Magery

A mage casts the spells of Magery from a spellbook or reads them from a scroll, by the rules of the classic game: words of power, a delay in which the caster stands still, a target cursor, reagents, mana and a skill check. It has the spellbook, the casting engine, the eight circles (but for the spells of locks and traps) and Reactive Armor. A scribe writes the scrolls with Inscription.

The spellbook

A spellbook holds up to 64 spells, as the client numbers them: eight circles of eight.
A double click opens it, in hand or in the backpack (not in a bag inside it). The spells it holds show in the client’s window; a click on one casts it.
A scroll dropped on a book carried by its owner writes its spell in it, with a sound. One scroll of a stack is used up. A spell the book holds already is refused (“That spell is already present in that spellbook.”) and the scroll goes back.
The spells of a book are a number kept in the item, spellbook.spells; a book that has none holds what the spells tag of its template says. spellbook is empty, spellbook1 to spellbook1to8 hold the first circle to the first eight, and spellbook_full holds all 64. Staff give one with .add spellbook_full.

Casting

The cast comes from the client’s spell icon, a macro, the book’s window or a double click on a scroll (kinds 0x27 and 0x56 of the text command and the extended command 0x1C of the client).

It is refused, with the classic text, when the caster is dead, already casting, frozen, not yet recovered from the last cast or without the mana of the circle, or when no spellbook it wears or carries holds the spell.
The caster says the words of power over its head, makes the gesture of the spell (not on a mount) and cannot move for the delay of the circle: 0.5 seconds for the first, a quarter of a second more for each next.
When the delay ends the target cursor comes (12 tiles, in line of sight), or the spell takes effect at once when it asks for none. Putting the cursor away ends the cast and costs nothing. After the delay the caster waits 0.75 seconds before another cast.
On the target the cast takes the reagents from the backpack (a scroll holds its own), the mana again and tries Evaluating Intelligence, which may grow from every try, and Magery. A success pays the mana, uses up one scroll and runs the spell. A failure fizzles: the reagents are lost, the mana is not, a scroll stays.
Damage taken while the delay runs, a blow or a tick of poison, ruins a spell above the first circle: the caster is told, and waits longer the less of the delay was done, from a second down to a fifth of one. The first circle is never ruined, and a cast waiting for its target is not. A caster that dies, of whatever, casts no more.

Circle	Mana	Delay	Magery window of a book	Magery window of a scroll
1	4	0.5 s	0 to 40	-50 to -10
2	6	0.75 s	10 to 50	-30 to 10
3	9	1.0 s	20 to 60	0 to 40
4	11	1.25 s	30 to 70	10 to 50
5	14	1.5 s	40 to 80	20 to 60
6	20	1.75 s	50 to 90	30 to 70
7	40	2.0 s	60 to 100	40 to 80
8	50	2.25 s	70 to 110	50 to 90

The first circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Clumsy	blood moss, nightshade	Lowers the dexterity of the target by 1 and a tenth of the caster’s Magery, for 1.2 seconds a point of it
Create Food	garlic, ginseng, mandrake root	A random food in the backpack, or at the feet when it is full
Feeblemind	ginseng, nightshade	As Clumsy, on the intelligence (and the mana maximum of a player)
Heal	garlic, ginseng, spider silk	A tenth of the Magery and 1 to 5 hit points; refused for a poisoned target, a dead one or one at full hits
Magic Arrow	sulfurous ash	After half a second, 4 to 7 fire damage, three quarters of it when resisted, scaled by Evaluating Intelligence against Resisting Spells and by Magery, doubled against a monster or an animal
Night Sight	sulfurous ash, spider silk	Sees in the dark for 15 to 39 minutes, as bright as the Magery says (26 at 100)
Weaken	garlic, nightshade	As Clumsy, on the strength: the maximum hits of a player fall with it
Reactive Armor	garlic, sulfurous ash, spider silk	For 25 seconds and half a second a point of the caster’s Magery, a share of every melee blow that lands from arm’s length goes back to its attacker: 10 per cent and a quarter of a per cent a point of the Magery of the wearer when it is hit (35 at 100). An arrow does not go back, a guard is never hurt by it, and an attacker that falls to it ends the blow

A harmful spell makes the caster the aggressor of its target: a criminal against an innocent who does not fight it, and an NPC fights back. A curse of a stat that is as strong or stronger stays. A harmful spell on a target that cannot be harmed, such as a vendor or a banker, is refused with “You cannot perform negative acts on your target.” before the reagents and the mana are spent.

