=== Frazband New Magic System ===

Traditionally in Angband and its variants, magic spells are found in
predefined spell books, which can be found in the dungeon. Angband has
mage spell books and priest spell books, Zangband has many types of
spell books which different classes may be able to select.

While Frazband supports a modified version of the Zangband magic
system, its primary magic system, which we encourage the use of is 
rather different. Spells must still be cast from books, but the player
finds magic in the dungeon in the form of individual spell scrolls, and
uses them to create their own spell books. (Your home becomes an
essential place in this magic system.)

The spells a character in Frazband can cast are determined by a set of
magical 'skills' chosen at character creation. You can, if you wish,
almost completely ignore the details of this. Each character class has a
number of pre-chosen skillsets from which you can select, giving a
sensible range of spells. If you choose to use one of them, you can
skip to the 'On Using Spells' section below. Otherwise, read on.

In the new Frazband magic system, any spell works by causing a certain
'action' to have an effect a certain 'target'. For example, a fireball
involves the creation of fire, or energy, so a mage skilled at performing
the action of 'creation', and affecting the target of 'energy' will be
most skilled at casting fireballs. To identify the magic which flows
through an item, a mage will want to be skilled at the action of
'divination' (finding out information), and at affecting the target of
'magic itself'. To charm a monster to fight on your side, the action of
'control' and the target of 'the mind' are most useful.

The different magical skills follow. Each spellcasting class will have a
number of points to allocate to different 'actions', and more points to
allocate to different 'targets', some classes are forced to put points
into certain actions or targets.

Most spells require only one action/target combination to be cast, and many
can be cast with more than one, but there are spells which require two or
more such combinations.

***** <MagicActions>
=== Magic Actions ===

Creation
     Creation magic created or enhances its target. Many powerful attacking
     spells are creation spells, such as fireballs.

Destruction
     Destruction magic annihilates or lessens its target. Most destruction 
     magic is aggressive, though there are exceptions, such as curse 
     removal by destroying the magic of the curse.

Alteration
     Alteration magic covers any sort of instantaneous change in its target 
     which is not creation or destruction. Teleportation, enhancement and 
     hindering spells are often alteration spells.

Control
     Control magic is used to make its target behave in a particular way
     whenever simply making an instant change is not enough. Control magic 
     lies behind charming and summoning spells, certain enhancement spells 
     and some interesting attack spells.

Divination
     Divination magic is used to find out information about the target. 
     Chief amongst divination magic are detection and identify spells.

***** <MagicTargets>
=== Magic Targets ===

The Mind
     Mind magic works on the minds of creatures. Alteration magic on the
     mind can achieve some interesting effects on monsters, and divination
     can be useful, but the most useful type of magic to use on the mind is 
     control magic. This can enhance the caster's own performance through
     greater control over their own mind, and is necessary for charm spells
     and most summoning spells.

The Body
     Body magic works directly on the physical bodies of creatures, either 
     the caster of their opponents. Teleportation works by using alteration
     magic on the body, also required by summoning spells, and most 
     enhancement spells use alteration or control magic on the body.
     Divination has some miscellaneous uses here. Affecting the bodies of
     the unwilling is very difficult, so while a few hindrance spells use
     body magic, no direct attacking spells using it, such as directly
     destroying your opponents, are known.

Life
     Life magic works on life energy. Most priestly magic is achieved by
     the creation and manipulation of life energy, and while destroying 
     life energy is less versatile a power, it is rumoured to give access 
     to some very powerful attack spells. Control magic used on life energy
     can give useful life-draining powers.

Nature
     Nature magic gives the same effects as using magic on a wide variety 
     of other targets by working through the 'meta-target' of nature. While
     nothing is easy in this way, an experienced nature mage will have a
     wide variety of attacking, defensive and utility spells, as well as
     the only efficient way of casting healing spells outside of life
     magic. The majority of nature magic is done through creation or 
     alteration, though some uses divination or control.

Magic Itself
     This is magic specialised in affecting other forms of magic. The most 
     important effects on this target are divination, which gives identify 
     spells as well as useful detection spells, and creation, which can be
     used to recharge items and infuse equipment with magical power.

