07-26-2017, 01:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 07-26-2017, 01:49 PM by Ebonywood Hellscythe.)
I'm making some upgrades to my "Meta Magic: Elemental Blast" spell. Namely the "multi" modifier (allows preemptive chain casting) and also specifically changing how the "air" element works (but only the air element, the others are still cosmetic only). Air now converts all "damage" to "knockback" (10m/30ft by default, increased by charged spell). I've also changed the area of effect of the explosion modifier from 1m radius to 2m radius (although that will naturally make the splash damage more watered down). Changes from the original are in bold. I think having to spend a whole 5 seconds (often standing still, unable to attack, and yelling) should justify the increased AoE and general versatile and damaging potential of the spell in general.
Cost increased from 1200 to 1800 (so 600 OM to upgrade). 300 OM for the "multi". 300 OM for "air".
Meta Magic: Elemental Blast (1800) Requires: Ranged Proficiency, Area Attack, Homing Proficiency
Quick summary:
[spoiler]Base spell: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, speed of an arrow, can be any of the elements listed, size of a fist (projectile and impact area), 5 seconds air time, needs 1 hand to chant, needs 1 hand to cast.
Charged: 5 seconds, fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, more damage, repeatable, needs 1 hand to chant, increases to 2 hands to cast.
Homing: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony can move, spell is now homing (3m/10ft radius turns), 10 seconds air time, decreasing damage after 5 seconds air time, needs 1 hand to chant.
Explosive: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, area effect (2m/6.6ft radius), decreased overall damage, needs 1 hand to chant.
Multi: Start casting new spell, older spell(s) saved, then may cast each one after another with a 1-second delay between each, delay may exceed the 1-minute cap, fodder time may be used prior to or between each spell once casting starts.
Fodder: 2-3 seconds, not fatigue, does literally nothing but maybe sound cool and delay the spell by a few seconds, can go over the 1-minute limit, Ebony needs the same number of hands-free that are required to cast the spell, Ebony cannot move.
Spell time cannot exceed 1 minute. If it does the spell fails. If damage is taken the spell fails. If the casting stops then the spell fails.[/spoiler]
Current list of "elements" Ebony may use:[spoiler]
Raw Magic, Fire, Ice, Water, Air, Earth, Electric, Dark, Light.
Descriptions: all elements are the size of a fist (explosive effect are in brackets and have a radius of 1m/3ft). All effects are visual only unless specified otherwise. All damage and damaging effects will be the same regardless of the element.
Every element not listed here just does the standard "magical burns" as damage.
Air converts all damage from the spell to knockback. Essentially changing the spells from acting like concrete breaking punches to car pushing shoves. The specific distance an opponent is pushed back depends on the difference between Ebony's ATK and their DEF, although if agreed OOC further or shorter than usual distances may occur for smaller and larger targets. The general floor and grip a target has on a surface could also have an impact. As a general guideline, the base spell can knock someone back 10m/30ft. Charging this adds another 10m/30ft for each charge. The explosive variant pushes people away from the centre of the explosion, and those on the edge won't be pushed back as far (but if hit by the main projectile directly the target will suffer the full knockback). Homing pushes a target away from where it made contact with them (by the same distance it would do if it was non-homing), so it's technically possible that the projectile could actually push someone towards Ebony. Naturally, the decrease in damage from a prolonged homing spell transfers proportionally to a decrease in knockback. The multi variant has no impact and each spell applies its knockback individually. While air doesn't do any damage directly (the attack feels like being shoved really hard), being hit into a wall, a rock, or off a cliff is probably still going to hurt. Lastly, targets with a high SPD and flight may be able to move against the knockback and prevent being pushed the full distance.[/spoiler]
Ebony begins the spell with a five-second incantation specifying an element to attack with. This element has no impact on the actual spell itself (unless specified above), besides appearances. Regardless of the element chosen, the effect is still the same. Anyone hit with it will take the same "magic burns" as damage. So while wind can blow someone over, Ice can't freeze someone. Fire can, however, still seem the same as usual besides not feeling hot as "magic burns" are indistinguishable from being burnt normally (to non-mages at least). In essence, the element is usually just the manifestation of Ebony's magic: a mere appearance. During these first five seconds, Ebony needs at least one free hand, cannot move (but can rotate), and must continue speaking (note that she doesn't need to be heard, so as long as her mouth can open and close, the spell will still work - hence it can be done under water). These five seconds are not very fatiguing. If Ebony takes damage while casting the spell, it fails and must be restarted. She may make any motions with the hands and arms required to be free that she chooses - if casting an earth spell they may be closed and rough, but for an air spell they may move and flow much more quickly.
