Instead of looking up and through all the MoM mods I think it easier to just ask: Does any mod exist that allows you to disable Spell of Mastery? I really prefer a prolonged game with many battles instead of racing towards that ultimate spell.

Before you point it out, I have tried the "Spell Blast" and the "hunt down and kill the wizard before they finish leaving them possibly to return by Spell of Return" approaches, but it gets tiresome, and once a wizard is able to cast SoM they'll concentrate on nothing else.

No; none that I'm aware of. But I suppose you could always ask <span class="bold">here</span> as to whether one of the modders would be willing and able to program such a toggle into the Options menu. But... but that's the whole fun of it! Reduce your opponents to ashes one by one, learning all of their spells and conquering their cities in the process, until the very last wizard is trying desperately to return to their final isolated hamlet on an island in the middle of Arcanus... at which point you cast the SoM for the end-of-game bonus! Muahahahaha!!

If you and I are ever put into a MoM game together, I'm eliminating you first. No offense.

None taken. But fair warning: my usual strategy is to turtle till I'm ready, then initiate Operation Hero's Journey; so if you don't catch me early, you'll likely never catch me at all.

I do enjoy me some Operation Hero's Journey. Until the Crack's Call starts coming out. A lot of Journeys have ended very abruptly, followed by a burp from the earth.

No worries. You bring your Web spells; I'll bring Jaer.

Web will pull him from the sky just as fast as anyone else. Assuming I can force him into battle.

I think this is the first time I've ever seen MoM-related smack talk.

Au contraire, mon ami. It's only smack talk if exaggeration is involved. Otherwise, it's a discussion of tactics. ;)

Amusingly, it can be distinctly hard to exaggerate when talking about MoM plays.

On the first turn, use the Tweaker or a savegame editor to set the spell of mastery as unknown (not researchable) to all players. Simple as that.

Will look into that. Thanks for responding.

The problem with that method is as soon as you open the save game editor or tweaker, much of the game's hidden information is spoiled. You know which other wizards are in the game, and going through their spell list to disable the Spell of Mastery, you're going to see which rares and ultra rares they're going to get.

So as as solution you can post it here and ask someone else you trust to do it. Or as a brother/roommate/friend... to do it for you.