Visuals and Elements of Spellcasting

[Zoatibix]

In a desperate attempt to pump some life into a forum about a class I'd like to play but which we currently know nowt about....

What sort of spell effects would you like to see the Sorcerer use? Big and flashy or dark and subdued?

I think darkness and ice fit the bill. Big light shows seem a little too showy for me. If we are going to have fire type effects then I'd prefer a sort of green balefire.

Anybody else got any ideas?

[Xurré]

Dark, definitely. But I think the effects can also be fairly spectacular; like big and flashy in a subdued way if you know what I mean.

Like I said in the other thread, cover the ground in black fog while dark, slithering tentacles (or whatever) rise from it. Magic should definitely feel evil and powerful, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be flashy or over-the-top.

Maybe something like this (http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/7470/nwn2ss062607183343cv8.jpg) for example (though more purple than blue I’d imagine).


- Xurré

[Nathar]

I want it to be scary. Also look at my post in the other new thread. Cold spells should look cold, shadow spells involve shadow and so on. Basically what fits the spells of warhammer.

[Estebar]

The Sorceress has one of the best opportunities to get some of those gorgeously spiked yet slender Druchii runes into game design in an interesting way. I'd like to see some runes appear at her feet, or perhaps in the air around her.

Also, if the spells involve darkness, I'd like to see her white skin glow slightly as a point of contrast. Everyone else gets to be shrouded by darkness, but the Sorceress glows with an unearthly inner-light within the heart of the thick cloying shadows.

I doubt they'll include it, but I'd love some animated hair snaking into the air, becoming more and more alive with every soul she drained from her victims.

There has to be a clear difference in nature between Greenskin, Human, Chaos and Elf magic, and I don't just mean in their elemental alignment. You can see in the Shaman magic animations that it's very feral and primal with green fists smashing around, and bright green energy splashing clumsily in all directions. Similarly, the Humans and Chaos appear to have a little control over their energies (blazing fire and multi-coloured bursts of flame) but it still seems to be pouring out and around them as if they were simply a conduit through which this energy was being released.

Elves should be different. They should have magic down to an art form, as the most magically-inclined race, and the most controlled methods over the energies they shape and manipulate (the White Tower of Hoeth and the Nine Convents of Sorceresses). Therefore, I'd like to be able to notice that the energy they're channeling is very powerful, but they managed to keep it in control by shaping it into Elven rune designs, circles, something which shows they have a much greater harness on Quaysh and Dhar.

[Blaze]

I want to see casting animations that are refined and graceful, but ending with quick violent movement accompanied by a vicious sneer.

She starts off with gentle waving of the hands like she is weaving the threads of magic and the finishes with a violent thrust against her enemies as she sends a bolt of pure darkness their way. Or perhaps a sort of grabbing motion that she pulls back toward herself as she saps them of their life force.

The shadows will cling to her form as she is casting, sort of building up until they are launched against the enemy. The spells will be black and purple in color and theme. To contrast the green of the greenskins, the flame and light of empire, and the red and blue of the chaos magic.

[Zoatibix]

Some good ideas: I like the idea of the clinging shadows and the Sorcerer's skin almost glowing white in contrast.

[ggchan]

Wow, some REAL good ideas here, I agree with everyone so far, the elven magic needs to be more obviously controlled. I can't say stronger, because the sheer force of power in the greenskins and such is immense, but where a greenskin is basically a raw conduit, which can be destroyed by his own foolishness, a elven spellcaster, is a artist.

[Zoatibix]

An artist bending dark, malevolent forces of incredible power that consume her if her attention flickers for but a moment....kinda like Rolf Harris gone to the Dark Side...


Can you guess what it is yet? Yes, that's right it's your agonising death....:twisted:

[Valythiir]

Well, cold and darkness pretty much guarantees black, violet, and blue.

I think having some kind of glow effect within the darkness, either the skin of the sorcerer or a kind of inner glow from within the mist would be a necessary component to the dark and shadow spells so that they aren't just blah...