@Ion and Sanity,
Ion and Sanity, good job. I'll be taking this into consideration.
@Devine,
Oh, believe me, it's much more complicated than what you're trying to summarize it into being. While the "element" (i.e. bloodfire, water, earth, gale, shadow, etc.) can help determine what affects what, what's also needed is the physics. Is the spell start in a liquid, solid or gaseous state? Does a spellstart in one state before ending in another through a form of metamorphosis, very much how ice starts as a liquid below freezing, and then freezes after it comes into contact with a solid object? These things can easily offset some elemental interactions. A large earth or rock spell would fare very well in negating an oncoming gaseous spell of most sorts, while water for example would work well on earth (highly compacted dirt) through erosion but only weaken the overall composure of rock (a boulder of sedimentary composure) as well as slow it down further, maybe to a standstill.
Shadow is not "strong against everything else". A spell of greater knockback power than the shadow attack you sent at an opponent might actually be able to redirect it. (Seriously, there's way too much physics in magic, but I guess that's how life works.)
Smoke, depending on the volume, would either bypass the boulder or be disrupted midway. It would not stop a rock or earth spell. Unless the volume of smoke was small, earth would indeed (as you said) do little to stop it.
The reason I haven't mentioned every single detail in this guide is that if the person reading it doesn't start to understand the physics of magic after awhile, even after being given the properties and so on, it's going to be a little pointless. And besides, the guide is already taking up more pages than the roleplay help and guide, which makes it a bit of a long read to some people. (Fortunately, my next guide won't be as long. Or at least, it shouldn't.
04-Aug-2012 12:19:15
