Part II Spells

Pain and Fear are a sorcerers tools. Sorcerer spells generally do not kill quickly. That is, "death crits" are few and far between, if they even exist at all for a given spell. A sorcerer kills primarily through Health Point loss. Health Point loss can be caused by bleeding, pain, disease, etc. In game terms, this means you will be in combat with a critter for a considerable amount of time. The critter will get several attempts to do mean and nasty things to you. You therefore have to worry about your defenses.

Currently, one of the primary characteristics of the sorcerer class is the ability to hunt with his spells at stance guarded. This may or may not be the case for future sorcerers! You may find yourself hunting at varying defencive stances depending on your circumstances.

How you decide to fight will be the biggest influence in your choice of what spell circle(s) to study. Basically:

Minor Elemental Circle: Best for weapon using sorcerers. Excellent defensive spells, the Elemental Targeting spell, and very useful utility spells, such as disarm and unlock (so you can cash in on all those coffers you keep finding).

Minor Spirit Circle: The first three spells are required defensive spells for any sorcerer. Airwall (spell #102) offers good defense and is the second best spell in the game against bows and thrown weapons (when they get implemented). The remaining spells are good, though not as useful as the minor elemental circle.

Sorcerer Circle: The first two spells, Blood Burst and Mana Disruption, are the cornerstone of the sorcerer list. Afterwards, there isn't a decent spell until you learn Curse (at 15th). By decent I mean one that you will use constantly on your hunting trips. The 3rd through 14th level spells, while little used, are very good for the most part. The 15th through 20th level spells on the list are rather well designed and will form the basis of an older sorcerer's attack routine.

Lets look at the sorcerer spell circle in detail:

Blood Burst: An excellent spell that can see you to lord level and then some. Blood Burst only works on living critters, not the unlife. It causes a critter to suffer a level 1 bleeding wound (loosing 1-6? Health Point's per round) for each successful cast. You may as well know that healers aren't the only ones who get to learn what level the different types of wounds are ;) Unfortunately, bleeding spells are best when soloing and poorest for group hunts. With the crowded hunting areas that exist in the game today, this spell is little used. More on this important point later.

Mana Disruption: Currently uses the impact crit table and as such is lousy against armored critters. It takes more casts to kill armored critters in the newer UNIX GemStone than it did under the older Mark III system. A disruption crit table is in the works at which should hopefully fix this spell. This is the young sorcerers basic attack spell. Expect it to get tweaked downward in the damage it causes as it is generally deemed to do to much damage for the mana expenditure involved.

Forget: The short duration is to small to be of any general use. This spell is useful only in a few highly specialized situations. I found it good for soloing wraiths in the few rare instances were the area was empty. 

Phase: An interesting concept, but one that is poorly implemented. You can only phase through a door or portal if it can be opened by any player (using the OPEN and CLOSE verbs). Having a lock on the door (regardless of whether the door is unlocked or not) will prevent phase from working. This spell can also be cast at a chest or coffer, and if you don't leave your hand inside there is a small chance you may pull out something. Unfortunately this spell can take literally hours to empty out a chest or coffer and there is no way of knowing if the chest or coffer is actually empty. To my knowledge, every sorcerer who ever made it this far up the base list has complained about phase. On a positive note, phase can be used to detect glyph traps on containers with a 100% accuracy rate. Obviously, this spell is on the "to be tweaked someday" list.

Breaklimb: Causes a level 2 bleeding wound on the critter. Otherwise similar to Blood Burst.

Mind Jolt: Causes a short duration stun the length of which is determined by the amount the targets CS roll was failed by. Not as good as the spirit circle stun spell in which the duration is level based (X seconds per level), but costs much less mana to use, so the spells are balanced.

Eye Spy: A good spell for it's mana expenditure. It is the closest thing a sorcerer gets to the Wizard's Call Familiar spell. It is very limited in it's abilities, but can be used to cast the level 17 Evil Eye Spell at range. Remember to always have the eye return to you before the spell duration wears off or you'll have a missing eye and be in a 10 round stun!

Pain Infliction: Causes a temporary, non-cumulative, 25% Health Point loss in the target. The Health Point loss lasts about two minutes.