After this, Ebony has two choices. Either cast the spell as it is (by which it will travel in a straight line at the speed of an arrow and dissipate after 5 seconds) or add any combinations of modifiers. Each modifier takes five seconds chant, can only be added to the spell once unless specified otherwise, and can be added in any order. The spell cannot be chanted for longer than 1 minute. Ebony can currently use the following modifiers:
Charged Spell: This incantation increases the power of the spell at the cost of time and fatigue. This can be added to the spell as many times as Ebony wishes providing the spell does not exceed a total casting length of one minute (the base spell + 11 modifiers). Ebony cannot move throughout the five seconds of this chant and must have at least one free hand. However, if this modification is added, Ebony needs to use both hands to actually cast the spell (i.e. when she's finished chanting, she needs 2 hands to shoot it).
Homing Spell: After adding this incantation, the spell will follow and curve towards her target. As a consequence, the spell can only travel at half speed, however, it will still travel the same total distance (it remains in the air for twice the time). But, once the spell has travelled for its initial 5 seconds, it slowly starts to dissipate at an even rate. So being hit after 7.5s will do half as much damage as being hit between 0 and 5s, and being hit at just before 10s will feel almost entirely painless. The spell curves after its target fairly quickly, and can make an 180 degree turn in a semicircle with a radius of 3m/10ft and will turn left, right, up and down to pursue its target. Ebony must be able to maintain sight for the 5 seconds that this part of the incantation is spoken, and she must be able to see her target when the spell is cast. The target cannot be changed unless Ebony decided to forfeit casting the spell and start again.
Explosive Spell: This modification increases the area of effect of the spell from being a simple point blast to exploding out in a sphere of a radius of 2m/6ft. The damage of the spell is distributed throughout this area (and weaker at the edges), so the overall damage one target will take is lower than the damage they would take from the non-explosive spell (unless they were hit by the exploding projectile when they will take the full normal damage). During the five seconds of chanting Ebony cannot move and must have 1 free hand. This modifier is not draining to add. Ebony is immune to the splash damage of her own spells (n.b. only the splash damage, shooting herself directly would still hurt).
Multi-Spell: This allows Ebony to essentially store spells during the chanting period to all cast together once she's ready to cast. Instead of simply spending 5 seconds modifying the spell, she starts speaking and channelling magic as if she were chanting the base spell. While this occurs the old spell is saved along with all its already existing modifiers (and may not be changed). This does not reset the maximum chanting time of 1 minute. After Ebony chants the new base spell (which may be different to or the same as the one before) she continues working on that spell as usual (being affected but the same restrictions and times, as well as the usual fatigue if any). Should she wish, she could even choose to add a "multi-spell" to the new spell, allowing another spell to be saved as well. Once she finishes chanting all the spells she wishes to cast, she may then choose to add a couple of fodder words as usual, or may proceed straight to casting them. During this, the first spell that was saved is cast as usual. Then, there is a 1 second delay (during which Ebony does not have to speak, but may choose to). This may be extended to up to 3 seconds with more fodder words. Once the delay is over, the next spell is then cast as usual and the cycle repeats. It is possible that, due to the occasional different speeds of spells (or them following nonlinear paths) two spells could collide. When this happens they phase through each other without interacting.
