Spell & Skill suggestions thread

[Wahrheit 56]

Hi folks!

As you all well know by now, I'm always working on adding magic spells. Most of my work here comes from observing and collecting data on player behavior, but suggestions are always welcomed. I can't promise that your suggestions will be implemented as-proposed, if even at all, but I do listen to all of your comments. In particular, it would be helpful if you could explain why you want something and what it's supposed to accomplish in as much detail as possible - this makes it easier for me to satisfy your gameplay goals, even if I can't do what you initially ask for.

In addition to spells, you will soon be able to acquire and utilize powerful new abilities that don't require redstone to activate. We'll call them "skills" for now. These will be more powerful than standard spells. Additionally, while spells can be focused on any gameplay facet (combat, utility, etc.), the purpose of skills is to give you more combat tools, make you feel more powerful, and reward you for your efforts in fighting back the minions of evil.

Please also feel free to propose things even if you don't know what mold they fit under - I might ask clarifying questions, and we can go back and forth.

Here is a model for you to use when writing your posts - make sure to ctrl+shift+v or otherwise paste without formatting so you don't also copy the code block:

[b][u]Feature effects[/b][/u]

This is a brief summary of what I want to have happen when I activate the thing.

[b]Targets:[/b]

This feature would be single-target / targeted aoe / point-blank aoe / etc.

[b]Effects:[/b]

This feature would do this thing to each target.

[b][u]Explanation[/b][/u]

This is a brief summary of why I think this thing should exist.

[b]Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:[/b]

Right now, when I do something, I can't do this other thing, and that's a problem for this reason.

[b]Solution explanation:[/b]

This thing would solve that problem because it does a thing in a specific way. I like that specific way for this reason.

 

[MavericHero 0]

Are you considering a skill that pulls them to you rather then you to them? maybe with a long chain and a voice clip of 'Get over here!'?

 

A skill that makes you immune to said 'Pulls' and other things like the poisons and the black hearts?

[Wahrheit 56]

2 minutes ago, MavericHero said:

Are you considering a skill that pulls them to you rather then you to them? maybe with a long chain and a voice clip of 'Get over here!'?

A skill that makes you immune to said 'Pulls' and other things like the poisons and the black hearts?

Deathgrip is already available.

Immunity to crowd-control effects is available, at least in part, via Tenacity.

[lupinx2 0]

Stipe

Grows a brown mushroom and moves the player to the top of it.
Cost: 15 redstone          Cooldown: 30 seconds

 

 

 

[Wahrheit 56]

8 hours ago, lupinx2 said:

Stipe

Grows a brown mushroom and moves the player to the top of it.
Cost: 15 redstone          Cooldown: 30 seconds

 

 

 

Sounds like a griefer's dream!

[SirusAP / Ethereal_Zephyr 2]

3 hours ago, Wahrheit said:

Sounds like a griefer's dream!

>Implying a griefer is going to get past all the prerequisites of attaining the proper rank, materials, and spend the time for the spell only to throw their progress away to cause a simple mushroom grief.

Although, to counterpoint, I also don't see the utility/use for making this something that costs 15 redstone and has that low of a cooldown. In that respect, the only thing it is *is* exploitable.  On top of that, the spell doesn't really allude to any reason to even want it by your description. To quote Wahr again;

On 5/25/2018 at 7:52 AM, Wahrheit said:

It would be helpful if you could explain why you want something and what it's supposed to accomplish in as much detail as possible - this makes it easier for me to satisfy your gameplay goals, even if I can't do what you initially ask for.

[lupinx2 0]

I was picturing using it to get away from mobs on the ground 🤔, maybe with a significantly longer cd and making it so it doesn't work on other mushrooms.

[Wahrheit 56]

33 minutes ago, lupinx2 said:

I was picturing using it to get away from mobs on the ground 🤔, maybe with a significantly longer cd and making it so it doesn't work on other mushrooms.

If you need an immediate escape hatch, you can use the new Escape spell.

[lupinx2 0]

Oh! I was not aware of that one.

How about a spell that changes a single water source block to lava or vice versa?

10 redstone, long cooldown

It doesn't have more griefing potential than a bucket, but it comes in handy if you're not carrying one. also may be useful to set certain traps.

 

[Wahrheit 56]

16 minutes ago, lupinx2 said:

Oh! I was not aware of that one.

How about a spell that changes a single water source block to lava or vice versa?

10 redstone, long cooldown

It doesn't have more griefing potential than a bucket, but it comes in handy if you're not carrying one. also may be useful to set certain traps.

