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*Description*
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The Mage Guild is one of exploration of the retroverse and the mysteries
contained within. They use Hermetic Magic as their primary tool for
unlocking these secrets. Attaining knowledge and power are the two creeds
of the mage. Their high intelligence gives them the ability to solve the
puzzles of everyday and adventuring life, and makes them cryptic to the
average person. They have little knowledge of weapons or armor and choose
to strengthen the mind rather than the body as they believe that all power
can be gotten through discipline. Though weak in body, they are powerful
adversaries calling upon the energies of the retroverse to aid them in any
situation. They know that while a sword cut a body, only magic can
utterly destroy it. Magic can create, destroy, renew and alter while all
other worldly tools can only do one. This makes mages significant in the
works of the retroverse and useful in any task.
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*About the Guild*
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As you may have grasped from the description, this is not a melee or
ranged combat oriented guild. The mage has to use both cunning and wisdom
to survive long out among the other Gifted Ones. The focus of the guild
is on magic. Most of the skills are spell related, and a majority of the
abilities you will gain are spells of one sort of another. There are
several utility spells and many combats spells. Many of your every day
tasks can be accomplished one way or another through this guild. Mages
tend to have to be more observant as they do not have a primary function
like many of the other guilds. Seek knowledge anywhere you can. Explore
everything because that is the way of the mage. Ask questions, solve the
riddles of the retroverse.
The Mage guild master is Kilburn Stratos. You can locate him just above
the Room of Books. The guild master is there to answer some of your
questions, but do not ask him needless questions as he is very busy and
may not have time for you. Your guide and the other mages are going to be
your primary tools for gaining information that you cannot gain from the
world and the creatures in it.
The primary stat is Intelligence. All of your spells (with exception to
specifically noted ones) do well according to your ability in that spell
and your Intelligence. This includes both how often you succeed in that
task, how much damage can be done by that spell, and the duration of
particular spells.
The secondary stats are Wisdom and Dexterity. Wisdom allows the mage to
be able to confront situations better. Dexterity is a requirement for
casting certain spells that require somatic gestures.
Intelligence and Wisdom also provide more spell points, at the rate of 3
spell points per point of Intelligence or Wisdom.
Mages tend to have low hit points and high spell points.
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*Guild Hall*
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The mage guild is located on the planet of Raji in the major city of
Nimbus. You can learn more about the planet through [help planets]. The
guild is within a tower in the center of town. Inside the Tower you will
find some very useful rooms. Some of these rooms are essential for your
survival and advancement, and some are merely decoration.
Room of Books: This room allows one to view the skills, spells and
competency in them for both their level and any level range including
those they haven't been to yet. Make sure you read the sign('look sign')!
Study: This room allows any mage to advance a level in their guild. This
is also where they will take your dues when you are ready for advancement.
Also, this room is used by Masters to gain their Apprentices. Any mage
under a certain worth may be an apprentice if they can find a willing
master. Again make sure you read the sign!
Macrodrome Base: This contains, within it, a world map of Raji. You can
look at this map to get a general view of where Nimbus is in comparison to
the adventure/quest areas and the other cities.
Magical Components: A small shop. It has nothing of use to a starting
mage.
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*Spells*
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Mages have a wide assortment of spells to perform their every day tasks
and to kill the monsters that may cause you problems in you pursuit of
knowledge and power. In addition, some of these spells allow the mage to
defend themselves and others from imminent death. Below is a description
of some spells that the everyday mage will find useful. The mage can see
his/her ability in their spells by typing 'show hermetic'. You can find
out more details about any spell by typing 'help spell '. For
example, 'help spell light' will show you the full details of the light
spell. Make sure to use all lower case for the spell name.
Utility spells:
Light (Level 3)- This spell creates a light orb which makes the room
you're in brighter. Useful for those races who can't see because it is
too dark.
Darkness (Level 2)- This spell creates a darkness orb which makes the room
you're in darker, allowing races who are not able to see in lighter
conditions to see.
Purifying fire (Level 7)- **This spell is very important.** Without it,
you can't advance in this guild. Casting this spell with corpses in the
room gets rid of the corpse and gives you mage guild dues. [help guild
dues]
Floating Disc (Level 9)- The spell creates a moveable storage place. It
creates a disc where you can put items so you don't have to carry them, or
to carry more stuff than you can physically carry. If you look at the
disc, you can see what is in it, and the number of inches above the ground
tells you approximately how many minutes it has remaining. To reload your
disc, just cast the spell again. You can dismiss the disc with 'cast
floating disc at remove'. This is also a great party spell for those who
are looting.
Destroy Field (Level 11)- This spells destroys field spells like shelter
and imprison. It works in the room you're in and the surrounding rooms.
Protection Spells:
Mystic Shield (Level 1)- This is a protective spell. It helps reduce the
damage you take in combat.
Mirror Image (Level 5)- This is a decoy spell. Cast it before combat to
produce images that your foes may hit instead of you. It CANNOT be cast
in combat. A hit to an image will destroy that image. All images are
destroyed if you leave the room or get hit.
Displacement (Level 10)- This is another protective spell. It reduces the
damage you take in combat.
