Wesnoth Magic Compendium

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Skrim
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Joined: June 10th, 2009, 7:19 am

Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Skrim »

Hi,

Out of random boredom I decided to create a little compendium of all the different classes of magic used in mainline Wesnoth, with lore from the campaigns and unit/race descriptions providing information to the background nature of the various magic types and my own theory filling in a few gaps here and there.

I just made it for fun and it may not quite up to the writing standard required to be of any use to the game, as, say, another random lore page in the Encyclopedia section of the help menu, but if it's good I could brush it up and remove the formulae that I stuck in there whenever noticed patterns in the unit stats to make it somehow useful.

The skill-based magics are general types of magic that I suppose members of any species could learn, but which are predominantly used by humans. Runecrafting and Saurian augury are also acquired and not inherent, but they're race-exclusive so I've given them separate categories. The Faerie magic types of course can be used only by beings with and inherent Faerie nature. Orcish magic I've left out because it's not (not yet, anyway) mainline, it's kind of ambiguous, and there isn't much of it anyway. I've considered Troll fire spells to be part of normal fire magic, and Mermaid light spells to be part of normal white magic - there's no reason that faerie beings should ONLY have to learn faerie magic, and anyway, it fit the pattern well enough.

As for Paladins, they may be mundane, but given that white magic appears more of a semi-mundane 'spiritual' art thingum than a pure formal magic like fire magic or necromancy, and given that Paladins have very white magelike properties, I've considered them to be limited users of white magic too.

Code: Select all

Wesnoth Magic Compendium:


Skill-Based Magic:

    Fire Magic:
        A form of magic that can be learned by any sufficiently intelligent being with an inclination for
        the magical arts, this is the most common form of magic among humans. Drakes are inherently imbued
        with this form of magic but cannot channel it in a controlled manner, either paradoxically because of
        the fact that it is their life force, or because they lack the discipline or inclination towards it, or
        the knowledge needed to control it. While there's no real reason why Elves, Mermen, Dwarves or Orcs
        cannot use it, it is probable that Elves and Mermen look down upon it given the special forms of magic
        available to their races, and that Orcs and most Dwarves simply don't have any interest in such
        wizardry. Apart from humans, a very few Trolls may have acquired some crude fire magic skills as well.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Magic Missile:
            - Users: Mage, Silver Mage.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 9, but may be reduced if user hesitates or makes minor mistakes during invocation.
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns reading from spellbook, 1/4 turns when memorized.
            - Used by novice human mages due to its simplicity to wield, although for every usage they have
              to recite a variant of a complex invocation which, due to their inexperience, they have to
              read from a spellbook. Being humans, they can read fastest and most accurately in full
              daylight and may have problems at lower light levels. Silver Mages, who are far more
              experienced, also use the spell, but unlike novices, they have all of its variations
              memorized and do not need a spellbook to access its power.

        - Fireball:
            - Users: Red Mage, Arch Mage, Great Mage.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 4 x CasterLevel
            - Casting Time: 1/4 turns.
            - While harder to learn than Magic Missile, once learned, Fireball is a simpler spell to use
              and its power keeps increasing with the user's inherent aptitude for fire magic without the
              need to learn anything new regarding the spell itself. The mark of a fully trained fire
              mage, it is a preferred tool in combat for those who do not want to memorize the lengthy
              Magic Missile invocation.

        - Resist Fire:
            - Users: Red Mage, Arch Mage, Great Mage.
            - Passive enchantment.
            - Effect: Resistance to fire - +10% x (CasterLevel - 1)
            - As one's aptitude with fire magic grows, so does their ability to tolerate an assault from
              the very element they control grow.

        - Flame Blast:
            - Users: Troll Shaman.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 5-9 depending on caster's concentration level.
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns.
            - A crude fire magic spell used by the few Troll practitioners of the art, it takes longer to
              cast and is unpredictable compared to the refined, controlled spells used by human magi. The
              spell's damage output depends on how well the user can concentrate its fire on its target,
              and Trolls tend to concentrate better in low-light situations, being irritated by bright
              sunlight.

        - Summon Fire Guardian:
            - Users: ???
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: Flames, 19 gold worth of ingredients
            - Although rarely used, sufficiently powerful fire mages may summon a magical fire guardian to
              do their bidding.


    Silver Magic:
        A subset of fire magic harnessed only by a few highly talented and skilled human Silver Mages, who keep
        the secrets of this field of study to themselves, initiating only a select few talented apprentices
        into their ranks and doing all they can to prevent their prized knowledge from leaking out into the
        wider world. As they have left the study of pure fire magic, their aptitude in that field steadily
        wears away, and hence the silver mages prefer to use Magic Missile spells as their weapon of choice
        instead of their weakening Fireballs. Silver Magic as a field has no clear defining elements, but the
        abilities it grants are varied and powerful.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Teleport:
            - Users: Silver Mage.
            - Utility skill.
            - Effect: Caster can teleport between friendly villages.
            - Allows a Silver Mage to teleport between any two locations with which he or she is familiar,
              with a short casting time. When part of a larger army, the mages will limit this ability to
              teleportation between villages controlled by said army, as they do not have any intention to
              accidentally teleport into enemy-held ground, and more importantly, they have even less
              intention to risk that other magi, allied or opposed, pry into the secrets of their skill.

