New Spells and Arcane Pass

[reywas]

Let's face it, Wizard and Sorcerer trees are getting stale. And are often downright inferior to more recently updated Divine trees and, of course, the Warlock trees. Lower Costs of getting more DC, interesting, useful SLAs, and in general interesting, engaging abilities are all things the Wizards and Sorcerers trees lack that newer spellcasting trees have. Same with spells. Barring the new 1st and 9th level spells, there really hasn't been new ones for arcane casters since other elemental spells were added waaaaay back when. When I prep spells as a wizard and in the 5-8 range, I look at them and think, what spells can I slot here just to fill space? We need some new blood, new toys to play with. There are glaring gaps in the spell list that I think it is well within reason to rectify. The EK update was a great and welcomed update, and an Arcane pass is supposedly on the horizon, so it is a perfect time to make new, interesting spells. Here is my dollars worth of cents, a mix of spell suggestions and enhancement tree suggestions

1) The Elements - despite the addition of 9th and 1st level spells, there are still holes, both in roles of spells and in elements. And just cool spells to have. Ice and acid still lag behind Fire and Air in popularity (Ice especially), and in all lack some of the more interesting options Divine casters have in mixing damage and CC. I see two main solutions - adding in Evocation Archmage/Savant abilities that add effects or making spells with new ones. For example, spells like Cometfall can Trip. It seems logical to me that especially powerful Fire spells for a Savant should have the possibility to do the same. Air savants would get stun/daze/paralyze. Acid gets sunder, slow. Cold can get freezing, as Cone of Cold should have had all along (looking at you, Burst of Glacial Wrath and Snowslide).

On the adding spell side, evolutions of earlier spells works excellently, like adding a Blizzard Spell, an upgraded Ice Storm that could be the 9th level spell Cold deserves, doing DoT over an area and occasionally freezing/slowing. A strong electricity spell that serves as a single target paralyze. An acid spell that applies vunerability and sundering, as a continuation of Acid Rain/Cloudkill/Acid Fog. Additionally, Force spell need some love. Chain Missiles is a nifty little spell in the right circumstances. Force Missiles less so. The most obvious addition would be a Missie Storm spell in the 6-8 range, a direct upgrade to Chain Missile like Delayed Blast Fireball and Chain Lightning are to Fireball and Lightning Bolt. Possibly more interesting additions could be in the form of Bigby's Crushing Hands. Inflicting force damage to a single target while holding them would make a nice level 9 Force spell (on bosses, this can change to just a DoT, maybe drops AC a bit).

In all though, the elements/evocation magic are far less in need of new spell than other schools. Illusion, Conjuration, Abjuration, and Transmutation all have much smaller amount of (useful) spells. And playing an Archmage of them is (With the Exception of Illusion gnomes with triple PK) is unheard of. Which leads me to

