Guide to Magic
Overview of Magic
Magic plays a major role in the conquest of the land and using available magical resources correctly can make the difference between glorious victory and ignominious defeat. There are almost 100 different disciplines of magic, e.g. Pyromancy, that excels at burning enemies and Dark Magic that can summon shadow beings and put terror in the foes. Each magic discipline comes with its own strengths and weaknesses.
Many disciplines bear similarities to each other, yet they have a different focus. Different disciplines may share spells, but spells of the same name cast by mages of different disciplines may differ in their efficacy.
Most mages only know the magic of one discipline. Some rare spellcasters may know two, but they are usually limited to the lower levels of knowledge. Certain very rare mages or powerful spellcasting monsters have mastered multiple disciplines of magic and can wreak havoc on the unprepared because there is never a certainty of what they will throw at their enemies.
Magic Items
The land of Elysium is home to powerful wizards, beguiling witches, dangerous monsters and mysterious locations. There are many kinds of treasures to be found for the intrepid explorer and among them are magical items ranging from useful trinkets to artifacts of great power.
Magic Item Types
Magic items come in six different types:
- Magic weapons
- Magic helmets
- Magic body armor
- Magic gauntlets
- Magic boots
- Magic miscellaneous items
The item types correspond to the item slots of units and a unit must have the correct type of item slot to be able to use a magical item. Usually normal sized humanoid troops have all item slots, larger units usually only have weapon and misc slots, and stranger monsters usually only have miscellaneous slots.
Items can be used by any unit with the correct item slots, not just commanders.
Transferring Items
Items can be transferred from unit to unit by clicking on the item slot where the item is located. This opens the Army Screen, where clicking on the target unit transfers the item to that unit. If the target unit does not have the appropriate item slot or the target’s applicable item slots are full, the item will stay with the current owner and the transfer fails.
Note
- It is possible to give magic items to allies if they are standing in the same square.
- If the bearer of an item dies in combat, surviving commanders pick up the items. If there are no commanders left or their item slots are full, surviving units pick the item up if they have the slots. Items are lost only if there are no units capable of picking them up after the bearer dies.
Magic items are rare and highly seductive items, it is not possible to willingly discard them.
Note
It is not possible to transfer any magic items when you have been ambushed.
Activated Items
Some items have an activated power that can be used, but in this instance the unit using the item must be a commander. If the commander cannot use the activated power and tries to do so, there is a message to that effect (e.g. a non-mage trying to use a spell scroll item).
Generic Item Powers
Most items give the bearer one or more benefits. Magic weapons replace the bearer’s normal weapon with a different magical weapon and may provide other benefits, such as stat increases or special abilities. Most other types of items grant stat increases and special abilities relevant to the item type, such as armor bonuses and resistances for armor, movement abilities for boots and almost anything for miscellaneous items.
Two identical items will not stack their powers when equipped by a single unit.
Tip
2 rings of regeneration will not give better effect than one, but a ring of regeneration and boots of regeneration will stack and yield twice as much regeneration.
Summoning Items
Summoning items summon creatures to aid the bearer in combat. The summoning occurs either at the beginning of the battle or it occurs every round. Summoning items with constant summons are much rarer than items that only summon creatures at the beginning of combat. The behavior of summoned monsters in combat is described in chapter Combat.
Magic Boosting Items
Magic boosting items increase the spell casting skills of the bearer. Magic boosting items come in two varieties: Generic magic boosters and path boosters. Generic magic boosters increase the bearer’s spell casting level in every magic path by one. Path boosters only increase the spell casting skill for a particular magic path, such as Necromancy or Pyromancy.
Magic Scrolls
Magic scrolls are miscellaneous items with an activated power. They disappear after they are used. Magic Scrolls come in different types, spell scroll, magic maps and teleportation scrolls.
Each spell scroll permanently adds a new spell of the scroll’s level into the user’s spellbook. Certain high level scrolls may also add lower level spells in addition to the high level spell.
Magic maps reveal the current contents of a large part of the world, just like scrying but on a larger scale.
Teleportation scrolls teleports the user and units under him to some location.
Magic Armor
There are two types of magic armor:
- Magic armor that grants an armor value.
- Magic armor that grants a protection bonus.
The first of these gives the wearer the designated armor value. If the wearer already has an armor value natively, the better of the two is used.
Tip
Hydra Skin Armor grants an armor value of 2. A Captain has a native armor value of 1, so the armor value of the armor would be used instead of his native armor value. A High Lord has a native armor value of 3, so the native armor value would be used instead of the Hydra Skin Armor’s value. The High Lord would still benefit from the item’s other properties.
The Protection bonus value is added to whichever armor the target has, increasing the overall armor value by the amount of the bonus.
Tip
Our Captain and High Lord from the previous example find a Blacksteel Helmet that provides a protection bonus of +1. If the Captain puts the helmet on while wearing the Hydra Skin, his armor value is raised to 3. Without the Hydra Skin, it would be raised to 2. If instead the High Lord puts the helmet on, his armor value is raised to 4, regardless of whether he wears the Hydra Skin or not.
Multiple protection bonuses from different items stack, and armor from items also stack with protection bonuses from spells.
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