As you enter into Sekiri's study to find out a little more about some of the spells you have now found out about, you see the old man sitting by the fireplace deeply engrossed in a hefty book, which you notice has the title
The Spellcheck Project embossed in the leather binding.
After grabbing Sekiri's attention by merely saying "Excuse me" in what nearly amounts to a yell, Sekiri finally looks up. "Ah yes, what can I do for you today, youngster?" After mentioning your need, Sekiri continues "I was actually just reading some recently published material about that myself. Amazing what some of these youngsters can do with Hex these days, so many different numbers they come up with." As he speaks, Sekiri grabs a couple of books from the shelf and hands them to you. Peering at them quickly you see that they are Spells of Wizardry Volume I, and Spells of Wizardry Volume II, both written by Sekiri Thanatos.
As you thank Sekiri, he adds "A while after I published those, a few people started asking me exactly what those ratings I added to each spell mean. Eventually, I ended up writing an explanation down. I think I have them on a piece of paper somewhere around here." Sekiri searches his desk for a few long minutes. "Ah, here we are." He hands it to you and you quickly
scan the piece of paper for the explanation, particularly interested in the mortality information.
You sit down and open the books and start to read.
INDEX:
OFFENSIVE SPELLS:
Spell size: 25
Guild point cost: 50
Components: A fire cracker (consumed), a staff.
Order of spell: First
Location: Illusionary Arts
Methods: conjuring, charming, staff, air.
Required bonuses: Approximately 200, slightly higher for charming and staff.
Spell details:
Often known as CEIB, this Agatean spell allows you to summon a swarm of butterflies to attack a single target. In attacking the target, the butterflies not only cause damage, but also serve as a distraction. A clever wizard can utilise this distraction to escape from a hostile target, or, they can take advantage of the distraction to strike further while they have less need to vigorously defend themselves for a few moments.
The damage the spell causes is quite respectable, though not in the same league as purely damage spells. The fire crackers can be obtained most easily in the Bes Pelargic guild, though there are other sources in fireworks or party stores. If you're paying for them, they can set you back a little over a dollar each.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 1.5x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: This spell can give a wizard a few more options in their offensive repertoire, even at high levels. You should however take into account the potential personal lethality of this spell when considering whether you are skilled enough to cast it.
Spell size: 60
Guild point cost: 55
Components: A human heart (consumed), a twisted black amulet (sometimes consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: My Firste Demon-Summoning Booke!
Methods: dancing, cursing, summoning, abjuring, banishing.
Required bonuses: Minimum 360-370.
Spell details:
Kelleflumps is actually quite straightforward, simply summoning a demon to attack a single target of the caster's choice. Usually. At other times, the caster's skills will not be equal to the task and they will lose control over the demon, feeling the full force of the attack themselves instead. Naturally, this often leads to a high death rate amongst users of the spell, even with the limited protection offered by
Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator.
Should a wizard not have sufficient skill, they will instead fail to give the demon corporeal form,
and be possessed by it, leading to continuing damage and other effects for a period.
The skill levels mentioned above can be considered minium requirements for a reasonable chance of success, and occasional skill improvements. A wizard who wishes to generate more consistent results with the spell will be looking at skills of at least 430 - 450 bonus, though even these will not entirely prevent backfires.
The twisted black amulet required for the spell is created by
Professor Flambardie's Grim Amulet. The consumption factor of these amulets by the spell is extremely variable, with anywhere from one to a few dozen casts possible. Maintaining an adequate supply of them can be more than a little annoying to many wizards. Wearing these amulets may in time help to protect the caster though, which would make them well worth the effort.
In addition to the components mentioned, the spell currently and absurdly requires the use of a priest's 'system' of alignment to cast the spell, in which the wizard must currently be 'evil', regardless of the purpose to which the wizard wishes to put the spell.
Given all of the above, any wizard would be forgiven for asking why any, even those of the Sages of the Unknown Shadow, would attempt to use this spell. The answer is however, fairly simple, power. The spell is extremely powerful if performed correctly, as you can see from the estimated multiple below. Accordingly, results of even greater than 3000 hit points damage are possible for puissant wizards.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Very High
Mortality Rating: Certain Death
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 5-6x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: Look, if really want to put in the time and effort to gain the required skills, are willing to put up with all of the irritating requirements, and are willing to die on occasion (for those who have an 'arrangement' with Death), when all is said and done, it is an extremely powerful and awe inspiring spell.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 40
Components: A beeswax candle (consumed), a jar of screaming mandrake roots.
Order of spell: First
Location: Invoakatyons in thee Mysterie of Wynd
Methods: evoking, channeling, binding, dancing, air.
Required bonuses: Can start casting at around 200 bonus, slightly higher for dancing.
Spell details:
Being one of the trio of basic offensive area effect spells known to Wizardry, Effermhor's, like
Pragi's Fiery Gaze and
G'flott's Olfactory Nightmare damages all applicable targets in a room.
This particular spell creates a small cyclone of air, which then amplifies the screaming of the mandrake roots throughout the room, effectively dealing sonic damage. The spell is only moderately difficult, and failures of the spell result only in destruction of the jar of screaming mandrake roots, or on other occasions, the resulting removal of your clothing by the cyclone. Unlikely to be a pretty sight, but it will not hurt the caster.
If you use area effect spells frequently, you may often find yourself shopping for components, however the key advantage to Effermhor's as compared to the more commonly used
Pragi's Fiery Gaze, is that it hurts naturally fire resistant creatures such as trolls and stone palms. There may however be some targets that resist this spell, such as hostile trees.
The damage caused by the spell is quite respectable, like all the area spells. The normal average for most wizards would be between 1 and 1.5k hit points, or about three times their offensive bonus, with the possibility of more for powerful wizards. Like all of the area spells, the feedback messages you will receive on casting this indicate damage as a percentage term of the target's hps. The percentage ranges are estimated to be as follows:
Grating on nerves: 0-15%
Hurting ears considerably: 15-35%
Heads shuddering: 35-55%
Eardrums bursting: 55-75%
Blood oozing from ears and nostrils: 75-90%
Bones exploding: 90+%
The jars of mandrake roots can be bought at around $10 from the Alchemists' Guild, the IIL reagents shop, or a shop on The Serpent, Bes Pelargic. Candles can be found at any good light shop, and there are more than a dozen locations around the Disc to purchase them.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 3x
Overall: Must Have
Final thoughts: Almost all except the youngest of wizards will find themselves in need of at least one of the area effect spells. Given the increasing prevalence of trolls coming down from the mountains, making one of them Effermhor's is an absolute must! This is one of the bread-and-butter spells of Wizardry.
Spell size: 20
Guild point cost: 50
Components: A gold ring (consumed) and a wand.
Order of spell: First
Location: Thee Secrets of Artifyce and Crafte
Methods: wand, gold, animating.
