Poison water spell

[pubby]

Level 7 poison spell

Casting this spell causes an adjacent water tile to become poisonous. The poisonous tile will spread to nearby tiles using some type of finite automaton.

Monsters standing on poisonous water tiles become poisoned and receive some irresistible damage. The spell does extra damage to monsters with the submersible flag.

The spell would be extremely effective in the shoals, swamp, and forest, but would be useful for Fedhas worshippers and those with a phial of floods too.

[Tiktacy]

This sounds like an awesome idea for an invocation, but I don't know about a spell...

[Arrhythmia]

So what happens if you cast ignite poison after this?

[Igxfl]

"Screw you, electric eels!"

With the condition that the finite automaton is something simple and transparent, this seems like a cool effect. Level 7 might be a stretch, though -- I don't think a niche spell like this can compete with OOD.

[Leafsnail]

I think it's too specific, especially for a high level spell. It's useful in three branches that may not even be in your game and then almost useless everywhere else.

[pubby]

So what happens if you cast ignite poison after this?

Deep Purple could tell you that.

Level 7 might be a stretch, though -- I don't think a niche spell like this can compete with OOD.

Yeah, 7 seems kinda high, but it would need testing to figure out.

[Siegurt]

Well, this is pretty much "do AOE poison damage, restricted to water squares" there are currently two "Deal AOE poison damage" pCloud and OTR, I'm not sure what this suggestion contributes which those spells don't (Extra damage to sumberged creatures?)

It wasn't stated explicitly, perhaps the OP meant for the "poison water" squares to last longer (or perhaps indefinitely) in comparison to pCloud (That way leads to kiting though.)

Really water is such a limited resource, and only available in such specific conditions, that I have trouble envisioning a water-confined spell as being especially practical without being overly powerful in certain places..

[cerebovssquire]

The spell also encourages dragging monsters across levels to water. That alone makes this kind of enviroment-based spell bad. Also, having a spell interact with submerged creatures makes submerge being removed less likely and I don't like that.

[and into]

What about a "toxic sludge" spell—level 7 poison/conj. Upon casting you choose a direction, and create a "wave" of highly poisonous sludge that forms a cone-shape, the size of which depends on spell power, and which deals part of its damage irresistibly. The sludge sticks around for a few turns, slowly dissipating from the outer edge back to the point of origin. All non-confident as well as confident enemies without rPois will generally try to avoid the sludge.

This would be a somewhat unique conjuration in terms of how you target it, and would give poison a high-level, partially irresistible AOE option with some positional utility built in, but which also poses a potential danger (even with rPois, you will take some irresistible damage from wading through the sludge yourself) and operates best at close range or mid-range.

For the record I don't think poison *needs* a "high tier" spell, poison arrow and poisonous cloud are really strong and fine "ultimate" spells for the school, but I think it could be a neat spell.

[nicolae]

What about a "toxic sludge" spell—level 7 poison/conj. Upon casting you choose a direction, and create a "wave" of highly poisonous sludge that forms a cone-shape, the size of which depends on spell power, and which deals part of its damage irresistibly. The sludge sticks around for a few turns, slowly dissipating from the outer edge back to the point of origin. All non-confident as well as confident enemies without rPois will generally try to avoid the sludge.

This would be a somewhat unique conjuration in terms of how you target it, and would give poison a high-level, partially irresistible AOE option with some positional utility built in, but which also poses a potential danger (even with rPois, you will take some irresistible damage from wading through the sludge yourself) and operates best at close range or mid-range.

For the record I don't think poison *needs* a "high tier" spell, poison arrow and poisonous cloud are really strong and fine "ultimate" spells for the school, but I think it could be a neat spell.

Like a phial of sludge?

[and into]

Like a phial of sludge?

Well, if you wanted to design "toxic avenger" monster allies that would be summoned with the sludge, I won't stop you.

I think what I described would be rather distinct from the effect of evoking phial: different targeting, sludge is completely different from water (sludge would be closer to clouds than shallow water), and most important really different purposes. The question is if it is distinct enough from poisonous cloud... Maybe it could be.

As I said I don't think this is urgently needed or anything, but since "high level poison spell" is something of a perennial topic (rightly or wrongly), Toxic Sludge is my two cents.