2) Other Schools

• Illusion - The highest level Illusion spell is a (albeit situationally nice) buff that is mainly used to run about town half blind. Illusion has never been a well-represented school in DnD, and because this is a game that needs graphical representation, spells like Major Image and related shenanigans in PnP just don't translate. But there are some spells that can translate. One option is to give Illusion a mass instakill spell like Wail, but Illusion. Give us a bit more view into that tentacled illusion in Phantasmal Killer. Another, perhaps more complex option, is Area Denial. Illusury walls, trapping enemies inside (functionally similar to Ottos Dance). Spells that can either Attract (Intimidate) or repel (Diplo/bluff) effects on allies, or an illusory dummy that takes the heat off you and allies. Spells like Maze can trick enemies who might be immune to holds, but would be tricked by sight or sound.
• Conjuration - I haven't someone summon anything in a long time, mostly because they serve as fodder and little else. In the spirit of things like the bird in Falconry, the floating orbs from Renegade Master Maker and others, conjuration spells that summon something that isn't targetable, but supports, CCs, or damages in a reliable way would be an interesting way to boost visibility of the school. In addition, as a capstone spell, Gate, summoning a small army of summonables for a short time would be enough to stem the tide long enough for a caster to get away, or do some side damage/cc.
• Transmutaion - One word: Polymorph. Basically spells that buff allies or debuff creatures by transforming them into other things. Mass Frog is great, but it would be awesome to have similar (not nearly as broken Mass Frog is) on the Wizard lists. Mass Flesh to Stone would also make a nice capstone, affecting different, overlapping set of creatures that Mass Hold does. Sphere of Annihilation as a mass Distintigrate also makes a nice capstone spell.
• Abjuration - Abjuration Buffs like Shield lose their luster compared to item effects. And while offensive Abjuration exist, they either act too narrowly (summoned only) or take to long to cast to be useful (Disjunction) or typically aren't worth casting (Dispels). My first inclination would to add higher level wards, things an Abjurer could place to bolster allies intantaneously or over time. Adding the ability to temporarily Banish enemies for a small amount of time, simply removing them from the fight for a time, I think would be another interesting concept. Can't damage them, but niether can they damage you. Capstone could be a spell like that that puts them in some terrible plane that does damage them, or dazes them upon return. With Dispels/Disjunction, add a component that really disrupts enemy casters/buffs. Stun them when you strip a spell, Disjunction can do massive damage via feedback. Lower their DCs, prevent them from casting with (friendly) Antimagic fields of our own. Have spells that strip spell resistance from enemies.

Mass Holds and Finger/Wail are great, but in the face of red name mobs, or Deathblocked mobs, we go from asset to basically useless. We can switch to damage spells, but Archmages are supposed to be specialists. Adding more variety to spells gives us other things to do. Under these new spells, besides the standard CC and instakill suggestions, Illusionists can help make sure the tank holds focus, or take focus off an ally. Abjurers can take them off the map, or boost defenses (why should Artificers be the only one with Forcefields?). From here, we can fill things in with effects from Archmage/Savant/Palemaster that add things to existing spells that allow some more options.

3) Archmage pass.
Archmage is the main Wizard tree and hasn't been updated almost since its inception. Cores grant SLAs, which suffer from the lack of options that most schools have in their spell list, possibly fixed with additional spells. And the tree in general is just boring. Other classes/trees get special effects with specialty areas. Archmages spend 4 points as a Tier 5 to get +1 DC to two schools, where others get that much lower tier and for multiple schools. Giving effects to spells of a certain school can help the parts where DC casters literally have nothing to offer (red names, Hold immune mobs, DB mobs). Necromancers and Enchanters should have an ability that bypasses those limitations (temporarily, not on red names). Or add effects like Vulnerability to those that are immune (red names, DB) or softer CC options. Sorcerers, similarly, should get more abilities that add to their particular element. Move the SLAs in Sorc to cores, add up to spell level 5, and fill out the tree with metaelement abilities. Give Wizards and Sorcerers interesting abilities that play off their strengths, rather than the pretty boring mechanical increases.

Sorcerers and Wizards also desperately need a way to reliably recover SP or gain Temp SP. Every other full spellcasting classes gets some form of it, mostly on crit. Archmages getting a rebate on spells from their spell school would help a bit with spell pool woes. A Tier 5/high core ability could be a mode/buff that restores SP or severely discounts spell costs.


4) Feats. SF Feats are very boring and barely do anything with the every creeping DC line and yet are absolutely required for DC casters. Magical Toughness's 200 SP and 1% Spell crit are a drop in the bucket. Metamagics are expensive for what you get, especially now as gear outstrips the Spellpower boosts. SFs should boost DCs 1+1/5 or 1/10, get rid of GSF, unless you add in a 10% cost reduction in lieu of more DC. Metamagics should have reduced costs for low level spells, especially when casters progress to higher level spells. Adding Maximize, Empower, and Quicken to a level 1 damage spell does not equal an unboosted level 9 spell. Either scale cost (with existing costs the highest it gets) or just remove the costs, just adding faster casting, and more base spell power (for Empower) and Spell crit mult (for maximize) passively. Heighten shouldn't exist, have all spells by default scale at 10+1/2 level+modifiers. If the feat is to still exist after that, have it be like Embolden, and be the only metamagic feats with costs. Extend and Enlarge should have no cost. SP should stretch a little farther with this, DCs a little higher. And that is alright. DC casters require so much min maxing and gearing to be relevant, adding more of this burden to the class will help out immensely. Spell costs can be adjusted back up a tick with no cost metamagics, but overall should help mitigate current issues with higher difficulties and spell points.