Energy
     Most energy magic consists of offensive spells; creation gives fire 
     and lightning attacks, and destruction gives cold and darkness
     attacks, each can also be used to resist its opposite. Energy magic is   
     the mainstay of the attacking arsenals of many mages, though monsters 
     which resist most forms of attacks can give energy mages problems.

Matter
     The creation of matter is another prime attacking discipline, being 
     the basis of acid and poison attacks, and while these do not have 
     quite the utility of energy attacks, alteration, control and 
     divination also give some useful spells when applied to matter, and
     creation also gives the rather useful ability of resculping the 
     dungeon.

Exotic Substances
     There are many things in the world whose nature is difficult to 
     understand, such as the likes of nether, chaos and mana, or demons and
     the undead. This magic attempts to affect such things. Chaos magic is 
     a highly developed school which works by the application of 
     destruction magic to this area, it takes a lot of skill, but its 
     applications can be wide-ranging and very destructive. Creation also
     gives some potent attack spells, which complement energy or matter
     based attacks well. Control can be used to attempt to control undead
     and demons.

Reality
     Reality magic is rare but powerful. Divination provides for the most
     general of detection spells, destruction gives void-based attacks
     which can hurt anything, and alteration, while too blunt a tool for 
     delicate tasks, can simply *remove* huge swathes of opposition.
     

***** <ClassSpellAbil>
=== Class Spell Ability ===

Warriors
     Warriors cast no spells. They hate magic.

Mages
     Mages get the maximum six points to spend on both actions and targets,
     although they find certain priest-type spells involving the creation 
     of life energy difficult.

Priests
     Priests start off with three points in life magic, and have two more
     to allocate to targets. They have only one free point for actions, but
     start with two in creation, and one in each of control, change and
     divination. Priests are not permitted to learn certain spells which
     are seen as dishonourable or as perverting themselves or reality,
     although they can still learn plenty of more "natural" attack spells.
     In future versions of Frazband, priests may be able to choose different
     gods which lead to all this being changed.

Rogues
     Rogues start with a point in divination magic and a point in body
     magic, and have one point of actions and two points of targets to
     allocate.

Rangers
     Rangers start off with three points in nature magic, and have two
     other points to allocate to targets. They can allocate four points to
     actions freely, although most will take at least some proficiency in
     creation and alteration magic.

Paladins
     Paladins have no choice in their magic, they have two points in life
     magic, two points in creation, and one in control, alteration and
     divination. In future versions of Frazband, paladins may be able to 
     choose different gods which lead to this being changed.

Warrior-Mages
     Warrior-mages have the same magic as normal mages, except they
     only get five points to allocate to each of the sets of disciplines,
     instead of six.

Chaos Warriors
     Chaos Warriors are, as one might expect, trained in Chaos magic.
     They are not interested in any other form of magic. As such, they have 
     three points in destruction and in exotica, and no points to allocate.

Monks
     Monks exist who have have spread their studies into almost every area,   
     and so monks get three points in each of the two sets of the 
     disciplines to allocate, with no restrictions.

Mindcrafter
     Although the powers of a Mindcrafter may seem like magic, this is
     not -- strictly speaking -- the case. They are mental powers,
     independent of the ordinary sources of magic. Consequently,
     Mindcrafters are not interested in 'magic' and learn no spells.

High Mage
     High mages are not used in this magic system. For such a character,
     concentrate the points of a mage in just a few disciplines.

  
***** <TheGods>


***** <CastingSpells>
=== Using Spells ===

When you begin the game, a member of a spellcasting class will have one
or two spellbooks and will have a small selection of basic spells
recorded. If you ever want to be able to cast a spell, the first thing
you must do is go to your home. Here, you must study the spell, to
learn it. You can not un-learn spells and can only know a limited
number rising with your level and spellcasting stat, so be careful what
you choose to study.

Once you have learnt a spell, you must copy it into a spellbook, which
you must also do at your home. Every spellbook can hold a maximum of
seven spells. Spellbooks, once written, cannot be erased, but extra
blank spellbooks can be found in the dungeon or bought in town. You can
then cast the spell so long as you carry a spellbook with that spell in.

To record, and so make available for study and use further spells, you
must acquire spell scrolls. Each scroll contains one spell. Spell
scrolls can be found in the dungeon or purchased in town, and they must
be brought to your home to be recorded.

