Spell Mechanics: Warlock

[Vyn]

So, how would these spells work?

Shadowburn
Drain Soul
Drain Life
Curse of Agony (Is it just pain beyond comprehension?)
Corruption
(More to come when I log in and realize I left out such and such a spell, or I level up and get something shiny and new)

I have my own theories, like...Shadowburn would be something a burst of darkness inside the other person. (I have nothing for Drain Soul and Drain Life, and I dont like the mechanic in the book for it) Corruption is liiiiiiiiiiiiike...inflicting them with something akin to leprosy, except faster.

Mebbe? I dunno.

Feedback? Ideas?

[Sörröw]

My understanding is that you're looking at the RP mechanic to these particular spells?

My take:

Shadowburn - Just like Frostfire - A spell that would look like flames in the elemental magic it represents (here is Shadow) that burns the target.
Drain Soul - Seems pretty self-explanatory. I think the cinematic for the way that Arthas uses Frostmourne to extract the soul of the Orc (don't know the name) could be represented as a way to "Drain Soul" with less "I have it all" and more "I'm only leeching a portion of it."
Drain Life - Much in the same way.. I suppose if you wanted to be morbid I could see the nutrition or blood of their body flowing through the magic to the player.
Curse of Agony (Is it just pain beyond comprehension?) - I see this more like torture. Starts of slow and builds up until a breaking point. Could be a deep seeded feeling or could be something physical inside them. With so much being oriented around fire and shadow with warlocks I could see it as something like boiling blood (shadow) or actually a fire burning within them until the warlock decurses them or it runs the duration.
Corruption - Curruption seems to me like something that would be transforming.. much how most corrupted things around the Druid characters have all had something horribly disfiguring or this and that.. The thing I could see here is something phsyical like boils/rashes or disfigurements (like you said, leprosy).

If this isn't what you meant/wanted.. Oops! I apologize :P

[Vyn]

Most of that makes sense.
With Shadowburn, though (mebbe its my shitty graphics) I never see any kind of graphic for it, so I kinda wondered about how it worked.
As for Drain Soul and Drain Life...I guess I mean something like...how do you describe that? How would that feel to the other person?

[Boulderdash]

Most of that makes sense.
With Shadowburn, though (mebbe its my shitty graphics) I never see any kind of graphic for it, so I kinda wondered about how it worked.
As for Drain Soul and Drain Life...I guess I mean something like...how do you describe that? How would that feel to the other person?

Shadowburn has a very subtle graphic. I can't recall what it actually looks like, though.

Because it's an instant cast spell, and instant damage, I'd liken it to the air around the target's body suddenly bursting into a shadowy fire, subjecting them to an intense heat for a moment, before passing.

I'd imagine Drain Life would make you slowly feel weaker and weaker, literally sapping your energy to move, the strength of your muscles.

I have no idea about Drain Soul, since it deals with an obviously metaphysical concept. The only thing I can think of would be an an out-of-body experience, with the feeling of being pulled away from one's body, whilst still able to feel and control the body as well.

As for the others... corruption I always thought of as a violent disease that caused the afflicted to potentially have deformities like boils and sores... but that ran it's course over time, without killing the victim (since a single corruption DoT usually isn't enough to kill a target)

Curse of Agony, due to it's increasing damage over time, I did imagine as kind of a nerve agent... something that attacks the nervous system, wreaking havoc and causing a pain that builds and builds until it's climax before the curse wears off.

[Necroxis]

Yeah Shadowburn would be another spell I would akin to torture along with Curse of Agony.

While CoA is prolonged horrible pain, Shadowburn could possibly be worse, but it's an instant spell, and then passes.

Sort of like an "This is how powerful I am, and this is what I could do to you for all eternity" kind of thing.

[Sabachthan]

As for Drain Soul and Drain Life...I guess I mean something like...how do you describe that? How would that feel to the other person?
Drain Life. The victim: You know the way you feel the day before you get sick? You know the way you feel when you're trying to fight nausea? You know the way you feel when your nose is all stopped up and dripping and you have a headache? You know how your joints ache when you get sick? Conversely, the warlock: You know the way you feel hale the moment after you've finished vomiting? You know the way you feel on the brink of exercise when the endorphins are running?

