Been awhile, thought I'd re-toss these ideas out there.

Wouldn't it be cool if we could flare off all our mana? A coup'de'grace for spell casters? Limit break? Wouldn't that be sorcerish?

What if the mana return from dark catalyst went at another creature in the room, instead of back to you, to seed a reaction in that critter's mana? And so on, and so on, and so on. The amount of mana needed to spawn a new reaction factored by mana control skills.

What if the sorcerer isn't getting enough mana to hit enough targets with a normal cast? Ask them to infuse (by option, not randomness, it'd require a new verb or spell syntax tie-in. Prep 719, catalyst seer for 50, maybe?). The sorcerer feeds enough mana (energy) into the first reaction allowing it to have the power to continue burning through multiple targets until the mana runs out. If it cycles through the critters and mana is still left over, that mana could be returned to the sorcerer. I think it'd be cooler though to have it go through the critters again, and again, and again (we're paying the mana for this afterall), until the critters are all dead, (of course, multiple hits with DC on the same target return fewer mana to the reaction since the target's mana pool has already been largely used). Then, if allowed to continue the reaction until beasts are dead (or mana runs out) any mana left over with no targets left in the room could be sent up into the local mana pool.... which brings me to....

Or, use mana pools. Hey, wizards don't use them anymore. That way the sorcerer can just "infuse 100" then immediately cast 719, just cast it normally, and it'd draw mana from the pool. The pools exist, lets use them for something. There could also be a tie-in with my 1750 Dead Pool idea if some of the mana blocked from non-group members went into the environment. At the beginning of a hunt a sorcerer could create a dead pool in an area to start feeding the mana pool, so that when he starts casting DC there is mana to draw on.

You could also do it both ways, allow direct infusion and pool usage, with the sorcerer's ability to draw on the local pool governed by mana control skill (such as only being able to draw on x% of it at a time, with loss percentages on that number like you might see with sending mana), whereas with direct infusion he gets full freight.

This has the added benefit of allowing others to help (yay group mechanics and RP teamwork). The big bad invasion is going on, the brave defenders are being overrun, a sorcerer is out of mana but knows he can stike one final blow against the zombie hoard, he sends out a plea for mana infusions, and then boom, casts a fourth of july grand finale quality pyrotechnic show.

So yes, this would allow sorcerers to hit multiple targets, with no upper limit. However, multi-target offensive spells aren't exactly a new thing, I do believe every other pure and two of the semis have proprietary ones. Unlike many of those however, we'd actually be paying the mana for each additional target. There would be no casting cone of lightning to kill 150 raving lunatics in one cast at a cost of 17 mana (as I've seen done before).

Should each chain reaction have the potential to be as strong as the first? Depends. Is there a warding roll? If so then yes (because again, the other such spells function that way). So it really would be mass DC... just with a mana cost.

>There would be no casting cone of lightning to kill 150 raving lunatics in one cast at a cost of 17 mana (as I've seen done before).

shhhh...don't use this example or they'll nerf evil eye.

<< Or, use mana pools. Hey, wizards don't use them anymore. That way the sorcerer can just "infuse 100" then immediately cast 719, just cast it normally, and it'd draw mana from the pool. The pools exist, lets use them for something. >>

Do mana pools still exist? If so, they must have about a billion mana in them by now.

>In my opinion, discussing these things is a huge waste of time. How many of these threads have rattled off countless innovative and cool ideas, yet the only change in recent memory is a bolt spell. It's time to face the facts. Sorcerer Development is an oxymoron.

I know it feels like that, but the bolt spell was something that was asked for for a long time. I don't think it's a huge waste of time to show that there's still a player base that cares about sorcery.

~Allereli

>Curse of the Star, and custom nightmares are feeling like chopped liver right now :(

Curse of the Star is a good thing and obviously needed for Balefire. I know some people don't like the delivery mechanism of it, but I do. In addition to not wasting a spell slot on an AS boosting spell, it does add a bit of a unique flavor to things (and all without a bag full of components!). I'm really looking forward to combined curses, though. True enough, we have all the setup spells we need, but a single curse packing itchy, clumsy, and possibly something else like -TD, Star, or Nightmare = pure win.

>>Curse of the Star, and custom nightmares are feeling like chopped liver right now :(

Custom Nightmares, you mean the -1- time (at release, no less) where we were given an opportunity to have one? Like, maybe 10 people have one? While, I love the theory of a custom nightmare, the sorcerer doesn't even see it. Nightmare is a great RP tool, but that is about it, nobody ever really uses except to mess with people.