A prisoner in jail casts no spell: it reads “You cannot cast spells here.”, so it cannot Recall or Teleport out. Staff is never held to it.

The second circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Agility	blood moss, mandrake root	Raises the dexterity by 1 and a tenth of the caster’s Magery, for 1.2 seconds a point of it
Cunning	mandrake root, nightshade	As Agility, on the intelligence
Strength	mandrake root, nightshade	As Agility, on the strength
Cure	garlic, ginseng	May end a poison: the chance is (10000 + 75 a point of Magery - 1750 for each level of the poison, the lesser being 1) / 100 per cent. A cure that works tells the target and the caster, one that fails tells the caster
Harm	nightshade, spider silk	At once, 1 to 15 damage, three quarters of it when resisted, scaled as the other damage spells, whole at any distance
Protection	garlic, ginseng, sulfurous ash	Adds a tenth of the caster’s Magery points to the armor of the target, for 1.2 seconds a point of it
Magic Trap, Magic Untrap		Disabled, see below

A buff of a stat that is as strong or stronger than the new one stays; a weaker one is replaced. A buff and a curse of the same stat add up. Protection is refused, before anything is spent, for a target that has it. It adds to what absorbs a blow, as the armor of a piece does, and is the classic spell of the days before the defensive spells changed (it does not stop a cast from being disturbed).

The third circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Bless	garlic, mandrake root	As Agility, on the strength, the dexterity and the intelligence at once
Fireball	black pearl	A ball of fire flies to the target and, half a second later, does 10 to 16 damage, scaled as Magic Arrow
Poison	nightshade	Poisons the target unless it resists. The level goes by Magery and Poisoning together, less 10 for each tile beyond three: over 199.8 the deadly poison one time in ten and else the greater, over 170.2 the greater, over 130.2 the regular and else the lesser
Teleport	blood moss, mandrake root	The caster stands at the place picked, in sight, with a puff at both places. Refused before anything is spent when the caster is too loaded to move, nothing can stand there, a mobile stands there or an impassable item such as a shut door lies there, or a region forbids a teleport out of its place or into the destination
Telekinesis	blood moss, mandrake root	Uses an item from afar as a double click would: a container opens, a door swings. Refused for what has no use to make
Wall of Stone	blood moss, garlic	Three pieces of wall across the way from the caster to the place, which block movement for ten seconds; no piece where a mobile stands, where the caster cannot see or where an impassable item already lies. Refused in a guarded town
Magic Lock, Unlock		Disabled, see below

The fourth circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Arch Cure	garlic, ginseng, mandrake root	Cure on everyone alive within two tiles of the place picked, with a chance a little lower, one per cent less
Arch Protection	garlic, ginseng, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	Protection on everyone alive within three tiles of the place picked who has none
Curse	garlic, nightshade, sulfurous ash	Lowers the three stats of the target together, as Clumsy, Feeblemind and Weaken do each
Fire Field	black pearl, sulfurous ash, spider silk	Five pieces of fire across the way, for 20 seconds: whoever steps onto one or stands in it burns for 2 damage once a second (1 when a try of Resisting Spells succeeds); the fire does not block. No piece where the caster cannot see or an impassable item lies. Refused in a guarded town
Greater Heal	garlic, ginseng, mandrake root, spider silk	Four tenths of the Magery and 1 to 10 hit points, with the refusals of Heal
Lightning	mandrake root, sulfurous ash	At once, a bolt for 12 to 20 damage, scaled as Fireball
Mana Drain	black pearl, mandrake root, spider silk	Takes 1 to 100 mana of the target (at most what it has) unless it resists, which it does 99 times in a hundred whatever its skill
Recall	black pearl, blood moss, mandrake root	The caster is carried to the place a rune is marked with, with its sound at both ends

The fields are items with a time: Wall of Stone and Fire Field leave magic_wall_of_stone and magic_fire_field_* items on the ground, which a script ends when the time is up (they are kept with the world and end after a restart too). The caster of a fire is the aggressor of whoever burns, as for a blow: an innocent that burns makes it a criminal, an NPC fights back, and an invulnerable or a dead one is left alone.