 

This is a better idea, but I think it would be too difficult for players to make use of it effectively.

For everyone, please try harder to explain why you want a feature. Don't tell me what it "may be useful" for - be clear about why you think this thing you're proposing will solve a problem for you, what that problem is, and why it matters. I would like to only add spells and skills that have actual use cases. Otherwise, the spell list gets cluttered, and they feel like bloated filler content. Everything should matter.

[MavericHero 0]

What about the ability to summon an ender chest for a short amount of time on a cooldown. that way you can do a quick dump of your inventory or maybe grab more materials for a build project without having to say get off of a roof lol

[ElectricSparx 0]

I'd like more mobility options, to be honest, like being able to dash forward/jump backward or double jump. Maybe "Skills" could be granted by unique pieces of gear? Not opposed to more loot to collect.

[Wahrheit 56]

On 5/25/2018 at 8:52 AM, Wahrheit said:

In particular, it would be helpful if you could explain why you want something and what it's supposed to accomplish in as much detail as possible - this makes it easier for me to satisfy your gameplay goals, even if I can't do what you initially ask for.

 

[ElectricSparx 0]

Combat should be more fun as well as more engaging, requiring a bit more thought than "have good gear, click at the enemy, and make sure your health isn't low." I also think having some more mobility options would make combat more interesting and also open the door for designing new mobs (as well as updating old ones) to take advantage of these new options. Having "Skills" granted by custom pieces of gear could also open up more thought for what players want to take into battle. Do I want my full set of "probably won't die if I'm not blind, stupid, and/or unlucky" gear, or do I want my gear that gives me some fun abilities to play with but provides less protection? Having a variety of options to choose from is one of my favorite things about RPGs like Skyrim, and if the server has some RPG elements already, why not add one of the most enjoyable?

[Magres 1]

Cleanse - Purify all negative effects that are Minecraft debuffs (slowness, poison, wither, blind, etc) that are on you.

As for why, I think it would make some fights more engaging in interesting ways. Bind your Cleanse spell to an item, keep it on your hotbar, and you've got a good reason to cycle items on your hotbar mid fight. Currently I sit on my bow unless I'm fighting an Enderman (or Lesser Ghast) or am hurt/hungry. I like reactive use spells because they make combat more complicated and add intelligent decisions you have to make, which is interesting.

That said, if there are currently cleanse effects implemented, this is a redundancy, I just am not aware of any that currently exist.

[SirusAP / Ethereal_Zephyr 2]

15 minutes ago, Magres said:

Cleanse - Purify all negative effects that are Minecraft debuffs (slowness, poison, wither, blind, etc) that are on you.

As for why, I think it would make some fights more engaging in interesting ways. Bind your Cleanse spell to an item, keep it on your hotbar, and you've got a good reason to cycle items on your hotbar mid fight. Currently I sit on my bow unless I'm fighting an Enderman (or Lesser Ghast) or am hurt/hungry. I like reactive use spells because they make combat more complicated and add intelligent decisions you have to make, which is interesting.

That said, if there are currently cleanse effects implemented, this is a redundancy, I just am not aware of any that currently exist.

I've already suggested cleanse for knights. Never got a word back, but he was working on a healing spell of some sort recently--could be a derivation? 

[Magres 1]

Oooh actually an interesting variant on just a straight Cleanse that I didn't think of before. Something like maybe Cauterize as a name? Largely the same as the Cleanse idea, but you also take damage when you cast it. So you have to decide "is it worth burning a chunk of my health bar to clean these effects off?" when you're considering using it, which adds another layer to the spell and makes it more complicated, because "bind this spell, keep a couple stacks of Redstone in inventory, cycle to Cleanse when hit with a nasty effect and pop it then cycle back to standard combat" isn't that deep of a decision to ponder. It also plays into fight timing and pacing in some neat ways, if you get slammed with some debilitating debuffs but can buy yourself a few seconds to breathe, you might be able to patch yourself up enough to Cauterize. Or maybe you Cauterize while hiding behind a shield to buy time to heal up from the self-damage.

[Wahrheit 56]

Thanks for your suggestions, all! I have added a copy-and-paste (make sure to ctrl+shift+v or otherwise paste without formatting so you don't also copy the code block) to the start of the thread to help format additional suggestions and clarify what I'm looking for in posts to this thread.

[Magres 1]

Reformatting Cauterize:

Feature effects

Personal cleansing of harmful negative effects, at cost of health in addition to whatever material components are required.

Targets:

This feature would be self-targetted.

