New Spellcasting Effects

[Xanthan]

I've noticed some interesting things casting spells lately.  When I cast a weakness spell, sometimes it worked on my opponent, but sometimes not.  Instead, it might not work at all, other times it had the opposite effect: increasing the opponent's health over time.  And once, it hit me instead!

Now, I think this is a great way for spells to backfire if cast on a powerful opponent.  I've heard, however, that it is simply a bug.  Please consider this a request for a (non-buggy!) version of these effects to be added to the game on spell failure.  It will make magic much more interesting, assuming that one has a good idea to start with on what to expect with regards to failure or success.

That said, I still think that most spells should be a lot more powerful than they are if magic is going to be an effective part of the game.

[Caarrie]

many spells are bugged and that is known. are you taking about the spell effect [as in what you see cast] or what the spell does??

[Lanarel]

He is talking about the spells being bugged (the effect being that your own health may go down). But instead of asking to fix that bug, he suggests to make it a (more controlled) feature of a spell backfiring.

[Caarrie]

He is talking about the spells being bugged (the effect being that your own health may go down). But instead of asking to fix that bug, he suggests to make it a (more controlled) feature of a spell backfiring.

then it should go on the bug tracker as a feature request and not on the forum.

[bilbous]

It could go into the wish list here. I think it might get more discussion on the forums. I, for one, kind of like the idea although the higher your skill level compared to that required for the spell ought to reduce the possibility of backfire and increasing the power allocated to the spell ought to increase the backfire chance.

[Mordaan]

When I first noticed the "weakness bug" I was casting it on a poison carkarass.  I just thought I had actually been poisoned.     I like the idea of spells backfiring, though.  Perhaps not so much from monsters, but maybe some rogues or cutthroats might have the ability to do that.  But I don't think we are close enough in the development of the game for that yet.  It's an interesting idea, though.  It's more of a wishlist thing at this point.  If any spells are doing that now, it's likely a bug.

[mizar2]

So is the Weakness backfire a bug or a feature?  This is the second time it killed me, once was over two weeks ago and I thought maybe I had cast it on myself or something weird like that.

Also, the Death Realm curse, I know it halves your basic stats, it also knocked down all my skills as well (bug or feature?), I just retrained 4 skills at Harnquist before stopping to think about it.

In my case the damage to my skills was semi-permanent.  My basic stats came back but all my skills remained knocked down until I logged back in for a second time.

What happened was after I left the Death Realm (having been killed by the weakness spell backfire), I walked into East Hydlaa and crashed, when I logged back on and sold hides in East Hydlaa, I came back to Harnquist and noticed my skills weren't trained, so I paid for those skills and repairing some 155 and 355 second weapons my basic stats came back and as my skills were still knocked down I decided to log out and back in given that my last log out was not a proper exit.

[Vornne]

The weakness spell 'backfiring' is a bug, we have a few reports of that type open in the tracker, until Xordan can go over the spell scripts/code again and fix them up.

[Pizzasgood]

A tip for if you get hit by a "backfire":  Try logging out and coming back before it eats all your health.  That won't stop the recovery of the mob, but it might prevent you from dying.  At least, I think it did for me.

[Aiken]

I don't try stacking weakness. I wait until it has finished before I cast it again. When I do that it does not backfire. Is there any benefit from trying to stack weakness? I cast weakness then start on swords or cast weakness and start on taste of death.

Logging out does not always work. If you are in a fight you are kept in that fight until it stops regardless of whether you stay in game or close the client. So you can get the case of  you log out but you won't be able to log back in because the server thinks are still fighting. The fight won't end untill you are dead from the weakness problem.  By the time you are let log back in you are in DR.

If you realise in time run away from the fight so the server thinks the fight has stopped then log out.

[Lanarel]

I don't try stacking weakness. I wait until it has finished before I cast it again. When I do that it does not backfire. Is there any benefit from trying to stack weakness? I cast weakness then start on swords or cast weakness and start on taste of death.

Stacking of spells used to be an even bigger bug. That one was fixed, possibly with this backfiring bug as a result. Casting weakness before the previous spell has stopped should now have no effect on the target, but is the cause of the backfiring. So not doing that will keep you safe.