        - Resist Elements:
            - Users: Silver Mage.
            - Passive enchantment.
            - Effect: Resistance to fire and chill - +50%
            - While a Silver Mage's inherent fire resistance wears off due to declining aptitude in that
              field, they are least concerned, as their new field of study grants them powerful defenses
              against all manner of energy elements, not just fire.


    White Magic:
        An art form quite unlike fire magic, White Magic is based not on pure formal knowledge and acquired
        skill but on the emotion, dedication and virtue of the user. Thus, the Path of Light is not so often
        referred to as magic, but as a 'spiritual' or 'mystic' art, and the effects it produces reflect the
        nature of its source. Again, it can be used by any intelligent being with a strong enough sense of
        empathy and commitment to the Path, but is generally used by humans and Mermaids, with Elves again
        preferring their own Faerie magics and Orcs, Dwarves, etc. simply lacking the personality. The
        abilities gained by the practice of White Magic are focused around healing, light, and the disruption
        of other, more destructive forms of magic.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Lightbeam (Human):
            - Users: White Mage, Mage of Light.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 3 + (3 x CasterLevel) at dawn, varying directly with ambient light intensity
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns.
            - The caster focuses his or her intent, gathering light and focusing it into a damaging beam
              directed at the target. This powerful beam disrupts magical processes, causing especially
              intense damage to targets whose life force or animation depends on magic. The spell's power,
              in a fixed casting time, depends on the ambient light intensity and the strength of the
              caster's will, the latter of which increases with increasing devotion to the Path.

        - Lightbeam (Mermaid):
            - Users: Mermaid Priestess, Mermaid Diviner.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 2 + (2 x CasterLevel) at dawn, varying directly with ambient light intensity
            - Casting Time: 1/4 turns.
            - While the actual Lightbeam spell is identical for both human and Mermaid casters, their
              different preferences and training cause certain differences in effect. Mermaids prefer a
              variant with a shorter casting time than the full Lightbeam used by human white magi, but
              with the trade-off being less intense beams. Otherwise, the spells are alike.

        - Resist Anti-Magic:
            - Users: White Mage, Mage of Light, Paladin, Mermaid Priestess, Mermaid Diviner.
            - Passive enchantment.
            - Effect: Resistance to arcane damage - +20% x (CasterLevel - 1)
            - Devotion to the Path of Light strengthens the devotee's natural life force, making them more
              resistant to anti-magic disruptions than other members of their race.

        - Minor Heal:
            - Users: Paladin.
            - Utility skill.
            - Effect: Heals 4 hp or prevents poison from taking effect.
            - Any practitioner of white magic gains the ability to lightly heal his or her comrades'
              injuries or prevent poison from spreading within them, whilst not having the ability to
              remove the poison from their bodies entirely. This is a relatively mundane skill not needing
              any exceptional degree focus and only basic knowledge of the art of medicine.

        - Major Heal:
            - Users: White Mage, Mage of Light, Mermaid Priestess, Mermaid Diviner.
            - Utility skill.
            - Effect: Heals 8 hp or cures poison.
            - Dedicated practitioners of white magic inevitably gain the ability to heal or cure poison
              fully. Full healing requires that the caster have a strong intent on helping those he or
              she wishes to heal; unlike minor healing, it requires focus and in-depth training, and
              prolonged commitment to the Path of Light.

        - Illuminate:
            - Users: Mage of Light, Mermaid Diviner.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: Caster's staff glows brightly, illuminating the area around it with white light.
            - The most devout of white mages eventually gain the ability to generate light from their
              own power, channeling it through a staff or lantern and illuminating the area around them
              to a far greater degree than mundane torches could ever manage.

        - Enchant Sword:
            - Users: Paladin.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: User's sword will do arcane damage - its strikes will disrupt magical functions.
            - Paladins - knights who have sworn their strength to the Path of Light - can use the power
              granted to them through their devotion to enchant their swords such that, like a Lightbeam
              spell, it will disrupt its target's magical functions with every blow. This allows the
              paladin to gain additional strength when fighting unnatural creations of dark magic, i.e,
              the undead, and if necessary, other magic-dependent creatures as well.