Sorcerers and Wizards are still balanced like the gods they were in 3.5, which is not the case in DDO. They require more things to get to the same place. Some of that is due to creep and updating/revamping trees, but not all of it. Epic Destinies is a great example of this. Magister/Draconic Incarnation cores are all +1 to caster level and + SP. Exalted angels, Primal Avatars, Divine Disciples all get other, interesting abilities along with them. In the trees, Magisters get things that it feels like Archmages should already get in their tree. Reducing saves, cast time, etc for their school. The other half of the tree, with antimagic and sigils, get overshadowed because Wizards feel like they need the other stuff to keep up. It is mostly the same with Draconic Incarnation. Adding effects to elemental spells feels like something that would have made a great Tier 5 ability in the enhancements. And many Wizards and Sorcs end up sitting in other EDs anyways, particularly Exalted Angel.

I realize passes are coming down the line, but I don't see much about it yet. Judging from other forum posts, this is a concern for a lot of spellslinging players. Looking forward to those passes, hopefully they fix some of the problems I mentioned. Thank you for continuing to work on this game!

[lppmor]

IMO, before creating more spells a few tweaks can still be done to improve some existing unused spells.

1) There are too many control spells. I'd leave Charms as is, and change Suggestions to work only a few seconds, but getting a bonus to DC. This way each one would have a niche.

2) Clouds are too slow to cast and are not that better than things like Wall of Fire. I'd change all clouds to be fast casting by default and also boost the size/damage. Cloudkill, for instance, could be larger and scale its CON damage better with level.

3) Metamagic should be changed to work as a percent of spell cost instead of fixed value, so they can be useful at lower levels.

4) There are still some dps spells doing old damage. Disintegrate, Horrid Wilting, most DoTs.. etc.

------------------------------

Also, I don't have ideas for Archmage, but I have posted a few months ago my ideas for a Pale Master pass.



CORES:

Undead Shroud (1): You gain a basic undead shroud (undead traits plus 200% light vulnerability). Also, each core ability you get after this one will grant +15 negative spellpower.
Dark Reaping (3): You gain +2 STR and +2 DEX while in shroud.
Dark Vigor (6): You gain +2 CON while in shroud.
Dark Intellect (12): You gain +2 INT while in shroud.
Dark Focus (18): You gain +2 to necro DC while in shroud.
Cap: ?

TIER 1:

Deathly Aura I: Grants "Lesser Death Aura" as a permanent toggle.
Skeletal Knight: Summons pet.
Drain Attacks: While in shroud, attacks apply a negative level on vorpal hits.
Negative Energy Conduit: Grants +6/12/20% negative amplification.
Deathless Vigor: Grants +10/+20/+30 hp.

TIER 2:

Deathly Aura II: Improve your permanent healing toggle to "Death Aura".
Spell Critical I: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Ghostly Attacks: While in shroud, attacks gain ghost touch and deal 1d6 CON damage on critical hits.
Bone Armor I: While in shroud, gain +3/6/10 PRR.
Cloak of Night: While in shroud, you can now be healed by positive energy at 20/35/50% efficiency,, but negative healing also is decreased.

TIER 3:

Negative Energy Burst: Grants "Negative Energy Burst" as SLA. Decreased cooldown and cost at higher ranks.
Spell Critical II: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Vampiric Attacks: While in shroud, attacks heal 1 hp (affected by negative spellpower), but your light vulnerability increases to 300%.
Bone Armor II: While in shroud, gain +3/6/10 MRR.
Constitution or Intelligence: Grants +1 INT or +1 CON.