Required bonuses: Approximately 240 estimated.
Spell details:
Fiddelmaker's Auriferous Embrace introduces an opponent to the hazards of molten gold.
The caster melts down the gold ring and forms it into a ray of molten gold to attack an opponent, with the damage caused based on the caster's skills.
While the aim of the spell is to show others some of the hazards of an Artificer's work, failures of the spell can be quite dangerous to the caster instead, with damage in excess of 1,500 hit points reported.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 2x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: This spell does provide those members of the Silver Star with an offensive spell utilising their guild skills, however their order is not aimed at combat and that shows in this spell. Given the expense and availability of the components, the spell does not do a great deal of damage and probably won't be found in the arsenal of most.
Spell size: 15
Guild point cost: 25
Components: An iron chain.
Order of spell: First
Location: Introeductyon too thee Strukture of thee Multyverss
Methods: evoking, channeling, binding.
Required bonuses: Around 100 for evoking, 150 for channeling, 170 binding.
Spell details:
Frygellhan's disrupts the orbit of any objects floating around the target, causing them to fall to the ground. The obvious application is for shields floating around wizards by means of
Endorphin's Floating Friend, or household items floating around witches.
The spell can be targeted at a hostile wizard or witch, but may also be targeted at the caster themself for the somewhat routine task of retrieving the shield for other uses, or most commonly, fixing any damage to it.
The chain likewise falls to the ground after the spell, and can be reused. They are however somewhat heavy, so it may be easier to obtain one directly at the smithy, if you intend to fix your shield. They can be obtained in this fashion from Baldwin's smithy on Filigree Street or on Elm Street, both in Ankh-Morpork, or they can be obtained in a variety of other shops.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Useful
Final thoughts: If you use Endorphin's, it is common for your shield to sustain significant damage and need to be repaired. While the shield will often fall, you may not always be conveniently located near a smithy when it does, unlike if you use this spell whilst there. As far as offensive uses go, if you're attacking a wizard, you're probably better off simply using damaging offensive spells instead of using this.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 40
Components: A block of sulphur.
Order of spell: First
Location: Invoakatyons in thee Mysterie of Wynd
Methods: evoking, air, dancing, fire, air.
Required bonuses: Around 200, except for the second air check, at around 220.
Spell details:
Being one another of the trio of basic offensive area effect spells known to Wizardry, G'flott's, like
Pragi's Fiery Gaze and
Effermhor's Hypersonic Assault damages all applicable targets in a room. G'flott's uses a cloud of noxious gas to covers everything in the room and causes damage to all living things with respiratory systems. Certain opponents, such as trolls, may resist some of the damage.
By far the least used of the trio, mainly due to the component, with blocks of sulphur being both the rarest and historically the most expensive of the lot. A few more sources have come onto the market in recent times, and you can buy them at the IIL reagents shop, the House of Magic in Creel Springs, the Alchemists' Guild shop, in Brass Neck, and a store on The Serpent, Bes Pelargic.
As it is the least used, less is known about the spell, though its damage and speed is fairly consistent with the other spells. Likewise, damage reports given to the caster reflect a percentage of target hit points, with the ranges estimated by the wizard Surt to be as follows:
Gasping for air: 0-15%
Coughing: 15-35%
Wheezing painfully: 35-55%
Gagging and looking very ill: 55-75%
Choking horribly: 75-90%
Asphyxiating: 90+%
Failures of the spell appear to do only minor damage to the casting wizard.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Minimal
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 3x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: May be worth a look if you want to branch out a little.
Spell size: 75
Guild point cost: 100
Components: a lit torch (consumed), and a staff.
Order of spell: First
Location: Heavenly Arts
Methods: water, air, earth, fire, channeling.
Required bonuses: For those feeling brave, around 370 for the elementals, 420 channeling.
Spell details:
This spell summons the mighty Storm Serpent as known to the Agateans, effectively a being of pure lightning. The serpent will be summoned from the heavens, and will sweep down and fly towards the target of the spell. The serpent will then not only savage that target, but will also move on and attack another randomly selected occupant, if any. It will continue to attack anything it can in the room until it runs out of energy. The amount of damage with each progressive target will fall.
The tricky part of this spell is not simply the high requirements to actually summon the serpent, where a failure may lead to a significant amount of damage to the caster, but in particular, it is also the difficulty in controlling the serpent once it has arrived.
If your attention and skill waiver for even a moment, the serpent will ignore the other targets in the room and come straight for you. You might say it even keeps a little something in reserve in case it gets to do so, because if it does, you will receive the full force of the spell. Not only that, but the longer the serpent is present, the harder it is to control. That is, the more targets in the room that the serpent must remain to attack, the more likely it is that your control will slip. Current understanding is that your control is based solely on your channeling bonus. Few wizards, even those that can cast the spell, have the skill to retain control of the serpent to attack more than 3 targets, at most. At the channeling bonus quoted above, even 2 targets would be asking for trouble.
Damage feedback that you receive, like those of
Nargl'frob's Empyrean Spear, indicate absolute amounts of damage. The estimated damage multiplier relates to the level of damage the serpent can do just to the first target, the total spell damage would be even higher, if multiple targets are hit.
I rather doubt any wizard reaches the heights that this spell requires without being able to find their own torches.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Very High
Mortality Rating: Certain Death
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 5-6x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: Like Doctor Kelleflump's, JHSD is an awesomely powerful spell in the right hands. However, any wizard planning to use it on a regular basis must likewise be prepared to die on what is possibly a regular basis, from factors outside of their control, such as new targets entering a room just before the final stage of the spell.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 50 / variable
Components: A carrot (consumed), and a lightable torch.
Order of spell: First / second
Location: Spelles of thee Arte of Fyre
Methods: convoking, fire, convoking, fire.
Required bonuses: Around 150 for convoking, 110-120 fire.
Spell details:
The spell summons wave after wave of firebunnies to attack the target, or targets, that you specify. Depending on your skills, you will get an initial number of bunnies in the first wave. The next wave will then have one less than the previous, until the number reaches zero and the spell ends. For example, you may get waves of 6,5,4,3,2,1 bunnies. Random fluxes may cause a particular wave to have an extra bunny, or sometimes one fewer.
The number of bunnies achieved in the first wave is based upon your skills. You will also occasionally get random increases or decreases, such as double or half your normal amount of bunnies. However, unfortunately, due to completely unknown reasons, the number of bunnies that you can get in a single wave from one cast is limited to 12, regardless of how high your skills.
The spell is able to be cast on multiple targets, however to do so increases the amount of guild points required, with a total cost of the original 50 guild points plus 100 gp per additional target, though only one carrot is used.