Multi-Spell Example:[spoiler]
Seeing a gap in combat (maybe an ally is fighting) Ebony chants for Fire, Charged, Homing and then chooses to make the spell multi. From there, that spell is saved so she moves onto the next spell. She chooses Air and then multis again. The next time she also chooses Air and then multis again. Then, the last time, she chooses Raw Magic and charges is three times. This takes 45 seconds total (making the spell a multi takes no time, but each other section takes 5 seconds).
She then shoots a Fire charged spell that swerves towards her target. 1 second later a blast of air travels out of her palm faster than the charged spell did and goes through the fire projectile (by random chance) yet misses the target. Nothing happens when they visually collide, but shortly after the fire spell hits the target. After that the next air spell shoots out 1 second later and hits. Being hit by the fire spell, and knocked back by one of the air spells (the other missed), her target charges towards her. From there she waits until the foe is in an optimal position and speaks a few fodder words to pass the time (3 seconds total). After this, she releases the powerful blast of raw magic into their chest doing heavy damage.[/spoiler]
Once Ebony has finished all the incantations she wishes to add, she needs to point the 1 or 2 hands required to cast the spell towards her target (unless the spell is homing when variation in the angle is possible to allow the shot to curve). The instant she finishes speaking the last word of the spell, the attack is fired. If the attack takes the form of a lump of rock or physical object, it disintegrates on impact (or explodes outwards if that modification was added). Lingering frostbite, flames, or other effects will not occur. If Ebony wishes, she can speak a couple of fodder words at the end of the spell, no more than 2 or 3 seconds or so. This is just to delay the casting of the spell slightly, and also make the incantation flow better. These words can go over the maximum casting length and have no impact on the actual spell. Ebony cannot move while saying them and needs to have the same number of hands free that are required to cast the spell. During this section, the spell is seen as visible in her hands.
Descriptive/General Example:
[spoiler]Ebony is fighting a fellow mage in a friendly duel. Her opponent is fast and mobile. Firstly she says, "Let the air be my ally, and the sky be your doom." This signifies that she will attack using the air. She can say whatever she wishes at this part, and really it had no effect on the actual spell besides appearances. Although in some cases the element chosen will have an impact - such as in this instance.
While speaking this first part, she notices her opponent is moving quickly in an attempt to dodge so she continues chanting, this time moving into a better position and keeping a line of sight with her target. "Your legs will fail you as my spell pursues for eternity." For this section, Ebony moves into a better position and adds the homing attribute to the spell. The general phrase can change, but it should be made obvious which modifier she's using - she can't talk about making it explode when actually making it homing, for example.
After this, the spell is ready to cast, as she doesn't feel the need to make it impact a large area, or do a significant amount more damage. She stops moving, looks at her opponent, and finishes off with the final word: "Elemental Blast". She could have said any short phrase, or simply nothing. In this instance, she felt like saying the name of the spell. The instant she starts the word 'elemental', a green swirling mass of air the size of her palm appears in her chosen hand (or between both). The instant she finishes the word 'blast', the swirling air shoots quickly towards her target, curving towards him as he tries to dodge. She could have shot fire or ice if she chose to earlier, but she wanted to avoid doing direct damage. Currently, however, both fire and ice would have the exact same impact of leaving magical burns.[/spoiler]
Note 1: Due to how tiring using the charged effect on a spell is, Ebony can only do about a minute's worth of it (12 uses) without resting. After that point, Ebony will barely be able to walk, so trying to cast it again could knock her out from the fatigue.
Note 2: Arrows from recurve bows travel at ~150mph (67m/s, 220ft/s). I'm using this speed.
Cost increased from 1200 to 1800 (so 600 OM to upgrade). 300 OM for the "multi". 300 OM for "air".
Meta Magic: Elemental Blast (1800) Requires: Ranged Proficiency, Area Attack, Homing Proficiency
Quick summary:
[spoiler]Base spell: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, speed of an arrow, can be any of the elements listed, size of a fist (projectile and impact area), 5 seconds air time, needs 1 hand to chant, needs 1 hand to cast.