    Black Magic:
        The most dreaded and destructive class of magic, black magic and necromancy can be learned by anyone
        with the talent and will to pursue it, but not many do, as it is hated by all civilized and some not
        so civilized sentient beings and any practitioners of black magic are submit to greatest punishment
        and ostracism. Those who do, however, may attain great power at a great price. Black magic and its
        subset field of necromancy are in may ways the opposite to white magic; whereas white magic thrives
        on positive emotions, empathy and virtue, black magic thrives on negative emotions, distrust and
        destructive intent. While white magic strengthens one's natural life force, black magic weakens it,
        potentially even replacing it entirely with magical power to achieve the state of undeath.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Chill Wave:
            - Users: Dark Adept, Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 8 + Summation(CasterLevel + 1) at dusk, varying inversely with ambient light levels
            - Casting Time: 1/2 turns.
            - The caster focuses his or her energy, accruing darkness to create a blast of chilling magic.
              The spell harnesses darkness, and hence, works better where there is more of it - bright
              daylight will take the edge off of its power. It is relatively easy to cast, and its power
              can scale with the user's black magic prowess, but the spell is difficult to learn initially
              and has a long casting time.

        - Shadow Wave (Human):
            - Users: Dark Adept, Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 6 + Summation(CasterLevel) at dusk, varying inversely with ambient light levels
            - Casting Time: 1/2 turns.
            - The caster focuses his or her energy, accruing raw darkness into a blast of anti-magic,
              disrupting the target's magical functions. Similar in nature to Chill Wave, this spell is
              required learning for all dedicated black magic practitioners, as, given their lack of
              physical strength, it is the only thing that stands between an out-of-control undead minion
              and an ironic death.

        - Chill Tempest:
            - Users: Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 12, increasing variably with caster age, varying inversely with ambient light levels
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns, decreasing variably with caster age
            - A variant of the Chill Wave spell used by Liches, the Tempest fires relatively small blasts
              but with a shorter casting time. Liches ten to, as their power increases, focus not so much
              on putting more energy into each strike as they do on shortening the time taken to conjure
              a strike, with older more powerful liches being able to generate truly terrifying torrents
              of magic. While humans are limited to concentrating their magic into neatly packaged spells,
              only the age of a lich allows such spectacular fluency as to enable such a near-constant
              stream of magical power.

        - Shadow Wave (Lich):
            - Users: Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 9, varying inversely with ambient light levels
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns, decreasing variably with caster age
            - A variant of the Shadow Wave spell used by Liches. Again, they do not care to increase their
              spell power, but rather, to make the spell faster and more fluent.

        - Summon Walking Corpse:
            - Users: Dark Adept, Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A rotting corpse and 8 gold worth of ingredients OR a fresh corpse.
            - A series of magical enchantments placed on a corpse so as to animate it into a loyal albeit
              weak minion of the caster's will. Since only the corpse's body is used, and its soul is not,
              walking corpses have no potential for rebellion and are therefore usable even by novice
              dark adepts who have the talent for it but do not yet have the skill to control souls. As
              such, the corpse retains some of the physical characteristics of its original being but do
              not have the ability to unlock and harness any skills the being possessed in its lifetime.
              One of the enchantments placed on the corpse allows it to instantly produce new walking    
              corpses from any opponent it kills, but this only works for fresh corpses - older rotting    
              corpses require 8 gold worth of ingredients to prepare them for animation.

        - Summon Ghost:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A soul, and 20 gold worth of ingredients.
            - A soul, without its original body, enslaved and enshrouded entirely through necromantic
              enchantments. As ghosts possess their own soul, they do have a free will, and although an
              adept necromancer can suppress this, a sufficiently strong will or an inexperienced caster
              caster could mean that, sometimes, ghosts escape their slavery and are able to exist
              independently. While they lack a body, ghosts do have potential for gaining combat skills,
              and can over time be augmented with more enchantments or different enchantments to complement
              their combat experience and become more powerful beings, such as Wraiths or Shadows. Expert
              necromancers may be able to summon such beings directly, but the cost of ingredients for
              such elaborate spells tends to be relatively high.

        - Summon Skeleton:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A soul, a humanoid skeleton, and 15 gold worth of ingredients, arms, and armor.
            - A skeleton animated by necromantic enchantments and imbued with a soul of a dead warrior to
              allow the creature to call upon its former combat skills. Like ghosts, they have the
              potential to rebel but are generally summoned only by necromancers with enough experience to
              keep their souls firmly enslaved. Experience in combat may allow the soul to learn or recall
              greater combat prowess, and when a skeleton has seen enough combat, its dark owner may
              augment its nature with stronger magic and better arms and armor so as to take advantage of
              the potential thus unlocked. At times, a skeleton or ghost can even act as a remote conduit
              for summoning spells, allowing a powerful necromancer to create and control an army without
              even being present anywhere near the battlefield himself.