Effects:

This feature would strip Minecraft's debuffs (Slowness, Weakness, Mining Fatigue, Nausea, Blindness, Hunger, Poison, Wither). It would also inflict a relatively hefty chunk of damage (6-ish hearts?)

Explanation

Powerful spells with self-harm attached to them are mechanically interesting. You've just been blinded by a Lesser Ghast while a Sharpshooter is also pincushioning you with arrows. Do you risk the damage from Cauterize so you can see where the Sharpshooter is, or do you try to hunker down and wait the Blindness out and hope the damage you take in the meanwhile is not worse than what you would have taken from Cauterize?

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

Right now, when I get blinded (or withered or poisoned, etc) there isn't a lot of decision-making involved in how I respond. For wither or poison, I'll try to kite and get behind cover to heal through the damage, or hide behind my shield for similar reasons. For blindness, I will generally spin crazily in a circle to see incoming threats and try to find a wall to put my back against. Slowness, I'll head for cover behind my shield, or just hide behind my shield entirely if no cover is available. Depending on the status effect I will, without much variation, handle it in the same way each time.

Solution explanation:

This would fill the aforementioned gap because it would broaden my options for how to deal with status effects in a fight, but in a manner that involves intelligent decision making and does not trivialize status effects, because of the health cost. Essentially, my goal is to make a partial, conditional solution to status effects that can backfire horribly if misused.

 

 

Edit: Discussed a little on Discord, Milk covers like the entire use case of this idea already and I didn't realize it. RIP

 

Bulwark

Feature effects

You root in place to stand your ground and annihilate any foes that come within arm's reach.

Targets:

This feature would be self-targeted.

Effects:

This feature would give you both a powerful Slowness effect and a powerful Strength effect (or potentially Resistance, or both!)

Explanation

I think drastically altering the pacing and tempo of combat is a neat mechanical idea that I haven't seen too much of in the spell list so far.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

I currently have very little reason to ever not kite enemies indefinitely, as I am predominantly a bow user. Even with ranged foes, I kite them around corners to force them into advantageous terrain. I think it would be neat to have compelling incentives to make the decision to turn and stand my ground against possibly overwhelming forces.

Solution explanation:

Being in Bulwark would drastically alter how you fight - giving up your mobility for raw brute strength is an interesting tradeoff that adds decisions to be made for people who enjoy melee combat, or even who prefer ranged combat but are getting overwhelmed and need a shot in the arm to cut down a horde of zombies. Also, there are some neat synergies between this, Blink, and Deathgrip, as those can help offset the downsides of this spell in interesting ways, if you're willing to spend the redstone to use them enough. I think a relatively long duration (15-30s) for the statuses and a relatively cheap redstone cost makes for an interesting spell, as the cost you're paying is more the self-inflicted Slowness than the redstone itself. Lastly, there is potential for interesting teamwork to be had when a player can firmly assert themselves as a particular 'role' within a fight - in this case, as the front line.

 

Doo doo doo more ideas because I like designing spells

Stonebridge

Feature effects

Replace any empty blocks at the z-level the user is standing on, in the cardinal direction the user is facing, with stone brick blocks.

Targets:

This feature would be directionally targeted

Effects:

This feature would pull stone brick blocks from the user's inventory to create a narrow bridge.

Explanation

Spanning gaps in The End is painfully tedious until one can find an Elytra. The issue is that to get an Elytra without it being tedious, one needs an Elytra.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

This idea is predominantly to make End exploration easier for new players, I went through something like 3000+ stone blocks spanning gaps in the end before I finally found an End Ship with an Elytra, and it would have been a godsend to be able to more quickly spit out bridges. Would also have nice uses in the Heavens and, to a lesser extent, the Nether

Solution explanation:

Need bridge, make bridge! My thinking is that a cost of both stone bricks and redstone would make users think twice about whether getting and making stone bricks for this is worthwhile. If griefing is of concern, could potentially make this only usable outside of Prosperus, as every other dimension respawns regularly anyway and Prosperus is rarely dangerous enough to merit I NEED A BRIDGE NOW type situations, nor does it have so many gaps to span by hand that this is needed there.

[+Piogre 5]

Feature effects

Implementation of the "back" command as a spell with high reagent cost (possibly requiring diamonds in addition to redstone) and high cooldown

Targets:

No target

Effects:

Feature would teleport the player the the location of his or her last death, unless that location was in the void or infinitus, in which case the spell fails and informs the user of this.

