The Abjurer Guild, located in the immortal city 
of Sauronon in Wysoom, is dedicated to protective 
magics.  Its members utilize skills and spiritual 
spells to protect all members of a party.  The 
abjurer is concerned not only with the safety of 
the front row, but the entire party.
 
 Contents:
 
 1.  How do I get started?
 2.  Useful spells from level 1-13
 3.  Useful skills from level 1-13
 4.  Spells and skills beyond level 13
 4.  General hints and tips on the Abjurer Guild
 
 1.  How do I get started? 
     The first thing any player new to Retro should 
do is explore!  The Retroverse is vast and few people 
have explored all its frontiers.  You get experience 
for exploring areas, which are marked on outerworld 
maps with certain letters.  You can type map to see a
map of the area.
 
     Once you have explored a little bit and have 
some experience on you, you can increase your powers
by gaining levels.  This is done by going to any 
Adventurer's Guild, in the middle of most cities, 
and finding the advancement room.  
 
     You can also advance your guild levels.  Guild 
levels are where you get your real power from, 
especially later on when and if you decide to join 
tertiary guilds.  But for now, you can advance in 
the Abjurer Guild and gain more stat points and 
spell points.
 
 
 2.  Useful spells from level 1-13
  
     Now that you have advanced your level a little bit 
and are ready to train, what spells are good to train?  
What will help you most right now, and what are not 
essential until later?  Here is a list of some spells 
and skills that are good to have.
 
     MAGIC MISSILE: (level 1) This spell is the basic 
magic spell and is the only offensive spell that 
abjurers receive.  It will do about 50 points of 
damage to your enemy, but this damage is affected
by your intelligence (INT).  

     LIGHT: (level 1) This spell will create an orb 
of light that follows you around.  This helps if 
your race can only see in light or if you are walking 
around at night or in a dark area.  You can cast this 
spell at any person.
 
     DARKNESS: (level 1) This spell is similar to 
LIGHT but produces the opposite effect, good for 
dark-loving races.  
 
     IRONSKIN: (level 2) Ironskin is the first of
the Armor Class, or AC, spells that you receive.  
AC spells give bonuses to armor class, which makes 
it harder for the tank to get hit by monsters.  
Ironskin gives a bonus of 20 to AC.
 
     STONESKIN: (level 4) Stoneskin is an AC spell
that gives a bonus of 40 to AC.

     SHIELD OF PROTECTION: (level 6) Shield of 
Protection is an AC spell that gives a bonus of 60 
to AC.
 
     SOLIDITY: (level 6)  Solidity is a spell that
protects against spells that seek to change the 
physical form of a player, such as Curse which turns 
you into a frog or Calcify, which could turn you into 
stone.
 
     FLOATING DISC: (level 7)  Floating Disc 
creates a magical disc that you can store many 
items in.  This is good in parties to hold treasure, 
and also for yourself if you are exploring and killing 
and can't hold it all yourself. 
 
     BLURRED IMAGE: (level 8) Blurred image is an AC
spell that gives a bonus of 80 to AC.
 
     SHELTER: (level 8) Shelter is an extremely 
useful spell that creates a magical enclosure around 
a room.  No one can enter the room unless they have a
spell called free action or if the shelter is 
destructed.
 
     At level 9, Abjurers receive 5 of 9 Minor 
resistance spells.  Resistance spells protect the 
tank from certain damage types.  Here is a list 
of the different damage types, (you can also type 
'help damage types' for more info on this).
 
     Physical, Magic, Fire, Cold, Electric, Psionic, 
Asphyxiation, Acid, Illusion, Poison, Harm, Holy, 
Unholy, and Sonic.
 
     Of these, the only damage types that abjurers 
can't protect against are psionic, holy, and unholy.  
Evil guilds such as cultist or necromancer protect 
against holy, good guilds such as templar or paladin 
protect against evil, and psionicists protect against
psionics.
 
     Resistance spells come in two varieties, Minors
and Majors.  Minor resistance spells can reduce damage
taken from damage types by up to 25% and major 
resistance spells can reduce damage up to 50%, 
therefore if you apply both Major and Minor resistance
of the same damage type, the target is resistance 
by 75%.
 
     Resistance spells have a base duration of 2 
minutes.  This is how long the effects of the spell 
last.  Later on, as you advance in the guild, you 
will be able to increase this duration, but for now 
it is affected mainly by your INT.
 
     Here then are the resistance spells and the 
     levels you receive them at.
 
     Level 9:  Minor asphyxiation resistance
               Minor poison resistance
               Minor fire resistance
               Minor cold resistance
               Minor electrical resistance
 
     Level 10: Minor physical resistance (train 
this one as soon as you can, it is very important 
for newbie parties).
 