Recall and runes

A recall rune is the item recall_rune; marked, it holds a place (rune.x, rune.y, rune.z, rune.map). Staff mark one with .mark_rune at the place where they stand; the Mark spell, of the sixth circle, does it for players. Recall is refused, before anything is spent, for what is not a rune, a rune not marked, a criminal, a caster too loaded to move, a rune of another map, a place nothing can stand on or a mobile or an impassable item fills, and a region that does not let a recall out of its place or into the destination (the recall_out and recall_in flags of the regions).

Region rules

teleport_in, teleport_out, recall_in and recall_out of the regions are read: a travel is refused when any region covering the place switches the rule off, not only the one that applies there. Scripts ask with world.travel_allowed.

Left disabled

Magic Lock, Unlock, Magic Trap and Magic Untrap have no script, and casting them says the spell is disabled: the only locks of the game are those of doors (read by the door script, opened by keys and lockpicks), and a container has neither a lock nor a trap to act on. They are built with the locks and traps of containers.

Simplified

Protection and Arch Protection add armor, as the classic spell did; the later rule that the protected is not disturbed by damage, and the penalty it came with, are not built.
Recall does not check a fight in progress (the classic game refuses it for a while after a blow struck at a player; the engine has no such combat heat yet), and a mobile’s pets do not follow.
A prisoner is refused every spell, which also stops a travel out of the cells; a gate or a ride is not asked about a sentence.

Which era

Where the classic game changed with its expansions, the spells follow the earliest, the days with no expansion, as the casting tables of the first circle do: Harm hurts whole at any distance (the falloff came with the Second Dawn), Protection and Arch Protection add armor, Reactive Armor sends back a share of a melee blow by the Magery of its wearer, and Fire Field lasts 20 seconds whatever the Magery. The later rules (an absorbing Reactive Armor, a Protection that guards against disturbance, a longer Fire Field) are not built.

The fifth circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Blade Spirits	black pearl, mandrake root, nightshade	A blade spirit is called at the place picked: it fights for the caster for 80 to 119 seconds, counts for one follower and obeys no order. Refused in a guarded town, at a place that is blocked and when the followers do not have room for it
Dispel Field	black pearl, garlic, sulfurous ash, spider silk	A piece of a field of the spells, or a gate of Gate Travel (and the gate at its other end), goes away in a puff. A plain moongate is “too chaotic”; anything else cannot be dispelled
Incognito	blood moss, garlic, nightshade	A random skin hue and a random name of the caster’s sex for 1.2 seconds a point of Magery (at most 144); the hair and the beard stay as they are. Ended by the time, or by a death
Magic Reflection	garlic, mandrake root, spider silk	The caster is wrapped in a reflection that turns back, once, the first harmful spell that can be reflected and is aimed at it: the spell reaches its caster, who stays its caster and is hurt, cursed or frozen by its own spell, with no crime for it. It has no time, a second cast is refused, and a death ends it
Mind Blast	black pearl, mandrake root, nightshade, sulfurous ash	After half a second, half the gap between the highest and the lowest stat of the target (each at most 150), scaled as Magic Arrow, at most 45; half of it when the target resists
Paralyze	garlic, mandrake root, spider silk	The target is frozen for 7 seconds and a fifth of a second a point of Magery (27 at 100), three quarters of it when it resists. It cannot step, turn or cast; its own cast is ruined. A target already frozen is told so and nothing is spent
Poison Field	black pearl, nightshade, spider silk	Five pieces of poison across the way, for 20 seconds: whoever steps onto one or stands in it is poisoned at the regular level once a second. Refused in a guarded town
Summon Creature	blood moss, mandrake root, spider silk	A polar bear, a brown bear, a black bear, a horse, a walrus, a chicken, a scorpion, a giant serpent, a llama, an alligator, a grey wolf, a slime, an eagle, a gorilla, a snow leopard, a pig, a hind or a rabbit, picked at random, beside the caster, for as many seconds as the Magery has points. It is refused unless two follower slots are free; the animal then counts for its own slots, as when it is tamed. The caster cannot keep it by riding it or stabling it

