Meta Magic: Elemental Blast

3000 OM - Requires: Ranged Proficiency, Area Attack, Homing Proficiency, Debuff Proficiency

Ebony begins the spell with a five-second incantation specifying an element to attack with. Some elements impact both the effects and appearance of the spell (see above), while others solely change how the spell looks (and just do raw damage, leaving "magical burns" on the impact site). During these first five seconds, Ebony needs at least one free hand, cannot move (but can rotate), and must continue speaking (note that she doesn't need to be heard, so as long as her mouth can open and close, the spell will still work - hence it can be done under water). These five seconds are not very fatiguing. If Ebony takes damage while casting the spell, it fails and must be restarted. She may make any motions with the hands and arms required to be free that she chooses - if casting an earth spell they may be closed and rough, but for an air spell they may move and flow much more quickly.

After this, Ebony has two choices. Either cast the spell as it is (by which it will travel in a straight line at the speed of an arrow and dissipate after 5 seconds) or add any combinations of modifiers. Each modifier takes five seconds chant, can only be added to the spell once unless specified otherwise, and can be added in any order. The spell cannot be chanted for longer than 1 minute. Ebony can currently use the following modifiers:

Charged Spell: This incantation increases the power of the spell at the cost of time and fatigue. This can be added to the spell as many times as Ebony wishes providing the spell does not exceed a total casting length of one minute (the base spell + 11 modifiers). Ebony cannot move throughout the five seconds of this chant and must have at least one free hand. However, if this modification is added, Ebony needs to use both hands to actually cast the spell (i.e. when she's finished chanting, she needs 2 hands to shoot it).

Homing Spell: After adding this incantation, the spell will follow and curve towards her target. As a consequence, the spell can only travel at half speed, however, it will still travel the same total distance (it remains in the air for twice the time). But, once the spell has travelled for its initial 5 seconds, it slowly starts to dissipate at an even rate. So being hit after 7.5s will do half as much damage as being hit between 0 and 5s, and being hit at just before 10s will feel almost entirely painless. The spell curves after its target fairly quickly, and can make a 180 degree turn in a semicircle with a radius of 3m/10ft and will turn left, right, up and down to pursue its target. Ebony must be able to maintain sight for the 5 seconds that this part of the incantation is spoken, and she must be able to see her target when the spell is cast. The target cannot be changed unless Ebony decided to forfeit casting the spell and start again.

Explosive Spell: This modification increases the area of effect of the spell from being a simple point blast to exploding out in a sphere of a radius of 2m/6ft. The damage of the spell is distributed throughout this area (and weaker at the edges), so the overall damage one target will take is lower than the damage they would take from the non-explosive spell (unless they were hit by the exploding projectile when they will take the full normal damage). During the five seconds of chanting Ebony cannot move and must have 1 free hand. This modifier is not draining to add. Ebony is immune to the splash damage (or effects) of her own spells (n.b. only the splash damage, shooting herself directly would still impact her).

Multi-Spell: This allows Ebony to essentially store spells during the chanting period to all cast together once she's ready to cast. Instead of simply spending 5 seconds modifying the spell, she starts speaking and channelling magic as if she were chanting the base spell. While this occurs the old spell is saved along with all its already existing modifiers (and may not be changed). This does not reset the maximum chanting time of 1 minute. After Ebony chants the new base spell (which may be different to or the same as the one before) she continues working on that spell as usual (being affected but the same restrictions and times, as well as the usual fatigue, if any). Should she wish, she could even choose to add a "multi-spell" to the new spell, allowing another spell to be saved as well. Once she finishes chanting all the spells she wishes to cast (in the order she chanted them), she may then choose to add a couple of fodder words as usual, or may proceed straight to casting them. During this, the first spell that was saved is cast as usual. Then, there is a 1 second delay (during which Ebony does not have to speak, but may choose to). This may be extended to up to 3 seconds with more fodder words. Once the delay is over, the next spell is then cast as usual and the cycle repeats. It is possible that, due to the occasional different speeds of spells (or them following nonlinear paths) two spells could collide. When this happens they phase through each other without interacting. One additional major downside of this is that for every spell Ebony has stored, the potent magic sucks in and attracts energetic objects within 1ft of her (so 3 spells stored = 3ft). This effectively makes her a magnet to all ranged attacks in the area, and should a single one hit her and disrupt her concentration, all progress on the spells will be lost.

Once Ebony has finished all the incantations she wishes to add, she needs to point the 1 or 2 hands required to cast the spell towards her target (unless the spell is homing when variation in the angle is possible to allow the shot to curve). The instant she finishes speaking the last word of the spell, the attack is fired. If the attack takes the form of a lump of rock or physical object, it disintegrates on impact (or explodes outwards if that modification was added). Lingering frostbite, flames, or other effects will not occur. If Ebony wishes, she can speak a couple of fodder words at the end of the spell, no more than 2 or 3 seconds or so. This is just to delay the casting of the spell slightly, and also make the incantation flow better. These words can go over the maximum casting length and have no impact on the actual spell. Ebony cannot move while saying them and needs to have the same number of hands free that are required to cast the spell. During this section, the spell is seen as visible in her hands.

Notes:


 * Due to how tiring using the charged effect on a spell is, Ebony can only do about a minute's worth of it (12 uses) without resting. After that point, Ebony will barely be able to walk, so trying to cast it again could knock her out from the fatigue.


 * Arrows from recurve bows travel at ~150mph (67m/s, 220ft/s). I'm using this speed.


 * Ebony may choose to hold the spell in the hand and throw it, it will still travel in the same way as usual (and at the same speed), thus has no impact on the actual spell itself, or its requirements. Although, if she fumbles while doing this, all work on the spell will be lost. Slight pauses in the casting are acceptable to fill gaps.


 * Not every phrase will be exactly 5 seconds long. A 7-second long phrase will be spoken quickly and narrowed down to 5 seconds, but a 3-4 second one may simply have a short gap at the end.