[FE] More Universal Spells and Dispels

from Elemental Forums

A lot of people have complained about there not being enough spells in FE, and that the system is to simple. However we now have universal spells, that work both on the strategic and tactical map. These are a awesome idea that adds a lot to the game and modding capabilities. I just wonder why it hasn't been taken further. Making more spells universal would add a lot of depth with little work.

There is no reason most enchantments can't function the way summoning elementals now does, so that when cast on the strategic map they last forever and have a upkeep cost. This is especially true for curses. It would be awesome to actually curse people old school, so that they suffer the effects indefinitely until they manage to remove the curse. Vindictively awesome. Of course if this is implemented then there needs to be a way to remove enchantments.I can think of two systems.

The first is a dispel system where enchantments can be dispelled by a specific dispel spell from the opposite element. So if you have a death curse on you you can remove it through use of a new life dispel spell. If your opponent is stacking life enchantments you can do the same with the death dispel. Same with fire, water, and etc. You could also add a ward spell that makes the target immune to a certain element. So that if you know that your opponent likes to say cast fireball and you have enough mastery of water magic you can prevent it with a little preparation by spending some mana yourself. This wouldn't be OP because maintaining the spell over multiple units would blow a lot of mana, you would have to have the correct magical skills, prepare it before the battle, and now your opponents strengths.

The second system would add an ability or spell to all channelers that allows them to dispel any enchantment as long as they have equal or higher mastery of the opposite element that the enchanter used. A similar ward spell could also be implemented. So to dispel or ward a curse cast by a Death Master I would have to be a Life Master or an Life Archmage. Any sort of dispel and counterspell system would add a huge amount of depth and strategy to the magical system.

Also if spells like tornado and raise land also functioned on the tactical screen it would add more depth to those spells and their spellbooks, same if say stinking mud worked on the strategic level. Being able to block enemy movements through raise land on the tactical screen would be very interesting from a tactical view point and liven up a somewhat boring magical school. Making more spells universal would add a lot of content to the game for very little comparative work. If you guys don't do i will probably try to mod this stuff in.

 

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Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

What happens if you get cursed and your playing an Empire though (cursed by anouther empire)?  It might work better to have life and death schools each have a generic ritual/enchant that they can cast on their unit either to clear (have a chance to clear) the effect in one shot, or apply a buff which allows the unit to attempt to resist with better sucess (or chance to resist if the ailment doesnt get a resist check each turn.  Say the life version clears it by making the unit healthy while the death version does it by transfer (either to anouther of their units or an enemy one?) or places a debuff on the unit for x turns (sometimes the cure is worse than the disease).  If an enchant, it could also be a set duration (no maintenance) or be in effect until the unit dies, or is cured (cancels itself) if you want to reduce the micromanagement of going an checking that unit every turn to see if you can cancel the drain on your mana.

Some kind of medic accessory could be used as an ailment clearing tool as well. (grant the army an extra resist chance when used).  Unit HP may have to be greater to accomodate ailments persisting when changing between tactical and strategic, poison (on going damage) especially.

Other than that potential sticking point I agree that at least more of the spells should function in both tactical and strategic, even if they work differently.

Edit: It's a good point, it wouldn't take much additional work (as most of the work is already done), and increases the spell pool for tactical/strategic quite handily.  For my suggested dispel option, the shards you control could boost the effectiveness (say a fire ailment is easier to resist when you have fire shards or water shards) depending on how you want to make it mean you are more knowlegeable about an element or its opposite.  In that situation I would count life and death shards as the same type, they are kind of the universal spell group split by idiology.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I guess Death and Life dispels would also have to work on their own element.

Storm is another tactical spell that would be great as a universal. You could sit back on the strategic map and call random lightning bolts down on enemies. Summoning a lightning storm sounds more strategic then tactical anyway. Probably not that effective but it would be fun and cool. I hope it will be possible to mod it in....

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Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

For Storm, I'd like a variant (cheaper cost or another spell entirely) that can hit your own units as well (perhaps less chance for your units or based on stats or something-can be resisted) and does better damage or has a lower cost to compensate.  I like having stuff that affects everyone equally on the surface, but you can prep your guys to make it still in your favor.(such as a smaller force against a larger one would have a higher likely hood of being struck)