We've all heard the in game excuse that there are no balance converts because balance has no opposite.
This doesn't wash, however.
There need to be balance converts so that balance specific spells - such as lotus swarm or sand storm can get past the target's balance resistance.
All other converts work by making the spell hit as the opposite school, but there's no rule that says that HAS to be the case. It's perfectly possible to make a convert for balance that simply turns the target's resistance into a boost.
As an example:
Assume a balance target has a 10% resistance to balance attacks. A convert would turn that target's resistance upside down and now balance attacks do 10% boost.
If there needs to be an ingame justification, there's already a dispel called unbalance. So this convert could simply cause a temporary chaos field around the target throwing that target totally off balance until it's used up.
Balance is deliberately different. Instead of converts, balance wizards get school spells that do non-balance damage. Specifically spectral blast, hydra, and chimera. They aren't quite powerful enough that you'd really want to use them against normal enemies, but they do the job against bosses with high balance resist.
If they made this prism of yours they'd also need to make all the shields that every other school has to deal with. That means both sides too. It means adding 70, 75, 80, 85 shield spells for Balance and "Chaos" to make it fair. It would also require adding Balance only blades and spears and traps. The reason Balance has no prism is one main strength of the Balance school. It has nothing to shield against it. Only Balance creatures have any resist to it. There's no reason at all to weaken Balance by making those changes. It would take away one of the Balance school's unique strengths.
We've all heard the in game excuse that there are no balance converts because balance has no opposite.
This doesn't wash, however.
There need to be balance converts so that balance specific spells - such as lotus swarm or sand storm can get past the target's balance resistance.
All other converts work by making the spell hit as the opposite school, but there's no rule that says that HAS to be the case. It's perfectly possible to make a convert for balance that simply turns the target's resistance into a boost.
As an example:
Assume a balance target has a 10% resistance to balance attacks. A convert would turn that target's resistance upside down and now balance attacks do 10% boost.
If there needs to be an ingame justification, there's already a dispel called unbalance. So this convert could simply cause a temporary chaos field around the target throwing that target totally off balance until it's used up.
The problem is that balance doesn't have an opposite. Its like white light whose opposite is the absence of light. In that, the opposite of balance is the absence of magic, and therefore there would be no direct convert. Many have suggested a prism, perhaps an elemental and spirit prism that break balance damage into component parts... but that is problematic in terms of over game "balance". Doing something like this could only be implemented with random damage (convert balance to random damage of one of the other six schools) or by breaking it into 3 and and attacking 3 times with 1/3rd of each type. Neither of those is really fair to other schools. I do, however, sympathize with the current balance situation as it is considerably harder for balance to defeat their own school (when they have high balance resist) than it is for every other school. I posted the problems as I see it and my suggestions for workarounds here:
If they made this prism of yours they'd also need to make all the shields that every other school has to deal with. That means both sides too. It means adding 70, 75, 80, 85 shield spells for Balance and "Chaos" to make it fair. It would also require adding Balance only blades and spears and traps. The reason Balance has no prism is one main strength of the Balance school. It has nothing to shield against it. Only Balance creatures have any resist to it. There's no reason at all to weaken Balance by making those changes. It would take away one of the Balance school's unique strengths.
Minor note... Chaos is the opposite of order, not balance... much like the opposite of love is often considered to be apathy, not hate. The concept of balance would include both order and chaos within it like yin and yang.
Balance damage is intended to function differently from other types of damage in the game. There are no balance specific charms and wards (that is, blades, shields, or traps) so it is both simultaneously harder to boost but also harder to protect against. The two exceptions to this rule are the Balance Spear given after a wizard casts King Artorius (Balance), as well as the dispel Unbalance you mentioned. These are both Balance specific charms.
However, I do think that Balance resisting monsters are incredibly frustrating to face as a Sorcerer. More so that a Pyromancer fighting Fire monsters or a Thaumaturge facing Ice foes. We are supposed to use our spells that do non-Balance damage: Spectral Blast, Hydra, and Chimera, in order to get around their Balance resistance. The advantage of these "off-school" attacks is that we do not need to search our decks for prisms, and then spend a turn placing the prism on an enemy. However, these types of spells are currently underwhelming in terms of power and variety.
I think a better solution to this problem of Balance monsters would be to improve a sorcerer's repertoire of these non-Balance damage attacks. Hydra could use a slight bump in damage (570 total damage for 6 pips? Centaur and Ice Colossus can hit higher than that!) so that sorcerers are not stuck using Spectral Blast until we get Chimera. We should also be able to learn spells like Spirit Blast, Lycian Chimera, and Lernean Hydra, which are currently only available as treasure and item cards.
Lastly, KingsIsle should consider removing Elemental Shield and Spirit Shield cards from Balance creature's spell decks after Celestia. At Celestia and onwards, most monsters stopped using wards that protect them from damage they are weak against. In addition, most monsters gained an additional weakness. Sorcerers got nothing from this. Nothing gained a weakness to Balance, and Balance monsters still use elemental and spirit shields. Something should be done about this.