The amount of damage each individual firebunny does also varies, though not based on the skill of the caster. Previous research by the wizard Aron has indicated seems to follow a normal distribution around a mean of 25 hps per firebunny, with the normal high and low marks being around 15 to 40, though outliers past these marks are possible. This for instance brings the average damage for a maximum skill KOF, i.e. 12 bunnies, to around 2k hit points, though unfortunately spread over a long period. If you wish to calculate your average damage, simply calculate ((n*(n+1))/2) * 25, where n is the number of bunnies in the first wave.
Another feature of this spell is the ability to merge several casts of the spell, meaning to cast the spell a second time on the same target, whilst the first is still active. This feat has a chance of backfiring on the caster if they fail an additional skills requirement, with a failure meaning that the second spell will attack the caster instead.
If the merge succeeds however, a number of additional bunnies is added onto the existing spell, and the spell continues as if it were originally cast with that number. Depending on the skill of the wizard and when it is completed, merging can significantly increase the power of the spell. For example, a moderately skilled wizard may normally get 7 bunnies, but when casting the spell a second time, get an increase to 9, i.g. 7, 6, 5, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. A powerful wizard operating at the level of the limit on the spell may be able to increase their initial wave from 12 to 16 on the second cast.
The chance of a successful merge increases the longer the delay between the spells, though waiting too long will cause the number of merged bunnies to also fall.
There are many fruit and vegetable stalls, grocery shops and wandering merchants that one can purchase carrots at these days, though ranging in price from around 35 cents to the better part of $2. You may also be able to gather them for free at select locations in Scrogden or Dinky. Note, carrots are perishable items and must be pickled if you want them to last.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Est. Offensive Multiplier: Variable
Overall: Useful / Pointless
Final thoughts: KOF can be quite a useful spell to cast at the beginning of combat for low and mid level wizards alike, as it will then do its damage while the caster continues with other spells. The secondary rating of Pointless is aimed at powerful wizards, where their hard fought skills are completely wasted by the limit on the number of bunnies. Their time and energies are better spent elsewhere.
Spell size: 20
Guild point cost: 30
Components: A knife, and a twisted black amulet (sometimes consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: My Firste Demon-Summoning Booke!
Methods: summoning, cursing, conjuring, divining.
Required bonuses: Around the 140 mark to start.
Spell details:
A much tamer spell developed by the wizard Kelleflump, this spell summons an imp to lay heavily on the target's mind. Theoretically, this imp should give the caster an advantage by making the target think of other things. Exactly what form this advantage takes is not well known at this point, but it does cause a small amount of damage to the target on an ongoing basis.
The spell also causes some damage on first casting the spell, though not a great deal.
Like its big brother, the twisted black amulet required for the spell is created by
Professor Flambardie's Grim Amulet. Again, the consumption factor of these amulets by the spell is extremely variable, and does not seem to be strongly linked to skills, with anywhere from one to a few dozen casts possible. Maintaining an adequate supply of them can be more than a little annoying to most wizards.
In addition to the amulets being destroyed, they may occasionally turn cold enough to cause minor damage to the caster, and a full failure of the spell will result in the caster being attacked, though again like its big brother, a magical impact shield should protect the caster.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Unclassified
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 1.5x
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: With the lack of any significant, or at least obvious, effects, and very low damage, this spell is rendered mostly pointless due to the hassle in gaining the amulets. Some may find the odd cast or two worth carrying it, but most won't.
Spell size: 5
Guild point cost: 10
Components: None.
Order of spell: Zeroth
Location: Begynners' Magick
Methods: channeling.
Required bonuses: 85.
Spell details:
Malich's is billed as a battle of wits, namely between the intelligence of the caster and target, and inflicts damage based on the relative strengths of psyches. Since a proper Wizard should be more intelligent than most, they should be able to hurt the target.
Realistically however, that all sounds good, but the amount of damage you can do in this battle is highly limited, and it is doubtful that much more than 50 hps can be inflicted by even the most intelligent wizard.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Student
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: Zero
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: Essentially pointless for all that it uses no components. Likely only useful at very low levels for trying to improve your channeling, or perhaps if you have a pesky rat problem.
Spell size: 5
Guild point cost: 10
Components: A chicken feather (consumed).
Order of spell: Zeroth
Location: Begynners' Magick
Methods: healing, summoning, animating.
Required bonuses: Roughly 70-75, around 90 for animating.
Spell details:
A spell to cause a feather to fly off and stab the target. Like Malich's it is limited to a very low amount of damage, though it does not rely on caster intelligence.
You can buy feathers from Tarnach's in the Magic Emporium or from the IIL reagents shop. Alternatively, you may be able to find chickens to kill and get feathers from, if you really must.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Student
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: Zero
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: Even more useless than Malich's, as it consumes a component, not worth bothering with unless you wish to try and improve your skills at very low levels.
Spell size: 25
Guild point cost: 55
Components: A pinch of tobacco (consumed), a mirror and a pipe.
Order of spell: First
Location: Cunjuryng for Begynners
Methods: air, animating, summoning, channeling, conjuring.
Required bonuses: Around 120, 140, 200, 180 and 220 respectively.
Spell details:
The spell places the target in his own illusionary world. Anything they may see will be changed, exits will be to anywhere, and their speech will be transformed. Targets of this spell will be unable to fight, or protect or follow and will not be able to cast spells or use rituals. They may however wander randomly in a daze.
The duration of the spell is relatively short, but does increase as the skills of the caster do, with the spell also immediately broken if the target is attacked.
There are a number of different mirrors available, including a silver mirror from Bligh Earcrusher's exclusive shop on Park Lane, Ankh-Morpork, and the tobacco and pipe from any good tobacconist's. You can find one in the northeast part of the Plaza of Broken Moons, and in Hillshire.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Manageable
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: Can be quite a fun spell, and also used to annoy for some, which can also be fun. It could also be used to let you get in a first damaging offensive spell if done properly. Do however be careful where you cast it if it is at all possible you will fail, as you could wind up wandering somewhere you have no business, like off a mountain.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 75
Components: A hand (consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Body Parts for the Advanced Student
Methods: summoning, earth, healing, animating.
Required bonuses: Around 230 for healing, 175 for the rest.
Spell details:
Myrandil's is an area effect spell which summons the hands of the dead to hold your enemies in a room for a period of time. When the spell is cast, a number of hands will appear, with the actual number depending on the skill of the wizard. A moderately skilled wizard may expect around 10 hands, with the number increasing up to 20 for the most puissant. Immediately after the hands appear, they will grab the ankles of any applicable target in the room, therefore using two of the hands for each target.
The spell only lasts for a limited duration, perhaps a few minutes, and if the targets do not attempt to leave the room, in even less time than that the hands will even let them go. On the opposite side of the ledger, if any new targets wander into the room, any free hands will eventually try to grab them while they are still active.
