A new merchant service is now available to casters - custom bolt messaging. For example, when a wizard normally casts Major Fire (908), this is what they see:

>incant 908
Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Major Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a giant rat.
You hurl a roaring ball of fire at a giant rat!
AS: +12 vs DS: -27 with AvD: +70 + d100 roll: +78 = +187
... and hit for 60 points of damage!
Extreme heat causes a giant rat's right leg to expand and snap. That must hurt!
The giant rat is stunned!
The roaring ball of fire strikes a giant rat, blossoming into a much larger sphere of flame upon impact.
... 45 points of damage!
Left leg completely charred.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds

With custom bolt messaging, they can change the verb and the object that is thrown. For example:

>incant 908
Your hands glow with power as you invoke the phrase for Major Fire...
Your spell is ready.
You gesture at a giant rat.
You conjure a sizzling red hot fireball at a giant rat!
AS: +12 vs DS: -27 with AvD: +70 + d100 roll: +78 = +187
... and hit for 60 points of damage!
Extreme heat causes a giant rat's right leg to expand and snap. That must hurt!
The giant rat is stunned!
The roaring ball of fire strikes a giant rat, blossoming into a much larger sphere of flame upon impact.
... 45 points of damage!
Left leg completely charred.
Cast Roundtime 3 Seconds

You are able to customize the verb and the object that is thrown. e.g. hurl, toss, throw, fling, breathe, exhale, direct. All 20 bolt spells in the game can individually be customized:

111: Fire Spirit Bolt

118: Web

306: Holy Bolt

505: Hand of Tonis

510: Hurl Boulder

518: Cone of Elements, Major Air Bolt

705: Disintegrate

713: Balefire

901: Minor Shock

903: Minor Water

904: Minor Acid

906: Minor Fire

907: Major Cold

908: Major Fire

910: Major Shock

1100: Empathic Assault

1700: Arcane Blast Bolt

1707: Minor Steam

1709: Minor Cold

1710: Major Acid

Cone of Elements (518) actually casts the individual bolt spell at each target, so if a wizard customizes Minor Fire (906), then casts 518 with fire, it will use the custom 906 messaging. Major Air Bolt doesn't exist as an individual spell, but it can still be customized for 518.

GameMaster Estild

Okay, that sounds neat, but I agree that it's more of a "merchant-level" offering than an "Auction-level" offering.

You should expect the same rarity as custom spell prep phrases. Merchants and events can offer predefined and/or fully customizable options.

GameMaster Estild

>> Thank you for the continued expansion of character defining options!

How long until I see hurl Boulder replaced with a fluffy Dwarven cupcake?

Hence the joke?

My ears perked when I overheard this come up at the auction at Simucon. Thanks for making it a possibility. :D

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Cendadric says, "Hmm, a most impressive weapon of note. I'll give you 30 silver coins for it."
You think to yourself, "This deal is getting worse all the time."

BRANDTJRT

Does customizing 1707 then work when you evoke 903 and similar with the others?

Yes.

GameMaster Estild

Does this mean we can change the colour of our lightning? because that would be bloody brilliant! This is such a great change, anything that promotes more diversity and RP gets a big thumbs up from me.

Does the holy bolt customization only take effect when the spell is cast at undead, since when cast at the living it messages identically to minor water?

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Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein

Thank you for the information on that, Estild.

This is an awesome flavor improvement to the RP environment.

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Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. - Albert Einstein