Shelter (Level 12)- This spell is a field spell. It surrounds the room
you're in so nobody can get in. It also helps regeneration of Hit Points
and Spells points. Be courteous and don't leave unattended shelters.
Cast Destroy Field, if you are able, because this will remove the shelter.
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*Skills*
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The skills that a mage can get largely influence their magic. This
includes reducing the casting time of certain spells, knowing how long
until the spell is cast, and even the ability to use magic items like
wands. The mage can see his/her ability in their skills by typing 'show
skills'. To get full details on a skill, type 'help skill '.
Mana Save (Level 2)- A very usefull skill. If you fail a spell, this
skill gives you a chance to recover half the spell points of the failed
spell.
Zapping (Level 14)- This allows the mage to use wands.
Mage Bombing(Level 14)- This skill will increase the amount of damage your
area affect spells will do. Every 5% in this skill increased the damage
by 1%, giving you a 20% damage bonus if you get the skill to 100%.
Mage Blasting(Level 15)- This skill will increase the amount of damage
your single target spells will do. It works just like Mage Bombing.
Quick Chant (Level 15)- This gives the mage the ability to cast certain
spells in up to half the time normally needed for casting. This spell
allows the mage to react more quickly in combat enabling them to deal
faster damage.
Essence Eye (Level 17)- This tells the mage how long he/she has to wait
before the spell will go off.
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*The Mage's Role in Combat*
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Because of your role in the world, you may be asked from time to time to
aid others with your knowledge and expertise of the world. This may
include providing support in combat. As a mage, you must understand that
alone, you may be powerful, but there is normally more power in numbers.
Your job in combat is to use your spells to heavily damage the opponent(s)
(see spells and elemental balance).
This is primarily done by using the bulkiest of your party members to
block your opponents from you while casting spells. In the MUD, you are
known as a "Blaster". Many monsters cannot hit you while you are being
blocked by your other party members, but be wary, as some monsters can do
a large amount of damage to you even while you are blocked. Keep good
track of your Hit points and Spell points. Inform your party of your
status regularly and run when necessary. It is not cowardly to avoid a
fight when you need to and that is one of the primary keys to surviving.
While you can't provide melee support, your role is needed as you have the
capability to do more damage in a single blast than any other guild out
there. Mages also have the ability to hit a large number of foes at the
same time. These are indicated as Area Type spells. Use these wisely,
because if properly timed, they can kill nearly everything around you, but
if poorly timed, the consequences may be grave.
*Note* Keep track of which monsters take the most damage from certain
spells and note which ones are resistant and have certain immunities.
While beginning, this may be hard because combat does not directly notify
you of how much you have damaged the opponent. Damage is told you by
certain battle messages, and the range for each message is large (about
200 hit points). For the first few levels, you will receive the same
battle message. Most monsters will "flinch" or be "lightly hurt" until you
gain enough power to really destroy your foes.
Some combat spells of note are Brightbeam, Power Blast, Lightning Bolt,
Power Word Kill.
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*Elemental Balance*
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*Note* This section is to give a description of how combat spell damage
works. For complete information, view [help elemental balance].
As combat spells are used, the Elements gain or lose in strength based on
the damage type of the spells. Using a lot of cold spells, for instance,
will weaken its associated Element, Water, and strengthen Water's
opposite, Fire. Spells that use damage types associated with weakened
Elements will do less damage, while spells that use damage types
associated with strengthened Elements will do more. You may notice that
Chain Lightning doesn't do as much damage to a creature as it normally
does. This may be due to either the creatures natural ability to fight
the damage type, or to the elemental balance. Simply put, if a creature
is taking notably less damage from Fire, try Water.
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*Getting Started*
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Mages tend to be very weak when starting out. This gives very little
opportunity to fight monsters alone to gain the experience necessary for
advancement. They have very little ability with weapons, thus making them
virtually useless, early on, for combat. This means explore, explore,
explore. Every room in an area, that the mage hasn't been to, gives
experience. The more one explores, the more experience one gets from each
room. This will allow you to gain experience without needlessly
endangering yourself.
Once a mage has acheived enough experience to start advancing themselves,
they can begin training their skill and spells. If you are a newbie, all
of your skills and spells are free (goldwise) up to a point, known as
freemax, based on the guild level that gives the skill/spell. Skills and
spells from level 1-9 may be "freemaxed" with no gold cost to 80%, level
10-14 abilities to 75%, and level 15-20 abilities to 65%. It is helpful
to get the spells and skills you will be using to freemax as this will
determine your usefulness in party situations and help your survival while
not in a party.
Other Gifted Ones in the retroverse will be your strongest tool while
starting out. Be not afraid to ask questions or for assistance in gaining
access to particular areas. The average person believes the mage weak
until confronted by magic. Use this to your advantage when trying to gain
world. A popular way to get around is to ask a telemancer to Transport or
Summon you to a particular area. Also become familiar, early on, with the
methods of transport required when you are no longer a newbie[help
interplanetary transport].
It is important to note certain areas. Find them, and remember where they
are and how to get there.
