Master of Magic/Magic

Master of Magic, as the name implies, involves a considerable use of magic spells. This page describes this subject.

Colours of Magic
In Master of Magic, magic spells are divided into six types, described below. Each wizard may be proficient in one or more types of magic, indicated by his/her spell books, chosen when creating a new game.


 * Life - Focus on healing, protection and buffs. Symbol is an ankh.
 * Death - Focus on summoning of Death creatures and damaging other wizards. Symbol is a skull.
 * Chaos - Focus on summoning and combat enchantments. Symbol is a fireball.
 * Nature - Focus on summoning, buffs and spells to protect/improve own cities. Symbol is a tree.
 * Sorcery - Focus on Magic manipulation and enchantments. Symbol is a diamond.
 * Arcane - General utility spells. Available to all wizards. Symbol is a circle.

Spell Books
When starting a game, you will choose your wizard. Each wizard has a certain number of spell books of different colours. These determine which spells the wizard starts with and which he/she can research later. You will not be able to research or trade to get a spell, unless you have at least one spell book of the same colour as the spell.

Note also that having many spell books in one colour may give you special advantages to research and casting costs. These advantages kick in at seven spell books of the same color. In other words, you can choose between a varied mix or high proficiency in one color only.

Spells books are chosen at start, but may on very rare occasions be found in ruins, towers and similar structures. Don't plan your strategy around finding such extra spell books. They're quite rare and only found in very powerful nodes with strong monsters guarding them.

Types of Spells
Spells can be divided roughly into two categories: Overland spells, which are cast from the Main Map Screen, and combat spells, which are cast in combat. Some spells exist as both; they can be cast in overland, as a permanent enchantment, or in combat, as a temporary buff.

Overland Spells
Overland spells can take two forms; immediate spells, i.e. spells that have an immediate, one-time effect, or enchantments, which have an effect as long as they are active (until cancelled or dispelled). Enchantments usually have a mana upkeep cost.

Overland spells may take several turns to cast, depending on your wizard's skill level. When opening your spell book (clicking the Spells menu button), underneath the name of each spell you will see either the word 'instant', meaning that you can cast the spell with instant effect, or a number of symbols, indicating how many turn it will take you to cast it. While a spell is being cast, no other overland spell may be cast. Combat spells may be cast as normal.

Combat Spells
Combat spells may only be cast during combat. They have effect only during that combat, even if they also can be cast as overland spells.

There is a limit to the number of combat spells you can cast. In addition to paying the normal mana cost, your spells are also restricted by your skill. In each combat, you can only cast spells with a cost equal to your wizard's skill level, plus the casting level of any heroes involved in the combat. For example, if your skill level is 20 and you have a hero in the combat with a casting level of 15, you can cast spells up to a total of 35 mana points.

Spell of Mastery
The spell of Mastery is a win condition. Any wizard that succeeds in casting the Spell of Mastery wins the game.