     Level 12: Minor acid resistance
 
     Level 13: Minor magical resistance
 
     Level 14: Minor harm resistance
 
     Level 15: Major asphyxiation resistance
 
     Level 16: Major electrical resistance
 
     Level 17: Major poison resistance
               Major illusion resistance
               Major sonic resistance
 
     Level 18: Major disintegration resistance
 
     Level 19: Major acid resistance
               Major fire reisistance
 
     Level 20: Major harm resistance
               Major cold resistance
               Major physical resistance
 
     As you increase your experience and knowledge 
of RetroMUD, you'll begin to understand more about 
damage types.  These spells are really the core of 
the guild.
 
     Okay where were we? Here are some other spells 
you will find useful that are after level 9.
 
     DISPLACEMENT: (level 10) Displacement is an AC 
spell that gives a bonus of 100 to AC.
 
     SHADOW ARMOR: (level 12) Shadow armor is an AC 
spell that gives a bonus of 120 to AC.
      
 3.  Useful skills from levels 1-13
 
     ATTACK: (level 1) This skill helps you do damage 
with a weapon or your bare hands, it is very important 
if you wish to go kill monsters on your own.
 
     CONSIDER HUMANOID: (level 1) This skill lets 
you see how you compare to a humanoid monster, and 
will help you decide whether you should attack a 
monster or leave it alone and save your life!
 
     KATSU: (level 4) This skill allows you to 
bind some of your wounds.  If you have no other way 
of healing yourself, it can be extremely useful.
 
     STAFF, DAGGER: (levels 4 and 5) These skills let 
you do damage with staves or daggers.  Keep in mind 
that when you reach a certain level in the abjurer 
guild, there will be a restriction place upon you, 
and the only weapons you can use will be your hands.
  
     CEREMONY: (level 7) Ceremony will give you a 
greater chance of successfully completing your next
spell or skill.  You won't know if you have been 
able to use the ceremony skill successfully, but it
is a very helpful thing to have.
  
     PALM SMASH: (level 8) Palm smash allows you 
to use your hands to smash doors.  
 
     SPIRIT EYE: (level 10) Spirit eye is a skill 
that will show you how many rounds are left in 
the casting of a spiritual spell.  It is an 
automatic skill, that is, it gets checked when 
you are invoking a spell automatically.  

     MEDITATION: (level 11) Meditation is one of
the most important skills in the entire guild.  
If you are resting, you may use mediation to 
regain spell points.  The higher % you have 
this skill trained to, the more spell points 
you will regain. 
 
     AMBIDEXTERITY: (level 11) This skill allows 
you to use both hands when fighting, or two 
weapons, and will increase damage.
  
 4.  Spells and skills from level 14-20
 
    Once you have decided that it is time to 
advance to level 14 and beyond, you will be able 
to gain more power.  Every guild in this game 
lets you get much more power at level 14-20 than 
in the first 13 levels.  
 
    Also, there are some very important skills at 
level 14 and beyond.  You will want to have all 3 of 
the skills, INCAPACITATE, and especially AIKIDO.  
INCAPACITATE will help you 
slow down monsters you are fighting in combat.  
AIKIDO is your martial arts hand-to-hand combat 
Skill.  
  
 5.  General hints and tips.
 
    * Explore, explore, explore!  The more 
explore you get, the more experience you'll get 
and the better you'll learn the Retroverse.
   
    * AC spells will give you dues when their 
effect wears off.  You will need 1,000 guild 
dues to gain 16th level, and each level until 
20th costs an additional 2,000 guild dues, up
to 9,000 needed dues at level 20. dues beyond 
You will receive more dues if you are in a party
than if you aren't.
 
    * Be an apprentice!  Anyone who is a prime 
Abjurer can apprentice you, and you will gain 
insight from their teachings and be able to train 
your spells and skills at a reduced cost.
 
    * Make friends, get into newbie parties.  
Abjurers are one of the most useful characters 
on this MUD, and without them tanks wouldn't be 
able to tank many of the bigger monsters.  If 
you get into a newbie party with a tank, an 
abjurer and a biomancer, 
 

    * Use your notebook (help note) or your own 
notekeeping method to keep notes on the various 
NPCs you meet, and what protection spells you need
to use against them.  You will find that through 
your career these notes will aid you greatly.  You
can also ask higher level players for help.

    * To learn more about the various paths
available to the abjurer guild, check "help abjurer paths".


      Remember: This mud is challenging, but 
that's what makes it fun and it takes a special 
kind of person to play it and especially the 
Abjurer's Guild.  Good Luck!!