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[Gamermaster]

What do you think are the necessary spells for the first magic edition once it is released?


Arrows are overpowered, lets hope wizards counteract that by being MORE overpowered!

Flame ball: causes a small explosion of fire
Fire bolt: a magic arrow, ON FIRE!
Shield:bolts and arrows bounce of you
summoning spells, some ways to turn people into stone etc.

What spells do YOU want?

[smjjames]

The first magic edition is a LOOONG way off.

I'm sure there are dozens of magic suggestion threads around here.

Not trying to put down your suggestion, just saying that anything is speculation this far out.

Edit: Probably should at least make a contributive post.

How about an ice spell, that should be useful for rivers and stuff.

[Grendus]

I don't want high magic. Conjuring fireballs and casting physics defying spells would make stonecrafting look like a realistic production line. When magic is implemented, I want it to stay as low magic - artifacts and dwarves using magma in unrealistic ways (for the record, magma is too hot, too toxic, and lacks the carbon to smelt and work metal). Leave the fireballs to the ringmaster and fiery clowns.

[smjjames]

I thought they just used the magma (lava actually) as a heat source with Magma forges/furnaces rather than using the magma itself.

[bobsnewaddress]

I don't want high magic. Conjuring fireballs and casting physics defying spells would make stonecrafting look like a realistic production line. When magic is implemented, I want it to stay as low magic - artifacts and dwarves using magma in unrealistic ways (for the record, magma is too hot, too toxic, and lacks the carbon to smelt and work metal). Leave the fireballs to the ringmaster and fiery clowns.

Whether you like it or not Dwarf Fortress is already a very magical world & physics defying magic is constantly happening in it. Iron Men crawl clanking from the chasms, Demons of all kinds lurk in the Deep & hordes of the ravenous undead roam the land re-animated by the evil aura of the environment. Magic IS, the only question is when and how should magic be something which the player has any kind of rudimentary control over.

[Neonivek]

Another question is how powerful is magic allowed to get.

[wilsonns]

I already wrote this in another topic about magic, but I just think that magic should not be hard coded or put into the raws, but the wizards should create it in-game, the only thing needed in the raws are the magic effect, the wizards create the spells based on the effects that you mod in.

[LegoLord]

I don't want high magic. Conjuring fireballs and casting physics defying spells would make stonecrafting look like a realistic production line. When magic is implemented, I want it to stay as low magic - artifacts and dwarves using magma in unrealistic ways (for the record, magma is too hot, too toxic, and lacks the carbon to smelt and work metal). Leave the fireballs to the ringmaster and fiery clowns.

Whether you like it or not Dwarf Fortress is already a very magical world & physics defying magic is constantly happening in it. Iron Men crawl clanking from the chasms, Demons of all kinds lurk in the Deep & hordes of the ravenous undead roam the land re-animated by the evil aura of the environment. Magic IS, the only question is when and how should magic be something which the player has any kind of rudimentary control over.

I believe that's what he's talking about, seeing as how he was responding to a post about how wizards would use magic.

[atomfullerene]

I say it should be fairytale and folkloric magic, not say a chant and shoot a fireball.  Give us artefacts with weird effects, unusual animals, rooms and halls constructed in certain patterns providing special effects at their centers.  Make it emerge from underlying rules, not a series of specific spells.

[Dakk]

I say spells should be randomly generated or created by wizards (played by your or wolrdgenned). I also say that spells hsoudn't have a cap or power limit of any kinds, I don't really want average D&D spells on this game, and toady has expresed that same feeling aswell. Magic in DF shoudn't be preset and hardcoded, or have a power limit of any kind. The only real llimitation to magic should be how powerful the wizard, and even then it should still be flexible.

A wizard should be able to cast spells which are adequate for his level of power, but he should also be able to force his limits and try to cast more powerful spells, this would be dangerous and lead to many fun moments.

[BigFatDwarf]

Well, I had this idea for a while now...

My idea would basically mean there are no ''spells''. Instead, it would combine several ''incantations'' into a defined power.
Example:
We combine three variables; Type Shape Intensivity

For type we could say Fire or Heal or Cold or Acid ...

Shape could define how it appears, like Projectile or Ray or Splash ... Ex.: Fire Projectile would be Fire Arrow while Fire Splash would be a Fireball.

Intensivity would simply mean how much magical energies the caster invests into the incantation. The more the better. Of course, only high-skilled spellcasters would be able to reliably cast the more intense ones. Novice casters would get various ''fun'' effects.

Anyway, this was just a quick show. There could be different  variables and so on, I don't know how it would all be done.

Where was I? Oh ... at the start, you would have only a few incantation choices available, like only Fire, or only Ray etc. As the caster gets more skill, gets them from another source (books, scrolls, as apprentice at another wizard?) and then (if played in Fort Mode) *add learned ones to the Fortress's shared knowledge.

* That is, if they'd have a shared knowledge. Could be more fun if each caster would have his own pool of incantations.
Or maybe each guild, group etc.

Hopefully you understood me, though not likely. I just wrote down the crap in my head.

[killaconcarnage]

i will be happy if the only spell is warp rock

[Nivim]

 One word; spheres. The "metamagic" thread did a glorious job of describing magic (well, when you pull out the good parts). Ideally, every effect imaginable will be possible through magic, if you have the correct sphere sources and conditions in place. Spells probably wont have official names, they will be generated depending on a whole load of variables, at each casting.

[Derakon]

DF magic is not going to be D&D-style "this incantation and these components create this useful effect" magic. I can pretty much guarantee you that. That kind of magic is hardcoded and doesn't lend itself to the kinds of emergent behaviors we expect and love. Magic will, more likely than not, be weird, uncontrollable (or barely controllable), and completely mysterious. You know how you spent several fortresses trying to figure out how to tame fluid flows without flooding your fort? That'll be even more true with magic, except that the consequences for getting it wrong will be things like your dwarves guzzling through the entire fort's alcohol supply in a day, or beds that make their dwarves more tired instead of less, or poltergeists flinging all the mugs in your craftdwarf's shop at every dwarf who walks nearby.

[Gamermaster]

How about rune-styled, it would fit with the whole dwarf-theme, mix-and-match to make special effects.