[Autumn]

For what its worth, I also add that we all desire this.

I wouldn't go that far.

3-4 turn CD so I'm not stuck casting dead spells at the end of my turn against opponents with superior momentum economy and regular Steal, pretty please.

I will say as a note it does make the Diary Lock weapon part a lot more useful, I think that this suggestion is fine personally if Spell Snatch comes with say a 2 round CD, so there are times where equally the spell snatcher has windows where they can't steal spells very reliably, this also makes it so you can mask important spells behind another spell usage, say using Mass > Rescue > Graft is risky, but not Mass > Graft > Brighten as I doubt you'll miss the Brighten.

It is within the lore to say that the spells eventually come back, equally I would not be opposed to recalling the spell again after say 5 rounds (in which case no CD may be needed)

[Collector]

I will say as a note it does make the Diary Lock weapon part a lot more useful, I think that this suggestion is fine personally if Spell Snatch comes with say a 2 round CD, so there are times where equally the spell snatcher has windows where they can't steal spells very reliably.

It is within the lore to say that the spells eventually come back, equally I would not be opposed to recalling the spell again after say 5 rounds (in which case no CD may be needed)

Few things I want to talk about, but I'll say that my bias is pretty clear here; I play casters exclusively. I don't want to deal with this proposed change at all, but there's a few good reasons for that:

• Spellthief already has an exceptionally favourable match-up into casters as it rightly should. Steal became such an oppressive tool with the addition of trickery, and the momentum efficient action of taking the buffs a class needs to function while basic attacking, along with a unique 10% Magic DR and extra actions from critical strikes, is really all it takes. Being told 'just make one of your two actions worse so you don't lose a spell, while your opponent is allowed three actions' kind of sucks.
  

• Diary lock isn't reliable in the slightest. Your average dagger crit joe is likely rocking 90% or more snatch chance by default, and running a weapon part (or being forced to use a tome) for a small reduction to that number in this very specific scenario is never worth it - at least in my eyes.
  
• Counterplay to 'spam' already exists. Whynesfelt and Ooze Armor do this, and the former performs exceptionally well against casters. I swear by Ooze Armor for good reason.
  
• Spell Snatch already fulfills this niche, albeit only in specific match-ups and/or when you feel like gambling. There are plenty of class combinations with smaller spell pools (Performer/Priest comes to mind, or in a strange twist of fate, boxer) where your odds of taking a spell that could outright win you the fight are significant. Got graft in a long teamfight? That's never coming back; pack it up.
  

I understand the class fantasy involved here - I played ST on G6 for a while, and it was some of the most fun roleplay I've had - but playing against this would lead to some of the most disheartening fights imaginable for me. I feel the need to mention that ST has become so prominent and valuable at this point that new casters, such as Ruler (lmao) and Solblader come with preventatives that let them avoid the fate of Spellthief DLC that is Tactician. It's a better pick for a caster than a caster class a lot of the time (healers too, but Priest/ST has been done to death) and gets the anti-mage boons on top of it.

That said? If stolen spells return to the caster after five turns (having been 'recalled' or what have you) all of this immediately goes out the window. Losing an important spell isn't an instantaneous death sentence for a fight anymore; I'd gladly play ball on a field where the fight isn't decided solely by a lost spell, but its loss remains a powerful tool to use against me. I want to see how that plays out.

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If it does go as originally proposed I'd clearly have no choice but to default to Verglas '''casters''', and that's a godless realm populated by range jank, 「Greater Incantation of Expanding Server Lag」, and Entropy. Terrible.

[Rendar]

If Spellthief snatching a spell just put it on cooldown for 5 (or more) turns. That would be prettttttttttty cool compared to like. "Lose a spell forever in this fight."

[Poruku]

I would even go so far as to say spellthief could use a nerf/buff where spells that you haven't stolen this fight are weaker and spells you did steal this battle are way stronger. Thus incentivizing spellthief to actually steal and use the spells in the same fight

[Snake]

Sounds like a funny meme, go for it.