If a held target attempts to leave the room while held, the hands will attempt to restrain them. Whether or not they succeed in keeping them in the room will depend on a contest between the caster's offensive skill and the targets dodge skill. The target can attempt to leave as many times as they have the fighting guild points to do. Because of this, generally the caster needs to significantly exceed the target's dodge skill, otherwise probability theory will eventually let them leave; the wizard need to win every attempt, the target only one. Unfortunately, there is no recorded instances of a wizard ever receiving an offensive tm.
A minor fail of the spell appears to be the summoning of only a pair of hands rather than a larger amount, with those hands then grasping for the caster's ankles.
With an ever increasing number of opponents intelligent enough to recognise our damaging spells being cast and flee prior to completion, Myrandil's can be a valuable skills based way of offsetting that trend.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Useful
Final thoughts: A very useful spell, bordering on essential to those who are often in situations where the targets are very quick to avoid damaging spells.
Spell size: 45
Guild point cost: 60
Components: a lightable torch (consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Weather Magick
Methods: water, air, fire, earth, evoking.
Required bonuses: Make it around 225 as a starting point. Perhaps around 250.
Spell details:
Supposedly Nargl'frob came up with this spell way back in antiquity when he saw a bolt of lightning strike a charred tree stump. It uses poly-elemental magic to summon and direct a bolt of lightning at a target.
The power of lightning has waned over the years, however it remains a potent force. As mentioned below, with good methods significantly in excess of the minimum requirements, a wizard may expect to achieve an average damage of around four times their offensive. The damage reports that a wizard receives when casting the spell correspond to absolute values of hit points. Estimated ranges for this feedback are:
The bolt misses more or less, 0-37 hps
The bolt causes their hair to stand on end, 37-225 hps
The bolt sizzles around them, 225-600 hps
The target is surrounded in hazy blue light and you smell burning flesh, 600-900 hps
Blue light streams from every pore on their body, 900-1275 hps
The bolt smashes into them. Greasy smoke curls away from their feet, 1275-1650 hps
The bolt burns a hole straight through them. You can see right through, 1650+ hps
The spell does have a few limitations.
Firstly, it takes up a large amount of your available mind space, and the torches weigh a considerable amount, taking up a large amount of what you can carry.
There is also a moderate chance of the spell backfiring and causing significant damage to the caster. This may be a traditional backfire from a failure caused by having insufficient skills to cast the spell, or, more often, from the caster mistakenly holding weapons such as swords, daggers, axes, or even a quill or pen. Items that do only crushing damage, such as staves or clubs do not impact the spell.
Finally, as the lightning is summoned from above, the spell can only be cast outdoors.
A occasional misconception about the spell is that it is fire based, and hence, not as effective against trolls. This is not so. The attack is lightning, and uses all of the elements and hence works perfectly well against trolls.
Lightable torches can be found in all good light shops located around the Disc, and are often stocked in general stores.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Dangerous
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 4x
Overall: Must Have
Final thoughts: Nargl'frob's fills a vital role in a wizard's arsenal, being a single targeted spell that can do significant damage in one hit, without requiring the very high skill levels of spells such as DKDD. While the limitations are significant, the spell is worth it. You should however be wary of the potential for harm to the caster, and ensure that you are never holding weapons that do sharp or pierce type damage, and that you have sufficient skills and health.
Spell size: 15
Guild point cost: 30
Components: A knife.
Order of spell: First
Location:
Methods: summoning, healing, abjuring, animating.
Required bonuses: 120 for summoning and abjuring, 130 healing, 150 animating.
Spell details:
Narquin's uses
some of the caster's own blood to create an acidic mist that attacks a target(s). If you cast the spell on multiple targets, you will need more of your blood, thus increasing the damage you take, and additional guild points per target.
A significant limitation of the spell is that, as when a wizard takes damage in combat when casting other spells, the pain from cutting their own arm as part of the spell can be enough to interrupt the caster's concentration and lose the spell. While improved skills can reduce this, it cannot stop it.
The amount of damage which the caster receives is usually between one and two hundred hit points for a single target. This compares to around one and half times the offensive bonus of the caster damage dealt to the target.
If the wizard uses the spell
Chrenedict's Calcareous Covering, they may find it difficult to cut themselves to use their own blood. The only remedy for this problem is the use of a sparkling knife, which can be bought from the travelling shop and cuts through hardened skin.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Managable
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 1.5x
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: This is a fairly easy spell that may prove useful in that it deals a small, but not negligible, amount of damage without requiring consumable components. It is not to be recommended as a primary offensive spell, however.
Spell size: 25
Guild point cost: 50
Components: A brass ring.
Order of spell: First
Location: Thee Dyscyplyne of thee Stoane
Methods: evoking, binding, earth, fire, binding.
Required bonuses: Mostly around the 130 mark, fire is a little easier.
Spell details:
Old Bellicus' transfers the hardness of brass to your knuckles for a period. This results in anything you hit really feeling the difference.
The spell does not change your chances of hitting an opponent with your fists, only the damage that they take when you do. Accordingly, it is not terribly useful unless you have some unarmed fighting skill. The spell does not last particularly long for moderate skills, but the damage increase is still fairly significant.
The spell has in the past claimed some lives, although the exact method is unknown, and it is therefore uncertain whether it is still dangerous. It is believed to have occurred when casting the spell with a previous cast already active.
Brass rings can be bought in many jewellery stores or taken from the cold dead fingers of many citizens.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Unclassified
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Quite Fun
Final thoughts: It may be fun to use for something a little different, though unarmed is not a particularly popular fighting style.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 40
Components: An eye (consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Ae Thousand and Onne thyngs ae Boye cann Do with Corpse Partes
Methods: evoking, channeling, enchanting, animating, fire.
Required bonuses: Around 180 should be sufficient for most, with 200 or so fire.
Spell details:
Pragi's Fiery Gaze is the final, or in another way, the first, of the trio of basic offensive area effect spells known to Wizardry, along with,
G'flott's Olfactory Nightmare and
Effermhor's Hypersonic Assault. As with them, PFG damages all applicable targets in a room.
Pragi's is perhaps the most commonly used offensive spell. Using the eye it forms a ball of fire which is expanded out from the caster to burn all targets in the room. This means that in many situations you have to be very careful when casting it. You must always make sure that you want to attack all the targets in the room, and if you wish to be really careful check adjacent rooms as well in case something wanders in mid-cast.
Failures of this spell can have effects ranging from hallucinations, to a moderate amount of damage to the caster. It should not cause any significant problems to a careful caster with at least some training in health.
The damage the spell causes is fairly consistent with the other area spells, with a rough guide at around three times the caster's offensive bonus. Again, the damages the caster observes correspond to a percentage of target hit points, estimated as follows:
Singes: 0-15%
Burns: 15-35%
Crisps: 35-55%
Melts: 55-75%
Incinerates: 75-90%
Vaporises: 90+%
One of the limitations of this spell is the damage type of fire. In particular, certain creatures such as trolls, being seen in ever increasing numbers, are quite resistant to its effects. At this point, the amount of resistance does not appear to be a set percentage, but may depend on how much damage is being done. I.e. They will absorb a greater proportion of low fire damage than of a high amount of fire damage.
