Here are some ideas I came up with:

Ball lightning – Zero movement, but lightning form ability on 0 cooldown

Avatar – Attack = caster’s Spell Power, defense = caster’s Spell resist, keeps caster stunned while in play, has ability to unsummon self

Djinn – Can cast growth, shrink, heal, curse, blind, slow, and haste

Chronodemon – Can cast mass haste and mass slow

Volatile Ember – 1 move, can explode, killing itself and doing fire damage to all within 2 squares

Earth Spirit – can cast single target version of pull to earth

Chromatic Warrior –  Attack and Defense = 4x total earth, fire, air, and water power; Dodge and Initiative = 2x total earth, fire, air and water power

Doppelganger – Can cast shape-shift; adopting appearance, attack, defense, dodge, movement, and initiative of the target. Can only target 1-square units, if copying a group only copies one member.

Wall of brambles – 3x1, 0 move, has ability which does damage to all adjacent units

Wall of flames – 3x1, 0 move, has ability which does fire damage to target unit

Wall of Ice - 3x1, 0 move, has ability which slows all adjacent units

Wall of wind - 3x1, 0 move, has teleport ability, range 4

Holy Wall - 3x1, 0 move, has ability which heals all adjacent allies

Wall of the Dead - 3x1, 0 move, has ability which summons a skeleton

I like the wall spells - bramble, ice, fire, wind, holy , death. One spell for each school. A nice balance with different effects.

Air Spells

• Indecision (Level 2, Air) - Enemy unit suffer -6 penalty to initiative for their next turn (unless unit resists) - Casting Time: 1
• Mass Indecision (Level 3, Air) - Enemy units suffer -3 penalty to initiative each turn (until they resist) - Casting Time: 2

Summoning Spells (Tactical - Not Strategic)

A selection of Level 5 summoning spells that call forth great and powerful creatures that may turn on their caller or go berserk.

1. Summon Spider Demon (level 5, 500 mana) - Calls forth a gigantic spider. If resists attacks the summoner.
2. Summon Air Elemental (level 5, 200 mana) - Calls forth a powerful air elemental. If resists attacks the summoner.
3. Summon Fire Dragon (level 5, 500 mana) -Calls forth a dragon. If resists attacks the summoner.
4. Summon Ice Demon (Level 5, 400 mana) - Calls forth an Ice demon. If resists attacks the summoner.
5. Summon Wolf Horde (Level 4, 300 mana) - Summons a horde of wild dire wolves. If resists attacks the summoner.

OK, looking over the list of ideas in the various posts in this thread, I see a lot of good ideas.

What I WOULD LIKE TO SEE Stardock focus on is creating new spell abilities.  As an example, the 'Mirror Image' spell clones a unit, which might require some new code 'under the hood'.

A lot of these ideas I believe can currently be done using the existing .xml code.  So it might be a fun idea to have a 'Submit your spell idea for the Spellpack DLC' contest/round, so that any ground that can easily be 'covered on our end' can be tackled by interested modders.  This will free up some 'in house' resources (whom are essentially on the clock) to work on implementing the new 'spell tag' ideas to complement the ones we have now.

So to summarize:

1)  Ask the community to do some of the heavy lifting here.  Any spells that are 'accepted' for the Spellpack DLC could have a <!-- Spell idea submitted by Heavenfall --> or whatever tag included with the spell listing, to make that person feel special

2) Have the Stardockians work on spells that require a new code implementation (such as the Mirror Image mentioned above). 

On point # 2, I'm sure someone could compile a quick list of things that currently aren't easily attained/possible using the existing code.  Adding new tags, etc. is always a godsend of sorts to our modding community, and helps the game evolve and move forward.

Also, I'd rather see an Advanced Combat DLC first/soon.  I even made a thread with some suggestions at some point, and a few others had some good ideas they mentioned there as well...

Third, I miss Dynasties...  Not Dynasty though (that was a silly show).