Quake: An Illusion of an earthquake. Gets random knock downs as critters loose their balance. Good for role playing and little else as it is too unreliable in it's outcome to use reliably against critters. You also don't see a message saying <critter> falls, thus further degrading its usefulness. I've never found this spell to be an asset.

Energy Maelstrom: Effects everything in the room except the caster and his or her group.  Causes lots of short stuns and some Health Point loss. It will get a death crit every now and then. This spell is useful if you want to clear out a room as most critters (but not all) will run away from this spell. There are two possible things that might happen to this spell. Either it will gain a targeted option, or it will be converted into a defensive spell (loosing its ability to affect the entire room). In the proposed targeted form, the energy storm engulfs a target and the spell then works as it does now, except it only affects one critter. You will need the Spell Aiming skill to hit with the targeted option if it ever gets implemented, which you will have if you have been following my advice! In its proposed defensive form, the energy storm rages around the caster and only affects critters trying to engage him or her. So while no actual defensive bonus will be received by the player, it will provide protection in other, more unpleasant (to the critters) ways.  Hopefully we will soon see what this spell evolves into.

Limb Disruption: Causes a level 3 bleeding wound. Otherwise similar to Blood Burst.

Throes of Pain: Causes a permanent 25% loss of a critters currently existing health points. The effect of repetitive casting is cumulative. However - the 25% loss is based on existing health points, so expect to see a diminishing return on this spell's effectiveness.

Nightmare: A very good spell but expensive to use. It has very good role playing potential. It is fun to see critters wail and weep at your feet.  I believe everyone should know what their worst nightmare is, but make sure they have enough health points to survive the attack. Usually around 60 is enough.

Life Burst: Unimplemented, uses Mana Sharing skill to convert a portion of the casters spirit levels into an attack upon a target. May become something else.

Curse: Actually several spells in one. The effect (type of curse) depends on the caster's stance. Mana intensive but effective.

Disease: A visual treat. Can be quite effective if the target fails it's roll by a substantial amount. Not for the weak of stomach. It can kill but it may take some time to do so.

Evil Eye: Basically similar to the Fear spell used by many undead critters. When cast at a fellow player character it can even send you running back to the town gates :) It can be cast through an Eye Spy spell. On the down side, you normally don't get to search the critters for loot with this spell - they are too busy running away. Very good role playing potential here.

Torment: Will kill the target if it doesn't kill the caster first. A demonic force attacks the target until the target makes a resistance roll, then the force attacks the caster until he or she makes a resistance roll, and so on back and forth until someone dies or the force get tired and leaves. It is very hazardous to the casters health. The casters stance affects the critters resistance to the demonic force, so be prepared to go into an offensive stance to use effectively. This spell does not get the usage it once did since it was changed into its current, more lethal form. Bottom line: it is now very dangerous to the caster. Have a cleric in your group if you intend to use it on a regular basis.

Dark Catalyst: This spell converts a portion of a targets mana into an attack and sends some mana back to the caster as a bonus! The casters Mana Sharing skill is a very important factor with this spell. Sorcerers can benefit from having their Mana Sharing skill over 100. I consider this a sorcerer's primary attack spell, once they've the mana to use it.

Implosion: A rift which sucks the air out of a several rooms doing terrible things to anything and anyone not in the casters group. This spell may get changed so that is will not harm other players. Try countering it with an Airwall spell (spell #102) should you encounter one. Actually, some of the best coding for this spell occurs should a player character get sucked in to his or her doom. You should try to experience it once.  This spell will most likely gain a "targeting" option. In the proposed targeted form, the spell engulfs a target and then works as it does now, except it only affects one critter. You will need the Spell Aiming skill to hit with the targeted option if it ever gets implemented, which you will have if you have been following my advice!

Necromancy: No one is saying much about what might appear in the 25th level spell slot. All we can do is wait and watch. It may be a Necromancy spell. Details are unknown. The only thing people are agreeng on is that Demonic Summoning will be pushed back to the 50th level spell slot.

Demonic Banishing : Unimplemented, currently thought to be the 30th level spell, this is the one you use to get rid of the demons that you have lost control of before they hunt you down and ...

Demonic Summoning: Unimplemented, currently thought to be the 50th level spell, will someday summon a demon. This creature is rumored to be hard to control, so caster beware! Demons will hunt the caster down if you loose control of them.