Spell combos
Casting spells in sequence produces effects greater than either alone — fire igniting oil, water conducting electricity, or a chill setting up a shatter — rewarding players who plan multi-spell interactions rather than casting in isolation. Divinity: Original Sin 2 builds combat around exactly this kind of elemental interplay, and Baldur's Gate 3 inherits much of the same system. Designers use spell combos to make magic feel like a genuine system with emergent depth rather than a menu of isolated damage numbers, to reward game knowledge and planning (recognizing 'oil plus fire' before casting), and to create memorable, screenshot-worthy moments from creative combinations. Key decisions: how discoverable combos are (explicit tooltips versus emergent discovery through experimentation), how powerful combo payoffs are relative to single-spell casts (strong enough to reward planning, not so strong they trivialize encounters), environmental interaction scope (does every surface support combos, or select tagged ones?), and clarity of feedback when a combo triggers. Pitfall: combo systems with interactions too subtle or unexplained leave most players never discovering them — a combo system's value is proportional to how many players actually find and use it.
- Dev effort: Large
- Timing: Real-time or turn-based
- Common in: crpg, rpg