Magic: An Encyclopedia.

[Miah]

Hi there all.

Ok, here is my Idea. In game, mages, warlock's...basically all the magical classes are limited to a set amount of spells. But in the reality of magic, ther would be hundreds upon thousands of different spells, curses, enchantments, hidden away in books and such. So I decided, for fun and to help stir peoples imagination on the possibilities of magic, I decided to make this. Feel free to forward your own ideas, we can put together a big list of custom spells ^^

A few examples.


Name: Astral Projection

Primarilly: Shamans

Description: Through a ritual, performed by 2 or more people (one to project, one to oversee and prevent death) A well trained shaman can astrally project themselves, essentially, having a true out-of-body experience, projecting their spirit, visiably or invisiably, to anywhere the Shaman knows on earth. Maybe to give a message or warning to someone, or to try and spy on someone from a distance.

Drawbacks: Would be dangerous to perform alone, as if the shaman could not find his body, he/she would be stuck in limbo, as a wandering spirit. Would also be quite fatiguing, and time consuming, not something to do on a whim.



Name: Exorcism

Primarilly: Priests.

Description: Performed on those that are possesed, a Priest can use this spell/ritual to cleanse a person of the offending spirit/entity. Can be done in many ways, and can be interesting in RP.

Drawbacks: Can be dangerous, but is a fairly simple test of priesthood.



Name: Distort time.

Primarilly: Mages.

Description: Only for extremely talented mages, the mage can use this effect to slow down His/her enemies, or speed up their own actions in relation to natural time.

Drawbacks: Exausting, and extremely difficult and dangerous to tamper with time.

Come up with some Ideas guys ^^

[Jason]

You will never pry my secrets from me! (I use custom spells almost exclusively)

Name: Arcane Leap

Primarily: Magi

Description: Launches you in the air, relative to the amount of power the player uses. Customizable ability to go at any positive degree.

Drawbacks: It makes it difficult to evade afterward, and may induce whiplash or severe injury via landing if not done correctly. Skilled practitioner use only.

[aroes]

Crushing Illusion: Mage, Warlock, Shadowpriest

The caster weaves such an illusion around their opponent so strong the target would believe it is real. The psychological damage can be so great to the mind that it actually hurts the body. My personal favorite is one of being mauled by bears. Dipped in acid and dropped from the sky are good too.

Drawbacks: May fail depending on the target's will, leaves the caster vulnerable to other attacks.

Shadow Projection: Mage, Warlock, Shadowpriest

The caster draws upon their own shadow and projects it. The can be used as a long range physical attack. Basically an incorporeal image of the caster will appear in front of them, the size and form can be changed depending on the caster's will.

Drawbacks: What happens to the projection would happen to the caster..although not literally, if the shadow lost an arm, the caster would lose use of that arm. Similar to severing your spirit.

[simianthief]

Let's start simple -

Name: Commune With Animal

Primarilly: Shamans, Druids

Description: Allows one to speak directly to a single type of animal for a limited period of time.

Drawbacks: Ever wonder what's on a dog's mind? Don't. They will drive you to sanity.



Name: Commune With All Animals

Primarilly: Shamans, Druids

Description: Allows one to speak directly to all animals for a limited period of time.

Drawbacks: Ever wonder what's going on with that prairie dog family. Seriously?

[Jason]

Let's start simple -

Name: Commune With Animal

Primarilly: Shamans, Druids

Description: Allows one to speak directly to a single type of animal for a limited period of time.

Drawbacks: Ever wonder what's on a dog's mind? Don't. They will drive you to sanity.



Name: Commune With All Animals

Primarilly: Shamans, Druids

Description: Allows one to speak directly to all animals for a limited period of time.

Drawbacks: Ever wonder what's going on with that prairie dog family. Seriously?

I don't know about this.

[Harmonic]

Uhh. I think making spells is usually discouraged. And why are the words "Realistiacally" and "Magic" even in the same sentance, heh? That's like saying "Realistically, Cthulu has only five face tentacles."

Blizzard provides us with spells, in my opinion those are the ones we should use, not something we make up spur of the moment.

[Yunnemaria]

Blizzard makes a lot of spells, but there are descriptions to the "job" of a character that say of their abilities - usually I just go with that to add to the magic I can do on a certain character.

[CallMeMelissa]

I would say that creating custom spells and assuming that the spell casters have the ability to perform them -would- be stretch it a bit, although I would like this to be possible it seems risky.
I would say, that one could take a spell that blizzard has provided us with, and use it differently, such as:
Using the mages arcane missiles spell, and the fireball spell, they could cast arcane missiles using fireballs instead of arcane bolt.
Or a shaman could summon a lighting bolt and while holding it punch someone.
Mages could create two portals, wherever they want, and travel between them (instead of having set locations like SW and IF)
Or warlocks could summon strands from the twisting nether to use as a kind of 'nether bolt'. (seeing as when a warlock summons a minion, they are summoned from the twisting nether)
I cant think of very good examples at the moment, but actually a lot can be done using this method without going too far.

