceased into clay vessels.  The degradation could also be thirds to decrease the near game-breaking power the spell would have if used properly.)

Those are just a few that came to mind quickly.  I'll see about jotting down some more tomorrow.

imagine looking out across the water and seeing the enemy water walking and cast dispel magic on them and they all drown, such a pity ha ha ha!

the stratagy behind none dmging spells could chage the game around that is for sure

How about spells that affect: the next spell cast on them, the next action the unit does or like chaos channel in MoM gives a random enchantment?

Natures grip + Aura of natures grip (killing the unit generating the aura removes effects)
causes a unit to change - stoneskin, stoning, webbed, webbing attack, poisoned and venom strike - anything from 1 to all

Chaos channel + Chaos aura
Causes - flamestrike, firebreathing, causes the next healing spell to harm, fire spell to heal, arrows to be flaming (can ignite terrain), magic cast by the unit to provide a fire buff/debuff randomly, burning (DoT), glowing (night vision, penalty to defence), dehydrated...

Water wrap + water aura
the next fire spell (positive or negative) is nullified, slowed unit, slowing attack, frozen arrows, magic cast provides a water effect (slow, freezing, speeding, dessicate, drown) Splitting, on death the unit can split into two smaller units, so can any destroyed enemy

Swift spark and Wisp aura
Air walk, flight, lighting weapons, invisibility, incorporial... also provides abilities temp on striking

Death cloak and shadow aura
shadow armour, doom on self, death strike, cursed, curse strike, dying, plagued, hexed, hexing, shadow arrows, invisible in darkness, adds effects to spells cast

Life spring and living aura
Healing aura, regenerating, heals on strike, purging aura, purge spell effect. Glowing, vulnerable, gentle, harmless, pacifist

General idea is that a weak Natures grip cast on your own troops will help some of them and harm others... not so useful, stronger version will give more effects and the strongest version will only give good effects... so archers with ultimate natures grip would be protected and web enemies they attack while poisoning them and possibly stoning them. The ultimate version could be something only possible with some special earth mastery talent... same for each enchantment. Or they could be channeling spells by mages in battle which provide the buffs to nearby troops while caster is supporting them - which would be worth the invested magic user if you gained cast on strike effects

Next action a unit does:

Beserk - attack anyone
Taunt - attack target
Cursed lies - causes a unit to be taunted by selected unit
Pacify - causes a unit to wait/rest
Trick - causes a unit to move randomly
Lure - causes a unit to move to the selected location

Next spell cast on the unit:

Reflect, mirror, bounce, bend, twist, bump
Can cause the spell to reflect off the target, be mirrored onto the target, bounce off the target randomly, bend to a nearby target, twist towards the target or be bumped a tile along... used defensively or offensively

Reverse, taint, warp, distort,
Causes unexpected results from spells cast, causes fireballs to chill the target, ice to burn, feather step to crush, boulders to grant flight, or for every spell effect to become only positive or negative... so a fire taint could cause any spell to burn the target in addition to the normal effect or replacing the normal effect, fire warping could cause any negative fire spell to become positive (healing, buffing) and other spells to have a chance of becoming fire spells... so acid arrows could become a firebolt... which could be a good thing if it's a fire elemental with fire warping powers

Combine magics
acts as a cleansing spell, removes spell effects if two or more exist and provides 1 back, either something new or the stronger of the two with increased power.
If only one effect is present it acts as an enchantment and acts on the next spell cast... so you could cast a strong 'flame sword' and 'combine magic' and you would absorb the next spell cast on you... which is good if it was weak and it improves your attack... bad if it is a strong stoning spell... and you get an even stronger stoning spell or a fire+earth attack or debuff

Hold magic
Causes the spells cast to have the effect delayed by as many combat turns as the strength of the spell, useful defensively and to cripple the opponents use of healing and buffs

Hasten magic
Causes spells to deal DoT instantly and buffs and debuffs to last 1 turn only (1 turn for strongest spell, 3 turns for normal, simply reduced duration for weak), increases the power of any channeled spells or abilities (since they are a constant stream of magic that has been increased in speed)