Well, you guys all know my opinion on an extra power dice spell, and that's that its simply too powerful in many cases. For example, think of the abuse the innate spell would suffer if you had 4 mages in a 2K army. Each one gets their own power dice and all told, that magic heavy army would be able to knock out every opponent dispel die with regular power dice and leave some to spare. Then, they get the extras which are failrly easy since you'd cast surely with 2 dice and get an average of 3.5 back. In fact, there is only a 1/6 chance of anything being bad. Even if you roll a 2, you merely end up back where you started. So, after 4 castings, you will generate an extra (and this is extra, and not added to the two you needed to start out with from the original pool of 12 or 13) 6 dice. Now, you've gone an made this a 18 power dice magic phase without even resorting to power stones. At this rate, you'd be almost running out of spells to cast.
Jargobae's idea of giving us unseen lurker is good, but there arise the complications of combining lores. That and it just seems kind of cheap that we take a spell from another lore and stick it where we want it.
So, I make some proposals. First, I think the innate spell should do no "damage" to the enemy. So no magic missiles and no power dice generation since the innate spell can be easily exploited with a large number of mages. Even the HE drain magic spell is cast on a specific caster and will generally not effect the entire magic phase, but rather transfer its power to a lesser caster. Second, it must stay in theme.
Thus, we either create a small spell to that fits in with the lore, or move an existing spell (you all know my vote is for WoP) and create a more powerful not so innate spell. Also, I don't think that new spell should really be a magic missile since we already have two, and you'd think of fire lore beig more associated with missiles than dark lore.
That being said, I like the idea of dark ritual in that it only effects the caster (well, that was one of the suggestions for it
). Now, when I posted up an idea for an 8+ style spell to replace WoP, it was criticized in that it was a close combat style spell much like the hand of dust and people didn't want the sorc in combat. This I understand all too well, yet I still think its in theme with dark magic and it provided for a nasty surprise. However, I think we can work on something else.
Now, we also want a spell that enhances our strengths, and I think it has been said many times before that one of our greatest strengths is in movement. Unseen Lurker was even presented as an option. However, is a movement spell really in theme with dark magic? Sadly, I think not and I think our magic movement needs to come from bound items (where we could more easily get unseen lurker), but that's a topic for another thread.
Dark magic, after all, is not shadows where there is unseen sneaking. Nor is it death where its all about killing. Its dark magic and its theme should be dark and menacing with spells like Black horror, dominion, and soulstealer.
So, what then to do with a spell that only acts on the caster? Well, as I have suggested before, there is the nasty combat option, with a "dark hand of doom" style spell. My suggestion from another thread was:
"Dark Hand of Destruction": 6+ The spell remains in play and can be cast on the spellcaster even while in combat. The spellcaster may make one attack on every model in base to base instead of using his regular attacks. Each hit is resolved at S5 and does D3 wounds.
Its actually a spell from 5th ed dark lore (modified of course) but it was wondered if it still had a place in this edition. Some thought not. Anyways, I'm putting it here for reference more than anything.
Another option would be to take the bound spell from the magic items list and make it a requires 6+ to hit kind of deal or maybe each model in btb must attack someone else if possible (like with the war hydra apprentices). Again, these are spells that help in CC where we do not want our sorceress to be, and more than that, they are defensive in nature more than offensive, and I think that defeats the purpose of the dark lore.
So, to keep in theme, it would seem that to make a 0" range spell, we must make it offensive in nature, and that's not any good either since we don't want the sorcs in combat. Alright, then we must look to a ranged spell. Problem there is it has to keep in theme. I maintain that there is no better way to do that than to use a spell that currently exists. I also maintain that it should not do any real "damage." Thus, we are left with only two spells to choose from if that is the case: Word of Pain and Dominion. Dominion to me also seems a bit too steep in casting cost for it to be all that effective for L1 casters (for which I think the spell in question must still be useful for, other wise, what's the point of an innate spell) and is certainly subject to abuse with 4 casters. Sure, it enhances our movement abilities though which is certain part of the main theme we are looking for.
However, I think if we are to take this road, the only real spell we could transfer is WoP.
So, we are left then with WoP or a ranged innate spell that does no "damage". Well, I have very few suggestions for one of those that remains in theme, but here are the ones I can think of now:
Casting values are undetermined as of yet, but I figure about 4+ is good since they do little.
Unamed spell. Caster on any enemy within 18", no LOS required. Unit counts as skirmishing until the beginning of the caster's next turn. Fluff: dark thoughts ente the minds of those affected and they start to distrust their comrades and thus move apart from one anothe slightly.
However, it fits for usefulness since it would effectively negate the ranks of anyone wanting to charge, and so, helps to protect flanks. It doesn't effect models in combat, so there should be no real taking advantage of it. Also, it makes theunit harder to shoot at and gives them greater movement abilities to compensate. Odd, I know, but still an idea.
Unamed Spell. Cast on any unit, friend or foe, in close combat and within 18" of the caster and in LOS. The unit begins to hate the enemy it is fighting and acquires all bonuses for hatred. Does not effect steeds (their minds are not powerful enough). Keep in mind that if it is not the first turn of the comabt, re-rolls to hit to not apply. So, same general type of fluff as before in that its a mind affecting style of spell. Cast on an enemy, it forces them to pursue, possibly into a trap. Cast on some friendlies, they may get to re-roll all misses in that first round of combat, yet still must pursue and might themselves be sucked into a trap.
Anyways, those are my thoughts for now and I will leave you with this mess of a message that surely makes you wonder what I'm trying to say.
So really, I think WoP is the way to go for an innate spell and then put the "Dark Hand of Destruction" spell in its place. But that's me.
our magic is made for almost all spells to do some damage, due to our aggressive nature-and due to the story in the rule book, ithink it is really THE perfect innate spell Iyagd proposed
