I'm sure most (all?) of these are wrong, but let's have some fun. What do you think the new spells do?


What we know from the teaser

> Avren Aevareae [ava]

Improved Rising Mists, +Stealth skill, -Stealth skill, Room-wide effect of either boost or debuff.

> Blur
+Evasion

> Finesse
+Charisma (stat)

> Starcrash
Single Target pulsing TM, consumes secondary resource


New / revised ones

> Crystal Dart [crd]
Sounds like the original explosive dart spell, or lunar equivalent to fireball.

> Nonchalance
My guess is that this was the original version of Harmless, or the innocence clone.

> Stellar Collector [stc]
My guess is that this is the starlight collector spell. Maybe creating a secondary pool that drains into your primary pool when you're indoors.
Alternatively, it may be the attunement recharge spell.

> Regalia
> Bespoke Regalia [bspk]
It sounds like either a +trading buff, or a +armor buff. Metaspell adds components somehow. It could also be the debuff/imobalize or barrier spells.


> Noumena
This sounds like the tool enhancer spell. Originally called Ancestral Arts.

> Arbiter's Stylus [ars]
Enchanting buff?

> Platinum Hands of Kertigen [phk]
Forging, outfitting or engineering buff?

> Last Gift of Vithwok IV [lgv]
"negotiation buff"? Trading?

> Fluoresce
Anti stealth debuff? Distraction debilitator?

> Mask of the Moons [mom]
No clue. The mirror wraith spell?

> Membrach's Greed [meg]
+thievery?

> Turmar Illumination [turi]
+damage on the target? The old heighten flaws?

> Resumption
Single target TM? Maybe the old crystal spike.
Maybe a +discipline

> Trabe Chalice [trc]
> Avtalia Array [avta]
Again, no clue. Maybe more barrier spells? Crafting, or stat buffs?

> Elision
+intel?

You are vile.

Is it utility, offense, or defense?

-.-

Okay. Okay. Any idea on how long we'll have to stew in anticipation?

This is very exciting.

You have me a little worried about Elision. The thought of trying to get a tert skill up to the thousnads of ranks is less exciting. Will there be a Braun's Conjecture like spell to ease the reqs a bit? Either way, I'll try to hold judgement until we see it in action.

Back on topic, new speculation. Elision will be the astral projection spell. It'll let us project to someone while our PC is doing their thing on the caravan path, and we share experience. Our projected self can teach a class on shield in the empath's guild, our PC can be fending off invasion creatures, and empaths can heal our projected self to heal or PC (haha, okay, a little much, but here's hoping).

> On a broader note, it's an equity of the skillsets thing. Magic terts don't get to cast easier just because they're tert, the same way Moon Mages don't get to swing swords easier for being weapons tert. The flip side is that tert magic is meant to be as powerful and useful as Prime magic.

I can see the argument. I think I even support it, but I'm not sure the current state of the game reflects it. Magic is in a weird place.

A moon mage can't swing a weapon as well as a weapons prime (ignoring for a moment how the game incentivizes combat and TDPs and capping skills to train terts), but they can cast offensive spells just as effectively as the barbarian swings that weapon, sometimes more effectively, using their primary skillset. They can travel as effectively as the ranger. They have buffs that they can cap far quicker and with more power and reliability to bridge gaps in stealth, evasion, or (since we're talking moon mages) practically any skill in the game. They don't have the mitigation of a paladin, but the warding spells can (or could) create the same result before you even bring in the debilitation spells (especially Clerics).

Compare that to a non-magic guild. They not only lose the buffing power until they've greatly outclassed 95% of the game, but most of them don't have a way to use their primary skillset to do the same thing as other guilds, just in a different way. Likewise, magic primes aren't usually locked out of their core identity spells because they don't have extremly high tertiary ranks. It's like saying that a moon mage couldn't cap out moon gate until they had 1200 in athletics, or that they couldn't cap out cage of light until they had 1000 in shield.

So again, while I agree that this is a good theory on paper. I just don't think it translates well into how the game is actually played. Specifically how the game incentivizes players to play it, and the opportunities available to each guild are heavily slanted towards magic guilds since that's the key method used to create those opportunities.

I'm still willing to wait until this is released before I make up my mind. Maybe I'm over dramatizing the gap here, but I think it would be regrettable if the release if traders had to train a tertiary skill to the same levels as a mage's primary skill before they could take advantage of the new system. It's going to feel like a nerf if it requires 5000-10000 hours of play to unlock, especially they're going to be worse off tomorrow than they are today... which is more or less a running joke.

