Spell suggestion: Burrowing Fire (level 7 Conj/Fire)

[nagdon]

I suggest a damage-dealing spell which deals high damage against already wounded foes and relatively low damage against healthy foes. (The opposite of this is already available as Agony.) I choose the Fire school for it because varied methods of damage dealing (usually without other effects) is its speciality (and I didn't want to put this in the same school as Agony).

Burrowing Fire (level 7 Conj/Fire)

Description: This spell conjures mystical fire, which is guided directly into the wounds of the target by a primitive but malevolent elemental spirit. This can be extremely lethal if it can burrow into already deep wounds, but if the target is healthier, the spell deals much less damage. As the burrowing fire actively seeks its target, it is impossible to deflect, block or dodge it, but fire resistance or armour reduces its effect normally.

Mechanics: Dealt damage could be something like (0.2+(missing hp of target/maxhp of target)) * 13d(2.5+spellpower/10). (Note that the damage of Bolt of Fire is 6d(3+spellpower/9) and the damage of LCS is 10d(2.3+spellpower/10).) This means that against monsters at 40% HP this spell deals approximately the same damage as LCS (and always hits, but can be resisted by rF); and against monsters at 70% HP this spell is deals approximately the same damage as Bolt of Fire (and always hits, but has shorter range and doesn't hit multiple targets). Note that the extremely high damage to almost dead monsters isn't problematic because most of it is wasted (bringing a monster to -100 hp isn't better than bringing it to 0 hp).

I suggest short range and single target for this spell to differentiate it from other high-level fire spells and high accuracy (auto-hit) to differentiate it from LCS. (Short range could either mean 4 (LCS range) or 2..5 depending on spellpower (Flame tongue range, but when this level 7 spell becomes castable, it will probably start with more than 2 range).)

Alternative variant: If it makes this spell more interesting, it could be moved to Fire/Hexes (still level 7) with an Inner Flame aftereffect (if it kills the target, the target explodes as if it was inner flamed) and maybe a bit reduced damage. This would also explain why is it impossible to dodge this spell, but make not checking MR a bit strange. (Although several Conjurations are impossible to dodge and Fulminant Prism is a Hex which doesn't check MR.) In this case maybe the range of the spell should be increased to 5 to make self-damage from the exploding victim less likely.

Spellbook: The original (Conj) version could be added to the book of Fire or the book of Annihilations (but probably not both); the Hex version could be added to the book of Fire or the book of Enchantments.

I can probably implement this spell if it would be added to the game.

[Lasty]

The name of the spell is a bit misleading -- "burrowing" make me think it's going to dig a tunnel. The challenge of the niche you've chosen is that in order for this spell to be worthwhile, you need to already have a way to get the monster to low health, and presumably you also need to have the target not resist fire. If those two conditions are met, why not just use the other Fire spells you presumably also memorized that do huge damage, cost less, and already did a fine job of damaging this monster in the first place? And if those conditions aren't met, then the spell doesn't do much of anything at all.

For this to have a niche, you need to have a target that you can take to low health with (presumably) Fire spells that still has considerable health left. Basically, you'd memorize this to finish off Antaeus, Ereshkigal, and Geryon, and then amnesia it.

[TeshiAlair]

I'm assuming the niche for this is "I'm almost dead, you're almost dead, I want to finish you off NOW" while running away, so I'd actually do this as an inner flame upgrade where it gives them inner flame status that autoexplodes after a delay. Make it level 7, but have it cost less mana as you lose health: 6 mana at 90%, 5 at 75%, 4 at 50%, 3 at 25%, 2 at 10%, 1 at 5%.

[and into]

How would an "I am at low health and want <foo> dead now" spell work if it did its damage on a delay and also with an explosion that would likely kill you at low HP?

Maybe there could be a niche for this spell if you just had it do very good, EV-ignoring damage at short-ish range to any already damaged target. At 100% health the enemy cannot be targeted, but with any amount of damage becomes a valid target. I could maybe see myself adding a spell like that to my repertoire on some dudes, because it is annoying when say bolt of fire hits for low damage, and the target moves closer to you and still has high HP. You could then follow up with this rather than another BoF that could miss or whatever.

Another idea: In addition to dealing very large impact damage to an already damaged enemy, it also applies sticky flame to the target.

