A few ideas for new spells

Any comment anyone? Some of these are taken from MoM with some adaptation, some are (I believe) new...  it'd be nice to hear what you think, which one you like, which one you don't like, or any change you might suggest.

Btw, one thing I like in spell descriptions is the introductory sentence before the technical description, like "the enemy is engulfed in flames and suffers damage..." or "dark clouds gather on the battelfield: each enemy unit is striken by a lightning bolt and suffers...". It creates atmosphere, and it gives more characterization to the spell, imo. I'd like to see something like this in the manual. Not just "deals 10 fire damange to a unit".

Just my 2 cents...

Suggestion: Edit the list and group them by Book of Magic; i.e. Air, Death, Earth, Fire, Life, Water.

That said, I like the Ambush (Earth) and Pathfinding (Earth) spells as their effects seem most appropiate and are not duplicated by other spells.

Now that we know when the beta is, I will be waiting to see what the new game can do before I commit to making any spells. I am making the spellbooks though. I would probably use Rampant Lust in one of my more mischievous German spellbooks. 

I really hope we get a "target all allied heroes" type of system. That would really open up level 5 spellcasting. 

What does "Target all allied heroes" mean? You think of spells that can affect only your heroes? For me, I hope they add a lot more strategic spells. I loved them in MoM.

I am glad you liked Lust Where can I find your "mischievous German spellbooks" ?

Here they are, rearranged by Element. Thanks Edwin.

DEATH

 Excruciating Pain, Tactical, Death: target enemy unit receives x damage; until the end of battle, whenever this unit receives damage this is increased by %. This additional damage is illusory and is healed at the end of the battle if the unit survives

 Bone Guardians, Strategic, Death: if one of your city is attacked and there are less than 8 units defending it, skeletal berserkers units are instantly summoned in the city to make a total of 8 defending units. For every two skeletal berserker units, a skeletal mages unit is also summoned. These units die once the battle ends. 

 Reaper's concession, Tactical, Death: during this battle, your units die only when their health reaches -20%. At the end of the battle, all units with negative health are destroyed.

 Depression, Tactical, Death: all enemy units receive -x attack until the end of the battle. When this spell is cast, any active Inspiration (see Light magic) spell have a % chance to be dispelled

 Eternal soldiers, Strategic, Death: whenever one of your units is killed in a battle but you win the battle, a zombie unit is summoned in its place - you can make this tactical and have the zombie raise during the battle, but die once the battle is over

 Famine, City, Death: famine spreads in the city; population drops by x, and city growth rate is decreased by y; if target city has an active Blessing of Soil spell, either Famine or Blessing of Soil are dispelled with a 50% chance. (Famine could spread to friendly cities connected with the one infected).

LIGHT

 Holy Purpose, Strategic, Life: All friendly units are filled with holy purpose: those within your Kingdom borders receive ++ damage and resistence rolls, and those outside your Kingdom borders receive + damage and resistance rolls

 Inspiration, Tactical, Life: all friendly units receive +x defence until the end of the battle. When this spell is cast, any active Depression (see Death magic) spell have a % chance to be dispelled

 Inquisition, Strategic, Life: while this spell is active, you are not allowed to research magic, and all spells that you and your champions cast cost twice as much mana. In all your cities non-magic research is increased by x% and unit production is increased by y%.

WATER

 Guardian Winter, Strategic, Water: A winter storm hails within the borders of your territory; all enemy units in your territory receive a movement penalty of +1 per tile and have a % chance of being hit by a frost attack and lose x hp (this effect can be resisted)

 Blessing of Soil, City, Water: city crop yields increases; target city growth rate is improved by x; any Famine spell on the city is dispelled.

 Frostbite, Tactical, Water: all enemy units on the battlefield receive -x damage and their attack speed is reduced by y until the end of battle

FIRE

 Lust, City, Fire: citizen in target city are enflamed with fevering passion; growth rate in the city is increased by x, while research and production are decresed by y.

 Choking smoke, Tactical, Fire: summons a smoke cloud on target space(s). Units within the cloud cannot use ranged attacks and must resist every turn or skip their turn. Units within the cloud also receive % less damage from ranged attacks.

AIR

  Whispering Wind, Strategic, Air: the wind whispers in the ears of your champions, revealing things seen far away; all your champions have their sight range increased by x and are immune to the Ambush (see Earth magic) spell as long as this spell is active.

 Master of Winds, Strategic, Air: all flying units you control have their movement increased by x, and all flying enemy units have their movement reduced by y

 Call Lightning, Tactical, Air: Stormy coulds gather above the battlefield. Every turn 1-2 random enemy units are striken by a lightningbolt dealing x air damage

EARTH

 Impervious Skin, Enchantment, Earth: the unit skin becomes as hard as steel: all non-magic damage is decreased by %. Any further damage reduction bonus from worn armor is not applied.

 Pathfinding, Enchantment, Earth: target unit and all units in its stack do not receive movement penalties from terrain tiles

 Ambush, Strategic, Earth: target a friendly army on the world map; if this army attacks this turn an opposing army outside a city, your units receive a % bonus to their initiative in the first round of combat

ARCANE

 Elemental Ward, City, any element: target city have a % chance to resist enemy spells targeting the city from the opposite element (e.g. Air Ward is an Earth spell that protects against Air, et cetera); all opposite element spells cast during a tactical battle in this city have a % chance to fizzle.

 Dispel, Universal, Basic; Attempts to dispel enemy spells from target unit/city; the base probability of dispelling is 50% and is affected by the number of shards you and your enemy sovreign control, the level of the spell to be dispelled, your mastery in the spell's opposite element (if you are Archmage in Light you are better at dispelling Death magic spells), whether the target is in your or his territory, and whether your sovreign or his sovreign are in that city/army.

MIXED

 Poisonous water, City, Death and Water: city population decreases by x; growth rate decreases by y. Units stationed in the city do not heal and lose % health each turn.

 Water of Heaven, Strategic or City, Life and Water: City fountains spill waters that comes from the heaven. Friendly units garrisoned in cities you own heal at +200% rate and have +% life and def when fighting in a city you own

 Acid rain, Tactical, Fire&Water: units in a certain area get x damage and have their armor reduced by % until the end of combat

 Divine Shield, Enchantment, Earth and Light: target unit is immune to magic

I am focusing on outlining spellbook themes right now. https://forums.elementalgame.com/410883 

Whispering Wind would be a spell that needs a "target all champions" option to work. Just as Insatiable Lust would require the "target city" option, which is definitely in the game at this point. The problem with making spells is that we can really only use the functions that the vanilla game offers and try to tweak them to fit our ideas. Most of these will be possible, but it will be up to the community to make them. 

My specific goal is to give the spellbooks in the game a little more mystery. Book of fire is just so drab. Fires of Hell or The Pyromancer's Compendium are much more becoming of books written by wizards. I also want to change the descriptions of each spell. 12 fire damage (+5dmg/fireshard) is not something one finds in a spellbook. That should be written on the tooltip or explained with low medium or high damage in some sort of rhyme. 

Most of my books will feature spells that only have a vague description and need to be tested or otherwise discerned to be of use. I may even take it as far as some books needing to be decoded by quests if I can get it to work well. I think one of my biggest criticisms of the devs is that they are so focused on the game aspect of Elemental, they have pushed lore and mystery to the wayside. That is something the user can add. 

Interesting post yours. I also think that magic can be a much interesting and intriguing part of the game. I am just afraid that focusing too much on spells could make other aspects of the game less important. But I really look forward a more spell-focused mod!

Of course I don't mind if you pick some ideas from my list. Good luck!