Characters have abilities which can help their chances of success in attempting actions. You don't necessarily need skill in an ability in order to attempt an action related to that ability. For example, you can attempt to steal even if you have no Thief ability. The two exceptions are using archery and casting spells, which require the Archery ability and Magical abilities respectively. Abilities of characters are as follows:
Every Magical ability has five basic spells. A character with a skill of one or higher in a Magical ability knows those spells. A character may use a Magical ability to cast one Action spell per gameturn (at level 3, this increases to two Action spells, and at level 4, three Action spells). A character with skill in two or more Magical abilities may use each ability to cast spell(s) in a gameturn. A character may use a Magical ability to cast one Combat spell per encounter (at level 2 this increases to two Combat spells). The same Combat spell cannot be cast more than once in an encounter.
The spellcasting limits for Action and Combat spells are separate.
A character may cast a spell in a Magical ability only if he has a skill level of 1 or higher in that ability. The chance that an action spell will succeed is 15% plus 15% per level. Combat spells have a 30% + 15% per level chance of success. If the spell fails, nothing happens.
Combat spells work exactly as described, with no other major effects. For example, the Psychic Blast spell does not increase your chance to hit in melee, nor does it allow you to flee the combat.
A Pagan kingdom, whose leaders possess minds which are especially sensitive to magical forces, is aided by an Order of Magicians. All Pagan characters controlled by the King have a +10% modifier to their spellcasting attempts, except for White Magic spells.
1. Resurrect character (Abbreviated "RE") (Action spell): A spellcaster in the same province as a deceased character may attempt to bring the character back to life. If the spell is successful, the character returns to life with all of his former abilities, but not his former possessions, and becomes employed by the King who resurrected him. A character may be resurrected at any time after his death. When a Divine king resurrects a hero, his alignment becomes Good, thus enabling the King to gain a character at reduced pay. A Divine King can cast resurrection on one of his own living heroes to turn him into a Good character. Undead characters can be resurrected if they die, in which case they become the same alignment as whoever resurrected them (except for an Undead King.)
After your King dies, you can cast a Resurrection spell on your Royal Heir and get your old King back (you're actually casting the spell on the bones carried around by the Heir.) If another player casts a Resurrection spell on your Royal Heir, you still get your old King back. But as soon as you assign your Heir his new skill levels, or improve any of his abilities by practice or experience, you lose the resurrection option. If the Heir dies, his abilities don't replace the abilities of the dead King for the purposes of this rule.
2. Part Sea (PA) (Action spell): A sea province is transformed into a plains province for the rest of the turn. Fleets or Whales may not enter or leave but land units including Mermen may. Only the province the caster is in, or an adjacent province, can be affected.
Land units may only enter the Parted Sea from an adjacent land province or Parted Sea. They may leave the Parted Sea only to an adjacent land province or Parted Sea. A land unit which entered a Parted Sea in a previous gameturn will find that the Parted Sea must be re-parted in order for the unit to move.
"Part Sea" cancels the effects of "Flood", and vice versa.
3. Bless Province (BL) (Action spell): The tax base of any one province is increased by 60% for one turn. Multiple Bless spells have no cumulative effect.
A Bless spell can remove buried skeletons permanently (the chance is (White-skill x 10%) + 10%.)
Armies "Paroled into population" in a battle are not eligible to become skeletons.
4. Holy Symbol (HO) (Personal Combat spell): The Holy Symbol invokes Divine protection. It reduces an opponent's chance to hit in archery or melee by 10% per skill level. For example, at skill level 1 an opponent with a 50% chance to hit will have his chance reduced by 5% (50% x 10% = 5%).
When used against an undead character or monster such as a vampire or ghost, or an anti-holy monster such as a Demon, the spell reduces its chance to hit by 20% per skill level and inflicts 1-4 damage points per skill level.
5. Spiritwrack (SP) (Personal Combat spell): The caster utters holy words which cause the spirit and body of his opponent to undergo weakening convulsions. The victim can't cast spells or use archery, and the damage he does in melee is reduced by 1/2 hit point per level of ability of the caster, rounded up or down randomly. The spell does not work against undead monsters or characters, or mechanical monsters because they have no spirit, and its effects are halved against monsters with animal intelligence.
1. Charm (CH) (Action spell OR Personal Combat
spell): When cast on a Hero in the same province who leads no armies, allows the caster to hire the Hero at no cost
(however, maintenance costs must still be paid.) Otherwise, it allows the caster to befriend his opponent and escape
from combat unharmed.
When cast by an Undead character, the Charm spell is a Necromatic spell (not a Psychic spell.) When an Undead
King (not a hero) Charms a hero (as an action spell only), he also turns Undead. An Undead King may Charm his own
heroes in an attempt to turn them to undead. Heroes with advanced skills are more resistant to being turned undead
(although the cast chance itself is not lessened.) For these heroes, corruption occurs gradually: alignment will change by
1-3 steps per spellcast.