TIER 4:

Incorporeality: While in shroud, gain 5/10/15% incorporeality.
Spell Critical III: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Deadly Attacks: While in shroud, attacks deal extra 1d8/2d8/3d8 negative damage (affected by negative spellpower).
Bone Armor III: While in shroud, gain DR 3/6/10.
Constitution or Intelligence: Grants +1 INT or +1 CON.

TIER 5:

Necrotic Ray: Grants "Necrotic Ray" as SLA. Decreased cooldown and cost at higher ranks.
Animate Ally: Same as live.
Necromancer: When you instakill an enemy, you gain 10/20/30 temporary hp and +10/20/30 negative spellpower for 15 seconds.
Dark Regeneration: While in shroud, you can sometimes heal when damaged.
Improved Shrouding: Grants 4 exclusive toggles that modify your shroud (will also change the animation aura around the character from a basic shroud animation).
- Zombie: Gains +2 CON and +15% extra hp.
- Vampire: Gains +2 STR and +2 enchant DC.
- Wraith: Gains +2 DEX, featherfall, and extra 20% incorporeability.
- Lich: Gains +2 INT and another +1 necro DC.

[reywas]

Completely agree that existing spells need upgrades too, it's just that there are glaring holes in spell schools. Transmutation and Illusion don't go past level 6 (Highest offensive spell for illusion only level 4). Abjuration spells exist but aren't really used. Having some of them being CC and offensive, but different types allows casters to focus on their school to be fairly effective at CC or killing things. The question from there should really be about what targets it effects. Hold effects anything not immune to paralysis, but a Illusion style hold maybe only works on things that see or hear. A transmutation one might work on anything biological, or non shapechangers. Or they can do different types of CC, more trips, sunders, stuns or playing with threat, even maybe introducing other types. When I play a wizard, choosing a school to focus on should be a real choice outside of enchantment for hold/charm and necro for finger/wail. Spells from other schools should affect different sets of things, or other types of cc.

If metamagic is still to have costs, percent works ok, but I also like the idea of disappearing scaling costs. Maximize is 25 for your highest level spell, -X for each spell level below it. Eventually, low level spells act as SLAs that cost nothing to meta.

Or it just sets the spell cost to the appropriate spell level cost. Adding Maximize makes the level 1 spell cost as a level 3 (from ~4 to ~12 for damaging spells). Emopower adds by one. Same for Extend and Enlarge (though those really shouldn't cost at all). And get rid of Heighten, have spells at all levels scale by caster level, replacing Heighten to add levels to max die # or increase DCs from there.

In general, agree with your suggested candidates for spell changes. Every damaging spell should be scaled to reflect the updated evocations.


On you Palemaster tree, I like it in general, but I have some notes for you (and any devs that happen to see this)

• The Death Auras need to be upgraded in how much they heal. Necrotic Ray needs to be able to be self targeted. If not, Harm should be added as a tier 5 SLA, or added as a spell through cores. Alternatively, to make it more reaper friendly, Healing by Death Aura ( or any negative healing) should trigger Temp HP. Not as much as warlocks, but enough to easily keep a nice buffer up. Give pale masters Feigned Health too.
• Vampirism should scale with level, rather than a straight 1.
• The ____ Attacks should probably be chained. Vampirism and Deadly should scale a little higher. Deadly and Drain should be switched.
• The cooldown for animate ally is too long, especially as it only temporarily raises someone. And (if it isn't already) should be able to do that temporary res on self.
• Healed by half by positive energy should already be a part of the shroud, rather having to buy it, similar to how Warforged (and living with the Construct feats).
• An interesting thing to add is an ability similar to Converter from Renegade Master Maker. Can repurpose Cloak of Night for this, shrouding an ally for some amount of time.
• Given how rare negative amplification is, Palemaster should give it out like hotcakes. +1 namp per point spent, or maybe +5% per core. If Palemasters continue to not be able to take outside positive energy, they should be able to heal themselves significantly on their own.
• I like how you redid the various shrouds. Make the choice interesting rather than just choosing Lich/Wraith. I can see Palemaster EKs in the future taking Zombie and Palemaster's tier 5s rather than EKs tier 5s.
• Rather than Instakills for the Necromancer, that should also be killed by negative energy for that Necrotic Ray SLA

