Level 5 Wiz/Sorc Spell Addition: Wall of Force

[tfindlater]

I've been thinking recently about what a fantastic addition this spell would make to the game. I'm not sure how collision detection works though and if having a spell create a solid placeable item would be a pain. The way I see this working is to have two selections upon cast. To place the wall vertically or horizontally. What use would this be you ask?

Here's a blurb about what this spell does:

"Wall of Force
Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Wall whose area is up to one 10-ft. square/level
Duration: 1 round /level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force. The wall cannot move, it is immune to damage of all kinds, and it is unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually get around the wall by floating under or over it through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force.

The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level. The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, spell fails. "

In DDO you could use this spell to help you avoid traps, To block off a hallway temporarily to delay enemies, To create a temporary bridges across chasms, to box in a filthy rogue. All in all it would be some fantastic utility and add a unique kind of spell to the repertoire of arcane spell castersand I hope that the developers agree.

[Wizzly_Bear]

I've been thinking recently about what a fantastic addition this spell would make to the game. I'm not sure how collision detection works though and if having a spell create a solid placeable item would be a pain. The way I see this working is to have two selections upon cast. To place the wall vertically or horizontally. What use would this be you ask?

Here's a blurb about what this spell does:

"Wall of Force
Evocation [Force]
Level: Sor/Wiz 5
Components: V, S, M
Casting Time: 1 standard action
Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)
Effect: Wall whose area is up to one 10-ft. square/level
Duration: 1 round /level (D)
Saving Throw: None
Spell Resistance: No

A wall of force spell creates an invisible wall of force. The wall cannot move, it is immune to damage of all kinds, and it is unaffected by most spells, including dispel magic. However, disintegrate immediately destroys it, as does a rod of cancellation, a sphere of annihilation, or a mage’s disjunction spell. Breath weapons and spells cannot pass through the wall in either direction, although dimension door, teleport, and similar effects can bypass the barrier. It blocks ethereal creatures as well as material ones (though ethereal creatures can usually get around the wall by floating under or over it through material floors and ceilings). Gaze attacks can operate through a wall of force.

The caster can form the wall into a flat, vertical plane whose area is up to one 10-foot square per level. The wall must be continuous and unbroken when formed. If its surface is broken by any object or creature, spell fails. "

In DDO you could use this spell to help you avoid traps, To block off a hallway temporarily to delay enemies, To create a temporary bridges across chasms, to box in a filthy rogue. All in all it would be some fantastic utility and add a unique kind of spell to the repertoire of arcane spell castersand I hope that the developers agree.

I doubt this will be implemented. It would either....

(a) be overpowered because it would not affect other players

or

(b) be used as a tool for griefing other players

[Turial]

Wall of force could be used to easily trap mobs and render some encounters much less challenging then they otherwise would be.

It would be a cool spell to have though.

[Wizzly_Bear]

also...as per the description, it can only be vertical, not horizontal. another reason this is unlikely to be implemented...a creatable horizontal force wall creates incredible opportunity for terrain manipulation and perching.

[Gol]

This spell would also be game breaking in many many instances, especially raids. VoN, DQ, Titan, Reaver... oh heck, ALL of them.

[Letrii]

Hmm, fire wall and force wall could be interesting combo.

[Memnir]

I think at one point (but I'm far too lazy to search for) one of the Devs said that they have issues with generating variable physics objects on the fly. Since this would be nothing but a variable physics object - I imagine the reasons why this spell is unlikely to be seen in DDO is as much related to game mechanics as it is game design. Ditto Wall of Iron & Wall of Ice.

Although, I'd love to see Wall of Force put in as a viable alternative to Wall of Fire - just dealing force instead of fire damage. But, that's game-breaking in an altogether different way. And just as unlikely to ever be implemented.