The sixth circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Dispel	garlic, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	A summoned creature is undone, in a puff, with the chance (50 + 100 a point of Magery above its difficulty / twice its focus) per cent. One that holds out is told so to the caster and the caster is its aggressor. What is no summon cannot be dispelled
Energy Bolt	black pearl, nightshade	A bolt flies to the target and, half a second later, does 24 to 41 damage, scaled as Fireball
Explosion	blood moss, mandrake root	Two and a half seconds after the cast, 23 to 44 damage to the target if it is alive still, scaled as Fireball
Invisibility	blood moss, nightshade	The target is hidden, as by the Hiding skill, for 1.2 seconds a point of Magery; it has no steps of Stealth, so the first step it takes, a blow or a cast shows it. Its fight is stopped. Refused for staff and for an invulnerable creature, such as a vendor
Mark	black pearl, blood moss, mandrake root	The recall rune in the backpack is marked with the place of the caster, as `.mark_rune` does. Refused for what is no rune, a rune that is not in the backpack and a region with the `mark` flag off
Mass Curse	garlic, mandrake root, nightshade, sulfurous ash	Curse on everyone within two tiles of the place picked
Paralyze Field	black pearl, ginseng, spider silk	Five pieces across the way, for 20 seconds: whoever steps onto one is frozen for 7 seconds and a fifth of a second a point of Magery. Refused in a guarded town
Reveal	blood moss, sulfurous ash	Whoever is hidden within 1 tile and a twentieth of the Magery of the place picked is shown, with a puff and a sound (the staff that is hidden stays)

The seventh circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Chain Lightning	black pearl, blood moss, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	A bolt on everyone within two tiles of the place picked, half a second later, for 27 to 48 damage shared by their number when there are more than two; half of the share when the target resists
Energy Field	black pearl, mandrake root, sulfurous ash, spider silk	Five pieces of energy across the way, for 2 seconds and 0.28 of a second a point of Magery (30 at 100), which block movement. Refused in a guarded town
Flame Strike	sulfurous ash, spider silk	A pillar of fire on the target and, half a second later, 27 to 48 damage; three fifths of it when the target resists
Gate Travel	black pearl, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	A gate opens where the caster stands and another at the place of a marked rune, each leading to the other, for 30 seconds
Mana Vampire	black pearl, blood moss, mandrake root, spider silk	All the mana of the target goes to the caster, up to its own maximum, unless the target resists (98 times in a hundred); its paralysis ends and its cast is ruined
Mass Dispel	black pearl, garlic, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	Dispel on every summoned creature within eight tiles of the place picked, each by its own chance
Meteor Swarm	blood moss, mandrake root, sulfurous ash, spider silk	A ball of fire to everyone within two tiles of the place picked, half a second later, 27 to 48 damage shared by their number; half of the share when the target resists
Polymorph	blood moss, mandrake root, spider silk	The caster takes the body of one of eighteen forms (a chicken, a dog, a wolf, a panther, a gorilla, three bears, a man, a slime, an orc, a lizardman, a gargoyle, an ogre, a troll, an ettin, a daemon or a woman), picked from a list, for 1.2 seconds a point of Magery. The first cast opens the list and spends nothing; the pick casts the spell

The eighth circle

Spell	Reagents	What it does
Earthquake	blood moss, ginseng, mandrake root, sulfurous ash	Everyone within one tile and a fifteenth of the Magery of the caster loses six tenths of its hits, at once: at least 10 for a creature that is no player, at most 75. Refused in a guarded town
Energy Vortex	black pearl, blood moss, mandrake root, nightshade	A vortex is called at the place picked: it fights for the caster for 80 to 119 seconds. Counts for one follower and obeys no order
Resurrection	blood moss, garlic, ginseng	The ghost of a player within one tile of the caster is asked to come back to life (the gump of the ankhs and the healers), with the cost they have; at its answer the place is asked again, and a ghost that no longer fits where it lies stays a ghost (“Thou can not be resurrected there!”)
Summon Air Elemental, Summon Earth Elemental	blood moss, mandrake root, spider silk	An elemental beside the caster, for as many seconds as the Magery has points. Counts for two followers
Summon Water Elemental	blood moss, mandrake root, spider silk	As above, for three followers
Summon Fire Elemental	blood moss, mandrake root, sulfurous ash, spider silk	As above, for four followers
Summon Daemon	blood moss, mandrake root, sulfurous ash, spider silk	A daemon, as above, for five followers; it costs the caster 70 points of karma

