85 Spells

[MARS]

I read the Gameinformer Article on skyrim and it mentioned 85 spells and i'm sort of worried about that. I hope they mean 85 spell effects and not a (very small) total of 85 spells. I mean Vanilla Oblivion had at least 600 spells if I'm not mistaken. Opinions?

[CX gamer]

I'm REALLY hoping they mean spell effects, AND that it's still possible to make custom spells. If so, the possibilities are endless. Though I hope no game-breaking spell combinations here.

[Hackattack]

I highly doubt that bethesda would all of a sudden shrink the spell count in their tes games all of a sudden. I'm pretty sure they have noticed that they need to balance the system more. For instance I've created spells that do over 700 dmg (yes that is with a buffed intelligence...), that made oblivion way to easy with a smartly developed mage character. It made the game even on the hardest difficulty (which is notorious for being close to impossible with some enemies, *cough* *cough* Clanfear).

Oblivion had around 77 spell effects, so 85 is just about right.

[Cactus]

They've pretty consistently said "85 spells" and not "spell effects" which I'm sure he'd have said. What's the big deal? Why do you need 19 versions of "fireball" or whatever? If there were 77 or whatever spell effects, than having 1 spell each and just making your own custom spells sounds just fine to me.

[Chalk-heart]

They've pretty consistently said "85 spells" and not "spell effects" which I'm sure he'd have said. What's the big deal? Why do you need 19 versions of "fireball" or whatever? If there were 77 or whatever spell effects, than having 1 spell each and just making your own custom spells sounds just fine to me.

Agreed. And if there are 85 spells they'll probably get stronger the more you level magic related stuff (intelligence, willpower etc increasing the strength and the time of the effect) anyway. I can see it working...

[The Dog Whisperer]

Maybe final damage is some kind of formula.
[Spell Damage x INT/2]
Then custom would just be editing the 'Spell Damage' factor.

Chalk-heart's idea of Willpower for time of effect is nice.

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

okay everyone just look at it this way, they are giving every spell several different effects. Fire has 4 known abilities by itself. times 85 by four
also they said their considering adding spell weaving so lets get this straight. 85 times 2 plus 85 times four?
thats alot!
Another thing it might be spells, it might be spell effects. either way their basically simplyfying things
for example im like 80% sure that healing will only be one spell. BUT it will be heal self, and heal on target. This will go for ALL of the spells. there isnt alot of spells in Oblivion when you dumb it down. if they simplify it like i predict. They will add lots of effects

[The Dog Whisperer]

Stop saying 'simplify'!
You'll unleash the hoards of casual haters.

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

Stop saying 'simplify'!
You'll unleash the hoards of casual haters.

how so?
i like this idea besthesda is releasing

[Chalk-heart]

Stop saying 'simplify'!
You'll unleash the hoards of casual haters.

pffffft XD I haven't been here long but really what is with all the casual haters? It's like, wow, so I'm lazy, and...?
I'm excited to see how it actually is ingame anyway. No need for people to get so worked up about it. Bethesda can't fail us too badly, surely? Have faaaaaaaith.

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

yeah chalk-heart, i agree. But i suppose the main reason is because well...lets be honest
all of us are elder scrolls fags. All of us want this game to be THE BEST
this is our addiction. we dont want ANYTHING bad to happen to it
to be frank even though bethesda has been doing better and better, we are still worried sick
i hate it, but its a fact.

[The Dog Whisperer]

I don't mind the idea- So long as I can zzzap I'm happy, but if actually is simpler people are gonna cry "casual"..
Doesn't matter imo, complicated mechanics don't make a game.

[Fist]

They've pretty consistently said "85 spells" and not "spell effects" which I'm sure he'd have said. What's the big deal? Why do you need 19 versions of "fireball" or whatever? If there were 77 or whatever spell effects, than having 1 spell each and just making your own custom spells sounds just fine to me.

Agreed. And if there are 85 spells they'll probably get stronger the more you level magic related stuff (intelligence, willpower etc increasing the strength and the time of the effect) anyway. I can see it working...