Much of the popularity of this spell is a result of it, in ideal circumstances, being self sustaining in terms of the components it uses. Accordingly, this is an ideal spell for younger wizards who can cast it frequently and increase their skills doing so. As they say, practice makes perfect.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Minimal
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 3x
Overall: Useful to Must Have
Final thoughts: Almost certainly the best of the area effect spells for youngsters due to the components, older wizards often supplement or entirely replace it with the more versatile Effermhor's, hence the range of overall rating. Another of the bread-and-butter spells of Wizardry.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 55
Components: A hand, a left leg, a right leg, and an eye (all consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Spelles of thee Oryent
Methods: evoking, evoking, enchanting, animating, animating, fire.
Required bonuses: Around 160.
Spell details:
This version of Pragi's other work likewise creates a ball of fire, however in this case, the resulting ball of fire can be directed into an adjacent room. If the caster does not 'direct' the spell quickly enough, or if the caster happens to be mistaken about the direction they attempt to send the shuffler, the fire ball will remain in the room with the caster and explode. Unlike fiery gaze, the caster is not at the centre of the expanding fire, and so is harmed along with the other occupants, in some circumstances even fatally.
At times the spell might be useful in that it technically allows you to vanquish some opponents without them attacking you at all, which may be beneficial. However, it is a much weaker spell, and the components can be a significant issue, particularly regarding their weight.
Because of these limitations, lost gaze is not used even near as often as it's fiery counterpart, and many wizards do not use it at all. Most wizards tend to use
pfg and rely on their shields to protect them.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Est. Offensive Multiplier: 2x
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: The limitations of lost gaze drastically reduce the practicality of the spell, and few wizards habitually have it in their memories.
Spell size: 20
Guild point cost: 65
Components: A tigerwood stave.
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Divinational Arts
Methods: air, channeling, divining, binding, enchanting.
Required bonuses: Around 240, 260, 300, 270 and 300 respectively.
Spell details:
Reckless as it may be, this spell causes a dangerous craving within the mind of the target. That craving takes the form of a need to cast a particular spell, or perform a ritual, whichever may be appropriate. Accordingly, it only has an effect on wizards, witches and priests for the most part.
Should the target not satisfy that craving, they will find it more and more difficult to concentrate on other matters, which saps their energy or guild points, with up to a total of 50 guild points taken from their maximum. While this does not in and of itself necessarily cause too many difficulties for the target, less intelligent targets may, instead of ignoring the craving and say, defending themselves, try to cast a wholly inappropriate spell for the occasion and waste their time and efforts.
A failure of the spell will cause the caster to suffer a craving themselves. The tigerwood staff can be obtained from a small shop on the east section of The Serpent, in Bes Pelargic.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate to High
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Quite Fun
Final thoughts: Ok, so it has a very limited range of applicability, and it won't necessarily help the caster too much. But it can be fun to use, and fun to backfire!
Spell size: 10
Guild point cost: 15
Components: A rat tail.
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Begynners' Magick
Methods: charming, dancing.
Required bonuses: 85.
Spell details:
A very simple spell that simply explodes the target. Only if the target is a rat of course. Occasionally a treat will be left behind. You can cast it on a host of rats at once, with an extra 30 guild point cost for each additional target.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Student
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: Zero
Overall: Pointless / Toy Spell
Final thoughts: Unless you are being invaded by a small army of rats complete with attached artillery, a waste of time and effort to carry a specific, low level spell just for rats. Unless of course you just like the fun effects and carry it as a toy spell.
Spell size: 20
Guild point cost: 20
Components: None.
Order of spell: Zeroth
Location: My Firste Demon-Summoning Booke!
Methods: summoning, abjuring, conjuring, banishing.
Required bonuses: 150, 240, 220 and 200 respectively.
Spell details:
Skeetbraskin's contribution to Wizardry is a spell that summons demonic slime from the darkness to remove the inherent light from an object that has been enchanted by
Turnwhistle's Effulgent Autiridescence.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: Unless you constantly go around casting TEA on your most treasured possessions and therefore need to remove the effect, there is very little use for this spell.
Spell size: 40
Guild point cost: 50
Components: A pebble (consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Thee Dyscyplyne of thee Stoane
Methods: earth, evoking, chanting, channeling, dancing.
Required bonuses: Around 300 for earth, 200 or less for the remainder.
Spell details:
Sorsalsean's uses manipulation of local magic fields to disrupt a small area's geothaumic balance, resulting in a localised earthquake.
The earthquake may then cause any appropriate targets that are present to leave the room in a random direction, after a variable period. The duration of the spell will increase as the caster's skills do, and any targets that enter the room after the initial spell was cast will likewise eventually be caused to leave, as long as the spell remains active.
While this spell is classed as offensive, it does not make the target(s) attack you. There have also been some reports of significant damage being caused to the caster if they fail in their manipulation of thaumic fields, though magical impact shields may help to protect them.
Pebbles may be obtained from a troll street vendor in Quarry Lane, from the ground in certain locations around the Disc, or, chipped from a larger stone with a hammer.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: Ok, so it isn't going to be useful every day, since Wizards more often worry about preventing targets leaving, but if you do need to shift someone, this is the way to do it!
Spell size: 40
Guild point cost: 60
Components: One pinch of powdered frog, one pinch of purple mineral powder (both consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Ye Bokke of Polymorphe
Methods: channeling, evoking, enchanting.
Required bonuses: 320, 260, 280 respectively.
Spell details:
Stacklady's causes the target to turn temporarily into a frog, at that a Frog that looks an awful lot like what they were before the spell was cast. The duration of the spell is fairly limited, but does increase with higher skills.
A failure of the spell will turn the caster into said Frog instead.
The now frog-like target will have a few important changes, in addition to the obvious. Firstly, without the ability to use them properly, the target will put down its weapons. Not only that, they will be unable to, if of course they could previously, use many commands.
The transformed target will also have some minor stat changes, but also achieve certain physical abilities, namely a significant boost to their swimming and underwater concealment, and a change to their dodging skills, with it being either lowered or raised to 350 bonus. This may of course make the target much harder to squish than he was before he temporarily transformed.
Purple mineral powder can be gained by pulverising purple mineral nuggets with a hammer. You can purchase the nuggets from the Guild of Alchemists in Ankh-Morpork, or the House of Magic in Creel Springs. Alternatively, purple mineral powder can sometimes be found flowing through the streams of Blue Moon Park in Bes Pelargic. Powdered frog can be purchased for by the pinch from the Apothecary on Prouts in AM, or a small shop in the east section of The Serpent, Bes Pelargic.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: High
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Reasonable Option
Final thoughts: .