If I were using florid descriptions, the feeling of one's life being drained would probably be akin to a heavy cloud descending over the person's body creating the above sensations, or perhaps a feeling that the light of the person's life is being dimmed, or even a clever play on words and metaphor with health spinning down the drain. Followed with a hacking cough.

Drain Soul. The victim: feels violated, molested -- insides grow uncomfortable. Or they feel as if their spirit is being choked -- insides grow cold. I also like what Boulderdash described. Drain soul seems to me almost as if the warlock is clawing at the victim's soul, hoping to snatch it away if it is released from the body.

[Pyrisath]

I've been reading rpmadesimple.org, and this thread gave me the idea that for each warlock, their spell effects are different. Here is what my warlock would do:

Shadowburn: Opposite of a sunburn. Suddenly, wherever your body has shadow on it, starts to feel/look like third degree burns, except purple and black instead of red and orange. Real pain. Has sort of a 'rush' feedback on the warlock if the enemy dies.
Drain Soul: Involuntary throwing up, but you 'throw up' your soul, which is drained to the warlock into a solid form. Accompanied by the feeling of emptiness you get when you go down a sudden dip in a plane. Imagined pain.
Drain life: The symptoms of influenza: Soreness, weakness. Arthritis pain-like things. Mostly a feeling of weakness, as if you are dieing. Because, well, you are... Imagined pain. The warlock itself may get a feeling of minor euphoria.
Curse of Agony: A person I know had kidney stones, and described his pain as "bad enough that he wanted to throw up." Maybe your warlock specializes in causing pain to one part of the body? Would add a nice taste if your warlock specialized in foot agony. 'Imagined' pain.
Corruption: Sweating, cataracts, bursting blood vessels. Nasty stuff on the inside. Maybe even worms popping into existence under your skin. Leaking maggots from pores/orifices. Disgusting stuff. Real pain.

[Aeshura]

Here are my macros
Shadowburn: Kuberr grabs at TARGET and clenches his fist grabbing wrenching at the players soul. ((I liken it too say your on the field of battle and suddenly it's like vertigo or that wrenching feeling you get from a rollercoster, except gravity is towards the warlock))
Drain Soul: Kuberr spreads his arms wide his forehead furrows as he attempts to draw TARGET POSSESIVE ((your)) soul. ((The way kub's spell works is he gets the soulshard when his brain can encompass the idea of a persons soul ((if it manifests the person has died. but as of 3.1 he's gotten good enough to draw your soul multiple times before the target dies))
Drain Life: Kuberr wrenches his hands back a small trickle of blood forming in his palm... (/Aftercast he drinks it)
Curse of Agony: Kuberr grins, watching as his spell fills the TARGET_CLASS with growing Nausea... ((Starts out as nausea and grows until the person is all but convulsing in pain.))
Corruption: Kuberr cackles maniacally as black lines form on the brow of TARGET. ((black lines of death that begin to spread down his target))

[Necroxis]

Here are my macros
Shadowburn: Kuberr grabs at TARGET and clenches his fist grabbing wrenching at the players soul. ((I liken it too say your on the field of battle and suddenly it's like vertigo or that wrenching feeling you get from a rollercoster, except gravity is towards the warlock))
Drain Soul: Kuberr spreads his arms wide his forehead furrows as he attempts to draw TARGET POSSESIVE ((your)) soul. ((The way kub's spell works is he gets the soulshard when his brain can encompass the idea of a persons soul ((if it manifests the person has died. but as of 3.1 he's gotten good enough to draw your soul multiple times before the target dies))
Drain Life: Kuberr wrenches his hands back a small trickle of blood forming in his palm... (/Aftercast he drinks it)
Curse of Agony: Kuberr grins, watching as his spell fills the TARGET_CLASS with growing Nausea... ((Starts out as nausea and grows until the person is all but convulsing in pain.))
Corruption: Kuberr cackles maniacally as black lines form on the brow of TARGET. ((black lines of death that begin to spread down his target))

Mine are sort of like that...