        - Summon Skeleton Archer:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A soul, a humanoid skeleton, and 14 gold worth of ingredients, arms, and armor.
            - Similar to normal skeleton warriors, but created from the soul of an archer and therefore
              imbued with different talents and different potential to that of melee warriors. Otherwise,
              skeleton archers behave very similarly to their melee counterparts.

        - Summon Ghoul:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Pseudo-summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A living human(oid), and 16 gold worth of ingredients.
            - Ghouls are not created not from the dead, but from the living. They are humanoids transformed
              by black magic into abominations which have little in common with their former selves, and
              exist as gluttonous, poisonous beasts enslaved to the will of a necromancer. Ghouls still
              retain some of their original natural life force and are therefore, unlike other undead, not
              extremely vulnerable to anti-magic disruption. As they feast on the flesh of the dead, these
              abominations grow and become stronger, tougher and ever more dangerous.

        - Summon Chocobone:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A soul, humanoid and giant ostrich skeletons, 38 gold of ingredients & arms.
            - Uniquely skilled and lucky necromancers who stumble upon the preserved skeletons of ancient
              giant ostrich-like birds are able to produce chocobones, which act as cavalry for the undead
              army. As the soul of the skeleton warrior never experienced anything like a giant ostrich in
              in its lifetime, however, it does not have much potential to change or advance from its
              original summoned state.

        - Summon Death Knight:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer, Necromancer, Lich Ancient Lich.
            - Summoning spell.
            - Requirements: A powerful soul, its skeleton, and 45 gold of ingredients, arms and armor.
            - The most powerful of necromancers, generally liches, have enough skill to enslave even the
              souls of great generals, warriors and leaders and, usually, prevent them from casting off
              their slavery. Once under control, these death knights can inspire the souls of other undead
              to fight with a zeal not normally expected of mindless animated constructs. It may be
              possible that such souls can become death knights on their own upon the death of their bodies
              if the negative emotion they harbor, that of hatred and betrayal, is strong enough to power
              their undeath and bind their souls to their skeletons without formally knowing any black
              magic, but this is uncertain.

        - Touch:
            - Users: Lich, Ancient Lich.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: Caster can drain life force from living targets through contact.
            - An enchantment normally placed on ghosts, Touch can be repurposed as a contact-range combat
              ability by liches. Like the ghost enchantment, this allows the lich to drain the life force
              of a living target and disrupt magical functions upon physical contact.

        - Enchant Staff:
            - Users: Necromancer.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: Caster can instantly summon Walking Corpses on killing an opponent with this staff.
            - An enchantment normally placed on walking corpses, some necromancers choose to use it on
              their staves as well, so as to instantly animate the corpse of any living foe they slay with
              the staff immediately, with no gold requirement.

        - Transform into Lich:
            - Users: Dark Sorcerer.
            - Transformation ritual.
            - In achieving the ultimate goal of necromancy, sufficiently experienced dark sorcerers can
              recant a complex ritual in their dying breaths to transform themselves into liches and
              achieve immortality through unlife. While their bodies rot away, the mind and soul of a lich
              are bound to their skeleton and animated entirely through magic, for they lack any natural
              life force whatsoever. Among their greatest weaknesses is that if the magic that binds them
              together is broken, liches cannot maintain their unlife, and die permanently.



Runecrafting:
    A form of magic exclusive to Dwarves, Runecrafting is skill-based as Dwarves are not inherently magical, but
    is nevertheless extremely different to human magic, based not on the casting of spells but on the enchantment
    of objects as its primary expression of power. It is unknown if non-Dwarf races can use Runecrafting; no one
    apart from the Dwarves has any knowledge regarding the skill, and that alone limits its usage.

    Spells & Enchantments:
    - Enchant Hammer:
        - Users: Dwarvish Runesmith, Dwarvish Runemaster, Dwarvish Arcanister
        - Active enchantment.
        - Effect: The enchanted hammer automatically counteracts target movement, striking more frequently.
        - This enchantment is in the form of runes carved on to a hammer, giving it supernatural precision and
          increased power. Such runecrafted weapons are generally kept by their creators, and not distributed,
          and are hence the signature weapons of runesmiths.

    - Enchant Armor:
        - Users: Dwarvish Runesmith, Dwarvish Runemaster, Dwarvish Arcanister
        - Active enchantment.
        - Effect: Resistance to physical damage - +10% to +30% depending on caster level, damage type.
        - This enchantment is in the form of runes carved on to armor, giving it the ability to weaken and
          deflect blows. Again, rune-imbued armor is generally used only by its creators, the runesmiths.



Faerie Magic:
    Faerie magic cannot be learned by anyone, but is instead inherent in some creatures, who can unlock its
    potential over time through training and experience in order to channel its power in a controlled manner.
    Elves, Woses and Mermen are all inherently faerie creatures, with Woses being most closely connected to the
    faerie realm, and mermen being least so. Each of these races is also connected in a wholly different manner
    to the others, and hence the abilities granted to each are also different.