Spell size: 35
Guild point cost: 65
Components: A human skin (consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Body Parts for the Advanced Student
Methods: convoking, healing, charming, binding.
Required bonuses: 200, 180, 160, 200.
Spell details:
Von Hasslehoff's gives the target a horrible skin condition. The effect of this is to reduce the stats of the target, and do damage over time.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Unclassified
Est. Offensive Multiplier: Unclassified
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: There may be situations where this spell is useful, but none spring to mind where other spells wouldn't serve even better. Given the weight of human skin, this spell is seldom used.
Spell size: 45
Guild point cost: 40
Components: A rubber knife (effectively sometimes consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Intermediate Artifact Magic, fourth ed.
Methods: gold, binding, rod, enchanting.
Required bonuses: 300, 180, 200, 200.
Spell details:
The spell will allow the caster to turn a targeted weapon either in an opponent, on the ground, or on their person, into rubber. The spell does cause offence, and will cause the owner of a targeted weapon to attack the caster, if the owner isn't the wizard of course.
If successful, the weapon (now rubber) will become a weapon causing blunt damage, if not already of course, causing it to do less damage and become harder to use (more misses). The duration of the spell increases with the skill of the caster, but is reasonable period, of up to 10 to 15 minutes for skilled wizards.
Accordingly, this spell can be very useful if used properly. Depending on the particular weapons, the spell can turn a very dangerous opponent into an easy one. Certainly the main effect is for the rubber weapon to be considerably poorer at knocking down a floating shield, and also reduce the effectiveness against an impact shield. On the other side of the balance, the rubbery weapons will of course ignore your troll skin, however, with the reduced damage the trade-off appears worth it..
On the whole, despite its classification, the end result of the spell is defensive in nature due to it reducing the offensive capability of your opponent.
In addition to the high gold requirement, and the minimum bonus above will leave quite a few failures, the rubber knives can be either somewhat limited in availability or expensive. While this is not ordinarily a problem, failures, or partial failures of the spell will consume the rubber knife. Other failures will include the spell simply not working, or the caster's own weapons being turned into rubber. Loss of the target mid-spell will automatically generate one of these. You simply will use up the knives eventually even with 100 bonus above the minimum requirements.
Rubber knives can be obtained from a weapon shop in the Assassins' Guild in Ankh-Morpork, though only by assassins for 50 pence. Other sources directly available to wizards are a foreign curiosities stall in Djelibeybi for the same price, or from a joke shop on Long Street, Bes Pelargic, for approximately 13 rhinu.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: High
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Useful
Final thoughts: Wonker's can be quite useful against single targets carrying only one weapon, drastically reducing the combat capabilities of the target.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 25
Components: A knife (consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Body Parts for the Advanced Student
Methods: summoning, binding, animating, healing.
Required bonuses: 80, 80, 160, 100.
Spell details:
Wungle's suggests that some body parts of the target get a life. That is to say it animates a part (the spleen) of a target's body, causing it to leave the body and become a spleen runner which travels around, eventually returning to the body if that body is still around. The runner can be killed, and to do so will leave a spleen on the ground.
Understandably, the target isn't too happy with the results of the spell, and will attack you in response. The effect of losing their spleen is to make the target less healthy than normal. The target returns to normal after their spleen returns. Naturally, the hps will also return after a period even if the spleen runner is caught and killed.
Any type of knife will suffice, and they can be obtained from various places such as general stores, armouries, weapon shops and even guild shops. Daggers are not a useable substitute. A good place to get a large number of knives is from Baldwin at his forge in AM.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: The effect is not worth the hassle of carrying around knives, and since it starts combat, the caster has wasted an opportunity.
Spell size: 35
Guild point cost: 50
Components: A human heart (consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Body Parts for the Advanced Student
Methods: summoning, chanting, healing, cursing.
Required bonuses: A little over 200, rising to 220 for the last of these.
Spell details:
Not used for what some students are lead to believe by the name, Wungle's is a spell to draw the life force from an enemy and give it to the caster. That is, it reduces the constitution of the target and increases that of the caster by the same amount. The maximum amount that can be drained is 3 points. Without reasonable skill, it may be that you only get one or two points of con, however, repeating the spell will increase this amount, up to the maximum of three points.
The spell lasts for a reasonable duration and there are many situations where a wizard can use a few more points of constitution and hit points for a few minutes. A failure of the spell may result in the caster being attacked.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Minimal
Est. Offensive Multiplier: n/a
Overall: Useful
Final thoughts: Often used by many wizards to give their constitution and thus, defensive and elemental skills a boost, this spell can prove very useful to those wanting a bit of extra power for their elemental or defensive spells.
DEFENSIVE SPELLS:
Spell size: 25
Guild point cost: 60
Components: A ball of sap, a handful of chalk powder, grade four varnish (all consumed).
Order of spell: Second
Location: Thee Dyscyplyne of thee Stoane
Methods: binding, earth, binding.
Required bonuses: 230 for the binding checks, 150 earth.
Spell details:
Chrenedict's gives the target (not necessarily only the caster) skin similar to that of a troll. The resulting troll skill lasts until the spell is worn away from damage, and is not dependent on time. The spell will absorb a number of hits, each hit wearing away the troll skin until there is nothing left.
Being troll skin, it only absorbs the blows of weapons that do sharp and pierce damage, and also damages those weapons as a troll would do. Any blunt hit is not absorbed, and is thought not to count towards wearing the spell off. A minor note is that the spell does not appear to stop poison from entering your system, even if the means to inject it is. The main example of this is the giant spiders of Gloomy forest.
The amount of 'layers' of troll skin that the caster will receive with a single cast is dependent on their skills. With good skills, in excess of 20 hits should be absorbed. The spell can be cast subsequent times on the same target, but with greatly diminishing returns for the guild points and components spent. That is, each successive cast will add less layers than the one before, and most will find their skin not getting harder at all from the third cast onwards. The total limit you can reach, and the amount dropped at each successive cast likely depends on your skills.
Chrenedict's is best used as a last line of defence after both
Endorphin's Floating Friend and
Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator. This is due to the nature of the spell, as it is layered inside those spells, does not run out, and does not provide protection from all weapons. The protection may also be limited against all weapons aimed at the neck of the target.
You can buy balls of sap from the Guild of Alchemists, or the IIL guild shop for around $2 each. They can also be squeezed from certain trees in the city of Bes Pelargic. The varnish you can buy in the form of a fish carved from varnish at the fish shop on Cockbill Street, Ankh-Morpork, from the IIL reagents shop, or from a merchant in the High Tide covered market, Bes Pelargic for around $4.50 each.