You can find out about spells you have recorded by browsing the
relevant 'knowledge' section (~), and you can find out about spells you
have found on scrolls by examining (I) the scroll. Most important to
observe is the affinity. This tells you how good your character is at
casting the spell. If you have a good affinity for a spell, you
probably want to learn it at some stage. But if you have a poor
affinity for it, then you may be able to cast it, but it's probably not
worthwhile, since you'll need far more experience and mana to do so
than you would otherwise. Of course, you may want to make exceptions to
these general rules. You will undoubtedly find that some spells are
completely illegible, meaning you will never be able to cast them.

You may wish to inscribe spell books with something like for the first,
{@m1@b1_weak_attacks}, for the second, {@m2@b2_strong_attacks}, for the
third, {@m3@b3_detection}, and so forth. Such a scheme allows you to
keep track of what is in each spellbook, and also allows you to cast
spells by, for example, 'm3a' instead of 'mca' which might fail if
preceeding spellbooks were destroyed, as well as browsing the third
spellbook with b3. If this paragraph is gobbledogook to you, don't
worry!

--- Armour and Spell Casting ---

All spellcasting classes are penalised for wielding armour above a
certain total combined weight. The threshold varies between 30lbs
for a mage and 40lbs for a paladin. Typically, the more reliant on
spells/prayers your class is deemed to be, the lower your weight
allowance. If you exceed your weight limit, your mana will drop.
This penalty is fairly stiff for low level characters but can
generally be ignored by high level ones.

--- Mage-Types and Gloves ---

Spellcasters who use INT as the stat determining their spellcasting
ability will be penalised heavily for wielding armour on their
hands. The exception to this is that wielding gloves, gauntlets or
cesti which boost DEX or which grant Free Action will result in no
penalty. The rationale behind this is that the hands are needed to
perform intricate gestures that accompany the casting of the spell
and anything encumbering the hands would interfere with this. The
priest-type classes (priest, paladin and monk) do not have the same
restrictions as they are viewed as invoking the power of their
deity directly through prayer.

--- Casting Spells With Insufficient Mana ---

Occasionally, you may try (either by accident or in desperation) to
cast a spell when you have insufficient mana to do so. In these
circumstances you will be told by the game that you do not have
enough mana to cast the spell and then asked if you want to anyway.
Casting the spell under these conditions has a drastically reduced
chance of success and may also result in your constitution being
damaged. It may also cause you to faint from the effort which will
effectively paralyse you for several turns (even with free action).
The CON drain and the paralysation may happen regardless of whether
the casting was successful or not.

--- Spell Durations ---

Some spells such as Haste or Resistance grant an effect which
wears off after a certain period of time. With very few exceptions,
multiple castings of such spells are not cumulative in terms of the
duration of the spell. In other words, casting a spell which has a
duration of 20 turns three times will not result in a duration of
60 turns. Typically, the subsequent castings will add only a small
amount to the total duration.


***** <SpellTypes>
=== Spell Types ===

--- Bolts and Beams ---

A bolt spell is aimed in a direction or at a target but will hit
the first monster or obstruction in its targeted direction. This
may or may not be the intended target. Occasionally, you may note
that your bolt spell hits multiple targets along the line of fire.
This is because some bolt spells are granted a chance of 'beaming'
which may be either fixed or level-dependent. A beam will hit every
target within range along a 'straight' line in the direction in
which it was aimed.

--- Balls ---

There are two things to remember about ball spells. Firstly, unlike
bolt spells, they can be aimed at a specific target which allows
you to target a specific monster as opposed to the first one in the
direction you are aiming. Secondly, they have a radius (which
varies from spell to spell). A radius value of one or more will
result in the spell affecting monsters (and possibly objects, etc)
around the target in addition to the target itself.

--- Line-of-Sight ---

Line-of-sight spells affect all monsters that that are currently
in sight of your character. This includes monsters that may not
currently be visible due to darkness but would be if it was light.

--- Area ---

Area spells affect an area around the player. The size of the area
can vary considerably. For example, Light Area lights a single room
while Detect Traps affects a map panel and Genocide the entire
level.

***** <Hints>
=== Hints and Tips ===

Confused? Just pick one of the preset combinations at the left of the
screen.


--
Original   : Benjamin Mann
Last update: Aug 16, 2006