Explanation

Replaces the roulette-spin of losing all of one's crap on death with a high-but-consistent cost on death, once players reach a level where their stuff is worth a lot to protect.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

While I definitely understand not wanting to have a free /back command, currently the getting-one's-crap-back phase is... demanding. Players often die in non-prosperous realms, and frequently a long distance from the entry point, often resulting in a very long journey, without the tools that helped get them there in the first place. Compounding this, players often do not know the exact coords of their death unless they happen to be using third-party mods (journeymap, etc), so they're retracing their steps from vague memory, all while racing against a tough despawn timer. I don't have data to point to on the timer, but I can say from experience that it *feels* wildly inconsistent in how much time you have to retrieve your stuff, but always very short, especially when trying to get it back from the nether, the end, etc. If you lose it in avenfeld, you may not have the mats to get back at all.

Solution explanation:

This implementation would maintain a cost to death in terms of a high reagent cost (would a stack of diamonds plus redstone be appropriate? Likely at a cooldown of at least a day+?), while removing factors surrounding it that, while they might be intended, feel like hardware limitations (the seemingly inconsistent despawn timer).

[SirusAP / Ethereal_Zephyr 2]

On 7/12/2018 at 4:58 AM, Piogre said:

Feature effects

Implementation of the "back" command as a spell with high reagent cost (possibly requiring diamonds in addition to redstone) and high cooldown

I advocate highly for this. Would be a great resource sink for Enderpearls, Chorus Fruit, and maybe even Ethereal Substances (would be good incentive to keep them seperate from Phantasmal Bones)

Recall would be a good name, I think.

 

[ElectricSparx 0]

probably a very niche idea but I'm gonna post it anyway:

Feature effects

Ejects all of your levels as exp orbs on the ground.

Targets:

Self-targetted

Effects:

See above

Explanation

Since it's not going to be a thing to convert exp into bottles, this spell would be nice for players with Mending gear who want to quickly repair their items but don't want to risk fighting mobs and having their items break, or don't want to be fishing for an hour to get the exp needed.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

Basically would be useful for monster hunters whose armor gets damaged after a lot of fighting. I know I personally have had my armor's durability get low (even with Unbreaking 3) after lots of fighting.

Solution explanation:

This spell would allow me to eject all my currently collected levels as exp orbs for me to pick up and have repair my armor.

[Wahrheit 56]

1 hour ago, ElectricSparx said:

probably a very niche idea but I'm gonna post it anyway:

Feature effects

Ejects all of your levels as exp orbs on the ground.

Targets:

Self-targetted

Effects:

See above

Explanation

Since it's not going to be a thing to convert exp into bottles, this spell would be nice for players with Mending gear who want to quickly repair their items but don't want to risk fighting mobs and having their items break, or don't want to be fishing for an hour to get the exp needed.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

Basically would be useful for monster hunters whose armor gets damaged after a lot of fighting. I know I personally have had my armor's durability get low (even with Unbreaking 3) after lots of fighting.

Solution explanation:

This spell would allow me to eject all my currently collected levels as exp orbs for me to pick up and have repair my armor.

I appreciate the suggestion, but this won't be added.

[+Piogre 5]

Feature effects

Spell "Decapitate" -- On the next player or mob kill after casting (within a given timer), that mob or player drops their head in addition to whatever other drops.

Targets:

N/A

Effects:

Upon cast, the next player or mob the caster kills within given timer drops its head in addition to other drops.  Commands exist to drop player heads, and Mojang accounts exist to allow giving heads of various mobs this way.

Explanation

Because it would be cool to have a way to get mob and player heads for decoration purposes -- using charged creepers can only get you a couple of mobs; this gives access to the rest of mobs and also to players.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

Player heads and some mob heads aren't available through gameplay and would be cool to have for decoration.

Solution explanation:

This gives access to player/mob heads at (presumably) a high cost.

[Impervious200 0]

Feature effects

Weather Toggle

Targets:

N/A

Effects:

On cast, this would allow for a player to toggle the in game weather. Either causing it to rain, or causing it to not. Somewhat like either the day or night spells.

Explanation

There are a couple of in game reasons that would make it so someone wants it to either rain or not rain.

Problem I want to solve / gap I want to fill:

There currently isn't any way for a player to control the weather other than sleeping through rainstorms.

Solution explanation:

If someone is fishing, they would want it to rain, because of the increased bite chance. Similarly, if someone wants to build somewhere that isn't an arid biome, they are going to have to deal with more rain causing certain mobs to not burn in the sunlight. This would give the control to the players of having a spell to deal with the weather if they want it.