Charged: 5 seconds, fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, more damage, repeatable, needs 1 hand to chant, increases to 2 hands to cast.
Homing: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony can move, spell is now homing (3m/10ft radius turns), 10 seconds air time, decreasing damage after 5 seconds air time, needs 1 hand to chant.
Explosive: 5 seconds, not fatiguing, Ebony cannot move, area effect (2m/6.6ft radius), decreased overall damage, needs 1 hand to chant.
Multi: Start casting new spell, older spell(s) saved, then may cast each one after another with a 1-second delay between each, delay may exceed the 1-minute cap, fodder time may be used prior to or between each spell once casting starts.
Fodder: 2-3 seconds, not fatigue, does literally nothing but maybe sound cool and delay the spell by a few seconds, can go over the 1-minute limit, Ebony needs the same number of hands-free that are required to cast the spell, Ebony cannot move.
Spell time cannot exceed 1 minute. If it does the spell fails. If damage is taken the spell fails. If the casting stops then the spell fails.[/spoiler]
Current list of "elements" Ebony may use:[spoiler]
Raw Magic, Fire, Ice, Water, Air, Earth, Electric, Dark, Light.
Descriptions: all elements are the size of a fist (explosive effect are in brackets and have a radius of 1m/3ft). All effects are visual only unless specified otherwise. All damage and damaging effects will be the same regardless of the element.
- Raw Magic: A swirling purple blob. Appears to melt away on impact, disappearing. (A dense purple fog explodes outwards, then fades away almost instantly.)
- Fire: A swirling mass of red flames. Disappears on impact. (A ball of flames explodes outwards, then fades away.)
- Ice: A solid lump of white/pale blue ice. Disintegrates on impact. (An outwards explosion of ice that creates a dense white/pale blue fog. Quickly fades away into the air.)
- Water: A swirling mass of blue water. Disperses into the atmosphere on impact. (A torrent of water explodes outwards, then fades away.)
- Air: A swirling mass of green airwaves. Disperses into the atmosphere on impact. See later section on detailed effects (An explosion of green air. Disappears quickly.)
- Earth: A solid lump of brown-orange rock. Disintegrates on impact. (An outwards explosion of rock and earth that creates a dense brown fog. Quickly fades away into the air.)
- Electric: A zig-zagging mess of yellow and blue lightning bolts confined to an invisible sphere. Disperses into the surroundings on impact. (An almost solid-looking mass of yellow and blue bolts that slowly fade away)
- Dark: A smooth pulsing solid black/dark purple sphere. Disperses instantly on impact into harmless purple flames that quickly fade away. (An explosion of dark purple flames that quickly fade away)
- Light: A smooth pulsing solid white sphere. Disappears instantly on impact. (An extremely quick explosion of white light. It's gone almost instantly and isn't blinding)[/spoiler]
Every element not listed here just does the standard "magical burns" as damage.
