That sounds like a far too sweeping change to make for just a new ADOM version. Suddenly double casting costs for early game damage spells are going to give spellcasters a hell of a day. Especially considering that bolt spells are best used in hallways (being natural funnels for the monsters to line up to be shot) and those are always straight as a die.

The new bouncing rules would also be a hell to code, and you can't have ADOM bolt spells without the bouncing. I think bolt spells were never all that hard to understand and use, and this would actually make them harder to understand and use, even if marginally more useful. This is really something that should be left for ADOM II, with a new engine, and without a playerbase used to twenty years of straight line bolt spells.

Except that it makes the game harder for all PCs and makes it easier for one specific type of PC (that already happens to be particularly easy).

Personally I agree. As you just said, and as I mentioned earlier, bolt spells are best used in hallways and similar straight-line situations anyway. That's by far the easiest way to get monsters to politely line up to be incinerated, and that's not going to change even if they become targetable. The ability to target will only make bolting marginally more powerful... but it will make it a LOT more realistic.

"Could you kindly take a step to the side so I can point my lightning-shooting hand at you? I'd aim my arm myself, but I've really bad rheumatism."

I don't actually think it'd be that complex to code. Whatever angle it comes in from, it goes out the same way -- just mirrored (either vertically or horizontally, depending on whether it's hitting a wall square from the top/bottom or from the left/right). But you may be right about ADOM vs ADOM II. The code structure for Classic might make implementation of such a feature more difficult, I don't know. That's something the Creator would have to decide.

I rather think that the game should be easier for someone who has the ability to teleport, turn invisible, heal themselves, blow things up, raise the dead, turn people to stone, and all manner of practically godlike powers that high level casters in ADOM possess, as compared to that other guy over there. You know, the one with the muscles, who's really good at... well... hitting things, and that's about it. So I've no issue with the game being easier for characters with superhuman powers than it is for characters with... you know... NOT superhuman powers. It really only makes sense.

That said, if absolutely necessary the bolts could still be nerfed as per your previous suggestion by increasing the casting cost, thus eliminating the class-specific decrease in difficulty and keeping it even for everybody.

Well, it is still a game, there are a long list of things in ADOM that don't obey any particular logic other than gameplay balance.

That may be, and while I personally find features that are deliberately illogical to be annoying, inclusion or rejection is ultimately up to the Creator. That said, just because a feature is illogical doesn't mean it is intended so, either. The aiming method of bolting in its present form might just as easily be a throwback from ADOM's simpler days, and if so perhaps it was forgotten and never got upgraded due to being overlooked by, in Silfir's words, "a playerbase used to twenty years of straight line bolt spells" who have a vested interest in the status quo.

The current animations are based on 4 bolt directions (the characters \ | / -). The mere fact of having to create different animations for the bolts to look good is very likely hard to code, even without going into the actual game logic.

That much is true enough. As it stands, it wouldn't be pretty.

Then again, if you want pretty, go with graphics.

Only the first two or three dragons would be able to hit the PC, the others' bolts would not make it past the corner (or they'd begin bouncing).

If that is still too large a downside, then give targetable bolts to PCs but not monsters. Adds believability without sacrificing so much balance.

Bolts are the way they are by design. Not going to change this.