Im pretty new to the game, about 5 or 6 shards into the campaign, i know casting certain spells affects karma and affects your troops morale, i cast a summon undead i think and my healers morale plummeted.

I generally play these kind of games as a goody two-shoes (its in my nature) so i was wondering if there was a list of how the spells affect karma and morale, i generally have a Scout with Swordsmen and a healer so i want to avoid the bad spells as much as possible. Or does it just not matter that much and i can cast any of the magics without significant penalty.

Love the game just wish there was a manual somewhere....

TIA

There are spells which are bad, but it's pretty obvious which are. Undead creating, chaos spells...the kind that you wouldn't want to cast anyway, as that type of person.

In the game directory is a folder called "var", in there is the spells.var, which lists the karma effects for each spell. Open the file, Ctrl+F and type in the spell, then theres karma in the list. Raise Skeleton -1 karma.

You can also monitor the exact karma value and realtime changes with external memory readers like cheatengine at the address 0055CE10

Thanks, very helpful, i can check now if im not sure about them

Just going to list the spells that affect Karma for easy reference for all.


Raise Skeleton -1, Zombie -1, Ghoul -1, Ghost -2, Vampire -2,

Summon Imp -1, Fiend -2, Hellhound -2, Demon -3, Devil -5

Vampirism -1, Mass/Disease -1, Dark Pact -7, Inferno -1, Black Magic -5, Corruption -1, Mass Suicide -1,

Exorcism +1 and White Magic +1.


I really think it is unfair how few of the Good spells give + Karma compared to all the negative's. It just seems quite a bit unfair and punitive to magic users. Also seems consorting with Demons is worse than with the Undead lol.

Actually they don't lose morale really because you use bad spells, it's because your overall morale is evil compared to them being Good. As long as you manage to compensate your use of the bad spells by doing other positive acts then your good.

Thats good, i was was quite worried when my healers were starting battles on half morale, i shall be more careful what spells and actions i take....

Also there is one other thing. Troops can lose Morale from Taking damage. OR if an ally dies in a hex next to them. For this reason it is REALLLY easy for healers to lose morale but really hard for them to gain it back.

Troops gain 2 Morale for landing the killing blow on an enemy, They also gain 1 Morale if they are standing next to an enemy when it dies (Not sure if it counts if they die due to poison though). Keep this in mind when your about to land that last blow so that you can move your healer next to it to get that Morale back up.

Also when a battle ends your troops can gain back their Morale each turn back upto their max level, kind of like gaining back HP. However this does take time so it's not easy.

Another detail to keep in mind is that units lose morale during sieges. Throw in a fear spell or some ranged attacks and I've managed to incapacitate an enemy hero.

I havent used fear before because i wasnt building the necromancy guild, i normally build the 1st 4 because they seemed like the "good" option, but fear does seem like it could be a useful addition even if i dont use the raising spells.

Since i normally take a scout hero im not to sure which spells to best take, i usually go for web, astral energy, haste, slow, but usually just end up shooting the bow anyway lol.

My usual build:
T1
Sphere of wind - for mobility ritual. Haste useful for scout and warrior.
School of wizardry - magic weapon is a must for scout (+ammo). Armor useful for noob warrior.
T2
Necromancy guild
Fear - best disable
Zombie - great meatshield
Skelly - target dummy for archers/slugs
Ghoul >>>> zombie. With ghoul and 2-3 phantom forms you can clear labyrinth.
Vampirism - best spell for warriors, hands down. Full health from round attack.
Deadly terror - best with scout's diversion.
Illusionist guild
Phantom form - good disable for strong units, they spend stamina with no damage (like ogres start to hit for 15 damage instead of 30), good defense for healers vs archers, nice synergy with ghoul.
Web, astral energy - very good spells. Sleep very good for mage/commander dual - you can kill strong armies one by one.

For the T3, (I happened to find the scroll on my last shard), I noticed that "Mass slow" is simply devastating when used in combo with the scout's "False alarm" power. I used it for my first action. It slows down the quick strike troops so you can shoot them down before contact, but it also drains the stamina of nearly every mêlée soldier as they cross the map. The poor guys were totally useless when they reached my lines.

My favorite spell so far is "Fog of Terror." As long as he's not fighting undead or constructs, a single powerful wizard can insta-win against an army of enemies.

Yeah Cloud of Terror rules, I just started with a Wiz as first hero and at level 3 he found Summon Demon, and with the Demons ueberness he found Cloud of Terror at level 7 or so. He can cast it already.
Now I need crystals, its 50 a pop. :D