Hello lucky demo participants !

I would like to know if all spells available to wizards are combat oriented ?

In the diaries and the video, we only get to see spells that really seem to be about throwing energy around. Anything else out there ?

Yep. Admittedly, a lot of the spells and blessings are oriented towards combat (doing damage, increasing damage). Many, though, are a bit more generic and an be used both in and out of combat. For example, Morr has some Blessings that make the priest cause Fear/Terror. There are also spells that provide bonuses, primarily [W] fortune dice to various types of tests (Int, WP, Strength) that, once again can apply to combat or story tests. Sigmar has a blessing that increases Strength for a short time, which could be useful for a variety of non-combat strength-based story actions. Of course, Shallya has a lot of heals and cures, which can be used both in and out of combat. Celestial wizards have Omen, which forces the rerolls of all [W] and on a roll, if the wizard chooses to use one of the recharge tokens on the card. They also have a movement spell, which whisks them to any location within Long Range without using a maneuver (it would normally cost 3 maneuvers to do so). Useful in combat, perhaps, but could also be used for Story events. Grey wizards have some illusion spells, like darkness or changing the appearance of small items, or invisibility.

So yes, there are spells/blessings that can be used outside of combat. It seems like maybe 1/4 are direct damage spells (so of limited use outside of combat) or bonuses to Melee/Ranged damage and the rest can pretty easily be used in either combat or in Story mode. Pure guesswork on the numbers, but my brief perusal it looked that way. It might be 1/3 combat and 2/3 either. Plenty can be used outside of combat, though.

I really like spells that have nothing to do with combat, and alter the story, or provide more story options, or add to roleplaying. I hope they don't lose sight of that, the previous editions and the realms of sorcery from V1 really spoiled me on that. Otherwise magic is just a flasy arsenal, and loses its more mysterious aspects, and becomes a scientific tool. Or at least acts like one.

Necronomicus said:

This is one of my concerns with the new system too. As Dvang says, I'm sure a lot of the spells are usable outside of combat, but for those that have a duration I get the impression this is handled by the recharge mechanic (which from what other people have said implies encounter mode), which still means most spell effects are relatively short lived.

I'm not sure how spells that would normally have a longer duration would now be handled.

I guess it would need to be specified on the card itself (this effect lasts until the next full moon, or something) and have a recharge of 0, perhaps?

but what about spells that would normally last for a few hours; perhaps there is a mechanic that could be introduced whereby the spell lasts until the end of an act or something?

Hmm...

In V2, the original core rules spell lists were also very combat oriented. That got better with RoS. But still, not many "talk with animals", "read the clouds" or other flavour spells that can be used by casters to gain information useful to the plot. Our Verenean has used "The Past Revealed" many times to good effect.

I hope V3 will also expand the scope of spellcasting in a future supplement. Another caveat of v2, the rituals. Very good concept, but so few rituals ever printed !

Magic should also be about lenghty research, alchemical tampering and powerful and dangerous effects, not just gunslinger flash bang action spells. (This isn't Star Wars for god's sake !)

I'll take a look when I get home to see if there are any 'long' duration spells. Off the top of my head, I would think that assigning "end of act", "end of episode", "until next Rally" are all useful durations.