    Elven Faerie Magic:
        The Elves' inherent faerie nature is widely apparent, although only those few who tread the Path of
        Faerie are able unlock its full potential and control the raw energy of the faerie realm. Yet its
        latent presence is seen even in those who walk the Path of Earth; it allows Elvish Scouts to ride
        through thick forests at astounding speed, it allows Rangers to move stealthily through woodlands
        in a way their human counterparts could not hope to match, it allows Marksmen to shoot with an accuracy
        that only a few humans ever garner even after a lifetime of experience. The drawback is that anything
        that can disrupt magical processes can also cause greater pain to an Elf than it would to a mundane
        human or Dwarf.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Entangle:
            - Users: Elvish Shaman, Elvish Druid, Elvish Shyde, Elvish Sorceress, Elvish Enchantress.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 3-7, variations depending on caster level, training style and dexterity
            - Casting Time: 1/2 to 1/4 turns depending on caster level, training style
            - A spell available to all female elves who walk the Path of Faerie, it causes roots to burst
              from the ground at a certain location and entangle any creature standing there, temporarily
              slowing and hindering that creature. As the spell targets a location, and not a being, it is
              possible for an agile target to evade entanglement depending on how well it can defend itself
              in the terrain on which it is standing.

        - Faerie Fire:
            - Users: Elvish Sorceress, Elvish Enchantress, Elvish Sylph, Elvish Lord, Elvish High Lord.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 7-11, variations depending on caster level, training style and dexterity
            - Casting Time: 1/3 to 1/5 turns depending on caster experience
            - The Faerie Fire spell is an example of the use of the elves' faerie powers in their rawest
              and most destructive manner. It is wielded only by those Shamans who give up their healing
              skills to learn the direct manipulation of faerie energy, and by Lords who are trained in
              the use of faerie magic as an alternative to archery. Those who dedicate themselves to the
              study of the faerie realm can eventually focus greater power into their spells, but any elf
              who casts it often enough will become more fluent and quicker in its use to the point that
              they can unleash veritable storms of faerie energy upon their hapless opponents. This energy
              is capable of disrupting magical processes, and is hence especially powerful on beings that
              depend on such processes.

        - Thorns:
            - Users: Elvish Druid, Elvish Shyde.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 2-3 + (2 x CasterLevel), varying on the basis of caster dexterity
            - Casting Time: 1/3 turns.
            - Those Shamans who embrace the use of the natural world for healing can also call upon it for
              harming their enemies, summoning thorns and enchanting them to strike their enemies and deal
              physical damage.

        - Gossamer:
            - Users: Elvish Sylph.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 6-7 depending on caster dexterity
            - Casting time: 1/5 turns
            - The most powerful of transformed faerie-elves, the Sylphs, have gained power not only over
              flora but also over fauna - instead of roots, they can can cause spider webs to erupt from
              the ground under their opponents, binding and strangling them at the same time.

        - Minor Heal:
            - Users: Elvish Shaman.
            - Utility skill.
            - Effect: Heals 4 hp or prevents poison from taking effect.
            - Elves following the Path of Faerie are generally taught some basic skill, largely mundane but
              aided by their latent magical ability, in the arts of medicine. These Shamans use mild magic
              and natural herbs to heal their comrades or prevent the spread of poison, but are not skilled
              enough to cure poison entirely.

        - Major Heal:
            - Users: Elvish Druid, Elvish Shyde.
            - Utility skill.
            - Effect: Heals 8 hp or cures poison.
            - Shamans who choose to learn fully the arts of healing instead of pursuing a direct study of    
              the faerie world become Druids, and as a result of their learning, their healing abilities    
              grow. They can heal twice as effectively as they used to, and now have sufficient skill to
              completely nullify poison.

        - Resist Disruption:
            - Users: Elvish Sorceress, Elvish Enchantress, Elvish Sylph.
            - Passive enchantment.
            - Effect: Resistance to arcane damage - +10% x (CasterLevel - 1)
            - Those who study the faerie world directly are able to passively use its powers to shield
              their magic from those who attempt to disrupt it, eventually becoming as resistant to it
              as a mundane being would be.

        - Transform into Faerie:
            - Users: Elvish Druid, Elvish Enchantress.
            - Transformation ritual.
            - Those who follow the Path of Faerie to its very ends and fathom the full power of the realm
              inasmuch as it is possible for any elf to do so can eventually become faeries themselves.    
              These faerie-elves, the Sylphs and Shydes, embody the twin aspects of destruction and    
              rejuvenation, harming and healing, the butterfly and the dragonfly, that characterize the    
              versatility of their magic. The benefits of faeriedom are great, but the most noticeable
              changes are the prominent wings that give the faerie-elves a limited flight ability, and the
              extension of their lifespans beyond that of more mundane elves.

