Why is the destruction tree limited to Fire, Frost and Lightning?

[NAPALM13092]

The Ayleids believed the elements to be Earth, Water, Air, and Light with Fire being a impure form of light. The traditional belief to the majority of the races in Elder Scrolls is the classic Earth, Water, Air, and Fire. There is no rational for them to only use Fire, Frost, and Shock. It is purely a game play thing they have done since Daggerfall I believe though I wish they would add some more variety.

[Odai]

Morrowind used to have poison.

 

Oblivion has damage (directly) and drain (impermanent)

 

But in the end any other form of destruction seen in the lore (making the wind razor sharp, curses, etc) could always just be formed into a shout. Fire Frost and lightning are quite possibly the "easiest" forms of destructive magic lore wise to learn, development wise, to make without it looking cheesy, and nature wise, easiest to cognitively understand.

 

I mean... frost is cold. Cold hurts. Cold slows you down and fatigues you. You can be paralyzed by frost.

Shock is electricity. Electricity hurts. You have a better chance to be shocked when you are charged, then the charge goes away (damages magika). If intense enough electricity can ionize (or disintegrate) you. Electricity can arc between things.

Fire is hot. Hot hurts. Fire stays on you. Fire can stay on the ground and still hurt you. Fire can be scary.

 

Now lets try that with wind... wind blows. It can be strong enough to knock you over or pick you up. It also is hard to control. Wind is a transfer of air pressure caused by the rotation of the planet and the heated air from the sun interacting with the cold air from the night... you can blow air and make a wind effect. Sounds like FUS RO DAH

 

Nature... is... vines? Poisons? Poisons are alchemy... and we cant really "make" or "will" vines.

 

Earth... well earth already IS so isnt that alteration?

[Felscor]

We can't make fire balls then shoot them with our hands either; it is magic. But I get what you're saying, Fire, hot. We can see it, understand it without research, and fear it naturally.

Everything like nature, poisons and wind ect need to be taken with imagination. Like push all the air away from a target to suffocate and hurt the target (wind magic). Not like shooting fire onto something.

Edited October 16, 2011 by Felscor

[ub3rman123]

My problem with Bethesda's approach is that in the end, all of their spells do the same thing. Cast frost on one person and a fireball on the other; they may do different amounts of damage, but aside from the sparkly effect there's no difference.

[Fonger]

My problem with Bethesda's approach is that in the end, all of their spells do the same thing. Cast frost on one person and a fireball on the other; they may do different amounts of damage, but aside from the sparkly effect there's no difference.

do some creatures take more damage from fire than frost

or in your experience do they all take the same damage

[Odai]

My problem with Bethesda's approach is that in the end, all of their spells do the same thing. Cast frost on one person and a fireball on the other; they may do different amounts of damage, but aside from the sparkly effect there's no difference.

 

 

Actually in this game they DO have different effects.

 

Fire does extra damage when an enemy catches fire. Fire can catch on the environment dealing damage to anyone who crosses it. Also when an enemy is at 10% health they may try to flee.

 

Shock drains magika at the same time as it damages health. It can arc off things and enemies. When an enemy is below 10% health they may disintegrate.

 

Frost slows down enemies and drains stamina at the same time it deals damage. There are no known environmental hazards, but it does appear on the environment. When an enemy is below 10% health there is a chance that they "freeze" and are paralyzed.

 

So its not all just visual effects anymore. Or a matter of restrictive strategy. (ghosts ignore frost... etc) Different spells have ideal tactical situations now offensive, defensive and neutral.

[ButchAmy]

I've always wondered about this. I don't really know much about the TES lore behind magic. Perhaps someone can explain it to me? If there is no lore behind it, why not create a mod for arcane magic which would focus on spells that deal with pure magical energy. I don't really know about you guys, but arcane magic was always interesting to me and I always wondered if it was possible to mod it in TES. Also, why not spells that deal with earth and water?

 

Doesn't 'Damage Health' kinda count as "pure magic"?

[VBlackfang]

"Damage Health" could indeed count as "pure magic".

They could add Acid and Sonic damage; and, maybe, physical damage for spells like ice storm, ice spike...

[MoonlightWyvern]

For me it wasn't the limited types of magic that was the problem. I felt that there wasn't enough animation and light and all that shiny stuff. The reason I play a wizard in TES Games is because there's nothing better than destroying a foe in a blaze of lights and effects. The disappointment was that every spell of each element had almost exactly the same look about them. I first realised this way back when I did the Cheydinhal Mages Guild Recommendation and got exited aboutthe Fingers of the Mountain spell. It was a shame when I saw it looked the same as any other lightning spell.. Midas Magic solved this problem and then some, and I regret that I never managed to play it quite enough.

 

Though I know how time consuming and difficult this can be to make new spell effects and animations, it would be nice even if smaller things happened, like a more effective fireball being bigger and redder, with the most powerful being very large with a white-blue-red-orange type flame. Also, in Oblivion, when you made your own spell the dominant effect would give the animation. I think it would add great diversity if a damage health and lightning effect spell (for example) would give something like red lighting bolts as opposed to the same animation for your common lightning spell.

 

This was in Oblivion, and I don't know if it's going to change in Skyrim. I hope so.

[Odai]

For me it wasn't the limited types of magic that was the problem. I felt that there wasn't enough animation and light and all that shiny stuff. The reason I play a wizard in TES Games is because there's nothing better than destroying a foe in a blaze of lights and effects. The disappointment was that every spell of each element had almost exactly the same look about them. I first realised this way back when I did the Cheydinhal Mages Guild Recommendation and got exited aboutthe Fingers of the Mountain spell. It was a shame when I saw it looked the same as any other lightning spell.. Midas Magic solved this problem and then some, and I regret that I never managed to play it quite enough.

 

Though I know how time consuming and difficult this can be to make new spell effects and animations, it would be nice even if smaller things happened, like a more effective fireball being bigger and redder, with the most powerful being very large with a white-blue-red-orange type flame. Also, in Oblivion, when you made your own spell the dominant effect would give the animation. I think it would add great diversity if a damage health and lightning effect spell (for example) would give something like red lighting bolts as opposed to the same animation for your common lightning spell.

 

This was in Oblivion, and I don't know if it's going to change in Skyrim. I hope so.

 

Well you will be happy... at least with lightning. A journalist mentioned necromancers casting a variety of lightning colors.