Magic

                         How to Cast Spells
                         ==================

There are two different types of spells on Icesus: spells made from
combining together parts, and spells that are complete on their own.
The second kind is simpler (but both kinds choose targets in the same
manner):

    cast mirror image at player
    cast erosion at monster

"at" is not necessary to specify a target, though:

    cast erosion monster

If a spell can take a target, but isn't given one, then one of two
things will happen:

* If it is an offensive/attack spell, it will target whatever you are
  currently fighting with.

* If it isn't an offensive spell, it will target the caster.

The second kind of spells, those made by combining parts, are only
used by mages for attack spells (though this might change in the
future).  For instance:

    cast arrow of steam at monster

"arrow" is the base type, *how* damage is given: an arrow, a ball, a
storm, and so on.  The different base types differ in how much damage
they do, and how difficult they are to cast.

"steam" is the damage type, the *kind* of damage the spell does.
Damage types can vary by how much damage they do (steam vs. fire) or
the kind of damage done (fire vs. acid).  Different monsters have
different resistances and weaknesses to fire, acid, cold and
lightning, so no single type of damage is best, but it's better to
specialize in one damage type rather than to learn several different
types.

Some more examples:

    cast ball of ice at monster
    cast rain of acid

The parts *must* be combined as:

    cast <base> of <damage>

These won't work:

    cast steam arrow
    cast arrow steam

Finally, a spell made from parts can have a modifier, put before the
base type and after the "cast":

    cast small arrow of steam at monster

"small" modifies the spell to make it less damaging, but easier to
cast.

Your chance of completing a combination spell depends on the average of
your skills for each of the spell parts, unless the spell part with
the lowest skill is a lot lower than the skill levels of the other
spell parts; in that case, the part with the lowest skill level will
drag down the overall success chance more than just a normal averaging
would.

NOTE: A spell can contain "of" without being made of parts:

    cast orb of light

If you learn the spells "arrow", "steam", and "orb of light", you can
*NOT* do any of the following:

    cast orb of steam at monster
    cast arrow of light at monster
    cast arrow of orb of light at monster
    cast orb of light of steam at monster


                        Magic and Combat
                        ================

The basics of magical combat are pretty simple: you should do

    battle -a casting

to assign as many combat points as possible to casting (see 'help
combat' and 'help combat points'); this will ensure that you cast
spells as fast as possible during combat.  Don't assign any points to
offense, or learn any physical combat skills: you can't wield a weapon
while casting magic, except for a few special weapons, and even if you
have such a special weapon, you can do much more damage with your
spells than you can with any weapon you might get.

The skill 'concentrated casting' will give you more combat points to
assign to the casting category, letting you cast spells faster during
combat.

                           More Info
                           =========

Casting spells requires spell points, or SP.  If your level of SP goes
very low, it will weaken your body; this is known as magical weakness.

You can get a special blessing known as "magical endurance" which will
reduce the effects of magical weakness, and the spell weaver race has
the special ability "major magical endurance", which makes them
totally immune to magical weakness.

If the current elemental phase is the phase of Magic, then casting
spells is easier. (see "help elements")

For mages, the primary skill influencing spell casting is "magic
lore", which helps in the casting of all spells.  Each of Fire, Cold,
Lightning and Acid have their own skills which help with their
casting, like "cast fire" and "fire focusing" for Fire.

For priests, the primary skill is "<element> lore", like "air lore" or
"earth lore".  There are also various "doctrine" and "ritual" skills
each priest guild has that help in casting spells.

The priests and the mages share one skill: "rite of success", which
can be used with the command "perform rite of success".  This rite
increases the chances of your next spell working right.  For priests,
doing the rite uses up divine favor (see "help divine favor").  For
mages, it requires "magic jelly", which can be extracted from hearts
with the spell "extract magic".

Mages have an additional rite, "rite of power".  This increases the
damage done by your next offensive spell.  It also needs magic jelly
to be performed.