        - Faerie Touch:
            - Users: Elvish Shyde, Elvish Sylph.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: Caster can predict movements of enemies and transmit faerie energy through contact.
            - An ability of faerie-elves based on a level of clairvoyance which they gain upon their
              transformation. The faerie-elves can predict the movement of their enemies at close range
              and compensate for it, and instead of using a weapon, can deliver force far greater than
              any mundane being would be capable of through a mere touch of a finger.


    Mermaid Faerie Magic:
        Merfolk are less deeply connected to the faerie dimension than Elves are, and hence have no latent    
        skills deriving from their faerie nature. However, their females, the Mermaids, can learn to harness
        their inherent magic in a controlled manner to produce abilities unique to their species, that no
        others can replicate.

        Spells & Enchantments:
        - Water Spray:
            - Users: Mermaid Initiate, Mermaid Enchantress, Mermaid Siren.
            - Combat spell.
            - Damage: 8-15 depending on caster experience and concentration
            - Casting Time: 1/2 to 1/3 turns depending on caster experience
            - Those Mermaids trained in the control of their species' unique water-based magic can cause
              the water around them to rise into a destructive blasts that deal physical damage to enemies.
              The strength of this blast depends both on how well the caster can concentrate it and on
              how experienced the caster is; Mermaids being diurnal can focus on their foes better in
              daylight than in darkness. The most experienced of these Mermaids, the Sirens, have reached
              the peak of the spell's power and focus instead on casting it more quickly in combat.

        - Naia Touch:
            - Users: Mermaid Siren.
            - Active enchantment.
            - Effect: Caster can predict movements of enemies and transmit faerie energy through contact.
            - An ability similar to the Faerie Touch of faerie-elves, the Naia Touch of Mermaid Sirens
              serves a similar purpose and is nearly identical in function.


       
Saurian Augury:
    Saurians, being mundane creatures with no inherent magic, have learned to harness skill-based magic like the
    humans, but have a unique variation of it. Their practice of Augury is in effect similar to black magic as it
    involves control over the element of cold, and the animation of inanimate matter, but unlike normal black
    magic, Saurian magic also includes a form of healing.

    Spells & Enchantments:
    - Curse:       
        - Users: Saurian Augur, Saurian Oracle, Saurian Soothsayer.
        - Combat spell.
        - Damage: 5-8 depending on caster training, varying inversely with ambient light intensity
        - Casting Time: 1/3 turns
        - Basic combat spell used by all Saurian casters, it gathers darkness into a cold curse with which the
          caster harms his foe.

    - Minor Heal:
        - Users: Saurian Augur, Saurian Oracle.
        - Utility skill.
        - Effect: Heals 4 hp or prevents poison from taking effect.
        - All Saurian casters have some basic skill at medicine, and whether they focus on improving this skill
          or on improving their destructive abilities, they never lose this basic ability.

    - Major Heal:
        - Users: Saurian Soothsayer.
        - Utility skill.
        - Effect: Heals 8 hp or cures poison.
        - Some Saurians pursue the art of healing beyond the basic level and gain the ability to heal more
          efficiently and remove poison rather than just prevent its action. How much of their ability is
          magical and how much is mundane cannot be told, but the talent is nevertheless restricted only to
          the spellcasters within their race.

    - Summon Mudcrawler:
        - Users: ???
        - Summoning spell.
        - Requirements: Soil, water, 5 gold worth of ingredients.
        - A basic black magic spell, this is rarely used by human black mages, as they generally prefer to use
          more powerful necromancy spells. Saurians however generally do not use necromancy, limiting their
          animation magic to usage on inanimate mud, and not the bodies or souls of the dead. Larger, stronger
          Giant Mudcrawlers can also be summoned but at a greater cost in magical ingredients.
:)
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Telchin
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Telchin »

I like it, including those damage output formulas. :D I assume that by mainline you mean units in the core folder as oppossed to those used only by a certain campaign (the abovementioned orcish shamans who are only in Son of the Black Eye), but some of them are used in campaigns only anyways (AFAIK dwarvish runesmiths are only in Sceptre of Fire), so you might include some (mainline) campaign-only units as well. (It's up to you , of course.)
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Gambit »

At first (from the title) I was expecting the Wesnonomicon.
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Skrim
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Skrim »

Telchin wrote:I like it, including those damage output formulas. :D I assume that by mainline you mean units in the core folder as oppossed to those used only by a certain campaign (the abovementioned orcish shamans who are only in Son of the Black Eye), but some of them are used in campaigns only anyways (AFAIK dwarvish runesmiths are only in Sceptre of Fire), so you might include some (mainline) campaign-only units as well. (It's up to you , of course.)
By Mainline I mean this page: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/C/mainline.html
Although there are a few errors on that page regarding resistances, which can be corrected by getting the correct numbers from the in-game help files (I'm using 1.9.5).

