Magic

Schools

There are four schools of magic in AC - Life, Creature, Item, and War.  

Life Magic is primarily concerned with a monster's or player's resistance to damage, although it is also used to transfer health, stamina, and mana between a player and a monster or between a player's own pools.  Life Magic can be used to physically damage a target, but that isn't the primary use.  If you want to magically damage something, War Magic is the way to go.

Creature Magic is used to increase or decrease a monster's or player's stats.  For each stat in the game, there are three spells:  one to increase the caster's stat, one to increase another player's stat, and one to decrease a monster's stat.

Item Magic is used to alter the properties of an item and to teleport.  Item Magic provides spells that increase the actual armor level as well as the specific protections against various forms of damage of a piece of armor.  Weapons can be strengthened, made faster, more accurate, and better at parrying through Item Magic as well.  Also included in this school is Portal Magic.  Portal Magic allows a character to quickly return to his lifestone or portals he has linked to, as well as summon portals to those linked destinations for others to use.  Portal Magic makes Item Magic absolutely essential for every class of character.

War Magic is a school that only pure mages should explore.  War Magic shoots out blasts of elements or physical force to damage targets.  These bolts of energy are different from the physical damage done by melee or missile weapons because they ignore the protection armor provides and deal damage based on the target's resistance to that particular damage type, meaning that only Life Magic protections play a role in reducing or increasing the damage done.

Casting

Casting a spell is as simple as pressing a button, but a lot goes into the spell before and during the casting motion.  First of all, you need to know the spell in the first place.  That means you have to buy a scroll and scribe it (which destroys the scroll in the process).  Scribing the spell adds it to your spell book, but your spell book is rather inconvenient.  That's why you can drag spells into your quickbars - all seven of them.  As a melee, I set up one for item, one for creature self, one for life self, one for creature other, one for life other, and two others for general purpose.  As a mage, I set up one for portal magic, one for item, one for life self, one creature self, and the remaining 3 I set up as my primary combat bars, with war spells, vulns, and drains.

The next thing you need to do before you can cast a spell is have the right components.  There are two ways - old and new.  The old way requires you to have massive amounts of colored tapers, herbs, potions, talismans, and scarabs.  I don't know of anyone who uses this method anymore and it has been more or less replaced by the new method.  The new method requires you to have only 3 things - a foci, which is some magical item that takes up one of your backpack slots, prismatic tapers (a massive massive amount!), and scarabs.  The newer method takes up backpack slots, but in general the components weigh less.  There are 8 kinds of tapers - 7 for each of the circles and diamond scarabs, which have a few unique applications but aren't used in most spells.

Once you have the spell scribed and have the needed components, you can cast the spells.  There are up to three checks made when you cast a spell. Regardless of the outcome of any of these checks, the spell will cost some mana (less if you fail) and possibly consume components.   Component loss increases with the spell's circle.  First, the game computes the chance of success for the attempted spell.  If you fail this check, your spell will fail, costing you up to 5 mana and possibly burning some of the components.  The next check is for mana conversion.  The game again checks your mana conversion skill against the difficulty of the spell.  I am a bit fuzzy on the actual mechanism for this check, but your success rate is variable - you can cast the spell for almost no mana at all or you can utterly fail the mana conversion check and cast the spell for full mana.  If you don't have mana conversion trained, you will cast the spell at full cost.  If the game determines that the spell will cost more mana than you actually have available, the spell will fizzle with the same results as if your magic skill check had failed.  The last check only occurs if you are casting an offensive spell on a monster.  If your spell lands (if it's a war spell), your magic skill is checked against the magic defense of the monster.  If you succeed, the spell takes effect.  If you fail, the monster resists the spell's effects and nothing happens.  Again, regardless of whether you succeed or fail the check, you will consume mana and run the risk of losing components.  Because of the constant risk of losing components, especially prismatic tapers, it's essential to have a good stock on you at all times.

Circles

There are 7 circles of magic for each spell.  Each circle is more potent than the last and is more difficult and mana-intensive to cast.  All item spells and beneficial Creature and Life spells targeting another person cost 10 points of mana and a difficulty of  50 per circle, with tier I spells having a difficulty of 1.  All beneficial Life and Creature Magic spells targeting the caster have a difficulty of 50 per level (starting with tier I spells at 1) and cost 15 mana for the first two circles, and then 10 for each additional tier up to 70 for the sixth circle.  Circle seven spells also cost 70 mana.  Negative Creature and Life Magic have the same mana cost and difficulty as self-targeted spells, but start at difficulty 25 instead of 1.  War Magic Bolts and Arcs have the same difficulty as Item Magic spells, but cost half as much mana per spell.

