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ahem... as it stands druids have a total of 13 fairly useless spells (I say useless because while they may have SOME use, because of high failure rates even for GM druids, and nerfing, their practicality is limited for the most part) while our shadow arte has a total of 16. I propose a new somewhat unique spell: Summon Hill.
Gameplay: a small mound is summoned under the caster which keeps enemies from getting close enough to cause melee damage. may also cause minor EQ damage to enemies who are too close (I was thinking 3 tile radius)
Mechanics:What this does is it raises the caster by about 5 z, and creates a buncha tiles around (and under) the caster, and pushes back any enemies in range of the spell (I.E. where items are created).

Further Suggestion: This spell, IMO should fail 1/4 of the time at 90 magery, etc. and Animal Lore should determine length... Ideal equation for length:
(Maximum duration/100)*Animal Lore=actual duration... that's right... a simple percentage. meaning if you have 60 skill in animal lore, you can still use this spell, but unlike other spells (I.e. Spirit Wolves) there will be an extreme difference in effectiveness at lower skill levels.

Anyway, that's my idea... take it or leave it...[/code]

Can you cast spells on your enemies from the other side of the "hill" or is it simply just a glorified "magic wall" spell?

Umm Ok, I just re-read the mechanics section. It sounds like you want the caster to stand on top of a "hill" that isn't there. I wonder how could one "summon" such a thing and automatically have the player stand on top of it (scripting wise).
Again, I assume you can attack your foes from the high ground while they're unable to get to you.

The line of sight issues this might cause could be complicated. POL uses some pretty complicated formulae for deciding whether or not you have LOS and therefore the right to attack a bad guy. Maybe someone else has better info on that point, but I'd like to think there's a way around that kind of problem.

There's another spell, Tranquility, that causes MOB's to kinda untarget you. Maybe there would be a way to make the spell continue doing just that even while they are attacked. It could be called Fey Dazzle or something like that. To balance that kind of power though, it would have to have a very limited duration, small area of effect, and very high cost in terms of reagents, mana, and skill check.

Dell-Leafsong wrote:The line of sight issues this might cause could be complicated. POL uses some pretty complicated formulae for deciding whether or not you have LOS and therefore the right to attack a bad guy. Maybe someone else has better info on that point, but I'd like to think there's a way around that kind of problem.

There's another spell, Tranquility, that causes MOB's to kinda untarget you. Maybe there would be a way to make the spell continue doing just that even while they are attacked. It could be called Fey Dazzle or something like that. To balance that kind of power though, it would have to have a very limited duration, small area of effect, and very high cost in terms of reagents, mana, and skill check.

okies... Tranquility causes a mob to untarget you, or at least it's supposed to, but that:
A.) doesn't always work
B.) causes problems if you're hunting with others (the mobs stop being tranquil at first attack)
C.) is too reminiscent of the bardic peacemaking skill for my liking.

next.... Fey Dazzle... there would be NO way to balance that kind of power, and I'm looking to get a new spell, not just an asaption of one we already have...

finally (to the other reply person): it's actually fairly easy to create the items needed around a person to create a hill... mind you, that hill wouldn't particularly match the landscape, but we can't get it all

Xanola Remings wrote:finally (to the other reply person): it's actually fairly easy to create the items needed around a person to create a hill...

Gee, thanks buddy. I'm just the "other reply person" now.

Rest assured, Joram, that I meant nothing by it, only that I couldn't actually quote 2 diff people (well, I can, but it's a pai in the arse) in the same post.

The deal with Summon Hill is that it would supposedly make it so that you have LOS to everything as normal, but nothing would have LOS to you. I just don't think that's technically possible based on what I've learned about POL.

If I'm wrong, I hope somebody'll lemme know, but line of sight is always a pain in the hiney for UO admins, and creating a spell to jerk around with LOS just sounds like a huge headache as well as an exploit waiting to happen.

no no no... it doesn't interfere with LOS at all, all it does is keep melee type monsters from getting to you.

What method does it use to prevent them from hitting you though? Either it turns their tageting off like Tranquility or it interrupts their LOS, right? Is there another method it could use to prevent the bad guys from hurting you? Maybe it puts an Invulverable flag on you for a little while? Maybe I don't quite understand what you wanted the Summon Hill spell to actually do?

quite simply, it keeps the enemy from moving onto any tile adjacent to the caster.

UGH - I feel foolish. I was trying to make the caster immune to arrows and spells too. Making them immune to melee only (not dragons breath, spells, or missiles) isn't that overbalanced.

I'm still a little worried about the caster's line of sight so that she will to be able to cast her spells effectively. It's a neat idea; I'm just not sure technically how it can be done.

Dell-Leafsong wrote:I'm still a little worried about the caster's line of sight so that she will to be able to cast her spells effectively. It's a neat idea; I'm just not sure technically how it can be done.

I'm gonna go ahead and try to work up the scripting to this, until I hear it nay-said by the ptb... (or until they beat me to it)

To be honest, I don't think this would be technically feasible. I rather doubt that you'd be able to find tiles that would make a good looking hill - the best you could do is make 'steps', which wouldn't be terrible attractive, I don't think. In addition, it would be nearly impossible to get LoS working right.

Sorry, just my evaluation...

ok, that's a fair evaluation; but if I CAN get it to work, and look right, would it be something you'd consider?

If druids can't do this, (I don't know what they can and cannot do) I have a few suggestions, based on some Druid spells (adaptions) I know from D&D. These are just ideas; I leave the mechanics and balancing to the people who play and love Druids.


Faerie Fire - Lowers one targets MR and makes them shed light like a candle (or torch or whatever).

Awaken - Target a tree, and you summon an Ent, or a Reaper, or any other plant creature; dependant on level.

Strength of the Earth - Caster gains a bonus to Str, dependant on what ground tile they are on (more bonus for forest, less for dungeon and other areas, and none for cobblestones and what-not)

Wild Shape - Caster can *polymorph* into any natural creature, favouring the bear, deer, wolf and spider.

Elemental Shape - Caster can polymorph into any elemental form (earth, air, water, fire).

Woodland Spirit - While active, caster is immune to web, entangle and poison effects.

Barkskin - Caster gains bonus to AR.

Briar Web - like the spider's web feature, or if Druids have entangle (do they?), this does the same entangle effect, but with with damage over time.


Druids would also be much more of a force to reckon with if they could "befriend" Ents and reapers by taming them, though I have no idea how this could be done.

That's all the ideas I have for the moment.

-M