One last idea from me,

Create Champion,(Maybe "Sovereign's Blessing"?) spend 500 mana on a player controlled creature to make them a champion that does not die, merely suffers the wounds and their penalties like other heroes.

Basically imbue essence from Elemental.

Good Morning SD

Just noticed this and was wondering why there isn't more distinction between Kingdom and Empire spells? I understand that there is this split with Birth of Summer and Bloom of Twilight, but what if there was even more separation?

For example:

- Kingdoms should be able to cast Courage. Empires should not.

- Empires should be able to cast Touch of Darkness. Kingdoms should not.

There are probably others that can be split like this too. Also, thinking ahead for the Spells DLC, perhaps this is an approach that can be used to differentiate a few spells.

Also, I may have already mentioned it before, but I really like the spells, like Alchemy, where you need to do a little quest in order to obtain the spell. I'd really love it if a few more of those types of spells were made available.

Thoughts? Comments?

Echo the summons sentiment.

Mana free cantrips that allow Mages to be useful when you're low on, or are saving, mana.

Spells that affect other game play systems more directly (Okay, I'm actually just wishing there was some form of Religion in this game, and I believe Religion through Magic fits the game's lore best.).

+1

For the Spellpack DLC, I would like to see it include a range of monster groups that are specifically designed to use the new spells.

Example:

• A group of Ogres accompanied by an Ogre Shamen with a select group of low level spells
• Another group of Orgres with a more experienced Ogre Shamen that casts higher level powerful spells.

Why? Too often the encountered monsters cast the same spells, when they do cast spells.

I would also like to see the Spellpack DLC include a few new monsters and related tactical encounter maps

Example:

• Frost Giants with Frost Giant shamen that casts water spells (and protection from fire when needed
• Frost Giants with a More Powerful Shamen that casts more powerful water spells
• Frost Giant Lair - either a castle, cavern or a settlement
• Snow Covered Mountainside with impassible and passable terrain
• Ice Sheet I (Water) - Covers area of 2x2 tiles with a slippery sheet of ice. Units moving on it must save or fall prone. Frost Giants, Winter Dire Wolfs, Ice Elementals and White Dragons are immune.
• Ice Sheet II (Water) - Covers 4x4 tiles
• Ice Sheet III (Water) - Covers 8 x 8 tiles
• Ice Sheet IV (Water) - Covers area of 16 x 16 tiles
• Ice Sheet V (Water) - Covers tactical map with a sheet of slippery ice. Cast only by the most powerful Frost Giant Shamans.

Perhaps the Frosts Giants cast - Blizzard - that reduces the range of all ranged attacks to 4 tiles!

Example:

• Fire Giants armed with great swords and accompanied by a wizard that cast Fire element spells
• Smoke (Fire) - Summons thick dark smoke to cover the battlefield. For both sides, reduces the range of all ranged attacks to 3 tiles for 3 turns, and renders units more than 3 tiles distant invisible. Fire Giants like to cast this spell when engaging with ranged attack units (or Human Wizards)

Teleports and other utility spells that synergise well with warrior/assassin/commander. ie, road movement buff, "domain" type spells, more rituals that have permanent effects on units/heroes.

I would also like to see all spheres be able to turn nodes. 

Will there be a Spell Pack DLC before the holidays?

A greater Shadowbolt, Death Magic V or so. Damage would equal to double caster level. 1 round casting time. So less damage than flamedart, but unresistable.

Also, please make quest spells available through research (remove them from quests) - and just place them high enough in the tree.

Putt g on my calendar to go through these at length.