There are a couple of well-developed but non-mainline units like the Rogue Mage line from Liberty and the Wose Shaman from DM, that are almost mainlinish enough and already fit the existing pattern perfectly, so I could include them. The Rogue Mages quite obviously use black magic and their spells are cruder, weaker, and most likely easier-to-learn images of those used by the Dark Adept line, and the Wose Shaman obviously uses Faerie magic and wields a more powerful version of the Entangle spell.
The Dwarvish Loremaster line from THoT also have magical attacks and some healing abilities, but it is doubtful as to whether they're actually casters - their weapons could be rune-enchanted crafts that they themselves did not create but were handed down or gifted or something due to their important position in Dwarvish society, and if their unit descriptions are anything to go by, their healing abilities are purely mundane.

Campaign-specific units which represent single unique characters, like the Journeyman Mage -> Elder Mage series (Delfador), the Apprentice Mage -> Dark Mage series (Malin Keshar), or the Dark Queen (Asheviere), I'm not including. I know that personal variances are a huge factor in Wesnothian magic usage, and that there's a massive range of one-off spells used by various characters in the campaign (like Delfador's trans-dimensional travel, or Jevyan's curse of darkness, etc. etc.), and various kinds of non-combat magic that isn't in here, but I can still make a compendium of all the common somehow-combat-related spells that every average Joe caster uses and all the lore regarding said casters, and try to glean some patterns from there without bothering about the unique accomplishments of a few big-name mages.

So that just leaves the Orcish Shamans*. Their magic is completely different from anything else and is... quite pathetic really. There's also almost no info on it. So they'd get a stub to themselves, but that's about it.

*Don't ask about UtBS... just... don't.
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by AI »

Skrim wrote:By Mainline I mean this page: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/C/mainline.html
Although there are a few errors on that page regarding resistances, which can be corrected by getting the correct numbers from the in-game help files (I'm using 1.9.5).
Could you report this then? Otherwise we don't know there's a bug that needs to be fixed.
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Telchin »

By Mainline I mean this page: http://units.wesnoth.org/trunk/C/mainline.html
Yes, I thought so. Some my random thoughts on this subject (feel free to ignore me):
  • I agree on the decision to not iclude unique characters and UtBS stuff (spider lich? seriously? :roll: )
  • The Elder Mage is used not only by Delfador, but also by Crelanu from Legend of Wesmere and is included in the table you have linked. The lighting attack can also be obtained by Mermen in Heir to the Throne and Dead Waters, so you should include it.
  • Given that you have included Chocobones and Death Knights, what about Skeletal Dragon? AFAIK it's used only in Easter Invasion, but it's included in the main folder. I think raising a dragon would be Ancient-Lich-only spell.
  • I'm not sure if Rogue/Shadow Magi use black magic, as they deny being necromacers and claim to be halfway between light and darkness. Of course, they might be speaking about their morality axis, not power source (they use cold as dark sorcerers do).
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Skrim
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Skrim »

Oh no, I'm pretty sure the Rogue Magi use black magic. It says so in their unit description. So that's certain, and also reinforced by the names and cold damage of their spells.

As to whether they're involved in any kind of white magic, that's doubtful. They have no hint of white magic abilities - no arcane attacks, no healing, no exceptional arcane resistance. The magical melee attacks are ambiguous - I'm guessing the Shadow Mage places some kind of enchantment on his sword, and according to the unit description, the Shadow Lord's "astral blade" is entirely conjured of magic and is not a physical sword - perhaps like a wraith's baneblade, but with supernatural accuracy instead of the baneblade's magic-disrupting and lifeforce-draining properties. If anything, I'd place that more in the black magic category than in white magic. White magic does have enchanted swords but I don't think it goes beyond the magic-disruption property that Paladins and Moremirmu from HttT use.
---
The Merfolk only gain a lightning attack through the use of Storm Tridents (which appear in several campaigns), which are clearly enchanted items of some sort, but whose origins are utterly unknown - each time they appear, they're just found floating around, with no further information about them.

Delfador's lightning attack (which is far more powerful than any storm trident) is also not his own, it comes from the Staff of An-Usrukhar, an extremely powerful and extremely ancient magical artifact he received at the Land of the Dead. Otherwise Delf was casting the same Fireball spells as any other fire mage.

So Crelanu would just be one odd anomaly. Then again, Crelanu IS an odd anomaly of a mage... so that makes him an exception. Those two aside, there are no more Elder Mages, and therefore I think I can leave that unit out safely.
---

As for raising a Skeletal Dragon... yeah, I'll include that. I'll post an updated and relatively cleaned up version of the Compendium today or tomorrow.
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by A-Red »

Skrim wrote: The Merfolk only gain a lightning attack through the use of Storm Tridents (which appear in several campaigns), which are clearly enchanted items of some sort, but whose origins are utterly unknown - each time they appear, they're just found floating around, with no further information about them.

