-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 16
Magical realms and devices
Most classes can use spells, and Warriors can learn to pseudo-probe monsters. Everyone will find magical devices extremely handy in learning about their environment and hurting and hindering their foes.
Characters use magic by typing the 'm' or 'p' keys. Any class may use
either key. They then choose a book, and then a spell. This process can be
sped up for commonly-used spells by using keymaps (see the help file
"macro.txt"). Spellbooks may also be given absolute reference numbers, so that
"m5b" always casts the same spell, no matter where the book is in inventory.
See the help file "objs-mon.txt", section on inscribing.
All classes other than warriors need to carry around books; the pure spell- casters always have nine books, and the half-spellcasters use between four and six. If a spellbook of the player's realm has no useful spells contained in it, it will appear gray in listings and on the main screen.
In FAangband, it is far easier than in Angband to confuse, slow, frighten,
turn, or sleep most monsters, and many creatures (including uniques) are vulnerable.
With skill and patience, you can badly hinder even formidable opponents. On
the other hand, many monster races have at least one intrinsic immunity, high-
level monsters are still very resistant, all attacks of this type are chancy,
and the monster AI is capable of dealing with at least some of your new
tricks.
Note that you may see your bolts whiz about and your balls explode in vivid color by setting the "delay factor", found in options, to (for most machines) between two and four.
The names of spells and magical devices sometimes give you information about what areas they affect, and what shapes they take.
"Bolt", "Missile": Fires a magical bolt in a direction or at your chosen target. Such spells are stopped by the first monster or wall in their way. Some also "Beam" upon occasion.
"Beam", "Spear", "Lance", "Line", "Spark" Fires a beam of magic in the direction you choose, or towards your target. They are quite useful because they do full damage to every monster in a straight line. Wands and Rods of Light work this way. A few beam spells ("spark") have short ranges.
"Arc", "Cone", "Breath" Fires an arc, centered on the direction you choose or on your target, and always originating at your location. These are short-range spells, because arcs lose energy as they expand. All monster breaths are arcs.
"Ball", "Storm" (storms have a larger radius) If you target a specific monster, such spells explode centered at that location. Otherwise, they travel in the direction you choose, and explode as soon they hit a monster or wall, or reach their maximum range. These spells only do full damage to the single grid at the center of the explosion, but can affect monsters that can't see you.
"Orb", "Sphere" Orbs are ball spells that do full damage to every grid they affect, and usually have small explosions.
Some ball spells center on you. Such spells do full damage to all
adjacent squares.
"Dispel", "Confuse/Slow/Frighten/etc. Monsters" A fair number of spells affect all monsters in line of sight (no walls, rubble, or trees between you and them, up to a range of 20).
Sorcery: Although they have lost magical invulnerability and genocide, and will find dungeon destruction spells expensive, mages can learn to recover mana very quickly, and move about the dungeon better than anyone else; it is rumoured that precise control of teleportation is not impossible for them. In addition, mages can recharge the magical items they need to help improve damage dealing ability far better than anyone else. They are skilled at slowing, sleeping, and confusing their foes. Rogues find their spells very handy for searching the dungeon (they are better at this than anyone else), gaining information, improving their combat skill, sneaking up on their unwary foes, and getting out of tough spots. Rogues use five magic books.
Piety: Priests are the shining wielders of holy light, and will eventually be able to hurl radiant spheres, gain an increased light radius, and flood the entire dungeon level. They are formidable champions of Good, with enough evil-smiting prayers to do a lot of dungeon cleansing, and are unexcelled at frightening and turning foes. They can magically recover from virtually all forms of damage more readily then any other class. Paladins are the sanctified knights of the dungeon, masters of the elements, and have six books packed with prayers to aid in combat, protect from their foes, and learn about the world around them. They will even- tually gain an increased light radius.
Nature Magics: Druids are probably the most flexible spellcaster available, and the only one capable of doing significant damage in melee. In addition, they can unleash the cunning and might of nature to hinder, baffle, and then kill their foes. On the other hand, they have almost no dungeon movement spells, and many of their methods of gaining knowledge work poorly or are rather expensive far from trees and sky. In addition, their combat spells are more random than are those of other realms. They will eventually be able to shapeshift into any of five creatures, each of which possesses valuable advantages, but lower maximum mana. Rangers deeply understand their quarry, and will learn about hidden monster attributes of every kind faster and more completely then anyone else. The lore they share with druids allows them to heal themselves and learn about the dungeon, but they have to travel almost everywhere on foot. Rangers use five books.
Necromancy:
Necromancers and Assassins dabble in evil magic, but use their
knowledge to defeat the greatest of evils.
To accomplish this mighty task, Necromancers wield unrivaled damage-
dealing spells, with the most "bang for the buck" of any magical realm.