> RS and IZ have a min casting req of 400 ranks - it's unlikely it'll require thousands of ranks to cast Elision. It'll take some work to gain the ranks to cast it but it's not so tough that Traders won't be casting it inside of 6 months.

It'll be interesting to see what this spell does to know if minimal casts are worthwhile. RS isn't really worth it until you can reach the 500-600 mark. If this is the astral project spell, then maybe minimum casts will be just fine. You may not ever need to leave your province. If it's something else, akin to Sanctuary, then maybe you'll need to get near cap for it to be worthwhile in most cases. That's years of work.

As I said, I'm holding out judgement until the release.


> Elision sounds like it'll be Trader's most difficult spell. It's not a bad thing that you don't just instantly have access to the entire spellbook at launch.

Well, you wouldn't regardless due to the grandfathering situation.

> Arbiter's Stylus and Starcrash were already 'released' with the invasion creatures, and Armifer has posted about Noumena. I'm surprised the guesses didn't get those right.

I didn't fight the invasion creatures. They were too tough for my poor characters that ran into them.

> Elision... probably wouldn't exist were it any easier to cast.

Then fair trade. I'll just be quiet, because traders really need something cool and envious.

>>I believe Arbiter's Stylus is the one that just lops off limbs left and right. I'm very much looking forward to trying that out.

I don’t think that’s the case, since that appeared to be a vs Luck attack and I’m skeptical that Traders will get an old school iteration of Smite Foe.

---

Uzmam! The Chairman will NOT be pleased to know you're trying to build outside of approved zones. I'd hate for you to be charged the taxes needed to have this place re-zoned. Head for the manor if you're feeling creative.

>>I don’t think that’s the case, since that appeared to be a vs Luck attack and I’m skeptical that Traders will get an old school iteration of Smite Foe.

You are right, of course, but the Stylus too can be quite unhealthy for limbs!


You gesture at a pale grey death squirrel with a flamboyant upstroke.
Glowing particles emerge from your starlight aura, then evanesce as they wind their warlike way to the death squirrel.
Roundtime: 2 sec.

Perfect white lines flicker from the air and coil into sharp-edged symbols about a pale grey death squirrel's right leg, whipping it into slop!
A pale grey death squirrel flails about wildly with its sad, scraggly little tail before slumping to the ground, dead.

Your calligraphy of light assailing a pale grey death squirrel dulls into nothingness.


>>A vs luck attack, especially if traders have a way to increase their own luck.

There's one defensive spell that is based on random chance and, yes, affected by Speculate Luck.

GM Grejuva

> Arbiter's Stylus

So Arbiter's stylus is a cyclic multi-shot TM? Nice!

> What makes him interesting to Traders is his ahead-of-his-time research into a fanciful yellow-green crystal to which he attributed numerous uses. There are no records of him successfully creating such a thing -- he wasn't even a Lunar magician.

Is this a lunar version of OM? Please tell me traders are getting OM, even if with their own flare.

> The crauyarin requires direct starlight or bright moonlight to properly coalesce; otherwise, the caster must expend starlight aura to fuel its creation."

So the spell requires moons or night time? If neither exist, then you can use their own secondary resource. Is this an AOE or ST? If AOE, I look forward to the tears and lamentations of the moon mages :)

> The Chalice offers superb protection against piercing and slicing attacks, but not any force of impact. Therefore, certain foes could smash through it like so much glasswork. The spell pattern, especially when well integrated, is capable of self-repair over time

Does that mean that impact goes through the barrier, or will an impact attack destroy the barrier? Is this meant to just be ranged protection?

> Otherwise, as a not-trader-player, I'm super psyched about this release.

As someone who is trying to main a trader, I'm very excited about this release too!

> No, it's a gadget to bolster starlight aura gains and make it less punishing to be indoors.

Can you reveal anything on the plan for starlight aura? Is this meant to be a free-flow of energy (similar to mana) in that it's not easy (but not particularly difficult) to run out. Or is it meant to something more akin to the prediction pools? Moderately time consuming to regain, and not something you'll want to store up for a while before you can use it.

Also, this gadget, I assume it'll stick with us as we move rooms? If not, can we at least attach it to our caravan?

> Both. Well, not destroy but damage it without being absorbed. Incredible against Air Lash, waste of mana against Beckon the Naga. Great against swords and arrows, not so much against maces and rocks.

Interesting concept. I curious to see how it plays out.

>Also, this gadget, I assume it'll stick with us as we move rooms? If not, can we at least attach it to our caravan?


possibly allowing them to work inside a pyramid would be an easy way to make this happen

pyramids attached to caravan, just place inside.