Is it just me, or do most spells seem a bit boring?

[Aquillion]

The vast majority of the spells and phemes in the game raise or lower subskills or attributes; a few give bonuses or penalties to success rates (which amounts to the same thing), and a small number heal or harm others.

 

Raising your own stats is sometimes useful, sure. But it's... not hugely interesting to me. Maybe it's because everything else in the game is already manipulating these stats; it makes spells feel less unique and interesting. Maybe it's because these bonuses tend to be fairly small -- unless a subskill is already very high, usually I'd rather spend two or three actions raising it permanently rather than one raising it temporarily, especially since I get other benefits for a 'real' increase. The fact the the bonus is usually fairly small also tends to keep spells from feeling like they're having dramatic effects.

 

(Now, granted, there are some that grant higher bonuses, and I'm sure you can get more by playing with phemes. But that raises a related point -- my pheme list gets pretty huge, and it's a bother to sort through it to use anything. And even more than spells, most phemes are just +1 to a few subskills. The game sorely needs some sort of better organization of phemes based on what they do.)

 

Worse than this are the spells that affect others. There's a huge range of options for temporarily impairing your enemies, but, generally, I haven't seen any particular reason to want to impair people in most of those categories -- especially when it's only a temporary penalty, and I'm giving up an opportunity to permanently improve myself through study in the process.

 

Which is my biggest problem, I think: I would use some of these spells, perhaps, if I got a chance to cast a free spell every so often; but almost none of them seem worth sacrificing a chance to (say) study at the Emperor Sphinx's Room. Even if I have an adventure where the immediate bonus seems useful, it almost always seems to make better sense to just put it off until my natural skills are high enough to do it.

 

(Some of this might also be my mindset -- I like to optimize perhaps a bit too much, so I feel like I'm "crippling" my character every time I take an action that doesn't permanently benefit them or which isn't aimed at ultimately permanently benefiting them.)

 

But all that aside, while this is subjective -- I just wish there were more spell effects that did strange stuff, weird effects that breaks the otherwise-established rules of the game in various ways. It's somewhat depressing to read about how my character can conjure storms, summon strange creatures, fly through the air or invade people's dreams... and then get to the end and have it just be + or - to certain subskills for a few days, with no other effect. Obviously the game engine and the general level of granularity on which the world is represented constrains what's possible, but it's still a bit of a pity.

 

Anyway, am I wrong about this? I was hoping other people could have more interesting stories about how they've used spells, something that could prove me wrong or get me to view them differently. It's just that right now, spells seem, to me, to be awfully uninteresting for a game focused on playing a magus-in-training.

[Schwarzbart]

Yglorbar

 

So fare I know there will be big changes in year 2 how spells work.

I.e. that spells and items like food/potions need a timeslot will be adressed in some way.

Also the spellsystem will change over the year 2 from fixed spells to you put your phemes together to get a effect.

 

But keep in mind thats just what I remember to read here and as the game is still in development it could prove to difficult to do and drop out.

[Leoshi]

I guess I agree for the most part but maybe it comes down to creativity. Spells are pretty hard to make up if you think about it. That and engine limitations may be the culprit.

 

Still let's wait and see what Year 2 will bring.

 

As for interesting ways to use spells. I once spam Glow of Victory and some other phemes so I could pass the check for Create a Formal Invitation on Philippe.

[Schwarzbart]

I still think there are some great spells that depending on the situation are wort a timeslot like Cleanse and Remake (Great temp attribute boost at the early game), Revision of Skills (switch SS you use for a roll) or From Nothing Knowledge (2 Random SS + you can add some pheme). Also don't forget there also some spells that permanent increase your relationship with a teacher or other student what is interesting in it selve (beside that you can use them also to add pheme)

[Aquillion]

I guess I agree for the most part but maybe it comes down to creativity. Spells are pretty hard to make up if you think about it. That and engine limitations may be the culprit.

Hrm. If it's a matter of creativity, do you think a thread to suggest spell-effect ideas from various users (for future years, of course) would be worthwhile? Obviously engine limitations could limit a lot of what could be done, but it could be fun to discuss them, or even basic mechanical frameworks that we feel could make magic more interesting.

[Leoshi]

Whup! Wait a minute. What I meant was maybe creativity and mostly engine limitations.

 

The gods know the developers already have plenty of creativity as evident by the game.

 

Still I suppose a thread with spell suggestions is a good idea if we want to see a few more funny spells in Year 2.

[Schwarzbart]

I think more important is the ability to bether search for the spells as right now even if there would be a great spell for a situation the chance it big that we don't spot it under the huge list of what we have aviable.

[Albert]

Im not sure what they are doing for duels but being able to pick phemes directly from spells or if self constructed spells would be possible allow the player to add custom spells to their book... Just click the spell and the game will add the phemes that will be needed to be inscribed..

[Albert]

Perhaps even a few bookmarked spells... (favrite spells) that can be easily used when needed.

[Legate of Mineta]

Yes, there will be several ways to search, and the ability to mark favorites.