[Wizzly_Bear]

I think at one point (but I'm far too lazy to search for) one of the Devs said that they have issues with generating variable physics objects on the fly. Since this would be nothing but a variable physics object - I imagine the reasons why this spell is unlikely to be seen in DDO is as much related to game mechanics as it is game design. Ditto Wall of Iron & Wall of Ice.

Although, I'd love to see Wall of Force put in as a viable alternative to Wall of Fire - just dealing force instead of fire damage. But, that's game-breaking in an altogether different way. And just as unlikely to ever be implemented.

a damaging force wall....

/drool

[tfindlater]

Wall of force could be used to easily trap mobs and render some encounters much less challenging then they otherwise would be.

It would be a cool spell to have though.

I think there are some really easy things that could be done to make this spell viable and not an exploiting/griefing tool such as giving it a fairly low duration and high reuse time, preventing it from being cast in raid zones, or having it be able to absorb so much physical damage per caster level until it's broken down. As far as mob separation there are tons of ways to do that already.

[Chaosprism]

Wall of stone, wall of iron, wall of thorns, wall of ice, Prismatic Wall


They'd all be similar, they'd all be a sort of control spell. (though the last one is more like a high level wall of fire)

They also all need to be destructible, not invincible, which is why I would not add wall of force.



Whatever issues they have with physical objects on the fly they should find out a way to code past it, conjurations of non-cloud objects is really missing from this game. (same as illusion creations is missing)

[FunkyGoose]

Id like to see this implemented, but perhaps it could break if hit with force damage or something like that, and simply break if a player hit it (like the spider web wall thing), that would help redue greifing, by not letting players thru, while stopping players being trapped
Also, perhaps have it be a Will save, fail=stopped by wall sucseed=some sort of grease style slowing down?

...So sayeth the (Forceful) Funk...

[sephiroth1084]

I think at one point (but I'm far too lazy to search for) one of the Devs said that they have issues with generating variable physics objects on the fly. Since this would be nothing but a variable physics object - I imagine the reasons why this spell is unlikely to be seen in DDO is as much related to game mechanics as it is game design. Ditto Wall of Iron & Wall of Ice.

Although, I'd love to see Wall of Force put in as a viable alternative to Wall of Fire - just dealing force instead of fire damage. But, that's game-breaking in an altogether different way. And just as unlikely to ever be implemented.

Yeah...I think it was a response to a thread about more interesting environments (I may have asked for a ship-to-ship pirate battle with, you know, moving ships). In that respect Wall of Force is likely to never come into play.

But even if it were possible from a programming standpoint, I definitely agree with most other posters that such an effect would be too powerful in the game as it stands. Even with a high cooldown, short duration and the ability to break it, the spell would be a way to buy time for an entire group without allowing a save. There are many places in the game where it would just be an easy button. And if the spell were balanced enough not to be (very low duration, very long cooldown, easy to break and lockout on scrolls) what would then be the point in using it at all?

I'd love to see more tools given to casters, but it's just so hard to balance interesting spell effects against the way DDO handles spellcasting--in PnP it's so hard to have the right spell for every situation, and a DM can burn out a powerful caster by overloading them with a lot of encounters, but the doesn't really work in DDO, due to our SP system, quest knowledge through repetition, and things like SP pots, clickies and regen items.

[Zuldar]

A better alternative would be to add the forcecage spell. It could either work as a powerful form of cc, or as a means of protecting the caster (albiet the caster would be unable to interact much with stuff outside the cage).

[sephiroth1084]

Personally, I really want to see Benign and Baleful Transposition added!

"Oh ****! The monsters are right on top of me!" WOOPT! Now the monsters are right on top of the party tank (or that squishy rogue who screeches funnily every time he dies). "Excellent!"

"I think I'll just jump off this cliff above the lava then..." WOOPT! "Have a nice fall!" /wave

Though, I suppose it'd be more accurate to just add Baleful Transposition and have it affect both allies and enemies...it'd certainly be a less misleading name for the former effect.


OH! And Baleful Polymorph, just because being able to turn things into newts has no business being left out!