Aminet 41/Aminet 41 (2001)(Schatztruhe)[!][Feb 2001].iso/Aminet/game/role/oangband.lha/Oangband050b/help/magic.txt

Text File | 2000-10-12 | 13KB | 232 lines

=================== Casting Spells and Using Magical 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.


=== Casting Spells ===

     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 Oangband, it is far easier to confuse, slow, frighten, turn, or sleep
most monsters, and many creatures (including uniques) are now newly 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.

=== Spell Projection Types ===

     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.

     "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).


=== The Four Realms of Magic ===

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:
          Unlike other classes, who journey deep into the dungeon to slay
     Morgoth and free the cosmos from darkness and fear, Necromancers and
     Assassins aspire to replace him with themselves.
          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.


=== Shapeshifts ===

Listing of shapeshifts and their effects.  All shapeshifts chop mana
in to 2/3 of normal.  All shapeshifts reduce shooting and throwing
skills, in most cases to abysmal levels.  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 any permanent protection from fire.
             Temporary ofrms of fire resistance (spells and potions) are still
             useable.

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 never resistant to light, never double-resistant to fire,
            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 humman-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.

=== Warrior special ability:  Pseudo-probing ===

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.


=== Using Magical Devices ===

     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...


=== Ways to Hinder Monsters ===

     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.

Check the monster health bar for the monster's current status.