[HungarianRhapsody]

One thing I would love to see is a fix for the hell Master spells that would let the effects that increase Max caster level actually work on those. Pale Masters would get such a nice boost just from having the Death Aura/Lesser Death Aura spells work correctly.

[JohnFlory]

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Buffs need to be buffed!

In PnP, Bards and Wizards (Clerics as well) often function above all else as utility, which is increasingly irrelevant in DDO for obvious reasons. Much like with damage or healing spells, buff spells should also have enhancements to have their max CL raised. Spells like Resist Energy could easily be made a bit more reasonable by allowing for +10 at level 3, +20 at 7, +30 at 11, +40 at 15 and so on. Obviously, raising the max level will always follow certain restrictions, but a fire Sorc with AP in buff-buffs might yield +50 fire resist in extrem cases. All the buff spells scale in some way, they could just keep on scaling (also: all buff spells need a "mass" version...). Add to that a metamagic feat that makes buffs undispellable and it might even be reasonable to wait at the entrance so people get buffed before they zerg.

[reywas]

I've said it before, I'll say it again: Buffs need to be buffed!

In PnP, Bards and Wizards (Clerics as well) often function above all else as utility, which is increasingly irrelevant in DDO for obvious reasons. Much like with damage or healing spells, buff spells should also have enhancements to have their max CL raised. Spells like Resist Energy could easily be made a bit more reasonable by allowing for +10 at level 3, +20 at 7, +30 at 11, +40 at 15 and so on. Obviously, raising the max level will always follow certain restrictions, but a fire Sorc with AP in buff-buffs might yield +50 fire resist in extrem cases. All the buff spells scale in some way, they could just keep on scaling (also: all buff spells need a "mass" version...). Add to that a metamagic feat that makes buffs undispellable and it might even be reasonable to wait at the entrance so people get buffed before they zerg.

Agreed. Things like the Animals' Quality spells (Fox's Cunning, Cat's Grace) etc should stack, because as of right now they are never used because items far outstrip them. Can make them short term buffs for balance. Every buff with a mass version (level 9 Greater Heroism?). Spells that can be placed to protect or buff on the field. And Epic Levels, in general, should increase caster levels and max caster levels by default, not wrapped up in EDs (and certainly not the only thing Magister and Draconic Incarnation cores have to offer).

And on that note, Hellball needs to be made into an SLA or a version that doesn't suck as bad. Other schools should get similar spells as a 'tenth' level spell. Mass Holds that crush the target, charms that have an instakill/high damage at end/DoT applied. Wail that then raises targets as undead. Elemental Ults instead of one kind of terrible catch-all (Blizzard massive Ice Dot/slow/freeze, Thunderstorm as mass lighting, Debuffing Acid cloud, Tripping/Burning Fireball (can take place of Hellball). Mass Frogs DCs being Int and Cha based as well as wisdom (Wizards and Sorcs should be able to polymorph things into frogs).

[lppmor]

Buffs became indeed way too weak, and in some cases useless, after so much power creep.

In PnP, Bear's Endurance grants +4 CON in a world where finding a +4 belt is really hard and expensive, while in DDO everyone and their mother easily have +7/+8 CON gear. And most other buffs are in the same boat.

In other words: DDO was once a real D&D 3.5 game where keeping things PnP-like made sense. But now, since they decided to go so far away from PnP (some characters have 130 STR!!), they also must understand that pretty much everything must be overhauled.

