Yes, they are the staple of all fantasy games. They create whole categories of spells, elemental monsters, and magics. It saves developers time and effort to just attach one of these elements to a monster name. It has a nice feel to it, but it's gettin' old to me. Comments?

Do you have an alternative? I find fire and ice spells very cool. Earth spells are usually a tad boring. And lightning spells seems odd to me. The idea of hot and cold are very realistic and I find that they can range a lot in the type of spells. I just don't like earth and lightning spells, but that's probably just me.

its a lack of effort on developers part to try something new...but when they do, its all too often meet with little player intrest.

its a pity that the fantasy genre has so dilluted its massive potential by repeatedly drawing from the same well.

All in all its a odd dilema. hardcore fans seem to be even more persistant in crying for "more realisam" in inventory management, ageing, weapon weilding, and all that...I suppose with an eye on createing a uber midevil simulation...but then they also want such fantastical elements like dragons, trolls, elves, and magic users...Seems schizophrenic if you ask me :P

>> It has a nice feel to it, but it's gettin' old to me.

So what exactly do you have in mind?


Here is a list of potions and scrolls from one game (nethack):

Scrolls:
identify light blank paper enchant weapon enchant armor remove curse confuse monster destroy armor fire food detection gold detection magic mapping scare monster teleportation amnesia create monster earth taming charging genocide punishment stinking cloud

Potions:
booze fruit juice see invisible sickness confusion extra healing hallucination healing restore ability sleeping blindness water gain energy invisibility monster detection object detection enlightenment full healing levitation polymorph speed acid oil gain ability gain level paralysis

Spells:

Attack : force bolt drain life magic missile cone of cold fireball finger of death
Healing : healing cure blindness cure sickness extra healing stone to flesh restore ability
Divination : detect monsters light detect food clairvoyance detect unseen identify detect treasure magic mapping
Enchantment : sleep confuse monster slow monster cause fear charm monster
Clerical : protection create monster remove curse create familiar turn undead
Escape : jumping haste self invisibility levitation teleport away
Matter : knock(unlock) wizard lock dig polymorph cancellation


Although it does include the four you mention (Fire, Ice, Earth, and Electric) those are relatively rare.

So, what more do you want to see?

I couldn't agree more on how the whole elemental biz is overly used and boring. One of these days I may sit down and try to come up with something completely unique, but I would probably come up with something typical; not unique at all.

I have yet to witness an rpg that uses something other than fire, ice, earth, lightening, etc. The concept of elementals is good, but that's probably why it's used too much. Anyone know of a game that uses something similar but different?

What about Dnd-based games?

You have: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation spells.

Not to mention different classes with different spell lists.

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Original post by TheOddMan What about Dnd-based games? You have: Abjuration, Conjuration, Divination, Enchantment, Evocation, Illusion, Necromancy and Transmutation spells. Not to mention different classes with different spell lists.

Sounds interesting.
It would be good to see this recreated rather than the elemental system.

If you're going to go hackneyed, I always thought M:TG's 5 color system was more interesting/balanced than the traditional/FF-esque opposing element system or D&D's horribly imbalanced school system (which only gets worse when translated to computers)

The Elder Scrolls series has done a fairly good job of not *only* being those types of spells, though destructions spells do fall into those categories (actually; lightning, fire, frost). But there's definately a good selection of other usefull spells (levitation, anyone? Well, not so much for Oblivion).

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Original post by Telastyn If you're going to go hackneyed, I always thought M:TG's 5 color system was more interesting/balanced than the traditional/FF-esque opposing element system or D&D's horribly imbalanced school system (which only gets worse when translated to computers)

Yes, very much so. Hardly any reason to use a non-evocation wizard/sorceror in any DnD computer game.

I think that's the key though - wizards in computer games seem to devolve into bog standard gunships, and divination becomes 'magic item identifier'.

If things are ever going to change, more real 'uses' need to be found for the magic system, beyond the buff and damage paradigm we have now.

For Bloodspear, we've shoe-horned some uses for divination in there (in terms of determining 'hidden' allegiances etc) but some things (like illusion in particular) are always going to be problematic - these rely on the imagination of the caster (and therefore player) to create an effect - translating these into known (in-game) assets is difficult. Chaos (on the spectrum) used illusion as a means of 'faking' a summon spell - whilst this is okay, it doesn't really touch on the potential that illusionists have (to my mind they're one of the more dangerous wizard types - especially in terms of laying traps).