Shadowburn I liken to an intense wave of heat (But it's not heat, more like just a negative feeling) such as if you open your oven quickly and a blast of heat hits you in the face. Its sudden and incredibly painful, but only lasts a few seconds. Those seconds, however, can feel like an eternity.

Drain Soul I always imagined that during the process it was impossible or very difficult to move or take any actions.(Despite mechanics -- because that would be broken), since your entire being is basically being siphoned out of you.

Drain Life would feel more like if you had a full stomach and suddenly and instantly it was drained away and you were starving, coupled with gradual pain.

Curse of Agony I always pictured boils or sores spouting all over the persons body. At first it doesn't hurt as they manifest, but once they are complete the pain gets more intense (Which is like the spell --- low/med damage first and large towards the end)

Corruption would feel like like Drain Soul in its interpretation, however, instead of siphoning out the soul, it's like you're slowly being smothered.

Immolation -- obviously is the easiest dot to explain. You burst into fire. It feels like your skin is melting.

Curse of Exhaustion - You get extremely tired and lethargic.

Curse of Doom is an interesting one, although you can't, mechanic wise, cast it on players. I always imagined it kind of like one of the Final Destination movies (Just not horrible), you have a strange feeling that something bad is going to happen, but you can't do anything about it, no matter how hard you try. And then it just hits you.

Conflagration is an extension of Immolation, aside from your body just feeling as if it's ignited, the very air and space around you explodes, sending shockwaves of energy to hurt you alongside the fire.

[Jaster]

Kinda posting without reading the pages, so sorry if I'm beating dead horses here;

As a long time lock, I've spent alot of time pondering this and have come to this basic idea;

Warlocks use Fel and Shadow energy (or pure actual fire) for the 'damage' of their spells (of couse, most have some fel taint in some form). Both of these energies are innately damaging to stable life forms (i.e human body), causing extreme pain, and physical 'burns'. Of course it's not fire burns, think more along the lines of frost burn, the skin and cells are simply dead and blacken over. Pain itself can be seen as a form of 'damage' in the game mechanic, given that 'damage' does not always equate to dead or destroyed in an RP sense (you die in an instance, your character could be wounded or knocked out, same is true of mobs on that level, depending on a situation). I acutally did a full write up for the rationalization for all warlock spells around a year ago, if you'd like, I could try to dig them up and send them to you, but heres it from memory;

Shadowburn: Breaking a Soul Shard, and taking every ounce of pent up energy and infusing it into the target, the entire soul fragment is used to fuel a reaction that burns away the targets very soul. Little apparent physical damage, but the resulting mental and spiritual trauma can cause a person to quickly enter shock, deal sever nerve damage, in addition to completely severing or fragmenting their soul.

Drain Soul: A slower erosion by flooding the target with shadow energy, causing a slow decay in living and unliving things, stone ages and crumbles, metal tarnishes and rusts, skin blackens and dies due to over exposure of an energy counter to live. This also subverts the beings energy and soul, separating it from the living form slowly, allowing a warlock to siphon parts to harden as Soul Shards.

Drain Life: Similar to Drain Soul, but instead of pulling away the soul, it pulls away natural energies, similar to how a druid may re-adjust natural energies from nearby plants to keep an ally in good health, this pulls it from a living thing into the warlock to be quickly used to mend wounds and rejuvenate the body.

Curse of Agony: A curse, the most subtle of all spells, which amplify physical pain, and slowly causes all the nerves in the target to drink in shadow energy, creating a stabbing sensation that grows over time. It starts painful, at the end, it can cause lesser men to curl into balls in pained cries. To attain this, warlocks create a sort of anchor in the target to act as a beacon to shadow energies, allowing them to manipulate far more then they normally could by trying to do it all at once. While less apparent, the shadow energies also will decay and erode non-living things slowly, giving some benefit to normally pain immune things.

Corruption: Similar to the Curse of Agony, merely flooding a target with shadow energy to cause their body aches, pains and to decay flesh for more powerful warlocks able to better manipulate the shadows.