Greetings Sodales. I would appreciate input and suggestions for the following spell
Turbulent Waves of the Land ReTe 10
Causes land in an up to 5 pace by 5 pace area directly ahead of the caster to ripple and buck as if it were the ocean surface in a severe storm. This causes the landscape to re-arrange itself, forming hills and depressions. Targets without magic resistance are knocked down and flung about as if they were ships of appropriate size in such a storm, potentially causing severe falling damage, while targets with magic resistance resist the formation of hillocks from the waves, but can still fall if the land under them flows away as a wave. Buildings, unless purposefully designed to resist this sort of effect, are severely damaged as support beams and structural components are wrecked. This effect continues so long as the magus concentrates.
Base 3 (Control or Move Dirt in an unnatural fashion) +1 (Up to stone), R: Touch (+1) D: Conc (+1), T: Individual (10 cubic paces of dirt or a single pace of stone)
Obviously, modified variants for size can and will exist, but this is the base spell before adjusting size. As well as flinging targets about, it can cut line of sight between you and an opponent, meaning a hostile caster using a range sight spell will find their range dramatically changed.
Note that the effect is a rego, meaning the landscape will be permanently altered, that the resulting terrain may not be able to support itself and thus may collapse, and that there are NO requisites for herbam, meaning plant life involved is usually devastated by this effect. It is, however, clearly unnatural, and thus is not a first resort effect.
Inspired by the Thumper device from the 1998 Activision game Battlezone (itself inspired by the Atari arcade game) http://youtu.be/tr2_gH5ixQg?t=50s video features use of thumper at the 50 second mark.
Crest of the Earth Wave is doing exactly what you are describing, so lets compare.
So Base 3 - agreed
Touch: +1, (vs Voice +2), it is only a matter of range.
Target: Ind vs Part +1. Here, Part is required since the spell is not affecting the whole Earth, but only a fraction of it.
+1 to affect both dirt and stone alike.
The Crest spell has also a +2 size modifier to affect a volume 100x larger.
Designed that way, the spell is a ReTe 10, allowing a small ripple covering a 3x3m section of the ground in front of the caster.
Based on Crest of the Earth Wave, people need to make a Dex roll of 12+ or take +10 damage.
It cannot cut line of sight - not high enough (5 feet high at most as per Crest description). The advantage of your variant vs the Core Rulebook spell is that it includes the stone modifier +1, so if you are in a castle or on some hard rock mountain, it will work equally well.
I agree with Ezechiel357.
Three more considerations.
The spell does work on a rocky outcropping or in a cave (because of the stone requisite) but probably not in a castle, or on a road with flagstones: if the "floor" is made by discrete pieces (e.g. flagstones) you'd need T:Group. Personally, I'd just take out the +1 for stone and accept it does not work on solid stone; part of this is because as written it only affects a tiny amount of stone (1 cubic pace - say, a 3/4 of a foot thick layer in a 6 foot by 6 foot area).
Unless you want the spell to last more than a few seconds, D:Mom is sufficient.
Even with dirt/packed earth, it's still a pretty small (and not very deep) area, particularly considering you are affecting it at Touch:Range: 10 cubic paces=270 cubic feet, e.g. an area 15 feet by 15 feet to a depth of slightly more than 1 foot. As Ezechiel357 pointed out, nothing that can really cut line of sight, seriously damage any building larger or sturdier than a tiny hut, or uproot your average tree.
I am aware the size is insufficient, I mentioned this in the original post as being designed more for "Add on your size modifiers as needed" rather than having any innately.
If you decrease it to affect only half a cubic pace down, does that give you twice the area to work with without the +1 for size? if so, it's tempting. And yes, I would be tempted to remove the +1 for stone, I threw it in mostly as an idea.
The duration concentration is more because as an ongoing effect it'll keep screwing up formations and make getting back together in a fight hard work. I guess it IS unnecessary, though.
So that makes it a ReTe 5 (+5 per size mod) that affects a 4 and a half pace area by 4 and a half pace area by half a pace deep of soil (approx) before size mods.
A 14x14x0.5 pace area for +1 size (ReTe10)
A 44x44x0.5 pace area for +2 size (ReTe15)
And a just short of 102x102x0.5 pace area for +3 size (ReTe20)
Is my maths right there? And I was not aware of Crest of the Earth Wave (I am unfamiliar with terram spells, never having played anyone who uses terram a lot.
Could one of those +1's for size instead be used to increase the height/depth the soil raises and drops to? If so, the resulting structure will most probably collapse in the time after over a few combat rounds, but that might be what matters, and would that increase the damage the people involved in the effect took, or make the dex roll even harder?