North Gate of Keystone: Keystone is a city on Welstar. It is frequently
here that parties will meet, rest, or chat. The famous Chat Tower is
here. This is a place for relaxation and conversing.
Sungate of Sauronan: Sauronan is a city on Wysoom. Sungate is the name
of its southern gate. Another popular spot for party formation.
A small pocket dimension: This is how newbies travel between worlds. It
allows one access to each adventurer's guild on each world. In contrast,
each adventurer's guild will provide some access here.
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*Advancing in the Mage Guild*
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Dues: Mages require burnt offerings as their dues. A mage cannot start
gaining dues until he/she has reached 7th level and attained the spell
Purifying Fire. The amount of dues gained from a corpse includes a number
of factors. Level of the monster killed, and difficulty is the most major
of these. To see the amount of dues you have gained type [show dues] (see
[help show] for other options). Newbies do not have to worry about dues
until they have reached level 15 and want to advance to 16. Newbies that
start at level 10 do not need dues to advance, though they may wish to
collect them to get equipment from the mage check room [help guild check
room].
Levels: It important to note that while the best spells come later in the
guild, your power is determined by your ability in the spells the mage
has. Be careful in how quickly you advance levels. Each time you advance,
the guild will collect the dues required for the level you wish to attain.
You will gain additional stats and bonuses to spells that you have
already learned. Leveling will slowly remove your newbie advantages.
Read [help newbie advantages] carefully before advancing.
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*Other Topics for Help*
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help elemental balance
help getting started
help explore
help level quest
If you need more help, don't be afraid to ask over the mage channel or the
retro channel [help retro] [help mage] for assistance, money, or some
unseen advantage. Be perceptive because your intelligence will allow you
to solve puzzles that others cannot.
Use your guide often. They will heal you in need, and give you
information that may be hard to find, provided another player cannot.
Guides will also transport you to "newbie areas". These areas are
designed for starting out characters. Take pride in these. Higher level
characters can not explore here so explore them early. Be careful. Just
because they are newbie areas does not mean you can kill everything in
them by yourself.
As a newbie you are granted many advantages. These advantages are slowly
removed as you advance in level. See [help newbie advantages] for a
complete list of advantages and the level at which they are lost.
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*Getting Around
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Inside towns and in the outerworld, you can use the "map" command to find
your way around. "map legend" will show you where certain areas of note
are. Your first adventure should take you around the city of Nimbus.
Find out where everything is. Become familiar with the town as you will
be spending a good deal of time here. Once you have done this, you might
try exploring the places labeled in map legend. If you are a newbie, you
will not require endurance points to travel. Explore everything you can,
including the other worlds. Once you have explored everything you can on
Raji, try going to the other worlds. Your explore percentage is based on
the entire retroverse, not each world.
Spells/Skills: Because of the incredible cost of training and studying,
the mage will want to be careful in how much experience and gold they want
to spend on skills and spells versus their level. If the mage is a
newbie, it is advisable that they train all of their spells to freemax
before advancing beyond newbiedom (level 21). The most important of your
skills and spells should be raised as high as you can afford. This
definitely includes Quick Chant, Mage Bombing, Mage Blasting, and your
most powerful combat spells. Any further advancement is up to the mage to
decide, but it is wise to ask the other mages for any advice they may have
as well as their opinions
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*Beyond the Mage Guild
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Mages have a large list of opportunity after mastering the mage guild
[choices mage]. This list is larger than most guilds, and gives the mage
the ability to do almost anything they wish to do. One of the more
popular choices is to specialize in a certain elemental magic, such as
Pyromancy, and then to proceed on to become Magus, then Archmagus. This
keeps their entire focus in the realm of magic. You will also gain a
bonus to how how much damage you do with that damage type, a smaller bonus
to the neighboring damage types, a penalty to the opposing damage type,
and a smaller penalty to the opposing damage type's neigbors. So a
Corrosionist(Acid damage type path) would get a bonus to Acid, smaller
bonuses to Fire and Disintegration, a penalty to Asphyxiation, and smaller
penalties to Cold and Electrical. The helpfile [help elemental balance]
has a chart showing the relationships between damage types.
Discordians use chaos spells rather than elemental spells. Most chaos
spells change damage types every time they're used. Discordians do not
have the innate boost and penalty that the elemental secondaries have.
Instead they have a skill in their first tertiary guild [help guild
system] [help paths of power] that boosts all single target chaos spells
[help skill chaotic destruction]. Discordians are explicitly forbiden
from joining elemental secondaries like Pyromancer, and vice versa.
Less common is the choice to join another primary guild. Read [help guild
system], [help paths of power], and [help wished pathing] carefully before
doing so, since it is very easy to accidently cut yourself off from many
guilds.
Biomancer may be a viable option as it allows them to heal both themselves
and others, either in or out of combat.
Their expertise in magic, and their extensive travels may show that Bard
is the choice for them, allowing them to become a "Jack of all Trades."
Their life may have been blessed with treasure and equipment. If their
sights are set on gold and merchandise, they may wish to become a
merchant.
Any of these are good choices and there are many more out there. The
world is open to you, so have fun with it and Welcome to the Mage Guild!!
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