Chalk powder is obtained by pulverising white mineral pebbles. The pebbles themselves can be obtained from a vendor on Quarry lane, found in places like Blue Moon Park, Bes Pelargic, or chipped from white mineral rocks using a hammer. The rocks themselves are available in a Shop on Quarry Lane, Ankh-Morpork or for free from some locales around the disc.
However, while you know perfectly well that these rocks are made of chalk, since you just read it, the spell itself is a little unsure. It will not accept that powder as chalk powder until you compare it to a stick of chalk, looking at both. The sticks of chalk is available in the Legibles store in the Magical Supplies Emporium in Ankh-Morpork.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Must Have
Final thoughts: The first of the bread-and-butter defensive spells. Almost every wizard capable of casting this spell uses it as at least a backup to the other defensive spells.
Spell size: 20
Guild point cost: 30
Components: None.
Order of spell: First
Location: Introeductyon too thee Strukture of thee Multyverss
Methods: evoking, animating, binding.
Required bonuses: 100, 140, 160.
Spell details:
Endorphin's is cast using a shield as the target of the spell. The shield may be either on the caster's person, or on the ground. The spell causes your new friend, the shield, to float around the caster, and then attempts to block any hits which are aimed at the wizard. The shield will remain floating until it is knocked out of orbit by an attack, another spell, or by another floating shield.
This spell is the primary means of defence of any spellcasting wizard. Used in conjunction with
Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator, it provides excellent protection for a wizard. Our floating friend is the very first line of defence against attack, with only blocks that it misses being absorbed by the shields below, until it is knocked out of orbit.
Each time the shield blocks a hit, it is possible that doing so will cause the shield to be knocked out of orbit, at which point it will fall to the ground. Whether or not the shield will be knocked out depends on three key factors:
- The first, and most significant of these, is the weight of the shield, with the heavier it is, the less likely it is to be knocked down.
- The second factor is the power of the hit on the shield. The more powerful the hit, i.e. the more damaging it would have been, the more likely the shield is to fall. It is for this reason that the shield falls most often to 'special' fighting attacks such as crush, impale or even lesser commands.
- Random chance. Like all magic, the results of this spell are subject to considerable randomness.
It has also been suggested that there may be two other factors, which being more subtle, are difficult to prove as a result of factor three:
- The condition of the shield. This has been suggested largely as a result only of empirical evidence which may appear to indicate poor condition shields are knocked out easier. No formal testing to prove or disprove this theory has been completed, but nonetheless, many are convinced it exists.
- Caster's skills. Some have also suggested that the method skills of the caster may continually play a roll as hits are blocked. There is even less evidence to support this theory than the previous factor, and the author does not consider it to be the case at this time.
So, given the first factor, why not float the heaviest shield you can, then?
Well, each time a hit is aimed at the caster, a portion of their attention and skill is required in order to determine if the shield can intercept the hit in time. If the caster lacks sufficient skill, then some of the hits may be missed by the shield and the blow will either hit the wizard, or any other shields they may have. Whether or not an individual hit is blocked by the floating shield is a combination of:
- The first, and most significant of these, is the magic.spells.defensive bonus of the casting wizard. The heavier the shield, the more defensive is required to move it around on a timely basis.
- The second and still significant factor is the skill of the opponent. Differences in blocking rates of up to 20% have been seen between opponents of different skill levels.
- As with the chance for a shield to fall, blocking is of course subject to the law of random chance.
Therefore, a wizard should only float as heavy a shield as they have the defensive skill for, after considering what proportion of hits they are prepared to miss on average. A rough, and not exhaustive, guide as to some key shields to use at certain bonus ranges (i.e. range covers from a decent to fairly high rate) is as follows:
80-100 bonus:
Medium leather shield
120-140 bonus:
Small wooden shield
150-170 bonus:
Small metal shield or
Cloud Dragon shield
160-180 bonus:
Ephebian round shield
170-190 bonus:
Medium bone shield or Kushi umbrella
190-210 bonus:
Medium wooden shield
260-280 bonus:
Medium metal shield or
Thousand Rose shield
290-320 bonus:
Large wooden shield
360-390 bonus:
Large metal shield or
Three star shield
410-450 bonus:
Tsortean metal shield
500-530 bonus: Custom made premium large copper wall shield
One can also create a variety of custom shields at different weights, some of which may fill in some gaps at the list of above. Visit Ug Ogg in his shop in Djelibeybi for more information.
While it is also possible to float multiple shields at the same time, it is not recommended. If a wizard floats two shields, they will often collide, and eventually one will be knocked out of orbit by the other. In addition, often in combat both shields will attempt to block the same blow, and they will interfere with each other and the hit will get through. The only advantage to floating more than one shield is that they must knock them all out individually. In the vast majority of situations however, multiple shields are far less effective than a single heavier shield.
There are however, some further implications in combat from the use of Endorphin's Floating Friend. In combat one can use a number of different tactical attitudes, however any of those other than neutral divert some of the wizard's attention, which is only made up with the use of guild points. Using either offensive or defensive attitude will cost the caster 1 gp per hit blocked by the shield, and insane or wimp 2 guild points.
Furthermore, looking after the floating shield, especially in conjunction with any spell casting, drastically reduces the ability of the wizard to perform any other actions in combat, including both defensive actions such as dodge and parry, and attacking ones. This effect lasts even for some time after the wizard casts spells, or has the shield knocked out of orbit.
Because of these factors, recently some wizards have chosen not to use this spell, instead using only TPA and CCC as the mainstay of their magical defence, combined with the use of either dodge or parry to protect themselves. Often, these wizards also choose to use physical combat for offence as well, as neither of those physical defences work as well when spellcasting.
If a wizard intends to use offensive magic regularly in combat situations, EFF is still absolutely the best defence, when paired with the other two basic defensive spells. Nothing else gives the complete protection the combination provides until they are broken.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Must Have
Final thoughts: While some wizards do choose not to use this spell these days, so that they can concentrate on fighting skills, a proper magically inclined Wizard will almost certainly never be seen without Endorphin's.
Spell size: 40
Guild point cost: 55
Components: None.
Order of spell: First
Location: Body Parts for the Advanced Student
Methods: summoning, binding, animating, healing.
Required bonuses: 210, 200, 180 and 300 respectively.
Spell details:
Grisald's will reanimate a corpse to protect the caster. The corpse is used as the target for the spell, and must be of human origin. The skeleton will continue to protect the caster as would a normal bodyguard for the duration of the spell, or until it is killed. The duration is fairly significant, but it is only possible to summon one skeleton at a time, regardless of skill.
The skeleton summoned will use whatever weapons or armour was on the corpse before its reanimation, whether those were used by the original subject, or added by the caster afterwards. After it perishes, again, any items will be dropped. For best effect, the caster can and should shield the skeleton using
Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator.
Each skeleton will vary in strength depending on the caster's skills. The description of the warrior will give an indication such as slightly fierce, fierce or very fierce. Even the strongest warrior has only around 2k hit points at most, so a shield is probably essential.