Summoned creatures

A summoned creature is made from a mobile template (bladespirit_summon, energyvortex_summon, airele_summon, earthele_summon, firele_summon, waterele_summon, daemon_summon, or an animal of the list of Summon Creature) and is a follower of the caster: it has the prop owner and counts for the control_slots of its template, so the spells that call one are refused, before anything is spent, when the followers of the caster do not have room for it (a tame animal counts as before). It has the order guard of a pet: it stays near the caster and fights whoever fights it or the caster, and the caster’s words (stay, come, release…) rule it, but for a blade spirit and an energy vortex, which no one commands (the prop pet.uncontrollable: they hear no word and take no food). It goes away in a puff when its time is up, when its master dies, leaves the game or lets it go, and when a Dispel undoes it; one that is killed leaves no corpse. The time is the prop summon.until, so a creature that was saved goes away at the right time after a restart, at its first think near a player. The mount and the stable refuse a summoned creature (the prop summon.until), so a horse or a llama of Summon Creature is a loan of the spell and never a pet to keep.

Area spells

Chain Lightning, Meteor Swarm, Mass Curse and Earthquake spare the caster, the dead, the invulnerable, the caster’s own creatures, the members of the caster’s party and the creatures they own, and a player that looks innocent (blue), unless the caster is a murderer; a creature with a blue name that no player owns is not spared. Mass Dispel undoes the summoned creatures around the place and leaves those of the caster’s party alone. The fields of poison and paralysis spare the dead, the invulnerable, the caster’s own creatures, the party and a player that looks innocent too, but the caster itself is hit by them when it steps on a piece, as in the classic game. The fire field burns whoever steps onto it, the caster included, except the party and the creatures its members own. The caster is the aggressor of each that is hurt, as for a blow. They are refused, before anything is spent, when nothing is there to touch (“This spell won’t work on that!”) and, but for Mass Dispel, in a guarded town.

Paralysis and disguise

Paralyze, Paralyze Field and Mana Vampire use two states of a mobile. mobile.paralyze(who, seconds) freezes it, which a frozen mobile cannot undo by walking and a cast cannot begin, and a frozen fighter keeps its fight but cannot swing; the end time is kept with the mobile and a player that logs in after a restart, or an NPC at its first think, is freed at the right moment. As in the classic game any damage (a poison’s too) ends a paralysis, and so do Clumsy, Weaken, Feeblemind, Curse, Poison, Mana Drain and Mana Vampire aimed at the paralyzed. mobile.set_frozen takes the freeze over: it ends the paralysis that was running without freeing the mobile, so a staff freeze is not lifted by the time of a paralysis. mobile.disguise(who, { name, name_list, body, hue }, seconds) replaces what it looks like and gives it back when the time is up, at a death, at login after a restart or, for an NPC, at its first think after one; Incognito and Polymorph use it. A death also ends a paralysis and a Magic Reflection.

Simplified in the fifth to eighth circles

Magic Reflection is the classic single use of the first days: it turns back one spell, then it is gone. The caster is the aggressor of the one wearing it, as it was aimed at it, and then its own spell reaches it: it takes the damage, the curse or the paralysis itself, by its own skills, as if it had hurt itself, with no one to blame. A Mana Vampire turned back drains the caster into itself, which moves nothing.
Polymorph casts twice: the first cast opens the list, the second, after the pick, is the cast. Incognito does not change the hair or the beard.
Invisibility is the hidden state of the Hiding skill: with no steps of Stealth, the first step shows the target; after a restart a hidden player is shown by its first step.
Gate Travel does not ask for a fight in progress (the engine has no combat heat), a sigil or a runebook, and tells the caster “You are not allowed to travel there.” for a place a region forbids a gate into.
In the classic game of the first days only Blade Spirits and Summon Creature took four times the delay of their circle, and they do here (cast_delay_scale in data/spells.toml); Energy Vortex and the elementals cast at the delay of their circle.
A simplification: the area spells (Chain Lightning, Meteor Swarm, Mass Curse, Earthquake and Mass Dispel) always spare the caster. In the classic game of the first days Meteor Swarm and Earthquake spared it, but Chain Lightning and Mass Curse hit it too when it stood within reach.
A simplification: a summon, a Chain Lightning, an Earthquake and the like that find no one to affect are refused before anything is spent. The classic game took the mana and the reagents before it looked for targets.
A summoned creature’s followers are counted by the control_slots of the template: the classic game of the first days says a blade spirit 1, an energy vortex 1, an air and an earth elemental 2, a water one 3, a fire one 4, a daemon 5, and the converter writes them whatever UOX3’s data says.