[silinteresting]

IMO, before creating more spells a few tweaks can still be done to improve some existing unused spells.

1) There are too many control spells. I'd leave Charms as is, and change Suggestions to work only a few seconds, but getting a bonus to DC. This way each one would have a niche.

2) Clouds are too slow to cast and are not that better than things like Wall of Fire. I'd change all clouds to be fast casting by default and also boost the size/damage. Cloudkill, for instance, could be larger and scale its CON damage better with level.

3) Metamagic should be changed to work as a percent of spell cost instead of fixed value, so they can be useful at lower levels.

4) There are still some dps spells doing old damage. Disintegrate, Horrid Wilting, most DoTs.. etc.

------------------------------

Also, I don't have ideas for Archmage, but I have posted a few months ago my ideas for a Pale Master pass.



CORES:

Undead Shroud (1): You gain a basic undead shroud (undead traits plus 200% light vulnerability). Also, each core ability you get after this one will grant +15 negative spellpower.
Dark Reaping (3): You gain +2 STR and +2 DEX while in shroud.
Dark Vigor (6): You gain +2 CON while in shroud.
Dark Intellect (12): You gain +2 INT while in shroud.
Dark Focus (18): You gain +2 to necro DC while in shroud.
Cap: ?

TIER 1:

Deathly Aura I: Grants "Lesser Death Aura" as a permanent toggle.
Skeletal Knight: Summons pet.
Drain Attacks: While in shroud, attacks apply a negative level on vorpal hits.
Negative Energy Conduit: Grants +6/12/20% negative amplification.
Deathless Vigor: Grants +10/+20/+30 hp.

TIER 2:

Deathly Aura II: Improve your permanent healing toggle to "Death Aura".
Spell Critical I: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Ghostly Attacks: While in shroud, attacks gain ghost touch and deal 1d6 CON damage on critical hits.
Bone Armor I: While in shroud, gain +3/6/10 PRR.
Cloak of Night: While in shroud, you can now be healed by positive energy at 20/35/50% efficiency,, but negative healing also is decreased.

TIER 3:

Negative Energy Burst: Grants "Negative Energy Burst" as SLA. Decreased cooldown and cost at higher ranks.
Spell Critical II: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Vampiric Attacks: While in shroud, attacks heal 1 hp (affected by negative spellpower), but your light vulnerability increases to 300%.
Bone Armor II: While in shroud, gain +3/6/10 MRR.
Constitution or Intelligence: Grants +1 INT or +1 CON.

TIER 4:

Incorporeality: While in shroud, gain 5/10/15% incorporeality.
Spell Critical III: Grants +1/2/3% negative critical chance.
Deadly Attacks: While in shroud, attacks deal extra 1d8/2d8/3d8 negative damage (affected by negative spellpower).
Bone Armor III: While in shroud, gain DR 3/6/10.
Constitution or Intelligence: Grants +1 INT or +1 CON.

TIER 5:

Necrotic Ray: Grants "Necrotic Ray" as SLA. Decreased cooldown and cost at higher ranks.
Animate Ally: Same as live.
Necromancer: When you instakill an enemy, you gain 10/20/30 temporary hp and +10/20/30 negative spellpower for 15 seconds.
Dark Regeneration: While in shroud, you can sometimes heal when damaged.
Improved Shrouding: Grants 4 exclusive toggles that modify your shroud (will also change the animation aura around the character from a basic shroud animation).
- Zombie: Gains +2 CON and +15% extra hp.
- Vampire: Gains +2 STR and +2 enchant DC.
- Wraith: Gains +2 DEX, featherfall, and extra 20% incorporeability.
- Lich: Gains +2 INT and another +1 necro DC.

the only thing id like to see is harm put in the level 12 core or maybe a tier 5.

your friend sil

[Kutalp]

Good day to everyone. Good post reywas.

Here is my humble opinons about the least used spell schools.