Tactical Battle Spell Pack suggestion:

1. Tactical Spells

2. New Monster Groups with Magic Casters (high and low level encounters groups, different spell selections per group).

3. New Tactical Encounter Maps

- such as an ambush map where the player finds himself in the middle of the battlefield and surrounded

- map with bridge over a moat

- narrow winding mountain paths and blocking terrain (see 5 below)

- forest with blocking terrain (see 5 below)

- Graveyard with lots of tombs to channel attacks

4. New Quests

5. If Possible - Blocking Terrain - blocks ranged and magical attack path from crossing tile side - i.e. simplified LOS - so units must maneuver around the blacking terrain. This would for example, prevent ranged attacks from being fired through blocking forest or boulder tiles.

Yes yes yes! although at this point it doesn't look like LH is going to get the sort of attention needed to implement something like this. Cause right I'm guessing that Stardock has most of their resources working on the Sorcerer King and probably supporting GalCiv3

Regarding LH from what I understand we'll see a 2.0 patch (which will do lot of balance, AI improvements etc), and spellpack DLC and maybe another 1 or 2 DLCs down the track if we beg loudly enough but at this point it doesn't look like we're going to get something as big as what you're asking. 

At this point I'm (and I guess a lot of others judging my some of the forum posts) are in 2 minds. We want to see LH get a big expansion but then some of the core features of LH are already looking very dated. For instance the grid should have gone and the terrain looks too artificial (i.e too many straight lines, right angles etc and the terrain just looks dated... rivers, coasts, mountains are the worst) 

Maybe it's time for Stardock to move on and maybe a few years down the track we'll see a new Elemental that is ready for something bigger but then I don't want to wait a few years!

Back to spells though.

Treants: Life, tactical (requires forest) cast on trees to summon a pack of treants just like in Warcraft 3. Deal a melee attack with a chance to bash or daze. Vulnerable to fire.

One thing we haven't seen that much of is spells that synergize effects with different shards... Not sure about this one but maybe someone can think of something.

Tornado (air - level 4 - casting time: 2) - All units (friend and foe) on the tactical map are knocked prone and displaced x tiles (1 tile per air shard) by a powerful wind storm unless they resist. Tactically, the caster's army should have high resistance (air) before this spell is cast.

Forest Fire (fire - level 3 - casting time: 2) - Summons a thick dark cloud of smoke that covers the battlefield and prevents the use of ranged attacks by friend and foe. Effect can be dispelled by some air spells. Duration: 1 turn per fire shard.

I've actually had way more fun after adding spells and abilities for monster units instead of the player factions. The spellbook is pretty well-rounded, the bigger problem is that in many fights it's not necessary to use it. Here are some new spells/abilities I've tried already:

Loyalty (dog units) - kills the unit and transfers its HP to an adjacent friendly unit.

Chant of the Bound (sand and obsidian golems) - All adjacent units lose their next turn unless they resist.

Hide (panthers) - Unit loses its next turn and gains +100% to attack on its following turn.

Broken Ground (hellknights) - +1 Moves for undead units and -1 moves for non-undead units for the rest of the battle.

Hooked Arrow (brood hunters) - A ranged attack that deals poison damage and reduces enemy poison resistance by 25%.

Bloodlust (troll shaman) - Target unit gains the maul ability and has a 50% chance to strike a friendly unit for 1 turn.

Feint (syndicate spymaster and assassin champions) - Unit is placed in a defensive stance, gains +15 dodge, and gains +3 counterattacks for that turn.

Quake (earth shrill) - Attack that dazes the enemy unit for 1 turn.

EDIT: I guess the above is a bit off the topic of what I would like in a spellpack DLC. So here it is:

- I would like some new unit stat that damages a unit when it spends mana. This stat could be used to give fighters a counter to mages in the late game, right now it's just no contest.

- I would like the AI to have the ability to better evaluate upkeep of spells. For now, if a city spell costs mana per turn or gives negative growth, this isn't evaluated. It would be great to have some AI param to say "If current city stat (growth, unrest, etc.) or resource (mana, crystal, etc.) exceeds some threshold, cancel the spell and cast something else. And spells canceled this way should wait some number of turns before they're evaluated again.

