damages from various spells--balancing!

[Peter Mardahl <>]

I did a little test of the damage potential from various spells.
I calculated (by experiment) the total damage done by each of the spells
to all the map it affects.

Here's the result:
spell			damage		cost		ratio
 magic bullet            6               1               6
 small fireball          536             5               107
 medium fireball         2584            8               323
 large fireball          7192            13              553
 burning hands           540             5               108
 small lightning         768             5               153
 large lightning         3072            8               384
 magic missile           10              2               5
 create bomb             672             20              33
 icestorm                852             7               121
 destruction             1000            50              20
 holy word               432             6               72
 hellfire                4504            14              321
 dragonbreath            7800            30              260
 large icestorm          7800            30              260
 firebolt                1080            4               270
 frostbolt               1584            4               396
 shockwave               38260           45              850
 color spray             6360            35              181
 ball lightning          320             10              32


How to interpret these isn't really clear.  The damage numbers represent
absolute maximum damages that these spells could deliver (with some
innaccuracy for fireball spells).  Probably only 5% of a shockwave's
maximum can be expected to be applied to monsters, while maybe 50% of
a fireball's might be.

But I think it's clear some balancing needs to be done.  (I'll work on
that tomorrow).

I just thought that the people on the list might be amused by this.

PeterM