Ok, I've been thinking this out, and here's what I've got:
Duration-based spell have a variety of problems. Most of the duration-based spells are really powerful and you can have lots of them up simultaneously with minimal cost. Recasting that whole cornucopia is an annoying pain. Out-of-combat-casting in robes with rings of wiz and an enhancer staff and then switching to what you'd actually use to fight is a silly abuse.
Doing away the the duration aspect of these spells would eliminate much of the hassle and macro-making. This has been suggested many, many times but so far hasn't been balanced or consistent or abuse-resistant enough to implement.
Anyways,
- Spellpower should govern the usefulness of the spell, with low power casts associated with some serious costs. Contamination could work, along with exponentially increasing hunger, or school specific DBS miscast-type effects. For example, low power Spider Form could have AUT-based chance to poison you and Darkness could make you Noisy or Slow or Confused.
- Casting a DBS lowers maxMP by 3 to 4 times the spell level while the spell is on instead of costing rechargeable MP. (Repel Missiles uses 6 or 8 maxMP while it is up)
- No cast failures. Casting a Duration-based Spell (DBS?) just turns it on, casting the same spell again turns it off, and casting yet another DBS with a limited manapool would ask you if you wanted to turn off another spell, like ring-swapping.
- Spell Hunger is factored across what was the max duration as a rate. So if the spell cost 1000 food units for a given INT/Spellcast and could last at most 10 turns, then the spell would use 100 food/turn
- For particularly powerful DBSs, a cooldown period might be useful to prevent abuse, treating those spells more like armor than jewelry.
Naturally, there would be a few exceptions to this overhaul: Swiftness and Death's Door come to mind since they are inherently Duration-based.
Examples of drawbacks for casting spells.
Spell - Drawback at Low or no Spellpower. Note that "Chance" indicates a continuing chance for something to happen. Excruciating Wounds at low power could Torment you in the middle of the fight and while you were fleeing, and while you were resting, and as long as you left it up.
Charms
- Repel Missiles - Chance to repel so low as to be useless
- Shroud of Golubria - Ditto
- Swiftness - Exception!
- Sure Blade - Hmm, Not sure on this one (Why does this exist?)
- Song of Slaying - Chance to give bonus on kill decreases, noise
- Infusion - Has a spellpower based number of enhanced attacks which have a recharge rate based on spellpower
- Flight - Spellpower threshold to actually fly, Chance to shock you
- Regeneration - Rate of Regen based on Spellpower, chance of Draining
- Ozocubu's Armor - AC based on spellpower (not 4 + spellpower)
- Control Teleport - Contamination, Chance for Warping Space, Give you Temporary Teleportitis 1-3 after spell ends
- Iskenderun's Battlesphere - It gets confused and targets you
- Excruciating Wounds - Chance for Torment
- Warp Weapon - Chance for Distortion against you (except Abyss) or just Chance for Space Warps Around You, Chance for Malign Gateway or other Abyss baddies Summoned
- Deflect Missiles - Direct Missiles (accuracy bonus against you), increasing through nothing changing, up to actually Deflecting Missiles
- Haste - Spellpower gives a range of Slow up through Haste, Contam (Why is this a spell?)
- Ring of Flames - Chance of Fireballs, rF- up to threshold, rF neutral up to threshold, very low chance to spawn a Flame Cloud
- Death's Door - Exception!
Transmutations
- Beastly Appendage
- Stoneskin
- Sticks to Snakes
- Spider Form - Chance to be Poisoned
- Ice Form - Chance to be Slowed, Chance to Freeze you, Chance to Sleep you, Chance for Temporary Malmutations that don't start counting down or going away until Ice Form is off.
- Blade Hands - Chance for self-damage (You cut yourself to ribbons!), Chance for Temporary Malmutation, Negative Wiz increases as spell power decreases (negative Wiz from BH doesn't apply to itself, unless you like the worm ourobouros)
- Statue Form - Range of AC malus to AC Bonus (You feel brittle), Inacc, Chance for Temporary Malmutation
- Dragon Form - Hmm, I dunno (Range of Forms from Newt to actual Dragon?)
- Hydra Form - Ditto
- Necromutation Resists require spellpower threshold, Rotting, Deteriorating, Draining
Hexes
- Confusing Touch - Has a spellpower based number of enhanced attacks which have a recharge rate based on spellpower
- Invisibility - Chance to flicker into view, Contamination, Noise
- Darkness - Slow, Confusion, Noise, Marked
- The rest are listed in Charms
Others
- Phase Shift - EV gained based on Spellpower, up to 8,Chance for Distortion against you (except Abyss) or just Chance for Space Warps Around You), Chance to Summon Abyssal nasties
- Disjunction - Has a spellpower based number of blinks which have a recharge rate based on spellpower, Chance for Distortion against you (except Abyss) or just Chance for Space Warps Around You, Chance to Summon Abyssal nasties, Chance to Blink nasties toward you
- Condensation Shield - Chance to Block with spellpower, Chance to Slow, Chance to Freeze you, Chance to Sleep you
- Olgrebs Toxic Radiance (Does this Count as a DBS?)
- Tornado (Does this even count?)
#ilovelists(apparently[and parenthetical remarks!])
(PS - I used LearnDB List of Spells for my spells. I'm sure there are some left out or that I forgot or whatever)
Human kind cannot bear very much reality.
TSE