SCs and Personal Buffs - A New Idea

[Chris Byler]

On one of the many VQ threads Norfleet (a frequent VQ user himself) posted that the VQ was a weak fighter without her personal buffs. Other SCs can be effective with equipment, but are more effective with equipment plus Invulnerability, Soul Vortex, Mistform and Fire Shield (for example).

So here's my idea: a battlefield Dispel that removes spell effects from one square (both cloud-type effects, and spell effects on units in the square). Thematically it should be astral and probably Thaumaturgy. I'd prefer for it to be not too high level, and in order to be useful against SCs, it needs to be PREC 100 with no MR save.

Spell effects from items possibly wouldn't be affected (but there are some effects that are difficult or impossible to obtain from items; items always cost gems; and everything has some limitations on item slots). Or it could remove the effect, but not affect the item - so the owner still gets it in his next battle. Whichever is easier to implement.

It should be somewhat costly so it isn't cost effective to use against the garden variety mage casting one Air Shield or Body Ethereal to protect himself, but is good against a unit casting 3+ personal spells. Something like astral 2, 80- fatigue and no required gem cost would probably work. Few mages will be repeat-casting that without gems, communion or Relief.

Instant spells, like most evocations, wouldn't be affected by dispel; it also wouldn't harm summons (there is already a spell that does that). Blessing would not be dispelled, only spell effects from the 8 magic paths.

A more radical proposal is a battlefield spell that dispels *all* spells currently on the battlefield (yours and the enemy's), including battlefield enchantments like Storm; but this should be higher level (both research and power requirement) and cost gems, since it would primarily be used to remove spells that cost gems.


I know Illwinter likes to add new spells to the game, and I prefer adding new tools to counter things that are too powerful, rather than a direct nerf. So I think this fix is better than some others that have been floated.

[Wauthan]

Dispel Enchantment - Astral - Removes all unit enchantments in target square.

Steal Enchantment - Nature - Tries to remove an enchantment from a hostile unit and add it to the caster, or a nearby friendly unit.

Drain Enchantment - Death - Removes a unit enchantment and reinvigorates the caster.

Fortify Magic - Earth - Makes all battlefield enchantments harder to disturb.

Strength to Weakness - Blood - All Enchanted units loose hp relative to the power of the enchantment on them. E.g. A level 9 enchantment would do 5 hp damage each turn.

Burn the Strong - Fire - The following round all enchanted units on the battlefield erupt in a small fireball similar to the "Fireflare" weapon.

Mirror Magic - Water - All hostile enchantments are copied and distributed randomly into your own army.

Etheral Storm - Air - All enchanted units are fatigued.

There you go. All spheres get metamagic antagonistic defences or M.A.D. for short.

[tinkthank]

I posted a thread about 2 weeks ago asking about Debuffs in general, because I think these would make for more interesting and dynamic tactics. Of course some of these could work against VQs as well, as you intend (but I havent posted on those threads because I am sick and tired of VQs dominating the Boards). No one, however, found my idea particularly interesting then, but whatever.

I like your idea a lot, but would not want for a 100 prec no MR general debuff for 80 fatigue; that seems far too strong to me. (But of course I am not interested in a VQ-debuffer, but rather something for the many facets of this interesting game in general.)

A "devour magic" spell which has a chance to nullify a random magically-induced buff on a particular target or 1 square I can imagine for 50 fatigue or so, one which has a chance to eliminate *all* buffs on a target must require 3 astral and 80 fatigue, for larger affects 200+ fatigue.

I would also like to see special debuffers, such as "Paper Skin" (or something which removes magically-induced fire resistance), or "Magnet", which reduces antimagic buffs or Air Shields, and these being able to be cast by fire or air mages, respectively, for considerable costs.

One could thus imagine an Earth mage casting a "Solidify"-type spell which would remove magically-induced Etheral states or Mistform-type states. These I think should all be around 80 fatigue, 2-path requirements, and should be in the Alteration Category perhaps.

Anything that removes many many buffs should be, however, very expensive, at least in my very humble opinion.

[Crandaeolon]

Battlefield debuffs and "dispel magic" -type spells could be difficult to implement due to the spellcasting AI. However, those would be very welcome additions IMHO, if they could be made to work.

A couple of item-destruction spells (overland spells could probably be easiest to implement) would also give us some additional tricks to counter over-reliance on items. How about:

Sundering (E3, F2, Alt 6)

Ritual, 40 Earth Gems

Has a chance of destroying each non-artifact magic item in the target province. MR negates, -4 to save. Very Powerful items, 2% chance. Greater items, 5% chance. Lesser items, 10% chance. Trinkets, 20% chance.

(Would be useful mostly against clam-hoarders, methinks.)

Send Stealing Magpie (N2, S1, Enc 3)

Ritual, 15 Nature Gems

Enchants a magpie with increased size and an ability to sense magical auras. The bird is then sent to a target province, where it will attempt to snatch a random magic item from the commander with the most powerful arsenal of equipment. MR negates, -6 to save. The bird has a 25% chance of bringing the item to the caster's laboratory.

Send Flock of Magpies (N4, S1, Enc 6)

Ritual, 90 Nature Gems

As "Send Stealing Magpie", but 8 snatch attempts, MR negates, -4 to save and a 10% chance per item of bringing the item to the caster's laboratory.

Tweaking would be mandatory, of course.

[Scott Hebert]

I like this idea, but I feel that it should not be implemented until Astral magic is rebalanced. It is already too powerful (and not just because of Clams, IMO), and giving it Battlefield 'debuff' without a corresponding decrease would send it even further out of balance.