Vestibule Violator
Posts: 1533
Joined: Thursday, 16th December 2010, 20:52
Wednesday, 18th July 2012, 05:56
Remove Slow from Wizard book?
I've been playing a few wizards lately and I think the Slow spell could be done away with. The basic function of the spell is to hamper enemies from getting at you, slowing either their movement or actions. This same purpose is better served by any of four other spells also in the book:
- Blink: everyone gets this spell and it addresses the movement issue - you can use it to quickly put space between yourself and the baddies, but in a more interesting way - it's random and there's a risk to it.
- Call Imp: Imps will attack and distract your opponents, reducing both the movement and actions that are directed at the player. It slows them while also doing damage.
- Conjure flame: can block a corridor, stopping their movement entirely, and has other uses too such as damaging undead or high HD monsters that wade through it, and creating steam
- Mephitic Cloud: confuses baddies, which essentially neutralizes them, and can also cause them to damage themselves.
So there's not much of a business case for adding Slow to memory, and it's an utterly boring spell to boot. It might help if it was L1 and there was also some visual indication that it was doing something, but that still wouldn't address the basic redundancy.
It could be replaced by another L2 spell. I haven't decided which to argue for yet, so I'll just go through all the L2 spells in turn:
- Swiftness - probably redundant in light of blink, but would still be better than slow
- Fire Brand / Freezing Aura / Lethal Infusion - these are melee oriented and don't really fit in the Wizard book
- Shroud of Golubria - again, melee-oriented. Would also be a second Tloc spell and it seems the theme of the Wizard book is to spread across all the schools
- Sure Blade - melee oriented.
- Evaporate - not much use without fulsome distillation, and is a distinguishing spell of the transmuter class (or is it still?)
- Ensorcelled Hibernation - this is the key early spell of the Enchanter class and would be a huge overlap
- Projected Noise - Not really a much better spell than Slow, actually probably worse, but a) no other class starts with it, and b) it does do something that you can't really accomplish with the other Wizard book spells. It does seem like something a "Wizard" would do though - misdirection.
- Corpse Rot - this could be good. It's in a different school, it offers very different mechanics from the other spells. But I'm guessing there's some reason to not have necro spells for wizards.
- Sublimation of Blood. Also possibly good. If there's one thing wizards need it's MP, so it would make sense that they'd have a means to recover it. Also does something totally different from the other spells.
- Cure poison - also not a super spell, but does something different and could be a life-saver in the early game.
- Portal Projectile - overlaps with warper and doesn't really fit Wizard game. Would make more sense for Arcane Marksman to have this.
- Sticks to Snakes - a key transmuter spell
- Stoneskin - melee-oriented
In addition, there are some potential L1 spells:
- Confusing Touch - It's a hex so it keeps the same mix of schools, Wizards start bare-handed and they might actually use it. But again, there is a fair overlap in the mechanic it serves - hindering baddies. Still, it might be better than slow. While it is done in a melee context, it is more a way of getting out of a sticky situation as a Wizard might need to. It would be like Obi Wan Kenobi "These are not the Droids you're looking for".
- Apportation - This is totally something a Wizard would have in his bag of tricks. Except it's a second apportation spell. But it's consistent with the general gameplay approach of not wading out into danger but instead dealing with things at a distance, but not in a conjurations way, and yet it does something different than handicapping baddies.
- Summon Butterflies - probably too good a spell, and would be a second summoning spell, and also serves the same basic purpose of hindering baddies, albeit a little more differently
And some other spells that I thought might fit the Wizard flavour:
L3 spells:
- Flight
L4
- See Invisible
- Blink: everyone gets this spell and it addresses the movement issue - you can use it to quickly put space between yourself and the baddies, but in a more interesting way - it's random and there's a risk to it.
- Call Imp: Imps will attack and distract your opponents, reducing both the movement and actions that are directed at the player. It slows them while also doing damage.
- Conjure flame: can block a corridor, stopping their movement entirely, and has other uses too such as damaging undead or high HD monsters that wade through it, and creating steam
- Mephitic Cloud: confuses baddies, which essentially neutralizes them, and can also cause them to damage themselves.
So there's not much of a business case for adding Slow to memory, and it's an utterly boring spell to boot. It might help if it was L1 and there was also some visual indication that it was doing something, but that still wouldn't address the basic redundancy.
It could be replaced by another L2 spell. I haven't decided which to argue for yet, so I'll just go through all the L2 spells in turn:
- Swiftness - probably redundant in light of blink, but would still be better than slow
- Fire Brand / Freezing Aura / Lethal Infusion - these are melee oriented and don't really fit in the Wizard book
- Shroud of Golubria - again, melee-oriented. Would also be a second Tloc spell and it seems the theme of the Wizard book is to spread across all the schools
- Sure Blade - melee oriented.
- Evaporate - not much use without fulsome distillation, and is a distinguishing spell of the transmuter class (or is it still?)
- Ensorcelled Hibernation - this is the key early spell of the Enchanter class and would be a huge overlap
- Projected Noise - Not really a much better spell than Slow, actually probably worse, but a) no other class starts with it, and b) it does do something that you can't really accomplish with the other Wizard book spells. It does seem like something a "Wizard" would do though - misdirection.
- Corpse Rot - this could be good. It's in a different school, it offers very different mechanics from the other spells. But I'm guessing there's some reason to not have necro spells for wizards.
- Sublimation of Blood. Also possibly good. If there's one thing wizards need it's MP, so it would make sense that they'd have a means to recover it. Also does something totally different from the other spells.
- Cure poison - also not a super spell, but does something different and could be a life-saver in the early game.
- Portal Projectile - overlaps with warper and doesn't really fit Wizard game. Would make more sense for Arcane Marksman to have this.
- Sticks to Snakes - a key transmuter spell
- Stoneskin - melee-oriented
In addition, there are some potential L1 spells:
- Confusing Touch - It's a hex so it keeps the same mix of schools, Wizards start bare-handed and they might actually use it. But again, there is a fair overlap in the mechanic it serves - hindering baddies. Still, it might be better than slow. While it is done in a melee context, it is more a way of getting out of a sticky situation as a Wizard might need to. It would be like Obi Wan Kenobi "These are not the Droids you're looking for".
- Apportation - This is totally something a Wizard would have in his bag of tricks. Except it's a second apportation spell. But it's consistent with the general gameplay approach of not wading out into danger but instead dealing with things at a distance, but not in a conjurations way, and yet it does something different than handicapping baddies.
- Summon Butterflies - probably too good a spell, and would be a second summoning spell, and also serves the same basic purpose of hindering baddies, albeit a little more differently
And some other spells that I thought might fit the Wizard flavour:
L3 spells:
- Flight
L4
- See Invisible
I cannot say if people use Slow as Wz, I personally don't, but there is a lot of better players around. I think apportation is far more useful than slow for a wizzie, so it is a buff. Removing slow might be an option, but again - it might be a nerf for some people who use it and a nerf is not what you originally meant if I understand you correctly.