Thats what I was thinking.

okay everyone just look at it this way, they are giving every spell several different effects. Fire has 4 known abilities by itself. times 85 by four
also they said their considering adding spell weaving so lets get this straight. 85 times 2 plus 85 times four?
thats alot!
Another thing it might be spells, it might be spell effects. either way their basically simplyfying things
for example im like 80% sure that healing will only be one spell. BUT it will be heal self, and heal on target. This will go for ALL of the spells. there isnt alot of spells in Oblivion when you dumb it down. if they simplify it like i predict. They will add lots of effects

I was not thinking this. There is only 85 spells. I'm pretty sure the rune is its own spell. And the fireball is its own spell. They were just talking about how the spells were organized, as it said in the magazine: You will click the "Fire" tab and all the spells related to fire will be shown. Like the rune, the bursting flame attack, the direct fireball, and I think that how much damage they do will depend on your proficiency in Destruction magic.

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

well fist they already announced it. Todd Howard said himself that when you have the fire spell selected it has several different uses. He stated holding down the attack button with fire selected will use a flamethrower, tapping it will be a fire ball and combining it will use i bigger blast, draining alot of mana fast. He didnt mention how runes will work but im guessing it slides in with the fire spell too, as just another button or something.

[MasterShadow]

well fist they already announced it. Todd Howard said himself that when you have the fire spell selected it has several different uses. He stated holding down the attack button with fire selected will use a flamethrower, tapping it will be a fire ball and combining it will use i bigger blast, draining alot of mana fast. He didnt mention how runes will work but im guessing it slides in with the fire spell too, as just another button or something.

Exactly, and just to add to that, don't forget that there are dragon shouts in the game now, over 20 of them. And each one of them has 3 levels to them. Then there's the ability to enchant items. I'm assuming that staffs fall under this too.

And if Bethesda keeps spell crafting in, our magic users will have more than enough to play with...

It'll be fine.

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

I seriously have no clue why everyone is so scared about their being 85 spells thats acually alot with all of the uses every spell will have

[Incarnal]

Wow... 85 spells is way too small. I need to stop reading these things, but I'm addicted. Still, that worries me.

Here's hoping they mean "Spell Effects". *tries to calm self from fear of another beloved game franchise thrown to the Casual/Simplified market*

[jakeuh_hates_dunmer]

Wow... 85 spells is way too small. I need to stop reading these things, but I'm addicted. Still, that worries me.

Here's hoping they mean "Spell Effects". *tries to calm self from fear of another beloved game franchise thrown to the Casual/Simplified market*

dude seriously, stop worrying
EVERY SINGLE SPELL WILL HAVE LIKE FOUR DIFFERENT USES
YOU CAN ALSO WEAVE SPELLS (MAYBE)
the spells will be more so than oblivion's

[Trelares]

I dont mind if its only 85 spells but, I hope we can make your own spells. Nobodoy has mentioned yet that if the spells scale by level /attributes when its like in oblivion/morrowind that stronger spells costs more magicka for some spells I liked to use not the strongest version to save magicka, therefore I hope we can make your own spells to "downgrade".

[MARS]

They've pretty consistently said "85 spells" and not "spell effects" which I'm sure he'd have said. What's the big deal? Why do you need 19 versions of "fireball" or whatever? If there were 77 or whatever spell effects, than having 1 spell each and just making your own custom spells sounds just fine to me.

Well i want different magnitudes. I mean my mage char in Oblivion has more than 300 spells and I'm just 40 hours in! And I'm most likely playing a pure mage or a magic/warrior hybrid char in Skyrim so just 85 spells would suck :/ maybe not for the Battlemage but for a pure Mage 85 spells is just...meager.

[Chalk-heart]

well...lets be honest, all of us are elder scrolls fags.

Absolutely XD. I wish there was a simple way to sooth everybody's nerves about it though. Personally I want to see more concept art... Do they sell Gameinformer in england?

[Dovahkiin_0311]

i dont mind 85 spells i rarely use spells i prefer a blade and a sheild

[Symphonic]

I think people should stop panicking and think of it logically -- Oblivion had around 60 unique spell effects. Take into consideration the various spells learnable from trainers and elsewhere, there's a smidge over 300 spells (may have made a miscount, however), plus any unique to DLC. I sincerely doubt that they would be psyched in there being 85 different spells if they actually meant the number of learnable spells, seeing as how it's a huge decrease from Oblivion.

[Eltee]

Do they sell Gameinformer in england?

They certainly don't in canada (epic sigh.) PS Elder Scrolls fag, right here

[River]

Most of the game informer article from the Magazine has now been put on the Game informer Website in the various Skyrim articles.