Your own custom spells

[bigjim]

Regardless of how they fit in with the balance of the current game (as I don't believe this was the point of the topic), I would suggest the following spells.

Summon Phantasmal Arm
P-S-P-W-D-F-W
Enchantment 6 turns
This spell gives the caster an additional hand with which to perform gestures for the next 6 turns. The summoned arm can be used by itself or to help complete spells which require two handed gestures.

This hand is of a magical nature and therefore cannot be paralysed, it is however controlled by the caster and therefore can be affected by Charm Person, Confusion, Maladroitness, Fear or Amnesia (and effects cancel out with them as usual).

Despite its name, Summon Phantasmal Arm is an enchantment and can therefore be removed by Remove Enchantment, made invisible with the warlock using Invisibility, made permanent by Permanency, and delayed using Delayed Effect.

The arm can perform any gesture the caster could perform including doing nothing and stabbing (it will use the warlocks knife, so you can still only stab with one hand).

Sleight of hand
F-W-F-W
Enchantment 1 turn
The turn after Sleight of hand is cast, the target submits 2 gestures to be performed and 2 gestures that will be seen by all other warlocks. In addition to this any spells cast by the target on the next turn have no visible effect.

This one has already been suggested in this topic however I offer a slightly different take on it, a slightly longer cast but with both hands concealed. The reason for this is to work it in with the next spell I'm suggesting:

Extended Sleight of hand
F-W-F-W-(c
Enchantment 3 turns
The next 3 turns after Extended Sleight of Hand is cast, the target submits a gesture for each hand to be performed and a gesture for each hand that will be seen by all other warlocks. The casting of this spell has no visible effects (except to the caster) and the gestures seen by other warlocks are indistinguishable from normal gestures.

This takes dummying to the next level as other warlocks have no way of knowing if the Extended Sleight of hand is cast or not.

I have not fully thought through the repercussions of this with regard to how it would effect other spells so let me know what you think.

[Slartucker]

Very cool ideas.

[spez]

For the Sleight of Hand combos, that seems like a pretty cool idea.

I was wondering, the gestures done Post Extended SoH, do they "cast fake spells"? like shield or Magic Missile?

This would have to be balanced to be usable. (ie: if you do the eSoH, and you do a P on one of your hands (really, but a S is shown lets say), is a shield effect shown? and vice verca, if you fake a P?).

And more importantly, as you said, if you do a SoH, and follow up with not doing the eSoH, if you really do a P, will it have the same visible effect as if you would have faked a P?

If not, this greatly reduces de bluffing power of SoH.

[bigjim]

No, they don't "cast fake spells". The only effect (of eSoH) is the difference between the gesture performed and the one seen. Admittedly, this has limited usefulness as any half-witted warlock would be able to piece together a rough estimate of what you're doing by your spell effects (much the same as invisibility).
The usefulness of this spell would depend on finding spell flows that allow you to effectively conceal what you're doing.

As I said, I haven't analysed how this could be effectively worked into a useful spell flow yet. Looking at it again I am thinking that the Clap at the end severely limits the usefulness of this spell and should probably be changed to some other two handed gesture. Perhaps (d?

[Slartucker]

I strongly disagree that the spell has limited usefulness. It has inconsistent usefulness, but gesture-masking effects are incredibly powerful -- so much so that I would say Invis and Blindness are the most powerful effects in Warlocks with the sole exception of Finger of Death. The reasons they don't play out that way are that (1) the gestures assigned to those spells are among the most debilitating to your own spellflow -- both WS/WS and FD/xD are extremely restricting -- and (2) most warlocks fail to use the majority of Invis's potential. Granted SoH does not bestow immunity from being targetted and ESoH preserves the poor spellflow with that clap, which keeps it balanced I think.

[bigjim]

Fair call on the spell's limited usefulness. I'm sure that the usefulness would become apparent if as much analysis that has gone into Invis & Blindness went into it, also the balance of having a clap at the end might be more obvious.

Thanks for your input, more custom spells to come!

[bigjim]

A few spells to make stabbing a potential option:

Summon Barbs
P-S-F-D
Enchantment - Permanent
Summon Barbs increases the amount of damage inflicted by a warlocks dagger. While Summon Barbs is in effect any stab performed by the warlock deals an extra point of damage.

This is intentionally similar to summon ogre to increase available options and provide more opportunities for mind games. Consider both player having PSF. The obvious thing to do is summon an ogre and have it attack the ogre being summoned by the other player. Now you could have the option of Summoning Barbs and stabbing their ogre to death instantly while it uselessly attacks the monster you didn't summon. They however would know that this is obvious thing to do and so would shield their ogre with a P on their other hand, or they might decide to summon their own barbs and stab you instead, though stabbing breaks their spell flow so you can be sure their going to use the shield on their ogre, therefore you would need to... etc.

Poison Dagger
D-W-F-W-W-D (Yes, the reverse of poison)
Enchantment - Permanent until stab gesture is performed.
Poisons the targets dagger. The next stab gesture they perform deals one damage (as usual) and also has the effects of poison, but only if it connects.

This one is similar to having a delayed effect poison, however it is triggered by stabbing. I'm wondering if it is balanced as stabs are fairly easy to block, however are single gestures and therefore unpredictable, however the stabber loses spell flow on one hand, plus all the opponent has to do is get off a remove enchantment to stop the dagger being poisoned or the effects once they are poisoned.

I'm sure there would be many repercussions to these spells, although seeing as stabs don't form a large part of the game (except when facing n00bs {I'm INVISIBLE! Stop trying to stab me with BOTH HANDS}) it shouldn't have too much impact yet make it slightly more interesting.