[Wahaha]

I think with a secondary effect like the one you mentioned, an inner flame explosion if the spell kills the target (no inner flame effect otherwise), it would be a good spell. Don't make it /Hexes though. Or it could do sticky flame like and into said, or something else, but I think an explosion is an interesting idea.

Without a secondary effect, it's a lot more useful than what Lasty said. If a target happens to be at less than 50% hp, which happens often, and alone, which happens regularly, it is a much better spell to use than bolt of fire. If we use the numbers from the OP where 70% = bolt of fire damage, then it's a better spell to use starting at 60-70%. The main drawback is spending 7 spell slots on it. I think I'd learn it with every fire magic character that casts bolt of fire.

[nagdon]

I don't want to put any delayed effect (sticky flame, inner flame status) on the spell, as its goal is to finish a wounded enemy quickly (if the spell is weak, I think simply increasing the damage (or maybe the range) is the best solution).

Now I think that creating an instant inner flame-like explosion if it kills the target (the alternative version) probably just weakens the spell, as when the spell is the most useful the target is often next to you and you are often already wounded. The instant inner flame would also cause targetting problems -- if the spell just harms the target, it is easy to warn for ally damage/conduct violation/etc.; if it creates an explosion reliably (you know that the almost dead foe targetted by it will explode), then the targetter should warn for things caused by the explosion, but that is hard to calculate.

Spoiler: show

The theoretical minimum damage dealt by the spell is <20 even against a foe at 1% hp; but the variance of the damage is small, as the spell will probably use many dices (the damage formula could be changed, but all other spells use similar distributions, and it would be strange if this spell used a comletely different one).

If the name is misleading, can anyone suggest a better one?

I gave the spell some damage against not wounded foes (maybe you don't have fireball (or don't want to hit yourself with it) and want to kill something with very high EV); would it be better to make it uncastable against not wounded foes?

[Tiktacy]

I don't want to put any delayed effect (sticky flame, inner flame status) on the spell, as its goal is to finish a wounded enemy quickly (if the spell is weak, I think simply increasing the damage (or maybe the range) is the best solution). Now I think that creating an instant inner flame-like explosion if it kills the target (the alternative version) probably just weakens the spell, as when the spell is the most useful the target is often next to you and you are often already wounded.

If the name is misleading, can anyone suggest a better one?

I gave the spell some damage against not wounded foes (maybe you don't have fireball (or don't want to hit yourself with it) and want to kill something with very high EV); would it be better to make it uncastable against not wounded foes?

You could make the inner flame explosion have 8 tiles instead of 9, excluding the one tile in the direction the creature was hit with the spell. So if I'm right next to a creature and hit him with the spell, the explosion will happen to every space around the creature EXCEPT for the space I'm on.

[nagdon]

The inner flame with 8 tiles is possible but a bit strange.
I also edited this into my previous post (I didn't want to double-post and didn't notice the post after my one):

The instant inner flame would also cause targetting problems -- if the spell just harms the target, it is easy to warn for ally damage/conduct violation/etc.; if it creates an explosion reliably (you know that the almost dead foe targetted by it will explode), then the targetter should warn for things caused by the explosion, but that is hard to calculate.

Spoiler: show

The theoretical minimum damage dealt by the spell is <20 even against a foe at 1% hp; but the variance of the damage is small, as the spell will probably use many dices (the damage formula could be changed, but all other spells use similar distributions, and it would be strange if this spell used a comletely different one).

What about distributing the unneccessary damage of the spell among other hostile monsters? For example if the target has 30 hp and you would deal 130 damage, then 100 damage is distributed (evenly?) among the hostile monsters which are near the victim: "Flame tongues break out from the wounds of the <victim> and strike the <foo> and the <bar>." (or "... and hit the nearby monsters." if the message would be too long).

[Tiktacy]

What about distributing the unneccessary damage of the spell among other hostile monsters? For example if the target has 30 hp and you would deal 130 damage, then 100 damage is distributed (evenly?) among the hostile monsters which are near the victim: "Flame tongues break out from the wounds of the <victim> and strike the <foo> and the <bar>." (or "... and hit the nearby monsters." if the message would be too long).

I like this idea a lot.

Also, lets not let this thread die. Its a good idea for a spell, I would hate to see it die.