Difference between revisions of "Magic and Spellcasting"

Revision as of 22:50, 20 September 2005

Magic is very similar to Ultima V in that spells are cast by chanting words (eg An Nox), however, spells do not need to be mixed nor ingredents needed. Spells range anywhere from circle 1 to circle 8. The higher the circle, the harder the spell is to cast, the more mana it uses and the longer the cooloff.

Overview

The Schools of Magic

All magic in New Sosaria is broken up into three categories, or schools. Each school of magic represents a unique approach to manipulating the metaphysical world and must be learned separately. Therefore skill in one school has no bearing on or benefit to the spells of another school, apart from the common use of Mana as a power source.

The Language of Magic

Every spell consists of an incantation that is made up from one or more Rune words, or syllables which are written in the Old Sosarian Runic alphabet. Each Rune word has its own distinct meaning and their combination is usually representative of the desired spell effect. For example, the Harm spell An Mani consists of the syllables An which means Negate and Mani which means Life.

Tomes and Scribes

The player can only cast spells that s/he already knows, and to learn a new spell one must acquire and study the appropriate tome for that spell. Each spell need only be learned once.

Tomes can be bought from your nearest Scribe merchant. To read a tome in order to learn the spell, simply press C (shift-C), select the appropriate tome and the spell will be learned. Once you've learned a spell, it may be cast by reciting the correct incantation for the spell. For example, to cast the spell Vas Ort Grav (chain lighting), you'd type "cvog" (Cast: Vas Ort Grav).

Mana and Magic

Mana is the energy source of all spells. The amount of mana you have available for spells is related to the amount of intelligence your character has. A spell will use mana in direct proportion to its circle.

Skill Progression

There are separate player status screens which display your chance to successfully cast a spell that you have learned from a tome. Notice that 0% in a magic skill still gives you a 25% chance of casting a circle 1 spell of that related school of magic, and 0% chance of casting any higher circle of spell of that school.

Casting a spell will raise its associated magic skill, e.g. casting In Lor will train Magery. Once the chance of casting a particular circle of spell reaches 100% then casting it will no longer raise the associated magic skill. You will need to cast higher circle spells in order to improve your magic skill further.

Once you reach 100% in a school of magic you'll have 100% casting rate of all spells in that school.

Spells, Schools and Circles

Magery

Utility spells.

Sorcery

Destructive spells.

Piety

Healing, divine and anti-undead spells.

The Mage's Staff

The serious mage will never leave home without his or her staff (ie: a crook, a shillelagh, or a staff). The advantages of having a staff equipped are:

• faster cooloff
• less mana used per spell
• staff materials affect spell damages, and may have a venomous or vampyric effect
• staves of slaying give increased damage to offensive spells
• increased mana regeneration rate (including during meditation)

Spell Scrolls

The learned scribe may be able to create spell-scrolls. On reading one of these scrolls (eg Scroll: In Lor) the spell is cast with a 100% success rate. Only a subset of all the spells can be made with the Inscription skill.