Thank you to everyone who submitted ideas for the spell contest.  We are trying to cut down to our favorite five, but before we post the finalists I wanted to take a minute to go over a few of my favorites and what I liked about them.

Shadow World by unacomn

This spell opens up a rift to a shadow plane from which creatures of shadow will randomly spawn on the map for the duration of the spell's upkeep. These shadow creatures will attack anything in their way except for the units and cities of the caster.  If the upkeep is broken, the rift closes but the shadows remain and will attack anything with no exception.

This would be a very costly spell to cast. I can't give a number since you're changing the way spells work. It would be I guess a level 7 spell.   As for the shadow creatures themselves, I would put them at a comparable power level to a Fire Giant, but with a high dodge factor, since they're made of shadow mostly, and a weakness against things that produce light, like fire and lightning.  I'm also thinking that if the spell lasts longer than 10 rounds, a stronger variant of shadow, like a Shadow Beast, could spawn, maybe one who has no allegiance regardless of who cast the spell.

 

I like the concept of a spell that isn’t under the direct control of the caster.  Creature spawn and attack that may provide for a good source of xp, weaken an enemy army, or turn the tide of a battle.  Cats it to get the AI to retreat from yours lands and return home to stop the creatures that are spawning there, or use it to liven up a map that you want more chaos on.

Mmmmmm…. chaos.

Blood Curse by NuclearNeumann

The Wizard King Xarn stands alone on a battlefield, surrounded by the corpses of a dozen slain enemies, with many more charging at him from all directions. As he strikes down a soldier with his blade, one of his assailants impales him on a heavy pike. As the razor sharp tip of the weapon connects with the wizards skin, a fountain of blood erupts. In that very moment, a young lad in the city of Oakford collapses in a crowded street, dead, without any wound or sign of sickness. 'It's the King's curse!', somebody wails. Soon, the people of Oakford are huddled together in the temple, almost insane with fear. The wizard - miraculously unharmed - fells the pikemen who struck him with a lightning spell.

Mechanically, this costly high-level enchantment links the life force of the caster to the inhabitants of one of his cities. The caster gains 2 HP for each inhabitant of the selected city, but for every 2 HP he loses, one of them dies, reducing the population and effectiveness of the city.

I love the concept of spells that use existing resource in interesting ways.  This combines a very dark flavor with a cool mechanic that may work for or against the caster (hit points can always be healed, but population is a bit harder to get).

Rift Shard by MadMagnus

This spell is cast on an existing elemental shard. The shard does not have to be under the caster's control (or maybe it does? Balance check!). This is a high tier spell.

The caster shatters the shard with magic through the center and creates a magic rift. All benefits of controlling the shard are lost. The rift created summons forward an elemental every four (or weaker elementals every two turns?) turns as long as the spell is maintained (low maintenance at first, increases with every elemental created). Once canceled, the rift is destroyed and the resource is lost. The elementals created are the same element as the shard that was used.

There is no limit to the number of elementals this spell creates and the rising maintenance cost must be monitored. This can deny resources, make less useful shards useful, and force decisions on the casting player on when, what, and how long.

This is a cool idea because it allows the player to trade a long term benefit (a shard) for a short term dramatic impact.  This may need to be only shards under the players control to be balanced, otherwise it becomes and easy way to kill an opponents spellcasting ability.

Pariden’s Fury by G30ffnet

This tactical spell would start out dealing medium to low direct non-elemental damage to a single target. At first the cost should seem somewhat mana inefficient. Say 5 damage for 5 mana. It should also have a relatively small tactical range, say 3-4 tiles.

With each type of shard the player controls, the spell would deal extra damage of the corresponding elemental type. Ex: With a fire shard the spell would deal 5 non-elemental and 3 fire. Fire & earth shards would be 5+3f+3e. 

Thus the spell would grow in power as you collected the different shards. Additional shards of the same type could either increase the efficiency of the spell damage and/or add different elemental effects.

Fire Shard: Damage over time
Water Shard: Decrease attack hit percentage
Wind Shard: Movement range reduced
Earth Shard: Target pushed back several tiles.

I like this as a good general spell that changes as the player conquers new resources.  Matching the name with Pariden is also nice as it gives a bit of interesting world flavor with a unique effect.

Chaotic Shard by Jharii

This mid to high level spell transforms the target shard into a random shard of the four elements. Any upgrades that are built upon the shard are destroyed.