Applications

Item Magic is indispensable for everyone.  Even without Portal Magic, Item magic provides so much help to so many classes.  Impenetrability and Banes dramatically improve the strength of armor against physical attacks.  These spells also work on your clothing, which usually have no armor value, giving you added protection.  Blood Drinker, Swift Killer, Heart Seeker, and Defender improve melee and missile weapons substantially too.  Hermetic Link and Infected Spirit Caress increase the mana conversion and elemental damage percentage on wands, respectively.  Prepare for combat by casting BD and SK on your weapon if you are a missile or melee user and add Defender if you have melee defense and Heart Seeker if you are using a melee weapon.  Strengthen your armor by casting Impenetrability and the appropriate Banes on yourself - a recent change allows you to cast these spells once with yourself targeted to affect each piece of armor and clothing you are wearing at the time.  Banes are especially important, as they can effectively double the armor level of your equipment if you know what damage types your enemy is likely to use.

Creature Magic is far less essential than Item.  Many melee and missile characters can get away without having this school their entire lives by relying on Arcane Lore and magic items instead.  If you don't have Arcane Lore or can't wear enough magic items, then you will want Creature Magic.  Be sure to cast the appropriate spells to increase your primary attack and its attributes so you can get the maximum chance-to-hit!  Creature Magic can also help you cast higher level spells in other magic schools by improving those stats.  Creature can also be used in combat, mostly by mages.  If you are having trouble landing spells on your target, try casting Magic Yield to reduce the target's magic defense.  You can use the same tactic to help out melee or missile friends who are having trouble hitting by casting Vulnerability or Defenselessness.  Creature Magic is primarily a buffing magic, but it does have its uses on the battlefield.

Life Magic is perhaps the most all-around useful school.  You can use its magic in three ways while preparing for combat.  Cast protections on yourself to reduce the damage done from a particular damage type by a percentage, up to 65% with circle VII.  You can also use Life Magic to increase the rate at which you recuperate health, stamina, and mana.  Last, but not least, you can use Life Magic in conjunction with Mana Conversion to replenish your mana while you prepare by casting Stamina to Mana and then restoring your Stamina with Revitalize.  This combination can restore your mana to full if you have good Mana Conversion.  

Life Magic is at its best in combat.  The most effective use is probably Vulnerabilities.  You can cast the appropriate Vulnerability (acid, slashing, etc) and then you or your friends will do substantially more damage with your attacks.  If you are fighting with Melees, don't forget Imperil!  This spell reduces the target's armor level and melees love it!  Life Magic can also restore your health in combat.  Simply casting Heal spells is one way, but a more effective way is to use Drains on your target, which restore your health, stamina, or mana and deprive your foe of his.  Keep an eye on your health, stamina, and mana pools and be liberal with your use of your drains!

War Magic is purely offensive.  Pick your target and cast a war spell and if you beat the target's resistance, you will damage it.  War Magic is most effective when used in conjunction with Life Magic.  Use a Vulnerability spell first and then follow it with a War spell of the same damage type, and you will increase the damage done.  There are a few different types of War spells for each damage type, but more often than not, you will only want to use the Bolt and Arc varieties.  Bolts travel in a straight line toward the target and will damage anything they hit.  Arcs travel faster than Bolts and travel in a parabola instead of in a straight line.  Both types do the same damage, so it's a matter of choosing which spell will strike a target best, especially if it's moving.

Advanced Magic

Most of the spells you will use on a regular basis you can buy from a Scrivener, find in monster loot, or find in a Steel Chest.  However, there are several exceptionally useful spells available that you can only learn via quests.  There are several 'Recall' spells to various islands around Dereth.  Singularity Caul, Aerlinthe, Aphus Lassel, and Ithaenc's Cathedral all can be reached using special recalls, as can Mount Lethe.  Ulgrim also has a recall spell, but you will have to kill thousands of Shallows Devourers - a very rare drop!  All of these spells take you to good hunting grounds and save you a lot of travel time.

Just recently, new spells that affect an entire fellowship were discovered in the Temples of the Falatacot.  Blackmire 2, out of the Ghuru'ndim Master Mage's hut, offers primary attribute buffs; Blackmire 3, out of a temple southwest of the Valley of Death, offers Life protects; and a Guruk and Burun dungeon inside the Toad Idol in the East Dires Swamps offers melee, missile, and magic defense buffs.  These spells can only be cast when you are in a fellowship, even if it is a fellowship of one.  The spells are 25 points harder than the comparable self-only spell and cost more mana for each person in your fellowship.  Each of these quests are difficult and time-consuming, but worth the effort!  These spells are available in Circles 4-7, depending on your level and the difficulty of the quest you have completed.

If you managed to make your way through the Halls of the Tusker King, you might be rewarded with special spells!  There are a wide variety of spells, some slightly less powerful than the normal spell, but having a longer duration; some exceedingly powerful but with a very short duration.  These reward spells are *very* rare and very much luck-of-the-draw, so you will have to do Bobo many times before you get the spell you are looking for.