I get it now. My reply must have been from the other side of the looking glass or something. I sure wish the Atari idiots had at least thought of some Be Our Second Cousin deal that would have let Stardock post the PDFs for the MoM manual & spell guide. It'd be great to be able to reference them with confidence that folks could follow a link or three if they didn't already have their own copies.

On Darkodinplus' crit of landi's Planet Rebirth spell, I don't see any faults with it on the 5-elements level. Blasted lands surely include fouled air, and probably some 'inappropriate' fire (volcanism). Plus, you could use fire has that general-purpose destructive aspect that you could apply to purging undesirable stuff, including boiling water to leave behind a bunch of dissolved nastiness while clean steam escapes.

The scope of that spell could be a real problem, though, at least in terms of saving up enough mana to pull it off and the underlying question of how that would refelect the basic mechanics for using essence to restore lands. Reads like all 5 elements, stinking great heaps and piles and floods and hordes of mana, and maybe all your essence plus whatever essence all your children and grandchildren might have. But then I like really large maps...

Do I sense a spell of mastery, by any chance?....... with a few small modifications, it would be perfect. Namely, that the spell would cease if you got killed:

By making the entire world nice through your magic, you make the enitre world DEPENDANT on your magic.

... and then the Channeler dies upon casting, unless... he/she were to absorb the essence of 100,000 citizens who would die in his/her place...

the point was to revert everything.  Not just effect the land, but all water, life, and wind of the situation.  The cataclysm (as I understand it) destroyed everything (not just the land).

The goal was to have a basically "I win" spell (because it should be near impossible to cast) but such power comes with a price.  The original cataclysm (as I understand it) was caused by abusing magic.  So, this spell would have a chance to cause a 2nd cataclysm.

Perhaps we should add to Planet rebirth "all areas under caster's influence becomes properous, and all other areas have a very high chance of spawing a natural disaster like "earthquake" "volcano" and such as that.  The only reason I didn't add that the first time is I didn't want it to act as a scorched earth spell (that destroys the enemy land so much you can't really use it when you claim it as your own).   I was hoping that it would feel like all 5 elements by having random enchantments thrown on everything.

I should also add "reveals the entire map" as a wind effect.  "doubles food production in friendly states" for life, "increases wind and sea travel" and perhaps a few other global enhancements.    "Stops bad weather effects" is another.

(scoutdog can call it the "spell of mastery" if he likes.   In fact, I might too.  I was not intending it to be the spell of mastery exactly, which was a 'universal' spell, rather this one would require high levels is ALL elements, which would be a lot harder to pull off.  If it has a different name though, nobody can claim it is a rip off.  If it has the same name, even if it acts nothing like the original, people will claim it to be a rip-off)

@Kitkun:  I was joking.   I think most people on the forums know who you are  (even if only as "that foxy lady" or "the person with a fox on every post")

Purely based on his description the only two magics I feel a compelling argument can be made for Planet Rebirth is with Earth and Life/Death  (maybe water). He doesn't directly address water, wind, or fire hence I assume it is not part of the spell. I mean you could make some rationalizations using general systems theory but that is stretching it for me (not to mention the spell's scope is ludicrous). I believe the best path for spells that use all five (6) magics is non-elemental effects or huge scale multi-elemental effects. I've been thinking about such spells.

Cosmic Rain

Spell Type: Direct damage with massive area of effect

Description: Uses large quantities of all five (6) magical forces to summon 4 large meteors embodying the elemental forces of fire, water, wind, and earth. One meteor would be made completely of fire and plasma, another of Ice and water, the next of oxygen and nitrogen, the last meteor made of Iron and titanium. The spell would last 4 turns one for each meteor and the player would have to select the targeted area for each meteor the turn before it could be used. 

Time Stream

Spell Type: Indirect Support 

Description: Uses hugh quantities of all five (6) elements to stop the passage of time except for the nation casting Time Stream. No other spells can be cast during Time Stream. The resulting affect is the player takes 7 consecutive turns with other nations only being able to react if the player initiates a battle. Starting a battle would not end the spell but merely allow enemies to temporarily rejoin the flow of time.  After 7 turns time resumes as normal. 

Anyways, I'm all for huge late-game FU spells. Perhaps one so powerful it simply wipes a portion of the map away entirely, forever. As in, miniature black hole kind of thing.

the cloth map could get a scortch mark (like a burn through to the table) and the 3D map could have same sexy looking black hole or bottomless pit (I perfer something with particle effects, but I'd take a great pit)

"Universal spell" sounds like a spell that uses all four (or five, whatever) elements. Care to explain the difference?

one takes any kind of mana you give it, the other requires all 5 specifically.   Think "artifact" fram Magic the gathering vs. multicolored (gold) with all 5 colors

Having the magic shards give different mana just like nodes in Age of Wonders seems worse then getting just "mana" that works for whatever spellschool you got like in Age of Wonders 2 and AoW: Shadow Magic.

Having multicolor spells might work but the backside is that people would feel shoehorned in taking f.e Air & Fire for Fireballs that fly extremely far instead of something weaker like Air & Earth for stones & rocks that fly far.

We first need to know if they will keep the magic shards giving different mana or if they'll do it the AoW: Shadow Magic way.

I believe the Shadow Magic way is superior. Having Fire magic and finding air and earth shards is a bit of a downer 

Definately all four specifically, then. (The number five has become the bane of my existance).

I've also been thinking for the spell Cosmic Rain it would be cool if the 4 meteors changed the terrain of their impact zones. Where the water / ice meteor makes a arctic tundra landscape the iron / titanium meteor makes a rocky / mountainous landscape, etc, etc. 

Summons?  Not sure how summons are going to be designed in this game.  I only assume that there will be summons.  But an enchanted army or super-units could be a multi element comprised.  Just have to figure out how each element would be used.  IE in making different unit types or making mostly a single type of unit but with more elemental originated abilities.  Hmmm maybe a certain card game could trigger some ideas...

I suppose that summons will appear whether the devs include them or not, do it's just a matter of patience. However, to save time and probably some work for myself, I would like to see limited summoning ability in the game.... parhaps as a rush-build option.