This is an interesting utility spell and fixes some design issues (what to do when you start with a shard that you don’t like).  Although the spell will need to be costed fairly significantly, we don’t want the starting shard to not impact the playstyle at all (or have players use the same type of magic everytime).

Pestilence by Thiosk

Afflicts a swath of land with pestilence. Afflicted tiles lose productivity; farms, mines, and other special tiles produce resources at one half their rate. Additionally, units speed on afflicted tiles is reduced to 1.  Pestilence covers a 3x3 region after cast, each turn one tile of land is healed. The center tile will always be the last tile to uncover.

Strategic use: can be used both to restrict the movement of enemy units, and to negatively influence their productivity.

I like the thought of cursing an opponent’s land.  We had seen variations of this spell before, but what I like most about this implementation is the large area of effect and the gradual dwindling of the effect.

Subjugate Wizard by Emelen

Target hero becomes a wizard of equal power to the caster. Both the caster and the target now consume double mana.

Note: The specific capability and cost of this spell entirely depends on how mana and spell power is handled in future patches. This will, however, allow a weak or otherwise less useful heir to become a powerful asset at an appropriate cost. For balancing, it may be more fair that the target unit consumes triple mana, if all mana is shared.

This reminds me of the oath between Galor and Calid in Destiny’s Embers.  It’s an interesting way for a a player to take his sovereign’s spell power out into the field without risking his sovereign.

Shadow Assassins by angel_entropy

By calling on less honorable forces, your ruler may employ the services of shades who were formerly the world's greatest assassins.

Your spell caster targets an enemy unit anywhere that is visible. Only the targeted unit goes into battle with some shadow assassins (depending on spell level/shard etc).  Shadow assassins cannot kill if they are beaten however they give the targeted unit a large - modifier to their stats.

Also, summoning shadow assassins cannot alert the enemy target on who cast the spell.

I like the assassin idea of being able to target a specific unit in an enemy army.  I'm not sure if this mechanic is best as a spell or as a champion special ability, but either way it would be fun.

Forbidden Bargin by csyang

Using an ancient forbidden ritual, your sovereign absorbs the soul of a willing/unwilling blood relative to permanently increase his personal attributes by X% of the sacrifice's attributes. All other sovereigns will know of this forbidden spell being cast (they are sensitive to magic)

Requirements:
0 mana cost
target must be next to or same square
ends turn of sovereign unit

Effects:
Gain X% of the sacrifice's ability (50% 1st cast, 45% 2nd cast, and so on until minimum of 10%)
Maximum diplomacy penalty for nations belonging to Race of Men
Chance that remaining family members will revolt (each family member rolls chance of 20% 1st cast, 30% 2nd cast, and so on until maximum of 80%)

So evil.  Not many games allow the player to give birth to future generations, even fewer allow you to sacrifice them for your own good.  Though it does make me worry about csyang's sanity that he even considered such a spell.

Nurture thy Beloved by Tiavals

This spell exist for one purpose only: To strengthen your progeny. It can only be cast while the children of the Channeler are in the growing-up stages, before they are moving characters in the game. 

As you cast the spell, it begins to draw upon the magic shards controlled by you and imbues your descendent by their power.

Each shard offers a different powerboost to the child. Air increases movement, Fire increases Attack, Water increases Defence, and such. There may be more than one boost, in that the spell offers minor boosts to each stat, with certain stats(that are in conjunction with the shards you possess) rising more than the others.

The upkeep of the spell should be very high, each turn draining a massive amount of mana, and giving relavitely minor advantages(say 1 or 0.5 points to a stat for each shard). The point is, that while the child grows, his/her power grows as well, slowly. As the years pass, more and more essence is channeled within, and thus the child becomes stronger.

In a sense, this might make the children of the Channeler more valuable.

As for flavor text:

The great Channeler could feel the power of the shards flowing into the child. Power great enough to summon beasts from beyond, yet this power was not meant to bring forth, but to imbue. The Strength of Earth, the Fleetness of Air, the Savagery of Fire. All this would the child have, and more. It was not cheap. A great deal of time and power were required. With this investment, the child would become a mighty champion, far greater than the common man. Smiling, the Channeler thought: Some day, perhaps even as strong as the caster of the spell...

This actually goes well with forbidden bargin, giving you two ways to deal with children.  Though this way makes me worry less about Tiavals morality.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted ideas.  We will be reducing to our favorite 5 by Thursday and opening up the voting so you can us which one you like best.