Try it

.add test_kit_magery gives a bag that fills when first opened with a full spellbook, 20 of each reagent, three scrolls of each spell that is built, and four recall runes. Set the skill apart with .set skill magery 100, mark a rune with .mark_rune, and fill a book or a backpack from the catalog with .add_spell and .add_reagents.

Change the rules

The spells are data/spells.toml: circle, words, reagents, target, flags, sound and graphics, and the scroll of each. Generated from UOX3 with moongate-convert uox-spells.
A spell is scripts/spells/<key>.lua over scripts/common/magic.lua: check may refuse before anything is spent, cast is the effect. The mana, the delay and the Magery window come from the circle, in the server.
The skill window is the Magery between which a try grows from a sure fail to a sure success; the scroll’s is two circles easier.
The scrolls are the templates with script_id = "spell_scroll" and the book the one with script_id = "spellbook".
Scripts reach the spells with the spell module.

Existing roots

mgctl init never replaces a file you may have changed. Copy from the distribution data/spells.toml, scripts/spells/, scripts/common/magic.lua, scripts/common/field.lua, scripts/common/summon.lua, scripts/common/creature.lua, scripts/common/pet_orders.lua, scripts/items/spellbook.lua, scripts/items/spell_scroll.lua, scripts/items/magic_field.lua, scripts/items/moongate.lua, scripts/items/test_kit.lua, scripts/gumps/resurrect.lua, scripts/gumps/polymorph_forms.lua, templates/gumps/resurrect.xml, templates/gumps/polymorph_forms.xml, templates/items/magic/misc_magic.toml, templates/items/magic/scrolls.toml, templates/items/magic/fields.toml, templates/items/test_kits.toml and templates/mobiles/magicsummon.toml, and the new messages of data/messages. A book already made keeps what it holds; a new spellbook one is empty.

Creatures that cast

A creature whose mobile template sets spell_circles (1 to 8, from UOX3’s SPATTACK; 99 of the shipped templates do, 113 creatures with those based on them), has some Magery and some mana, and runs a script that uses common/creature.lua (monster, animal, scared_animal) casts at what it fights. Of the shipped 113, 90 are casters in this sense, the liches, the daemons, the mages and the dragons among them; the 9 mounts have a mana of 0, the 4 mage vendors run shopkeeper, and 10 (wisps, pixies and some summons) have no script, so these never cast. Its casts are the player’s: the same spell scripts, the same Magery check and fizzle, the mana of the circle paid when the spell takes effect, the delay of the circle during which it does not move, with the gestures of a human body (a monster or an animal body makes none). It says no words and needs no reagents, and a blow does not disturb it. At the end of the delay the target is looked up again: if it left the world, died, hid from a harmful spell or got out of 12 tiles or out of sight, the cast ends and costs nothing.

A script casts for an NPC with spell.cast_at(npc, "energy_bolt", target) and asks spell.can_cast_at(npc, key) first; both refuse a player. The choice of the spells, the pause between them and where the creature stands are common/caster.lua: a mage’s healing and curing first, then poison, buffs, curses, paralysis, mana drain and damage by the circles it has. It uses only spells that hit one mobile, and nothing of the summons, the fields or the travel spells.

Not yet

Magic Lock, Unlock, Magic Trap and Magic Untrap, wands, summons and field spells for a creature, clearing the hands on a cast, the hair of Incognito.