So what do you guys think?

Well, there's 85 spell effects in all. I believe that's more than Oblivion.

Aside from flamethrower being awesome, I can imagine ice spike being pretty cool too. You probably form a sharp icicle and hurl it at your target, impaling them.

Hope there'll be a spell that let you animate the snow ... attacking livin' snow clouds (which will rip you into pieces) ftw.!

What is even more awesome, is that this Flamethrower effect is part of a single effect called "Fire Damage" According to GI, one effect can have multiple different instances. So not only we are getting fireballs and fire touch on the "Fire Damage" effect, but also things like Fire sprays (Flamethrower) and Auras that burn your enemy, etc.

Which means 85 effects can become 400+ different unique spells. And with options to change the power, area and range like in Oblivion, you can get infinite spells.

Good to know!

By the way, can you quote that bit that talks about different instances for the same effect?

I can read, "Within your fire [unreadable], for instance, you may have a bursting [unreadable] as flamethrower spray, or [unreadable]"

There's also a "... when a creature cross it's thre[shold?]". What does that say?

Many thanks!

I would hope to see some sort of glyph or terrain based spells, like a glyph of repelling or debuff that you can cast on the ground and entice enemies to walk across it.

Being adept in Magic may actually be fun this time around!

I care more about spell creation really, hopefully its been expanded on.

Yup, Skyrim will be the first RPG where I'll really try to beat the game as a mage

And not only we are getting cool new spells, but the dragon shouts too!

I'm glad they took the time to expand the magic system so that not every ranged destruction spell look the same.

Same here, I've always tried to start a mage in Oblivion, I got bored within minutes.

What exactly are dragon shouts anyway? Is it you speaking in the dragon language? What effects do they produce? It'd be quite weird if you actually didn't shout when you did a dragon shout, I hope its voiced.

Yea this bugged me in Oblivion where it seemed like every spell looked exactly the same just with different colors

I can't wait to see different visual effects and how the enemies react to being hit by them. Maybe an enemy freezes like in bioshock. something like that. not just oh I hit that guy with an blue snow ball and he turned blue for a split second.

If spells visually are a lot more varied in Skyrim im definitely running around as a Mage with spells in each hand! :mage:

Anybody on the Vanilla version experiment with spell effect "Auras" in Oblivion? I always tried making unique visual effects, ended up making some pretty interesting spells and effects.

As a diehard mage, I am sooo excited to hear about the new spells... I really hope its like Midas Magic, where there's a completely different look for every spell... the only thing is, I'm not sure how spell creator could work with that though.. :sadvaultboy:

I'm also hoping elements within and without magic such as fire and frost have a short-lasting effect on surfaces. For example, it would be really cool to blast a frost spell at a stone wall and the area of the wall you shot at will have a real-looking icy effect applied to it for a limited time at least.


Anyone?

As you are one of the Dragonborn, you know the dragonic language. This allows you to shout battle cries in Dragonic, they give you various different effects, like slow-motion or asking a Dragon to come aid you. There are over 20, and you acquire them during the game by completing quests, tasks, etc.

It will be voiced, but it's not like it's going to give the character personality or anything that would break the immersion of imagining how your character would sound or how his personality would be, because the shouts are in Dragonic instead of english. (10 races x 2 genders x 20~ dragon shouts = 400-500 lines of dialogue) I don't think that would be any trouble for Bethesda. After all, with all it's grand scale, there should be over 50000 lines of dialogues for NPCs.

What you said was really cool. Just imagine where you are fighting a really hard enemy and you shout something in Thu'um and time slows down and you are able to aim for a specific body part and end the fight right then and there. :mohawk:

...guess not?

I don't want any VATS-esque thingy. But if there is locational damage then that would be so freaking awesome!

@Xarnac: No I have never tried, care to explain how did you do that? I am interested now.

So draconic is Thu'um? I'm confused. I thought Thu'um was a magic worked by your voice.

I'm not familiar with that in Oblivion, interesting.


Please?..

No. Dragonic is the language. Thu'um is the magic.

@Mr. Tissue Box: A friend of mine is going to provide me high-resolution scans with no missing text or pages as soon as he gets the issue. I'll be able to tell you then.

Spell Auras

Fire Damage/Frost Damage/Shock Damage 3 pts for 1 sec on Target/Touch.
Fortify Magicka for X secs on Self.

A really odd spell that for some random reason, when cast, will produce the damage animation on the player for X amount of seconds, though no damage is taken. Purely for entertainment, as this spell is utterly useless except for being quite fun to use. Note that some other spells, such as Weakness to Fire, work in a similar fashion, but have various bugs associated with them. The only minor bug with the above effects is that the shock animation sometimes disappears when you jump. Combine with Invisibility to have the spell effect occur apparently in mid-air.

This visual effect can stand at the base of various spells you want to give a dramatic appearance. For example, you can summon an entire set of Bound Armor, making it look like it has been formed out of fire. Simply add the desired Bound Armor effects to the spell.

The spell need not make contact with anyone to work successfully. Both the touch and target versions can be used anytime to generate the desired aura. Additionally, each spell is very cheap to cast (around 2-3 magicka). Though there are many spell effects that can be used, there are only a handful of visual effects that the spells share. For example, all "Weakness to" spells have the same appearance.


Using this technique you can make some very unique looking spells. Pulsate red until you unleash a fireball that turns you and your enemy into flames? Possible with this technique.

Another spell I liked, good for Witch-Doctors and Necromancers:

Heart Attack

Drain Fatigue 100 pts for x+1 secs on Target
Damage Fatigue 100 pts for x secs on Target
Drain Health 100 pts for z+1 secs on Target
Damage Health y pts for z secs on Target
Most of the numbers are variables. Good values are: x = 3, y = 23, and z = 9

This spell is just fun to use. Assuming the variables are filled with the numbers in the example above and a character who is a Master of Destruction, the 'on Touch' version of the spell will cost about 290, while the 'on Target' version will cost about 440.

It will take some testing to get the amounts right for you. Cast the spell on an enemy and move away. At first he will spin around like nothing happened then start running after you. All of a sudden his body will go limp and plummet forward smashing face-first into the ground. After a second, he will start to stir, struggle to his hands and knees, and while pushing off the ground in an attempt to get back to his feet, the Heart Attack will bring death, and he will fall forehead-first back to the ground again.

So that's it? Oooh, I've tried it before. I thought you managed to create an aura that damaged enemies that approached. But it is indeed a really cool effect!

Nope, just effects on the PC, to liven up the bland magic effects of Oblivion. Although you can make a "trap" spell, which causes any who go through it to take X type damage. A Computer person can have some awesome magic mods, but console players are restricted to this method. Hopefully Skyrims will look better and still allow us such spell customization.