2. Oratory (OR) (Action spell): The caster may cast the spell on himself or a co-located character. All armies that travel with him are heartened by the oratory and have their quality increased by one level for the rest of the turn. Green armies become Average, Average armies become Veteran, and so on. Casting this spell more than once does not produce a cumulative effect.
3. Clairvoyance (CL) (Action spell): The spell is cast on a character in any province in the world. Everything that happens to that character for the rest of that turn becomes known to the caster. A character can only cast one Clairvoyance spell per gameturn. A subsequent Clairvoyance spell will nullify the one currently in effect.
4. Psychic Blast (PS) (Personal Combat spell): The spellcaster projects a blast of mental energy which stuns the enemy and allows the caster 2-5 free attack rounds.
5. Telekinetic Storm (TE) (Personal Combat spell): The caster creates a telekinetic storm centered close to the victim which seizes small objects and whirls
them in all directions at great speed. The spell does 4-16 hit points to the monster, and some objects will also strike the
caster. If he is at melee range, he takes 4-16 hit points; at bow range, 2-8 hit points; and at spell range, 1-4 hit points.
This spell does not work against underwater monsters.
1. Illusory Terrain (IL) (Action spell): The spellcaster causes the province he is in (or an adjacent province) to appear to be of a different type of terrain. You can select the terrain the illusion will mimic. The illusion has a 15% chance of dissipating per gameturn. The spell only affects someone viewing the province from an adjacent province. Someone who enters it will detect the illusion, but it will still affect armies somewhat: the strength of armies will be halfway between their strengths for the real terrain and the illusory terrain.
2. Phantasmal Armies (PH) (Action spell): This spell causes armies of illusory soldiers to travel with the spellcaster (or co-located character) for the rest of the turn, which increases the strength of the armies he directly leads at a battle by 15% per level of the spellcaster. Casting more than one Phantasmal Armies spell does not have a cumulative effect.
3. Hide Feature (HI) (Action spell): A specified feature in the province occupied by the
character becomes invisible to any explorer, although a King who already knows the feature is there will not be fooled
by the illusion, nor will the Heroes in his employ be fooled. The illusion has a 10% chance of dissipating per turn.
If a monster is currently raiding one of your provinces, then casting this spell on his feature will stop him for as long as
the spell lasts.
4. Invisibility (IN) (Personal Combat spell): The spellcaster becomes twice as hard to hit by archery or
melee attacks for the duration of the combat. If you cast an Invisibility spell in your encounter plan before you steal, it's
worth a +15% modifier to the stealing attempt.
The Invisibility spell also allows a +30% chance to Flee an encounter.
5. Mirror-Image Phantasm (MI) (Personal Combat spell): The caster creates a mirror-image illusion of his opponent and sends the phantasm into combat. To his
opponent, the phantasm is real and initially has exactly the same characteristics as when the spell was cast. The two
mirror images then fight it out, while the caster must concentrate on his illusion, performing no other actions. If another
Mirror-Image spell is cast while the illusion is fighting, both illusions will dissipate.
Before each combat round, there is a chance that the victim will disbelieve the illusion, in which case the illusion loses
its power. The chance of disbelief for each type of intelligence level is listed below. 15% per level of the spellcaster is
subtracted from the listed chance. Divine or Superhuman 120% High Human 100% Medium Human 80% Low Human
60% Animal 40% Mechanical 20%
If the mirror image loses, the caster must continue the fight at the current combat range. If it wins, the real monster is mentally slain and falls to the ground. The illusion then turns on its master, who is in such a deeply involved trance-state that his own sense of reality is distorted. The illusion must be disbelieved (at a bonus of 25% above Medium intelligence) or slain. If the illusion wins, it fades out, and the real monster revives and slays the fallen illusionist. If the illusion loses, the caster automatically finishes off the mentally-slain monster and claims the treasure.
1. Flood Province (FL) (Action spell): This can only be cast on a co-located or adjacent non-mountain land province. It immobilizes all land armies in it for the rest of the turn. No land armies may enter the province. Naval and air movement and transport is unaffected.
2. Tornadoes (TO) (Action spell): When cast against an enemy province which the caster is in or adjacent to, each army there has a 10% chance per level of being sucked up and scattered to the four winds.
3. Earthquake (EA) (Action spell): Wipes out the tax base of an enemy land province adjacent to or co-located with the spellcaster for the current gameturn.
4. Fireball (FI) (Personal Combat spell): When used in personal combat, does 1-8 hit points of damage, plus 1 hit point per level. The spell does not work against underwater monsters.