Unfortunately, their mighty attack is not matched by a strong defence;
indeed they have the sad distinction of being the least survivable class
going. Although at high levels this disadvantage is substantially reduced,
and the forms that they can assume provide important benefits, Necro-
mancers are always going to have to be cautious.
Assassin magic renders them silent and deadly, and eventually allows
them to reliably poison any missile. Assassins use four books.
Listing of shapeshifts and their effects. All shapeshifts reduce mana by a third, and greatly reduce shooting and throwing skills. Various effects can be checked by using the 'C'haracter screen, then typing 'h' twice. Shapeshifts may be canceled by typing ']'.
Druid: Mouse-has superb stealth and very poor combat and magical device skills. Ferret-high DEX, searching, regeneration, and a little extra speed, but serious penalties to Deadliness and magical device skills. Hound-So high is this creature's ability to smell, hear, and see the world around it that they are represented by telepathy. Poor magical device skill. Gazelle-Increase in speed, DEX, and Skill, but penalties to STR, WIS, Dead- liness, and magical device skills. Lion-Bonuses to STR, combat skills, armour class, resist fear and regeneration, and a small bonus to speed, but penalties to CHR/INT/WIS and magical device skill. Elder Ent-Bonuses to most stats, resist cold and poison, see invisible, free action, plus to Deadliness and tunnelling, but loses any feather fall and some protection from fire. Imposes a cap on fire resistance.
Necromancer: Bat-Cannot be blinded, large bonus to infravision, feather fall, speed bonus, but penalties to magical device skill, combat skills, and various stats. Werewolf-Bonuses to infravision, STR, regeneration, and is a fighting machine, but penalties to INT, CHR, magical devices, and aggravates nearby monsters. Vampire-Bonuses to various stats, resist cold, hold life, see invisible, regenerate, fights and uses magical devices well, and is stealthy, but is vulnerable to light (including daylight) and has a cap on overall light resistance, may never have temporary resistance to fire, and has a penalty to CHR, and never has a light radius of more than two. The bows/throws skill penalty is much smaller than for other shapeshifts.
Item based shapeshifts: Lion-As with the Druid spell. Vampire-Like the Necromancer spell. It is not advisable to try to turn a pious or nature-loving character into a Vampire. Wyrm-This form is a human-sized Dragon. Bonuses to most stats, AC, dead- liness and magic device skill. Penalties to stealth, DEX and CHR. Depending on the item that caused the shapeshift, there may be an additional bonus power.
Intrinsic racial shapeshifts: Bear-As Beornings gain levels, their Bear form gains increasing bonuses to STR, CON, armour class, and combat. Bears have small INT and CHR penalties, and are poor magic device skills.
Command to use: 'm'. Command to show ability information: 'b'; 'P' in the roguelike keyset.
Warriors know more about how a given weapon will affect a given monster than any other class. Starting at level 35, they can probe a monster to reveal approximate hitpoints, race, and the basic resistances. The ability costs nothing, takes a full turn to use, and learns about a single monster. The information it provides is never faulty, but sometimes incomplete.
Wands, staffs, and rods are an important part of many adventurers' arsenals, and are critical for mages. The lower-level items are easy to use, the higher-level items can do quite a bit of damage, but they take up a lot of space in your backpack. In addition to these items, certain rare rings can be 'A'ctivated and there are rumors of armors and artifacts that can unleash enor- mous destruction. Mages are the masters of magical items. They can use them with greater confidence than anyone else, learn extra information about them more quickly, and recharge them more safely. If you use magical devices often enough, you will eventually get the message "you feel you know more about...". 'I'nspect the object, and you may very well see extra numerical information about damage, etc. This takes a lot of the guesswork out of using staffs, wands, and rods to kill your foes. If you use wands and staffs, keep your eyes open for scrolls of recharging. Be warned, recharging is not a sure deal...
Sleep: Sleeping monsters can't hurt you - until they wake up again.
Slow: If you can slow down a monster, you are well on the way to killing
it. Slowed monsters eventually return to normal speed.
Stun: Bashing, strong electrical attacks, and some other things can stun
monsters, reducing their spellcasting and melee ability.
Confuse: Monsters may be confused by bright light (blinding), confusion
attacks, or spells of confuse monster. They move randomly about and
cannot cast any spells until the effects wear off.
Fear: Most monsters can be frightened. Those that are will attempt to
teleport away (if they have such a spell) or run. Monsters slower
than you will charge and go down fighting if nearby.
Black Breath: Necromancers can eventually learn to Black Breath their
foes. Until the effects wear off, the monster cannot regenerate.
Hold: Priests can eventually learn to Hold monsters. For a little while,
that monster can do nothing at all, and cannot be harmed by any means.
Wait for the monster to run out of mana: Most monsters have a limited
amount of mana. It may take a long time for them to run out, but
once they do, they'll need a while to recover. Be aware that some
monsters can magically recover mana.
Check the monster health bar for the monster's current status.