True Wizard players would agree that Abjuration and Transmutation schools for Wizard needs alot more love. Not a new race or class. Plain Wizard class and enhancements. Just as a note these should be Wizard only versions. Neither another class nor scroll or item casting shall not have any of these versions. Wizards shall have a place at gameplay other than Necro/Enchant or Illusionist Gnome versions or Magic missile version Shiradi spamming; Epic destiny special effects Hellball etc...


-First of all Wizard spells should be stacking with other bonuses so they should not remain as Enhancment bonus. Say, Arcane bonus ? It would help both the wizard itself for soloplay but much more for the adventuring team. Saves, ability points; anytihng you can read under the effects of buff spells shall scale with caster level and stack with items and other effects.

-Secondly, Wizard spells from both schools should have extra effects but also aoe versions and their SLAs.

-Transmutation Flesh to stone shall be an earlier SLA and it should have an aoe version. Stone to flesh shall be usefull vs stone golems, gargoyles, earth elementals etc.Turning them in to fleshy pudding (lol) There can be another version of spell at higher levels. Permanently freezes waterbased creatures. Smoke out fire creatures (joke here). Melt ice creatures. Simply a spell that would ruin the sample of the said creature. (Meanwhile abjuration simply has an option to banish different types of npcs with different choice of spells)

-Abjuration should have variations for Trap spells with faster cooldown. Fire, ice, acid, electric, sonic, force, light, hold, stun, level drain etc...They shall all have knock back effect, but also a combo one at lvl 9 Should level with caster level. The list for both version may appear while clicked on before casting similar to contagion spell.

-Lesser and Globe of Invulnerability both should be cast on self; shall move with the caster and shall effect at least close quarters similar to auras. Both spells shall level with caster level.

There can be two other Globe spells that each of them Reflecting either physical or magical damage. This would let any type of attack get reflected (after % of damage is dealt to the caster) as % to the attackers as Bane damage and aoe. The bigger the damage dealt to caster and the higher the caster level; the stronger it becomes. Lower level spell can be a dot, while higher level one can be self cast aura and aoe.

-Abjuration Dismissal and Banishment spells should have variations. Banishes different types of npcs to a far away location which is known for homing them.

Think it as the opposite of Conjuration Summon monster. Abjurers could unsummon the npcs. Such as a group of humans are banished to a random place where humans are densely populated. (Ofcourse the spell would not sent mountain men to mountain or a nobleman to Shar but any random spot which makes thinking about it even funnier) A band of trolls are sent back to marshlands of a random jungle or may be to Red fens ? The list may appear when clicked on before casting. Similar to contagion spell. It could be listed as Humanoid, Monstrous humanod, Undead, Aberration and the similar. Spell would not be casted and spent sp if wring type of npc is targeted from the list.

-Disintegrate shall have sla and a non sla Mass Dissintegrate. Shall scale with caster level.

-Spells such as Haste and Slow shall scale better and stack with items. They shall have aoe versions.

-Spells such as Knock spells should be able to knock npcs with single target and aoe version of said spell. The spell would virtually knock their weakest spot at place or simply throws them far away. Failed save would end with physical damage of said npc hitting floor, cealing etc. The level of caster would effect how far the creature is knocked back and how much damage it will take when the save fails. Force power might effect the power of the spell aswell.

- Both Transmutation and Abjuration schools should have

Transmuting a spot on solid ground to a Healing well, a Curative pond that creates non divine; natural positive energy

Abjuring a spot on solid ground with a protective transparent field or structure that keeps hostile npcs outside for a certain amount of time. The wounded and exhausted players inside regenarate health, mana and recover from negative effects slowly.much slower than the Transmutation version. Both spells can have weaker and stronger versions or can simply level up with caster level.

(Conjuration may summon a hot bath and drinks...Jk !)


Or spells that lets wizards make their own healing elixirs and minor mnemonic potions that vanish logging out.