Delfador's lightning attack (which is far more powerful than any storm trident) is also not his own, it comes from the Staff of An-Usrukhar, an extremely powerful and extremely ancient magical artifact he received at the Land of the Dead. Otherwise Delf was casting the same Fireball spells as any other fire mage.

So Crelanu would just be one odd anomaly. Then again, Crelanu IS an odd anomaly of a mage... so that makes him an exception. Those two aside, there are no more Elder Mages, and therefore I think I can leave that unit out safely.
It seems to me that if the same spell can appear in three completely different circumstances, whether or not it comes "naturally" to its users, then it's worth putting in a compendium of magic.

Perhaps it would be useful to add a category of magical spells that can be given to physical objects via enchantment. Some examples: the sceptre of fire's fireball, the flame damage for the magic sword in HttT, the magic armor in HttT with its extra protection, the lightning bolt for both the trident and Delfador's staff, etc. You could also include the enchantment that makes weapons more accurate (i.e. dwarven runesmith's hammers), and even holy water/holy amulet and its ability to arcane-ize weapons.
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by ducklord_time »

If rarer spells aren't included, the sceptre of fire, the fire sword and the void armour shouldn't be included- so far as we know, each has only ever been made by one caster. There could be a category for the other magic artefacts, 'though.

"Summon" is the wrong word, I think. It should be "animate".
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Skrim »

Agreed, Summon is the wrong word for the undead units. I'd use "Raise" or "Animate" instead, thanks.
It's still the correct word for Fire Guardians since they're supposed to come from somewhere else according to the unit description, and are actually being summoned magically.

---

As for magical items, well, yeah, the Scepter, void armor, Rod of Justice (from NR) and Staff of An'Usrukhar (from DM) are all one-time creations. The Scepter was made through Runecrafting the Ruby of Fire into a golden scepter by no one less than Thursagan himself, and the Ruby itself was presumably made by someone placing really powerful enchantments on a large gemstone, probably by a fire mage - maybe Lich Lord Lenvan's pre-undeath self, maybe someone else - back on the Old Continent. In any case, it was a one-time job.

The Staff of An'Usrukhar dates back to the "Primal Aeon" and was wielded by one of the most powerful magi to ever walk Irdya in the dawn of its days, and the Rod is, according to the wraith Abhai, an artifact crafted by "the Great Gods themselves". So... those two are rather epic feats that are, again, one-time works beyond the ken of any living in the time of Wesnoth.

The Void Armor's origins are unknown except for a speculation by Delfador that it must have been owned by a powerful warrior (who may be the same person who later became the Death Knight from whom the armor drops) and the enchantments on it must have been strong to last so long. I think it's unique too.

Flaming Swords actually appear in two independent instances: in HttT and in DW. The one in HttT is almost twice as powerful, and was crafted by Wood Elven forgemasters in the Aethenwood as a gift to a Marshal from the north, and the one in Dead Water was crafted by a powerful mermaid caster and a human wizard who later became a lich. Both weapons do fire damage, are magical and have 4 strikes. Given the spectacular differences in the origins of the two rather similar weapons, I'd say that any manner of sufficiently powerful magic user could with enough effort produce such a thing. It's kind of weird, but... I dunno. Anomalous coincidence, maybe?

Storm Tridents appear many times and have unknown origins. I'd assume that they're the works of mermaids in some indeterminate past - if a mermaid can create a flaming sword, a mermaid could create a storm trident, no real big deal. I'd place it as a work of unique Mermaid faerie magic - the name of the trident implies that it has the power of lightning storms imbued in it, and control over things like the sea and storms has a very Mer-faerie-ish taste to it.

Holy Water seems to be an item that is created mainly by human White Mages, though the elves learned to do the same after Cleodil was given the Book of Crelanu. It's earliest appearance is in the temple under the Oldwood in TRoW, IIRC, so it's pretty old knowledge to the humans. I'd say its preparation is an enchantment falling under the White Magic branch - it gels with the other abilities of said branch well enough.

---

So yeah, I'll include the Tridents and the Holy Water and maybe the Flame Swords in the compendium. The other items are too unique and/or too ambiguous. There are some more magic items (various rings and ankhs and whatnot) I haven't read the lore on, so I'll consider those and see what they're worth. There's also a spell that was used both by Jevyan and Iliah-Malal that covered the battlefield in shroud, so I think I'll include that spell too as a kind of advanced black magic reserved only for liches of notable power.
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by ducklord_time »

Should black magic also have control bat?
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Re: Wesnoth Magic Compendium

Post by Skrim »

Umm, I don't think the bats are related to actual magic of black magic users. Necromancers just tame them and keep them as useful pets, according to their race description. The Mermen in Dead Water kept one too.
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