Air converts all damage from the spell to knockback. Essentially changing the spells from acting like concrete breaking punches to car pushing shoves. The specific distance an opponent is pushed back depends on the difference between Ebony's ATK and their DEF, although if agreed OOC further or shorter than usual distances may occur for smaller and larger targets. The general floor and grip a target has on a surface could also have an impact. As a general guideline, the base spell can knock someone back 10m/30ft. Charging this adds another 10m/30ft for each charge. The explosive variant pushes people away from the centre of the explosion, and those on the edge won't be pushed back as far (but if hit by the main projectile directly the target will suffer the full knockback). Homing pushes a target away from where it made contact with them (by the same distance it would do if it was non-homing), so it's technically possible that the projectile could actually push someone towards Ebony. Naturally, the decrease in damage from a prolonged homing spell transfers proportionally to a decrease in knockback. The multi variant has no impact and each spell applies its knockback individually. While air doesn't do any damage directly (the attack feels like being shoved really hard), being hit into a wall, a rock, or off a cliff is probably still going to hurt. Lastly, targets with a high SPD and flight may be able to move against the knockback and prevent being pushed the full distance.[/spoiler]
Ebony begins the spell with a five-second incantation specifying an element to attack with. This element has no impact on the actual spell itself (unless specified above), besides appearances. Regardless of the element chosen, the effect is still the same. Anyone hit with it will take the same "magic burns" as damage. So while wind can blow someone over, Ice can't freeze someone. Fire can, however, still seem the same as usual besides not feeling hot as "magic burns" are indistinguishable from being burnt normally (to non-mages at least). In essence, the element is usually just the manifestation of Ebony's magic: a mere appearance. During these first five seconds, Ebony needs at least one free hand, cannot move (but can rotate), and must continue speaking (note that she doesn't need to be heard, so as long as her mouth can open and close, the spell will still work - hence it can be done under water). These five seconds are not very fatiguing. If Ebony takes damage while casting the spell, it fails and must be restarted. She may make any motions with the hands and arms required to be free that she chooses - if casting an earth spell they may be closed and rough, but for an air spell they may move and flow much more quickly.
After this, Ebony has two choices. Either cast the spell as it is (by which it will travel in a straight line at the speed of an arrow and dissipate after 5 seconds) or add any combinations of modifiers. Each modifier takes five seconds chant, can only be added to the spell once unless specified otherwise, and can be added in any order. The spell cannot be chanted for longer than 1 minute. Ebony can currently use the following modifiers:
Charged Spell: This incantation increases the power of the spell at the cost of time and fatigue. This can be added to the spell as many times as Ebony wishes providing the spell does not exceed a total casting length of one minute (the base spell + 11 modifiers). Ebony cannot move throughout the five seconds of this chant and must have at least one free hand. However, if this modification is added, Ebony needs to use both hands to actually cast the spell (i.e. when she's finished chanting, she needs 2 hands to shoot it).
Homing Spell: After adding this incantation, the spell will follow and curve towards her target. As a consequence, the spell can only travel at half speed, however, it will still travel the same total distance (it remains in the air for twice the time). But, once the spell has travelled for its initial 5 seconds, it slowly starts to dissipate at an even rate. So being hit after 7.5s will do half as much damage as being hit between 0 and 5s, and being hit at just before 10s will feel almost entirely painless. The spell curves after its target fairly quickly, and can make an 180 degree turn in a semicircle with a radius of 3m/10ft and will turn left, right, up and down to pursue its target. Ebony must be able to maintain sight for the 5 seconds that this part of the incantation is spoken, and she must be able to see her target when the spell is cast. The target cannot be changed unless Ebony decided to forfeit casting the spell and start again.
Explosive Spell: This modification increases the area of effect of the spell from being a simple point blast to exploding out in a sphere of a radius of 2m/6ft. The damage of the spell is distributed throughout this area (and weaker at the edges), so the overall damage one target will take is lower than the damage they would take from the non-explosive spell (unless they were hit by the exploding projectile when they will take the full normal damage). During the five seconds of chanting Ebony cannot move and must have 1 free hand. This modifier is not draining to add. Ebony is immune to the splash damage of her own spells (n.b. only the splash damage, shooting herself directly would still hurt).
Multi-Spell: This allows Ebony to essentially store spells during the chanting period to all cast together once she's ready to cast. Instead of simply spending 5 seconds modifying the spell, she starts speaking and channelling magic as if she were chanting the base spell. While this occurs the old spell is saved along with all its already existing modifiers (and may not be changed). This does not reset the maximum chanting time of 1 minute. After Ebony chants the new base spell (which may be different to or the same as the one before) she continues working on that spell as usual (being affected but the same restrictions and times, as well as the usual fatigue if any). Should she wish, she could even choose to add a "multi-spell" to the new spell, allowing another spell to be saved as well. Once she finishes chanting all the spells she wishes to cast, she may then choose to add a couple of fodder words as usual, or may proceed straight to casting them. During this, the first spell that was saved is cast as usual. Then, there is a 1 second delay (during which Ebony does not have to speak, but may choose to). This may be extended to up to 3 seconds with more fodder words. Once the delay is over, the next spell is then cast as usual and the cycle repeats. It is possible that, due to the occasional different speeds of spells (or them following nonlinear paths) two spells could collide. When this happens they phase through each other without interacting.
