Worlds/Graal Kingdoms/Spells Guide
Spell casting
With the update on February 24 of 2006 the spell casting has been drastically improved to allow targetting via mouse. Following things have been changed:
- you can select if you want to cast by mouse or into the direction you are viewing
- click on a target to target it or move the mouse over it while casting a spell
- press A or the right mouse key to unlock the target
- double-click to directly cast the prepared spell
- the new targetting mode is also working with hotkeys and scrolls
- when you are not casting via mouse then you can cast diagonally now
Spell types
This is overview about the different spell types on Graal Kingdoms.
Missiles
Missiles are single projectiles flying at a good speed. They can be targetted at players and monsters and are then following those. Most of the time they are not very strong and disappear after about 15 seconds, but since they can be targetted at moving objects they can be quite usefull.
Some missiles have special effects:
- missiles like ball lightning are bouncing off walls
- fireballs and several other balls are exploding once they hit a wall and then produce a fire or similar on the ground
Cones
Cone spells are producing 3 missiles, that way they can cover a bigger area and might be good against a group of enemies. You can shoot them in any direction, they will not follow the target though.
Some cone spells leave stuff on their paths: vitriol splash missiles are placing acid on their path, the spider web spell is placing spider webs.
Bolts
Bolts are basicly lines of spell effects which are placed into the direction you are casting. The length of the line depends on your stats. The spell effects stay for a few seconds and are attacking objects that are on the same place. They don't move but can be quite strong.
Walls
Walls are lines of spell effects placed in front of the caster, 1 in front, 5 to the left and 5 to the right. There are various spells using this formation, using fire, ice, stones and thorns.
Auras
Auras are following the caster and protect him/her for a few seconds. The duration depends on the level of the caster. The auras are not very strong but don't require you to do anything once casted, they attack surrounding monsters until the aura disappears. Currently there is only the flaming aura and sanctuary (counter-spell aura).
Smite
The smite spells try to find a target near and attack it directly (sometimes without visual effect).
Spell walls
Spell walls either influence the direction of flying spells (directors) or are shooting themself automatically missiles. You will need the earth-to-dust spell to destroy these.
Runes
Runes are placed in front of the caster and have a size of 8x8 tiles. For some minutes they are only visible to the caster. They work like a trap and explode once a monster or a non-peaceful player walks on them. Runes can contain all kind of spells which are either casted on the trapped player or monster, or into the direction the caster was looking when he/she placed the rune. There are several skills which handle runes: for finding traps and disarming them.
Golems
The golem spells include the golem spell itself, but also the elementals, staff-to-snake, dancing sword, mystic fist, animated weapon and summon avatar. They are placed in front of the caster, you can only have one of them at the same time. They are walking or flying into the direction the caster is looking, so they can be directly controlled without putting the caster into a risky sitation. The 'golems' are automatically attacking players on monsters that pass their way.
When using the 'animated weapon' spell then it is taking your weapon away, but placing it back into your inventory once its lifetime is over.
Summoning monsters
There are a few spells for summoning monsters, some are disabled though until we have added a bigger variation of monster types. The summoned monsters use your nickname and are attacking enemies on their way. There is a special flute song to make the summoned monsters stop following you.
Changing attributes
There is a wide variation of spells which temporary change your or the victims attributes. Those can be for improving stats (e.g. charm or strength), resistance (against poison, fire etc.), or increasing your speed. Some of those spells also heal you, are removing flags (e.g. confusion), cure illnesses or regenerate spell points (but using grace).
Illnesses
The illness system on Graal Kingdoms is quite complex: there are illnesses which can jump from player to player or monster to monster and infect a big group of objects, like in real life. They often have funny effects, like losing tooths, but can also decrease your stats or hurt you. They only last a limited time and can be cured by spells. Illnesses have different levels depending on the casters level. People that have survived an illnesses wear an immunity against the illness as long as it's the same level or below. They will be infected again if the same illness strikes back with a higher level.
Identification
Spells can also be used to identify an object, and find curses or similar.
Creation
Some spells can be used to create special objects: You can create food, you will get more food depending on your level. You can use alchemy to transform items into gold or use recipes on the items you have put in a cauldron.
Others
There are a few spells which are special and cannot be put in one of the mentioned categories. Those spells include 'earth to dust' which can destroy spell walls, or the 'wonder' spell which fires a random book spell.
Fixed spells
Most spells have been modified to look better, be able to target players and monsters and hit more precise. There are a few spells with special effects:
Slow
The slow spell is a cone spell, which fires 3 flying clocks which slow down objects on their path. This is now working for monsters too.
Spiderweb
The spider web spell is a cone spell, three spiders are running away and are spinning a web on their path. Walking on those webs are slowing you down. The effect lasts for about 8 seconds.
Counterspell & counterwall
The counter spell is removing spell effects. It is possible now to also remove spell effects of higher level, with a lower chance of course. Counter walls can be an effective protection against incoming missiles.
Sanctuary
Sanctuary is an aura spell and is protecting you against other spell effects for some time. It is not very strong though so it might not block 100% of the magic around you.
Magic Missile
The magic missiles are now actually displaying something: they are white missiles which produce a lot of black smoke. They are flying in a random direction and can even come back after some time.
Wall of thorns
The wall of thorns is not very powerful but still interesting, since it is slowing players down when they try to pass the thorns, and it is also hurting (physicially only though).
Earth wall
The earth wall spells puts some stones in front of you, so effectively blocking enemies for a few moments.
Create food
The create food can still produce random food depending on your level. By typing '/cast create food <FOODNAME>' you can also produce specific food, if your level is high enough for that food.
Marking rune
Marking runes finally make some sense: Type 'cast marking rune <text>' to place a sign which is displaying text of maximum 20 characters. You can recast the spell to place several marking runes. The marking runes are not lasting long though, they can easily be destroyed by using weapons on them. In opposition to the other runes the marking runes are actually staying though even after you log out.
Insect plague
The insect plague is a smite spell which is displaying an effect now (and playing a bees sound).
Wonder
The wonder spell is not available by scrolls/books/gods, but might be available via quests or events soon (by spell scrolls). It is casting a random book spell.
Director
The director is changing the direction of missiles, cone spells and bolts which are hitting the director. The graphics for the director might be changed soon though to look better and bigger. Also there will need to be a protection so that they cannot be placed in front of doors to block those, since you need the earth-to-dust spell which not every player has.
Non-working spells
There are a few spells which are not working right now or don't make sense.
Light & Night
There is currently no system of limited vision (except in the labyrinth event), that's why the spells for blinding by light, producing night and similar are currently not doing anything. Also it is not possible to make yourself invisible yet, although that might be interesting, at least in dungeons.
Summon cult monster
We plan to add a wider variation of monster types, until then it will not make a lot of sense to summon monsters which actually have no connection to the Graal Kingdom gods you are praying to.
Spells targetting undeads
There are several spells for slaying undeads, while there are not many undead monsters on Graal Kingdoms yet. This might change once we have added more monster types, like zombies.
Create missile
The 'create missile' spell is generating arrows with magical bonus. The bows and crossbows currently don't use those magical effects though. It will be interesting in the future to use the magical bows which can be equipped in addition to a normal weapon and use the magical arrows for hitting other objects.
Non-available spells
There are a few spells which are neither avilable via scrolls, books nor via praying to a god. Those spells are: Wonder, small speedball, medium speedball, hellfire, dragonbreath, large icestorm, shockwave, color spray, meteor storm, comet, vitriol splash. We plan to eventually put scrolls with limited charges of them in quest dungeons.