Larian Studios Forums Divinity - Original Sin Divinity - Original Sin - General No earth in beginning earth spells / Spider????

So I tend to favor earth schools of magic and was hoping to incorporate some geomancy into my character, but I was super disappointed to find that it seems to be heavily poison-based. It would be swell if we could get some earth-type spells in the starting lineup, maybe one offensive and one defensive.

Also, why a spider? There are quite a few other creatures that I think suite geomancy much better. Moles, snakes, ants, armadillo, rabbits, etc. It would be cool if the spell let us choose one, or at least called a random creature. Giant spiders, frankly, are a bit overdone.

You already answered your own question of why a spider - poison-based.

There's also a big ol' boulder you can throw at people, plus sexy armor spells.

Regarding the spider, I think a giant serpent would fit the role better, since it feels earth and poisony.

Also, I repeat that I think a lvl one earthy damage spell needs to exist. I really don't want to have to use poison in my repetoir for damage.

But then where would the spider go?

I think games which design 4 elements as separate often lead into this issue - more games should start creating Storm and Magma trees so people wont feel a need for identical trees!

But ultimately, geomancer needs it's own identity, and there's no reason to give it a level 1 dps spell when it has a summon there (as well as a summon later on, no one else gets a level 1 summon).
You don't have to use poison damage, you just don't get to play earth with level 1 rocks.

You eventually get other summons later on such as a wolf or elemental fyi

I'm level 18 and still use spider on all 3 of my mages... it's disgustingly strong still, and stands up well against the earth/fire AOE DPS that I throw around with little care if it hits them or not.

Most of your earth DPS is going to be poison though, and you really won't get it's full effect unless you combine with fire to cause explosions.