Unfortunately, the caster cannot directly order the warrior to do anything, and it will only protect the caster when they are attacked. The warrior may also share in the experienced gained in combat, and so will reduce the amount the casting wizard receives by at least a small amount.
If you fail the spell, one of two things can happen. Firstly, the caster will successfully reanimate the corpse, but it will then turn upon them. The other failure involves the caster falling to sleep after failing to reanimate the corpse. If the latter, then the corpse and any items on it are destroyed.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: High
Mortality Rating: Thyngs Can Go Wrong
Overall: Useful
Final thoughts: This spell can prove to be a very useful fourth main defensive spell for wizards with enough spare memory for the spell and a willingness to share at least some of your experience.
Spell size: 60
Guild point cost: 60
Components: A rhoksial crystal (consumed).
Order of spell: First
Location: Introeductyon too thee Strukture of thee Multyverss
Methods: channeling, evoking, binding, enchanting, convoking.
Required bonuses: 200, 220, 180, 180 and 230.
Spell details:
Heezlewurst's creates a shield against elemental magic depending on the type of crystal used. The buffer spell can be used to protect yourself in combat against other wizards or creatures with elemental attacks, or from backfires of your own spells.
Casting the spell on the red crystal protects you from fire, such as
pragi's and
kof. Blue protects you against cold, green against acid and yellow against noxious fumes. Using all four as the focus protects you somewhat against plasma, i.e.
spear.
As at the time of last testing (some time ago), the spell has only a short duration and even with high skills, the amount of damage absorbed was not by even close to all.
You can purchase the crystals together in a random assortment in a small bag from the Guild of Alchemists in Ankh-Morpork, of from the IIL reagents store.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: This spell is in no way useful or powerful enough to justify its absurd size.
Spell size: 15
Guild point cost: 65
Components: An eye (consumed).
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Everything
Methods: convoking, scrying, divining.
Required bonuses: 200, 250, and 230.
Spell details:
Kipperwald's simply blocks all attempts to scry or longsight anything in the room in which it is cast, for as long as the spell lasts. The spell does not move with you.
Having high perception or scrying bonuses does not help in breaking through the spell.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Moderate
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Quite Fun
Final thoughts: Can be a useful spell if you need some privacy, but can also be a lot of fun casting in desirable scrying locations.
Spell size: 30
Guild point cost: 35
Components: A candle (consumed), a knife, a mirror, and apple and the focus of an octogram.
Order of spell: Unclassified
Location: My Firste Demon-Summoning Booke!
Methods: fire, charming, summoning, abjuring, banishing.
Required bonuses: 150, 150, 175, 140 and 180.
Spell details:
Sageroff's simply summons an imp which will warn the caster if any of their inventory is being stolen. It does not attempt to prevent the theft. The spell is of only limited duration, and it is not known whether the imp's perception is fallible or not.
The apple can be purchased from a variety of fruit and vegetable shops around the Disc, a knife from many different blacksmiths and stores, and there are a number of different mirrors available, including a silver mirror from Bligh Earcrusher's exclusive shop on Park Lane, Ankh-Morpork.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: Better off getting skills that can actually help you avoid being stolen from, rather than just informed that you have been.
Spell size: 10
Guild point cost: 15
Components: A shield.
Order of spell: Zeroth
Location: Begynner's Magick
Methods: evoking, air, channeling.
Required bonuses: 80, 70, 90.
Spell details:
This spell is similar to
Transcendent Pneumatic Alleviator in that it creates a magical impact shield, however it is far weaker. It does not last as long, nor take as much damage and is capped at reasonably low levels.
Sorklin's is another of the spells where the casting time does not decrease with increased skills.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Student
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Pointless
Final thoughts: The rating reflects that Sorklin's is only used until a wizard can cast the more powerful
TPA. Useful to newbies as their first defensive spell.
Spell size: 25
Guild point cost: 45
Components: A handful of fine ash (consumed), and a shield.
Order of spell: First
Location: Invoakatyons in thee Mysterie of Wynd
Methods: evoking, air, chanting, enchanting, channeling.
Required bonuses: 120, 140, 120, 140, 150.
Spell details:
The spell creates a magical impact shield which surrounds the target and absorbs all hits until it breaks. The shield can break either from excessive damage, or from the effects of time. The time duration and strength of the shield is dependent on the caster's skills.
As the shield takes damage, it will change colours to indicate how much of its current strength has been lost. It will move from invisible down through dull red, bright red, wobbling orange and to flickering yellow. Note that these do not indicate any absolute strength, only a percentage of the current strength of the shield, not the original strength. Just prior to the shield breaking completely, the hit that is responsible will actually break through in that particular spot. The rest of the shield will survive for a few moments, blocking the other attacks, until it completely unravels.
If the shield is at one of the lower levels and ceases to take damage, the shield will move back up the scale to invisible again at a constant rate. I.e. a shield that is twice as strong will take twice the time to regenerate. However, once it has regenerated up to invisible again, the new 'strength' of the shield will be weaker than it was before the damage was taken.
In addition to damage, the strength of the shield wanes over time. As time passes, the maximum strength of the shield will continue to fall, until the point at which it breaks completely, even if it has taken no damage whatsoever. This is also believed to take place at a constant rate, so that a weaker spell breaks much faster than a stronger one, even in the absence of damage.
A wise wizard will therefore keep an eye on the duration of their shield. If combat ensues while the shield is nearly at the breaking point, it is doubtful that it will last more than a hit or two before breaking, leaving the wizard practically defenceless.
The time which the spell lasts without taking any damage ranges from about 2 minutes for low skills to up to about an hour with high levels, though it of course varies considerably between spells. Arrant times also often appear such as thirty seconds, or in rare cases, many hours.
The spell is not powerful enough to be used as a primary means of defence in combat. It is broken relatively easy by any reasonable opponent, and is therefore used primarily as a backup to
Endorphin's, both for the hits that pass through, and for after it falls. For those wizards who do not use Endorphin's, it serves as a backup for those hits not dodged or parried.
Since it does not matter which type of shield you use, it pays to cart around only the lightest possible shield. Currently (aside from one rare exception), the lightest available shield is the mounted pewter shield, available in the Djelibeybi market place for around 300 tooni.
Each handful of ash weighs 1/9th of a pound, and so it is relatively easy to carry large amounts. It is readily available with a broom from many smithies, such as those on Filligree and Elm Streets in Ankh-Morpork, or Market Street in Bes Pelargic. It may also be obtained in the remains of certain campfires, and, less safely perhaps, from the remnants of vampires.
Sekiri's Ratings:
Difficulty: Easy
Mortality Rating: Harmless
Overall: Must Have
Final thoughts: No wizard worth his salt or even vaguely salty substitute would be without this spell. A must for all ages!
********************************
[Top]
