Ok, this is gonna get shot down fast cause I just saw an Armifer post that they don't want "swiss army knife" spells, but... I'm still gonna suggest this...

Our tier 1 targetted spells have abilities that make them useful past lvl 10, which i appreciate... FOS makes blunt weapons, FrSc makes edged weapons, PW throws naphtha(if it threw dirt, that'd be doubly as nicehint,hint), GZ and FS have multi-shot abilities at higher mana... but Aether Lance is just ... Aether Lance...

I was bouncing this off another mage last night, he thought it was great cause he is a bow user... Not so much for me, I just like the novelty of it and so Aether Lance doesn't become a forgotten spell once the person gets ALA or something else tier2/tier3 targetted in a different spell book (I've never cast AEL on this character that I remember)... Aether Lance could create arrows when self casted based on mana... I don't use a bow, but I'd still enjoy the novelty of it... only problem is if it's making aether arrows, aether lance would not make so much sense as a name, so I did think it'd have to be renamed to Aether Arrow... (AA for short)... This wouldn't change the targetted aspect of the spell at all, except to change where it says lance to say arrow and maybe a need to increase it's mana cap from 30 to 60, but if that was the case comparable damage would just take twice the mana... but it'd still be completely usable early on with 2 or 5 mana or whatever... Here's how I figured it would break down by mana when self casting to create arrows:

At the current cap of 30:

---

AA 1-4 = 2 slender aether arrow
AA 5-9 = 5 slender
AA 10-14 = 8 slender
AA 15 = 10 slender
AA 16-19 = 2 sharp aether arrow
AA 20-24 = 5 sharp
AA 25-29 = 8 sharp
AA 30 = 10 sharp

If the cap could be raised to 60:

---

AA 1-4 = 1 slender aether arrow
AA 5-9 = 2 slender
AA 10-14 = 4 slender
AA 15-19 = 6 slender
AA 20-24 = 8 slender
AA 25-29 = 10 slender
AA 30-34 = 1 sharp aether arrow
AA 35-39 = 2 sharp
AA 40-44 = 4 sharp
AA 45-49 = 6 sharp
AA 50-54 = 8 sharp
AA 55-59 = 10 sharp
AA 60 = 20 sharp

as far as arrow appraisal, i'd think either the slenders would be fair/poor/poor and the sharps would be mod/poor/poor if the cap stayed at only 30... but if thw cap went to 60, again could justify better arrows cause of the higher mana cost... so slenders could be mod/poor/poor and sharps could be heavy/poor/poor... I know that heavy puncture may seem high for free arrows, but arrows that are heavy puncture are available for just a few silver in shard, so it's not like that'd save wm bow users a ton of money...

Just like FOS and FrSc there'd have to be a coinciding cantrip to lengthen the decay time on the arrows, I'd assume something like "Cantrip Solidify Aether"...

That's about it, I thought it was a good idea since I know Magic3.0 is suppose to make it so lower tier spells don't become useless when higher tier spells are obtained... but then I saw the swiss army knife comment, so I could be wrong of the plans ahead for magic.

Enjoy the idea, if it's no good, it's no good... if it is... I just want somewhere it to be noted in DR that Mottdos created AA... and I apologize to the dwarfs. :o)

- Mott