Daggerfall:Spell Maker

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The Spell-Maker is a powerful tool for magic-using Daggerfall characters. Use of the Spell-Maker is the first benefit gained when a character joins the Mage's guild. With the Spell-Maker, characters can create customized spells with a wide variety of effects. For purposes of some quests, custom spells cannot substitute for Circinate ("canned") spells.

Contents 1 Spell-Maker Basics 1.1 Purchase Cost 1.2 Casting Cost 1.3 Effects

[edit] Spell-Maker Basics

Using the Spell-Maker, custom spells with up to three effects can be created. Depending upon the chosen effects of the spell, many parameters of these spells can be adjusted to a large degree. Besides the effects, the purchase cost and the casting cost are the most important considerations when creating custom spells.

Different icons, in various colors, can also be chosen for each spell. These are unimportant for spells which are instantaneous (such as attack spells, teleports, etc.), but it can be useful to color-code different types of spells with lasting durations, since these icons start to blink when a spell is about to expire. It can help to know at a glance that the spell that is about to expire is the levitation spell keeping the character from falling from a great height rather than a regeneration spell, for instance.

[edit] Purchase Cost

The purchase cost is how much gold the character must spend to buy the custom spell. This is simply a function of the spell's power. The more power a spell packs, the more it costs to buy. There is no negotiation process for this price; the game simply calculates the cost of a spell as it is created.

[edit] Casting Cost

The casting cost in Spell-Points is calculated for each spell according to several separate elements:

• Skill level in the applicable school(s) of magic of the character, and
• The relevant attribute governing the skill in question, and
• The power of the spell.

Skill levels vary widely from character to character, and throughout a character's lifetime; so no hard-and-fast advice can cover every contingency. Some general advice follows nevertheless.

• Having two spells with identical effects, but with differing parameters, can be helpful: the short-duration levitation spell one uses to circumnavigate typical dungeon obstacles may need a longer-duration counterpart in the Mantella Crux, for example.
• Spells based entirely on the Destruction skill can easily be practiced for free, thereby resulting in a rapid rise in that skill. This can alter the casting cost of such a spell greatly in short amount of time.

[edit] Effects

The spell effects available in the spell-maker duplicate all of the effects of the circinate spells with a large degree of flexibility in several ways. Chance of effect, Duration and Magnitude of effect can all be manipulated, although not all effects can be manipulated in all three ways.

• When creating spells, variable costs can be manipulated in one specific way to increase spell power in a subtle, yet powerful, way. A variable of 1-1 has the same casting cost as a variable of 1-2. A variable of 3-3 has the same casting cost as 3-4. This pattern continues with each increase of pairs of integers, as long as the first integer is an odd number. At mid- to higher levels, these small increments can become significant.
• While any three affects can be combined in a given spell, it is easier to combine complementary effects in most cases. Having their durations set the same can also simplify matters. Examples include:
  • Water Breathing and Water Walking are usually needed in conjunction with one another.
  • Invisibility (True), Fly and Silence creates a near approximation of a ghostly form.
  • Damage and Continual Damage in the Area Around Caster can solve the problem of creatures being "underfoot" when jumping, swimming or levitating down.
  • Spell Reflection, Shield and Regeneration provide an easily scalable basic defense package.
• Chance of effect should not be neglected with attack spells. Even the most powerful continuous damage spell will be of little help if powerful targets routinely make their save throws against them.
  • A very high-chance continual damage spell with a long duration will often be more effective than a lower-chance spell with a higher per-round damage potential.
  • Some spell effects; notably paralysis and soul trap, are all-or-nothing. Chance for these spells should have precedence over duration in most cases.