5. Ice Suspension (IC) (Personal Combat
spell): The caster may suspend the victim in a magical shell of ice, or at least slow it down for a few rounds. The caster
may suspend a monster which has up to 4 remaining hit points per level of the caster in Elemental Magic.
If the spell successfully suspends the victim, the caster will gain whatever magic items are not being carried by the
victim, and may choose between fleeing (with automatic success) or waiting for the ice to melt enough for the victim to
start breaking out, in which case the caster will gain 3 free attack rounds (starting at whatever range is best for his next
combat tactic.)
If the spell is not completely successful, the caster will gain 1-3 free attack rounds, depending on the percentage of the
monster encased in ice. For example, if the victim has 16 remaining hit points and the caster has a skill of 1 in Elemental
Magic, he gets 1 free attack (4/16 hit points, multiply by 3 maximum attack rounds and round up, and you get 1
round.)
Of course, this spell does not work against ghosts, demons and similar creatures which exist only partly in the material
world. Also, it works differently against flying monsters. If the spell is cast on a flying creature, it will do 5-10 hit points
of damage when the creature crashes into the ground, and gains the caster 1-3 free attack rounds.
1. Skeletal Army (SK) (Action spell): If the character is in a province where a battle was previously fought and some
armies were destroyed, he may recruit a horde of skeletons who rise from their graves and pick up the weapons they perished with
on the battlefield. One army per level of ability can be raised, provided that enough armies have perished on the battlefield on
previous turns. There is no recruiting cost, but maintenance costs must be paid at the end of the turn. The caster has no control
over which army type will answer his call. There is a limit of 350 armies allowed in the game (both dead and alive) so after the
first few turns, about 10% of the previously destroyed armies will rot away each turn. The oldest destroyed armies will rot away
when the 350 army limit is exceeded.
The Skeletal Army is identical in all respects to whatever army was defeated on the battlefield, and has all of its
movement points. Skeletal armies controlled by an Undead Kingdom have a 100% chance of fanaticism. An Undead
King also starts the game with one of his armies being Skeletal. A Skeletal Army can be raised in an enemy-controlled
province, which will provoke a fight with whatever forces are defending the province. If a character tries to leave the
Skeletal Armies or transfer them to another character, other than an Undead character, they will dig their own graves
and go to sleep once again. When a Skeletal army dies (but not a non-skeletal army), it is reduced in quality by one
level.
2. Kill Enemy (KI) (Action spell OR Personal Combat spell): In order to cast this spell, the necromancer and his
victim must be in the same province. The spell may not be cast on a monster guarding a feature except as a Personal
Combat spell. The caster makes a figurine of the opponent he wishes dead, then "kills" the figurine by a method such as
sticking pins in it. If the spell is successful, the victim is killed in the same way the figurine was destroyed. If the spell is
unsuccessful, the intended victim will attack the caster with a Berserk temper, tracking him down that very phase if
necessary.
This spell does not work against undead monsters or characters, ghosts, demons and similar creatures which exist
only partly in the material world. Also, it has half the normal chance of working in an encounter in a feature or against a
Hero who leads an army because there is so much guesswork in making the figurine. A necromancer can't use it to
defend himself in an encounter because of the time needed to prepare the figurine. Kings are invulnerable to this spell.
3. Plague (PL) (Action spell): The caster names a province to be afflicted. it must be the same province the caster is in or an adjacent province. If successful, each army in the province has a 10% chance of being destroyed, plus 10% per level of the spellcaster. If a unit survives a plague, it's immunized from dying in future plagues (it may instead drop a level in quality.) Only the four humanoid races are affected. Be careful! The next phase, there is a 15% chance per adjacent province that the plague will spread, and it can spread further each phase after that. Casting more than one Plague spell does not have a cumulative effect.
4. Hand of Death (HA) (Personal Combat spell): The caster makes squeezing motions with his hand, which magically causes his opponent to feel his heart (or other organ of the caster's choice) being squeezed to a pulp. The caster may not cast spells or attack while using this spell, and defends in melee at his Necromancy skill level, not his skill in melee. Each attack by the caster does approximately 1 damage point plus 1/2 damage point per level of ability. The victim can't cast spells or use archery, and his chance to hit in melee is halved. When the caster is hit in melee, his concentration is broken and the spell ends. The spell has no effect against undead characters or monsters, or mechanical or anti-holy monsters.
5. Control Undead (CO) (Personal Combat spell): The
caster may control any undead monster or character with this spell for enough time to drive a stake through its heart (or
otherwise incapacitate it.) Unfortunately, the consequence of failure of this spell is the instilling of a maniacal rage in the
intended victim, which has the effect of increasing its hit points by 50-100%.