ToME: the Tales of Maj'Eyal

Ummm... this is probably a very silly question, but why would you *want* to have an attack spell that only impacts and doesn't damage??

Mainly because of the "Utility Spell" discussion above. If we merely judge spells on their dice damage, I think we're limiting both our gameplay and imagination...

I can understand that.... but what I can't understand is what such a spell would be good for.

I can't imagine a situation in which I'd want to shove monsters away and NOT do them damage... unless it was to push my own pets away from me, in which case a) I'd just dismiss them and summon more later, or use one of the other pet commands, and b) such a spell would tend to anger them anyway, especially if one got smashed against a wall.

Or, I could see that you might want to put MOST of the mana in the spell into pushing away (in order to cast stone prison, maybe?) but not all of it?

I haven't played with mages in ToME. So what I am wondering is: What am I missing here?

Perhaps not NO damage, but in terms of it not being the primary thrust of the spell...

The polar opposite of manathrust, which has zero-effect other than hurting monsters...

I think what I'm TRYING to get across, is that the power of the impact flag should far, far outweigh the damage of the spell as a THEMATIC device... And if it is used as a beam or ball, scattering monsters could have a very beneficial effect (removing spell casters and heavy breathers from LOS, for example, think of a Silent Watcher in your way!)...

Hmm, OK, I can see that!

Silent Watchers.... My char's wearing one.

I would like to see Recall broken up a little. Perhaps you can fetch items at Conveyence level 15, recall to/from the dungeon at level 23, and swap positions at level 30. I'd like to see a mage that can fetch items magically, but it's way too expensive to pump up Conveyance that high. Fetching items seems like more of a cantrip to me(until you get to grabbing them through walls, of course).

Perhaps we could add another high level Conveyance spell and just bring down the overall level of Recall instead.
Maybe a spell that swaps the position of two "chunks" of dungeon terrain (and possibly the monsters/items therein)?
Maybe a controlled teleport spell? This could be level 40 or 45, makes sense if someone studied Conveyance *this much*.
Maybe split off void gate creation from phase door, since sometimes one would like to phase door without creating a jumpgate (or taking a whole turn to create one).

If recall were to be split up like that, item fetching would most definitely NOT be the power you get first.

We appreciate your input. Do you have anything positive to say?

void jumpgates fill the niche of a targeted teleport.

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Those who fight monsters should look to it that they do not become monsters;
When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.
--Friedrich Nietzsche

This one would spice up the mind school:

(needs better name)
Mind Control (Mind 35(40?))
This spell alows you to control the mind of another, temporalily making them co-aligned. The power increases with level, as well as the duration(never very long). The amount of monsters you can control at once also goes up with level (max 3).

The downside of this spell is that it is very expensive. I havn't work out exactly how much it should cost, but it should be alot.

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A pseudo-version of this exists in Symbiosis: Force Symbiosis. 'Cept it only works on non-moving, and is AFAIK permanent.

um, it works on anything, and allows you to use a power of theirs once (as if you had been wearing them and cast use greater power)

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