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USING THE SPELL-MAKERThe Spell-Maker is one of Daggerfall's strongest points and it is available to all members of the Mages Guild and members of Temple Kynareth who are rank 6 and above. Using it, you can create your own custom spells. The advantage of doing this is that you can tailor the effects to your needs rather than making do with the standard effects. For example, there isn't much call for long periods of levitation (except parts of the Mantellan Crux). The standard "Levitate" spell duration is 2 rounds, plus 1 round per level. This means that a 15th level character will be levitating for over half an hour of game time when all he needs to do is get across a large gap. With the spell maker, you can drop that duration to 1 round plus 1 round per 20 levels which easily gets you across the gap, but lets you get down the stairs on the other side because the spell will have worn off by then. The Spell-Maker's controls are fairly intuitive. You will get help messages in the upper left corner of the screen as you pass the cursor over the various controls. In the lower right portion of the screen is some fairly important information: Max S.P.: This is the maximum amount of magica that you have available, not including any unequipped items which might give extra spell points. Money: This is how much money you have available to you at the time (including letters of credit). Spell Cost: How much the spell costs, in gold pieces, with the effects you have chosen. Note that "Teleport" always costs "0" gold pieces when it is the only effect (may be different with game versions prior to v.212). Casting Cost: This is the amount of magica it will require to cast the spell as it is currently set up (duration, chance and/or magnitude) and at your CURRENT skill level (including any magical enhancements) in the school(s) of magic required by the spell. If your skill levels go up or down, this figure will change and you can see the new one when you access your spell book. Name: All spells must have a name. It really doesn't matter what name as long as you know what the spell will do for you. I typically use the name of the effect and the duration or chance of success for the spell, but have also used descriptive names like "Armageddon" and "Get Outta Dodge". It's really whatever floats your boat. Prior to the v.191 patch you could reduce or eliminate the spell cost by starting the spell name with a ! or a ?, but that has since been removed. In the lower right-center of the spell-maker screen are the controls for the spell-maker itself: Add Effect: Lets you select the effect(s) that you want. You can have no more than three effects in any given spell. New: Clears the screen so you can start a new spell Buy: Purchases the current spell and adds it to your spell book Exit: Closes the Spell Maker and returns you to the game. In the lower right are the controls for the individual spells. For most non-destruction spells, the area of effect is going to be the caster (I'm told you can make a ranged invisibility spell) and the sphere is going to be magica. Remember that certain critters are immune to certain spheres of magic, so here's where you tailor-make a spell to deal with that pesky Frost Daedra or whatever. Icon: Lets you select the icon that shows while the spell is active (for those spells that have a duration). The default is a yellow square. You do not have to change the icon, but it's there if you want. If you later decide that you want a different icon, you can change it by opening your spell book, selecting the spell and adjusting the icon from there. On my system the up-arrow for changing the icon does not work, but the down-arrow does. To scroll through the options in a different direction, click on the icon itself. Caster: Sets the area of effect to work on only you Touch: Sets the area of effect to the first creature in melee range that you hit Single Target: Lets your spell affect only one target that is beyond melee range Area Around Caster: Sets the area of effect to all creatures in melee range Area At Range: Sets the area of effect to more than one creature beyond melee range Fire: Spell's effect is from fire (so you get a blazing graphic when the spell goes off). Has no effect on creatures immune to fire. Frost: Spell's effect is from frost (so you get a flying ice-ball when the spell goes off). Has no effect on creatures immune to frost. Poison: Spell's effect is from poison (so you get a fuzzy green ball when it goes off). Has no effect on creatures immune to poison. Shock: Spell's effect is from electricity (so you get a blue, sparking ball when it goes off). Has no effect on creatures immune to electricity. Magic: Spell's effect is magica-based (so you get a fuzzy ball when it goes off). Has no effect on creatures immune to Magic. To get the most efficient use out of your magica, you will need to periodically go back to the spell-maker and make new versions of the spells. Although there is not any hard and fast rule about this, you will find that at lower levels you get the most bang for your buck by adjusting the initial chance or magnitude upward and leaving the "per level" part set at 1 or 2. Somewhere around 5th to 8th level, you will get the most bang for your buck by leaving the initial magnitude or chance set at 1 or 2 and adjusting the "per level" increases. The following table contains the spell effects available in the spell maker. D = "Duration", C = "Chance of Success, M = "Magnitude".
Date: 2016-01-03; view: 1289
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