Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil Forum Highlights

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(Originally posted by Gopher)

Here are today's "Greyhawk: The Temple of Elemental Evil" forum highlights. Please take into account that these are only single parts of various threads and should not be taken out of context.

Steve Moret, Lead Programmer

Quote: Shatter

I believe "Shatter" is actually going in as a modified spell. It doesn't behave 100% as the PHB describes shatter to behave. Rather than damaging items I think it does damage to crystalline things and other creatures of the earth domain. Don't worry it will be called out both in the manual and the in game documentation.

Quote: Wall Spells

You actually shouldn't * the walls. The o*nly reason they aren't o*n the list is because they couldn't get done in time for this month.

One of the reasons I posted this list this month was because "technically" this was our "Final Spells Added" milestone. We had wanted to do the walls, and Mike even did art for the Wall of Ice (and it could even be broken thru by attacking, etc,. and of course it looked freakin *****in, thanks Mike!!!). And really, they weren't impossible to do, but there were just so many of them and they each would take a few days work. They couldn't get done in time for this month so "officially" we had to drop them.

Thats not to say they can't reappear in later months. Just don't expect them, or any other spell to be added.

Quote: Wall Protection from Fire

As far as I know, and this is the way I GM, The Protection from Elements: Fire spell does not protect you from the chemical reaction known as combustion (there for producing the effect known as fire) it protects you from damage of the type fire.

Thus the spell would absorb some of the fire damage that the boiling water would give you.

Quote: Yeah, there are lot of spells...how many of them are useful? Or are a lot of those in there because some classes can't cast anything else?

Every spell in that list has many uses in the game. We specifically excluded those that didn't have any (or o*nly o*ne single) use in the game. That was the cut off reason for most of the spells. I would say we o*nly didn't include about 10-20 because of time.

We also have 100% coverage o*n 100% of the domains, and I woudl guess every class has at least 8 (probably at least 10) and o*n average 15 or more spells to pick from per level. Does someone want to make a chart or do the statistics o*n what classes get what spells at what level in ToEE?

I heard a quote/rumor going around the office the other day that was something to the effect of that "We have more spells starting with the letter S than most other D&D games have in total."

I know that delay is in, and readying an action (for a spell to be cast, an enemy to enter a threatened area, or another creature to act) is being worked o*n. I am hoping that Sean will have readying an action to counterspell, but I'm not sure it is in, or if it will make it. Really is cool, useful, and we hope it can get in. I think it makes dispel magic a super powerful spell.

Huy Nguyen, Interface and Magic System

Quote: Teleport

The o*nly implementation of teleport right now is to essentially be the worldmap shortcut. out of combat, it allows you to bring up the worldmap anywhere, and travel to a known destination without random encounters. not exactly the 3rd edition spell, we know, but this was the best way to integrate a worldmap "shortcut" (given the choice between an item or a spell or an Orb of the Moons that could do this), and teleport was given this functionality. sorry for the Ultima reference

Dimension door is the o*ne currently used in combat/dungeons to move the caster to non-worldmap destinations. teleport may be changed/added so that it functions like dimension door, o*nly with the entire party (probably out of combat). The problem of course, with spells such as these, is bypassing scripted areas/events, where dependencies may break. we'll see

In any case, teleport will technically be teleport without error ...for obvious fun reasons!

 

(Originally posted by Blog)

That counterspell sounds very intriguing. I wonder how is the player supposed to know what the enemy is casting? I mean, if you hear the mage chanting a Abu Dazzle's Horrid Wilting, you might want to counter it. But how can you tell from the chant what the spell really is?

And what does that last comment about making dispel magic very power have to do with counterspell? I would think that dispel magic removes magical effects AFTER the spell is casted. In contrast, a counterspell should interrupt the spell DURING the casting time.

(I'm only armed with BG2 knowledge, so sorry if my comments seem naive)

 

(Originally posted by Sorcerer)

In IWD2 if you had enough arcane knowledge the name of the spell would appear in a frame over the head of the caster... I imagine a similar system here. Either that, or a unique animation for each spell.