NEW PLAYER HELP ON MAGIC

Motmai's Ancient Grimoire of Incantations and Conjuration (M.A.G.I.C for short).

Hiya and welcome to what I hope will shed some insights into the mystic world of spell casting. This isnt intended to be a help file for the experienced players amoungst you. Rather it is an attempt at helping those of you who may/may not have just got your first ever Sorcerer and are now beaming away in the corner thinking.. "Hee hee.. Ive got magic, now no one can stop me..Muhahaha! Erm..hang on .. magic..umm.. exactly how does it work?...err What do I do and can someone help me please?"

Those of you that have read the SPELLSHELP file in Mud2 will notice similarities with this article. I make no excuses for that, this article aims to explain the magic system whilst also retaining the same information, in addition to my own, that SPELLSHELP does.

Once you've touched the touchstone, and lived, you'll then find yourself able to use magic. By typing SCORE (SC for short) or QUICKSCORE (QS for short) youll now see a new variable which shows your remaining magic 'points'. This goes up when you sleep for a while, and goes down when you cast spells. Incidentally, there are certain items that can help your magic increase without sleeping. I wont tell you what they are, but at least it gives you some food for thought. Should you ever use up all the MAGIC your persona has you'll revert back to a non-magic-user and have to 'do the Touchstone' again. Dont say I didnt warn you. :)

What level you are determines what spells you can use. Ie. Every Necromancer has the same set of spells to use, every Warlock has the same set. As you advance through the levels youll find more and more spells available for your use. Once you've hit level 10 (Mage), you will then have access to all, yes ALL, of the spells that are available.

From within Mud2 there are two help files that can assist.
a) SPELLS
b) SPELLSHELP
Typing either of these commands whilst in the game will provide you with information on magic. SPELLS lists all the spells that 'are available to a magic-user of your level'. NOT all the spells, just the ones that are available to you at that level. There are, as you will find out, more spells the higher you progress up through the levels. You CAN attempt unlisted spells, but the chances of them actually working are slim compared to those listed in your SPELLS list. Below I have listed an example of what you could see after typing SPELLS when you are a Sorcerer. Don't worry too much about what '%', 'Automatic' and 'Cost' mean. I'll cover that in detail a bit later. One little tip, if a spell is written in mixed capitals and lower case, then just typing the capitals will still cast the spell. Eg: WHere. Typing WH FIREFLY will cast WHERE FIREFLY. You probably knew that, but if you didnt itll make your life easier.

*********************
SPELL------------%-----AUTOMATIC---COST
BLIND            5         7         7
CHANCE          11         1         1
CHANGE           8         4         4
CRIPPLE          5         7         7
DEAFEN           5         7         7
DIAGnose         8         4        10
DISable          5         7        28
DUMB             5         7         7
GLOW            10         2         2
IGNite           7         5         5
ILlusion         5         7         7
RePair           8         4         4
ReSite          10         2         2
SITE            10         2         2
UNBLIND          6         6         6
UNCRIPPLE        6         6         6
UNDEAFEN         6         6         6
UNDUMB           6         6         6
UNGLOW          10         2         2
uninVISible [2] 10         2         7
uninVISible [2] 10         7         7
UNSITE          10         2         2
WHere [1]       11         1         1


Notes:
        [1] A form of WHERE will work in the Elizabethan Tearoom for
everyone.
        [2] If you uninVISible yourself, the 10%/2/2 version is taken; if
you uninVISible , the 10%/7/7 one is taken for EVERY invisible object
of class , with an extra magical cost of 5 whether any are invisible or
not.
        Note that this can work out rather expensive!
       
**********************

The next command, SPELLSHELP, is a bit of a mind blower to most people who have little experience of using magic. Ive not included it here as it is readily available from within Mud2 itself. I suggest that you read it at least once.

For the sake of the following explantion's I will use the SPELLS list above.

THE % COLUMN.

If you have tried a spell type that WAS NOT listed when you typed SPELLS, then the chance of success will be the % figure multiplied by the level of your persona. Ie, BLIND isnt shown on the Spellbinders version of SPELLS. So if a Spellbinder tried to cast BLIND then the chance of success would be the % figure ( 5 ) times the level of the persona ( SPELLBINDER's are level 6 ). 5 times 6 equals 30. So the chance of success would be 30% for a Spellbinder trying to cast BLIND.

AUTOMATIC.

12 minus the figure in the % column gives the level of the persona that can automatically cast that spell. Using the BLIND spell again. 12 - % ( 5 ) gives 7. You must be at least level 7 (SORCERER) before you can automatically cast BLIND.

COST.

This figure denotes what it will 'cost' you in magic to cast it. Wether the spell is successfully cast or not doesnt matter, the fact that you attempted it means you'll lose that amount of magic. However, just to confuse matters, some spells costs will vary depending upon the target persona, however this is definately not the norm.

RESISTANCE.

Magic-users are less likly to resist the effects of a spell cast upon them compared to non-magic-users. The level of the target also comes into effect. My personal belief is that the difference in level between the two personas determines the level of resistance. I have tested this with a Warlock trying to GLOW a protector. It seems to takes ages for the spell to be successful. However when the same Warlock tries to glow a Necromancer the spell is successful a lot quicker. This can be partly due to the differning levels of resistance agreed, but I dont think thats the main reason.

In Summary.

I hope that this has explained the use of magic in as much detail as you would like. Its not an indepth look at the use of certain items, nether is it a step by step quide to using magic. Its intention as I said at the start of the article was "it is an attempt at helping those of you who may/may not have just got your first ever Sorcerer and are now beaming away in the corner thinking. . "Hee hee.. Ive got magic, now no one can stop me..Muhahaha! Erm..hang on.. magic.. umm.. exactly how does it work?...err.. What do I do and can someone help me please?" In that respect I hope Ive helped.

Take care and be nice to each other.

Motmai. The now 'dead' Warlock. :)