Hearthstone
New Spell Concept
Since Descent of Dragons I’ve played some spells like Breath of the Infinite -requiring you to be holding a Dragon for bonus effect. Every time I go to play a card like this, my brain jumps to it being a Dragon card (part of the Dragon tribe).
Today though, this got me thinking how much this concept could add to the game as well. What I mean by this “concept” is - to add a sort of tribe or school to spell cards (not all spells, but a wide variety certainly). Fire spells, ice spells, holy spells, etc could simply use their school as the “tribe” label.
One might think this would only be advantageous to caster classes? Wrong, you could also add Beast to cards like Animal Companion because it only summons beasts. Kill Command is another Hunter spell that could easily include the beast tribe. Rogue uses a ton of spells that could likely end up as a school or tribe as well (shadow, stealth, agility, whatever name fits)
At the end of this, you might still be wondering why? How does it improve the game?
1. Increases the flexibility/innovation in card design
2. Allows for more combinations such as “if you already cast a Fire Spell” etc gain bonus effect
3. Increases challenge and deck types pool
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Since Descent of Dragons I’ve played some spells like Breath of the Infinite -requiring you to be holding a Dragon for bonus effect. Every time I go to play a card like this, my brain jumps to it being a Dragon card (part of the Dragon tribe).
Today though, this got me thinking how much this concept could add to the game as well. What I mean by this “concept” is - to add a sort of tribe or school to spell cards (not all spells, but a wide variety certainly). Fire spells, ice spells, holy spells, etc could simply use their school as the “tribe” label.
One might think this would only be advantageous to caster classes? Wrong, you could also add Beast to cards like Animal Companion because it only summons beasts. Kill Command is another Hunter spell that could easily include the beast tribe. Rogue uses a ton of spells that could likely end up as a school or tribe as well (shadow, stealth, agility, whatever name fits)
At the end of this, you might still be wondering why? How does it improve the game?
1. Increases the flexibility/innovation in card design
2. Allows for more combinations such as “if you already cast a Fire Spell” etc gain bonus effect
3. Increases challenge and deck types pool
This kinda feels like a Fan Creation topic, but I'll bite.
I tried to do this same exact thing once, but I noticed that some categories simply have way more spells than others. Ice spells had about 12, whereas "Nature" spells had close to 100. I also noticed that basically all Druid spells were Nature spells giving them no real "spell variety" in this regard. Most classes are better with spell variety, but I still don't think it's enough to really justify it. You might also find yourself in spots where it's hard to classify a card into a type.
I LOVE this idea, but I don't think it works that well with the spell distribution unfortunately.
You make an interesting point about balance of these spell schools or classes or tribes whatever one would call them. This isn’t a fan creation idea, as much as it’s a hope blizzard might hear it or already be thinking it. In your example about there being hundreds of Druid nature spells, I think you missed my point a little. Yes there would be nature spells, but just like we’ve learned with Blizzard’s picking and choosing for Treants, not all Druid spells would actually be nature. Plenty of spells can still have no spell school if it doesn’t fit. However, a spell like Fireball might simply be forced into a spell school simply by its name. Blizzard’s use of Treants vs other Tree types is a perfect example how not all spells need to have this. Only if it really fits
I think Blizzard had something like this planned for Un'Goro (where some spells were also Elementals) but they decided to move away from that in the final design. However, this does show that Spell "Tribes" isn't something totally out of the question
What i like about HS is, that it isnt an overly complex game, or rather that it doesnt have an overly complex pieces. There is still complexity and you can create new stuff, like dormant minions for example, that still keeps the simplicity of the design while extending the design possibilities.
I must say, i personally am not too much of a fan of your suggestion, at least not in a way you suggest. I could see it being implemented in a similar fashion as Legendary weapons or Quests, a new sub-type of a card rather than an alteration of existing ones.
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Yeah this could add new possibilities for spell interaction or casting conditions but Mixing it up with existing minion types is a little flawed imo.
Beast spells would be totally useless Since their interaction Happens on board. Same goes for pirates, demons, murlocs..
Dragons and elementals do work fine but then blizz might aswell add something completly new - that would be schools as you call them.
But then again, as someone earlier mentioned, this is not easily implemented retrospectively! Classes themselves are somewhat spelltribes already.
Mage is ice and fire, druid is nature, priest is shadowmagic and psy, paladin is holy etc....
This still might be a build around idea for future expansions!
Winner winner chicken dinner
I think it would be great for a Hearthstone 2.0, but it's probably too late for the current version.
(Honestly, I believe 2.0 should be a non-free version with advanced complexity and a completely different business model, and they should keep old-school Hearthstone around for free players and newbies. I am also aware that it will probably never happen.)