Some spells that allready exist at ordinary D&D settings:

Abjuration:

Arcane lock, Alarm, Counter spell, Glyph of warding, Non detection, Private sanctum, Planar binding, Guards and wards (includes, Arcane lock,Dancing lights, Magic mouth,Minor illusion, Stinking cloud, Gust of wind, Suggestion, Web), Symbols (Death,Discord,Fear,Hopelesness,Insanity,Pain-Incapacitation,Sleep-Unconcscious,Stunning), Mind blank, Imprisonment (Includes Burial, Chaining, Hedged prison, Minimus containment, Slumber), Prismatic wall (Includes Fire,Acid,Lightining,Poison,Cold,Petrification-Turn to stone, Blindness)


Transmutation:

Control flames, Gust, Mending, Message, Mold earth, Presditigitation, Shape water, Catapult, Long strider, Alter self, Dark vision, Dragon breath, Earthbind, Enlarge/Reduce, Levitate, Maximillian's earthen grasp, Pyrotechnics, Ropetrcik, Skywrite, Spiderclimb, Blink, Erupting earth, Fly, Gaseous form, Tiny servant, Control water, Elemental bane, Fabricate, Polymorph, Animate objects, Control winds, Passwall, Skill empowerment, Transmute rock, Create Homunculus, Investiture of flame/Ice/Stone/Wind, Move earth, Etherealesness, Reverse gravity, Sequester, Control weather, Mass plymorph, Shape change, Time stop, True polymorph.



Thank you.

[janave]

Additional scion feat choices for each school would be great, not exactly a pass but it would help to diversify the mages a little more.

Eg:

Scion of ___________
+4 Transmutation DC, +2 Other
+20 Force Spell power, +20 Universal
+ cool thing
+ cool thing

.. Abjuration, Illusion, Divination could get one too

It would be nice to have more options to boost spells, aside elemental and SLA lines, even for a per school augmentation for raising caster levels.

These and some work on the current tree capstones would help a lot, until a full polish revamp can be on schedule.

[Kutalp]

Additional scion feat choices for each school would be great, not exactly a pass but it would help to diversify the mages a little more.

Eg:

Scion of ___________
+4 Transmutation DC, +2 Other
+20 Force Spell power, +20 Universal
+ cool thing
+ cool thing

.. Abjuration, Illusion, Divination could get one too

It would be nice to have more options to boost spells, aside elemental and SLA lines, even for a per school augmentation for raising caster levels.

These and some work on the current tree capstones would help a lot, until a full polish revamp can be on schedule.

Overlapping opinions with you. Loved the post.

[Yokido]

The OP's post and some of the follow-ups are a bit technical. I tend to avoid such suggestions because the devs ultimately decide the proportions & method of implementation of any suggestion.

That being said, it is fair to ask for an overall "spell pass". I wouldn't go as far as to ask for new spells, but I would ask for the ability to manipulate certain spells using items, enhancements, or epic destinies. I think there's a lot of potential for just having an added, or a strengthened effect of one of your spells as opposed to having a brand new spell added. This adds choice, but doesn't remove anything either.

Examples:

Item:
Yellow Augment: When you cast the Freedom of Movement spell, your target also gains a +2 alchemical bonus to dexterity for as long as the spell lasts.

OR

Enhancement:
Modify Spell, Prayer: Allies effected by your prayer gain an additional +1% (divine) dodge bonus.

[Kutalp]

Dear Yokido. Good points and input about augments,

Anyhow there is a good portion of players who wish to enjoy the class they play without ready given extreme powers but their own strategies. These type of players wish to create their own strategies with the class and inbuilt abilites. Does more power through inserting magical stones and ready set effects provide that or turn the game very boring for most of the long time players ?

I used to enjoy physical classes more. I also used crossbows for a good amount of time after I got back to game after long years of break. Anytihng turned out a power creep and critica dps chase and same click and hit hell after that point.

Here is what I think about item bound weapon swinging classes vs old school caster classes. Much brainless and easier to play for starters. Extremely dull for long time players who enjoy building their strategies and having fun doing so.

These are my humble opinions while I respect your opinions.