M xx

[Harmonic]

Actually, to me, most of the spells already listed in here seem too powerful... like the Astral projection thing. That sounds more like a farseer ability that something the typical shaman could do, even if they are good at doing what they do. I mean, projecting themselves anyplace they've ever been? That's rediculously powerful.

Which is exactly why it's been discouraged to make up your own stuff. If you're a prestige class, and it's viable I understand the necessity, but with the as you admit -hundreds- of available spells per class... it's really, really easy to be creative with what you're given.

I can't stress enough that a good roleplayer isn't unique through their abilities that they use, but unique through how they word the usage of said spells. Here's a couple examples.


"Lucas summons a dragon, which swoops down, and blows fire on everyone."


"Aquas looks around the group, as he lets out a heavy breath. He then inhales deeply, chilling the moisture in the air around him, and raising his hand to the droplets that are forming around above his palm. He grasps it between his fingers, as the jagged shape of a bolt of ice takes from. He stretches his arm back, tensing his muscles before throwing it among the group."


Now who is more creative? The person who created some spell that's never been done, or the guy that took the time to describe his actions well?

[CallMeMelissa]

Rensin you seem to know what your talking about. So what would say, about things like, (not creating your own spells) using a certain spell differently, but still how we know a spell can be used, for example, the arcane missile style fireballs I mentioned previous.

M xx

[Harmonic]

Well, that does go hand in hand with creativity as well. The fine line with this is creating a "move" using existing spells would be determining the difference between what's rational, and what isn't. I'll use teleporting/blinking as an example.

A good way to use blink would be to rush up and use it to quickly try to stab an oppenent, while describing what happens along the way.

A bad way? Turning it into the movie "Jumper".



I'm gonna make a guide to include some of this stuff, as I think RP fighting needs to be touched on, heavily.

[CallMeMelissa]

I agree with that. 'Jumper' was terrible.

Link me the guide when its done

M xx

[Miah]

Ah, well, I guess I was not all that specific. virtually all the magic of all the classes in game have a huge range of combat abilities, so for roll combat, your pretty much set.But RP stretches the bounds of what magic would do for people, A mage shouldnt be limited by "What kind of ball of energy they can throw at a person", when they could do so many little quirky things out of combat.

Now admittedly, the few i posted were very powerfull, and that is why I gave them drawbacks (astral projection being entirely non-physical, and dangerous alone for example). But i'd be stunned to beleive outside of a fight a mage would be limited to what they could use fire and ice for, along with slowfall, teleporting and summoning.

Ill do a less powerfull one to show you the kinda thing I mean.

Name: Featherlight
Primarilly: Mages, warlocks
Description: Imbues a heavy object, such asa bulky travel pack, with a floating lightness, allowing it to be moved easilly for a short time.
Drawbacks: Requires a feather.

Now by in-game mechanics this would not be possible. But Id like to think that out of combat magic like this exists, even if it wasnt included in the game. Im not suggesting calling down dragons, in fact, most of the characters with magic I use are trainee mages and wouldnt be able to pull off some of the tricks in here, but this is all just throwing out possibilities and revelling in imagination and creativity over what magic -Could- Do in the world of warcraft.

[Harmonic]

But assuming it's possible without there being any backing is a bad thing too. Perhaps feather stuff only words on living creatures. Making these sorts of spells and even going so far as giving them names suggests that you have knowledge in how WoW magic even works... which sorry to say we don't.

Making magic or your own special abilities is something I honestly don't see as needed, as well as something that can be misconstrued and may probably end up being adressed by GMs. Speaking for myself on this matter, I think the best route is to take existing spells and make logical modfications to them, such as the examples I've given here.

The reasoning behind it is because these spells -can- be too powerful, and this sort of thing might be mis-leading to our newer memebers. Like, in this topic alone I've seen many things that I'd have disproved of when I was a GM.

And I'll be the first to say I'm not a GM anymore, so this point may be moot if they don't agree.

[CallMeMelissa]

Hmm, I can see what you mean Miah and it is a good point. Mages and such would certainly use magic out of combat. The example you used, 'Featherlight' Is a Good example, as we know that they are capable of doing that (mages anyway) from the 'Slow fall' Spell. But when you start creating things that we have no indications are possible, thats when you will be questioned. For example, if you lit a fire with a fireball, no-would mind as it is a perfectly logical thing to do. But if a warlock started enchanting objects (to be lighter or heavier etc.) , people would say 'wait a minute...' and there might be some conflict.
So..
What you need to do is take a spell that already exists for your class and use it differently.

M xx