Demons and Wizards adds some religion mechanics (divine spells, special units etc) if you're interested in trying mods:

https://forums.elementalgame.com/446891

http://demonsandwizards.wikidot.com/

One small request about summons - If you do decide to add more summoned creatures can you give some of them a unique AI so they move and attack on their own. I think its good to have some spells add an element of unpredictability about them. MoM did this with the magic vortex which I thought was cool that it moved on its own but the caster has a bit of control over it also. I think it can damage friendly units as well so that's a nice way to make a powerful spell a bit more risky for the player to use.

A beholder or chaos spawn unit would be nice too. Something that has a unique array of gaze attacks. 

I would like a spell that summons a mount for the caster. It could be two versions, one for death magic that summons some kinde of demon horse and one for life magic that summons an unicorn or something simmilar.

Another thing I really would like is a spell that destroys roads, as there is  no good way to undo roads atm. You could make a pair. One spell that creates a road on one tile and one that destroys a road on one tile.

Also a "spell" that converts Crystals into Mana would be nice.

As I like sandbox games that have the victory conditions disabled one thing I would really like woukd be powerfull abilities that you unlock once you meet a victory condition (instead of just winning the game). My suggestions would be.

Spell of the Making: If you have the "Spell Victory" disabled you casting the spell of the making wouldn't end the game but have a powerfull bonus, like giving your souverain XP every turn or creating a mana every turn.

Quest Victory: Instead of just winning fulfilling the Quest could give you aspell (or a Crown that could be equipped as helmet and grants the wearer(which probably has to be a souverain) a spell) that let you tame dragons.

Sorry but any chance to vote AGAINST a spell?

Would be nice

I'd like to see more powerful spells take more than one turn to cast. 

If opponents then attempt to counter spell I'd like to see a struggle take place between the caster and the countering opponent. If there are more then one mages countering I'd like them to gang up on the caster. Unless perhaps you can assign mages of your own to support your casting.

Tied into that idea I'd love to see mages be able to hi-jack summoned creatures or unsummon them, to dispel wards through mental combat such as described, and to be able to summon death clouds and insect swarms which can run amock if your spell is disturbed. As in, you have to concentrate on the spell each turn, and its canceled if you don;t do so. If your concentration is broken there is a chance the spell turns on you (depending on how violently it was broken). That way attacks on mages and counterspelling by mages have a lot of visual influence, and more powerful spells can be made because they'd be balanced by casting time and concentration requirements. Things such as cloud spells could be made as a sort of special creature(s) or recurring spell effect each round.

The underlying idea is that this would make Elemental / Fallen Enchantress a game in which magical spells not only play a general role in combat, but in which mages can oppose one another directly on the battlefield in struggle of magical power. It creates a part of the game specifically devoted to magical battles - the struggle between enchanters.

I hope tickles anyone's fancy.

(I tried to look at how complex it'd be to make this as a mod for FE but I just don't have the time. My hobby is game-design programming so I put some thought into it. I'm trying to make something similar to the above for an online NWN2 game server for which I've been building a replacement magic system) 

R. 

I like the idea of converting crystals to Mana, also in a similar theme spells to create resources would be cool (create iron, summon horses, summon wargs etc). Also an expensive spell to summon a new hero (or boost your fame if that's easier).

One idea II hadn't seen yet is a spell to create equipment for heroes/sovereigns. Heck an "Item Forge" could be a whole DLC by itself and is one thing I seriously miss when comparing to the classic Master of Magic.

I think a spell where you double a single units damage for 1 or 2 rounds after which they are instantly killed sounds very Quendar.

I have always hated charm spells in other games. I realize that is likely a minority opinion, but it would be enough to sway me from purchasing a spell pack if they are part of it.

This is obviously off-topic, but is it possible to share shard control within Alliances? If not, would this DLC be able to address this? Like, if I have one water and my ally has one water, both of us would have two water, thus eliminating the desire to un-ally just to get the shard...