Multi-Spell Example:[spoiler]
Seeing a gap in combat (maybe an ally is fighting) Ebony chants for Fire, Charged, Homing and then chooses to make the spell multi. From there, that spell is saved so she moves onto the next spell. She chooses Air and then multis again. The next time she also chooses Air and then multis again. Then, the last time, she chooses Raw Magic and charges is three times. This takes 45 seconds total (making the spell a multi takes no time, but each other section takes 5 seconds).
She then shoots a Fire charged spell that swerves towards her target. 1 second later a blast of air travels out of her palm faster than the charged spell did and goes through the fire projectile (by random chance) yet misses the target. Nothing happens when they visually collide, but shortly after the fire spell hits the target. After that the next air spell shoots out 1 second later and hits. Being hit by the fire spell, and knocked back by one of the air spells (the other missed), her target charges towards her. From there she waits until the foe is in an optimal position and speaks a few fodder words to pass the time (3 seconds total). After this, she releases the powerful blast of raw magic into their chest doing heavy damage.[/spoiler]
Once Ebony has finished all the incantations she wishes to add, she needs to point the 1 or 2 hands required to cast the spell towards her target (unless the spell is homing when variation in the angle is possible to allow the shot to curve). The instant she finishes speaking the last word of the spell, the attack is fired. If the attack takes the form of a lump of rock or physical object, it disintegrates on impact (or explodes outwards if that modification was added). Lingering frostbite, flames, or other effects will not occur. If Ebony wishes, she can speak a couple of fodder words at the end of the spell, no more than 2 or 3 seconds or so. This is just to delay the casting of the spell slightly, and also make the incantation flow better. These words can go over the maximum casting length and have no impact on the actual spell. Ebony cannot move while saying them and needs to have the same number of hands free that are required to cast the spell. During this section, the spell is seen as visible in her hands.
Descriptive/General Example:
[spoiler]Ebony is fighting a fellow mage in a friendly duel. Her opponent is fast and mobile. Firstly she says, "Let the air be my ally, and the sky be your doom." This signifies that she will attack using the air. She can say whatever she wishes at this part, and really it had no effect on the actual spell besides appearances. Although in some cases the element chosen will have an impact - such as in this instance.
While speaking this first part, she notices her opponent is moving quickly in an attempt to dodge so she continues chanting, this time moving into a better position and keeping a line of sight with her target. "Your legs will fail you as my spell pursues for eternity." For this section, Ebony moves into a better position and adds the homing attribute to the spell. The general phrase can change, but it should be made obvious which modifier she's using - she can't talk about making it explode when actually making it homing, for example.
After this, the spell is ready to cast, as she doesn't feel the need to make it impact a large area, or do a significant amount more damage. She stops moving, looks at her opponent, and finishes off with the final word: "Elemental Blast". She could have said any short phrase, or simply nothing. In this instance, she felt like saying the name of the spell. The instant she starts the word 'elemental', a green swirling mass of air the size of her palm appears in her chosen hand (or between both). The instant she finishes the word 'blast', the swirling air shoots quickly towards her target, curving towards him as he tries to dodge. She could have shot fire or ice if she chose to earlier, but she wanted to avoid doing direct damage. Currently, however, both fire and ice would have the exact same impact of leaving magical burns.[/spoiler]
Note 1: Due to how tiring using the charged effect on a spell is, Ebony can only do about a minute's worth of it (12 uses) without resting. After that point, Ebony will barely be able to walk, so trying to cast it again could knock her out from the fatigue.
Note 2: Arrows from recurve bows travel at ~150mph (67m/s, 220ft/s). I'm using this speed.