Hi,

I am a newbie to this game. How should I allocate the mana? What percentage for research, casting skill? Any advice?

This varies depending on quite a number of things. For instance if you start with 11 Spell Books then you really want lots of MANA asap so you would probably ignore research and skill for quite a bit so that you can summon that big creature to start laying waste.

For something like the Artificer & Runemancer build I love and almost always play now I only get 38 mana in the beggining and from then on my slider is almost always all skill for quite a while.

Usually my Research is 90% done by Libraries, Sage's Guild and Universities or Sage Heroes. I only adjust the sliders so that there's no spillover, wasted research, or when getting a very important spell like Summon Hero/Champion.

Read the thread below for more info on how the skill slider works.
http://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_magic/magic_summary_screen

As EvilLoynis says, there's no "one size fits all" rule. But for a beginner, these general rules of thumb should suffice.

1) Make sure the mana coming in exceeds the mana going out. In other words, if you cast a spell (such as a summon) which has a per-turn mana cost, and you run out of mana, that spell or creature will be automatically dispelled. On the right side of the main screen, mana is the third number (under gold and food); like gold and food, if it turns red (-1 or below) you have a problem.

2) I recommend keeping research at exactly 5 or a multiple of 5, at least at first. As you build buildings that help with research (libraries, shrines, etc.) adjust the slider accordingly. This is because research points not used in a turn are wasted, but all spells have a research cost divisible by 10 (and therefore also by 5). Research the lowest-cost spells first, unless you see one that you just have to have. The game will show you how many rounds it'll take at your current research level.

3) The Skill slider takes the longest to build, and also the longest to see the benefits. One school of thought says to wait till you have the points to spare; the other says to start growing it right away. Skill determines how much mana you can cast per turn, both overland and in a combat; low skill means that the better combat spells are inaccessible, and even the weaker ones are severely limited in how often you can use them.

4) In an emergency you can burn gold to make mana, and vice versa, by way of the Alchemy button on the Magic screen. You lose half of whatever you're converting, unless you took the Alchemist retort as part of your build, so do keep that in mind.

Specific builds come with their own variations and exceptions to the above, but for a first-timer these should at least get you headed in the right direction. Have fun and good luck.

For almost any build, research is the least important slider. Not only can you generate research points from buildings, but you can discover spells in ruins and nodes. You can also trade spells with rival wizards, or plunder them from rival wizards' towers.

What kind of wizard are you playing? If you tell us which books and abilities you selected, we can give you better advice.

There's nothing wrong with running in the red as long as your mana reserve can handle it. I very commonly allocate nothing to storage and pay upkeep by turning could into mana or by mana gain from banishing enemy wizards, lairs, nodes, etc.

Research can be the right option if you see a spell you really need. If I find something like Wraiths in my book, I'll often max out research mana to get it as fast possible.

In general, though, past the early game I put my entire power base into skill because it's only way to increase your skill.

Hey all, first time poster.

Not sure if this is hijacking the thread, but I have not been able to figure out what "skill" does.

I like to use Artificer and deck out my champions, but even if I put all my mana into Skill, it doesn't change how many turns needed to create the item.

Can I get some further explanation on Skill?

Thanks a lot.

It actually does shorten the time it takes but it is not an immediately seen reward. It builds over time quite slowly.

Also if you like to use Artificer make sure you choose Runemancer as well and check out the thread about the combo.

http://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_magic/artificer_runemaster_build_help_me_tweak_this/page1

3 Key things about using the combo

1 - Artifact creation costs are reduced by 75%!!!! (This allows you to make back 2x the mana that you put into it, this means other than the first 38 mana needed for the first art your sliders will be all to skill/research)
2 - Auto start with Enchant Item and Create Art spells.
3 - No limits with starting Race, no real power race with it.

More specifically, the formula for increasing your skill is:

Your present skill level x2 will increase your skill by 1.

So if your starting skill is 5, investing 10 points will increase it to 6, then 12 more points will up it to 7, etc.

Note: this investment IS cumulative (meaning that it doesn't round down) so while increasing skill takes time, you won't be wasting any part of your investment (the way you'll sometimes do with research).

The big advantage of the Archmage feat is that it adds +10 to your skill out of the gate, plus a 50% bonus to how quickly you level up your skill. (In other words, when the Skill wand shows a 10-point investment per turn, the game actually calculates you as investing 15 points per.

And skill is used not just overland to cast spells faster and more often; it also gives you more spell points in combat (separate from your heroes' spells, which are dependent on their own mana reserves).

One last protip: Spellcasting heroes who are inside your Wizard's Fortress will share half of their spell skill with you.* This is a good way to boost your abilities during the early part of the game (or during the endgame, when you can bring one or more of them home for just this purpose). This only applies while they're within your starter city, however; when they go a-wandering, the bonus is lost unless and until you bring them back.

*This is separate from heroes with the Sage skill, who will boost your research points no matter where in the worlds they happen to be; and Legendary heroes, who will do the same thing for your fame.

I usually don't get into how Archmage works for new players but since you brought it up you have to be aware of something.

The formula for increasing spell skill as seen above is correct. However with Archmage it is NOT. Basically when using Archmage take away that +10 it gives before doing the formula above.

Your present Spell Skill - (minus 10 if Archmage) x2 will increase your skill by 1.

So if you spell skill shows 15 as Archamge it's (15-10)*2 to get to 16.

I didn't know that; thank you. This makes the feat that much better.

Hmm.

That's all pretty interesting.

I'm 32 years old, and have been playing since I was 14 or 15. I just recently bought the game again from GOG.

I also installed the latest "Insecticide" patch.


I have always used pretty much Artificer + Alchemist and then 9 books in Nature.

I am pretty much set in my ways. I did try the Archmage but did not notice much difference. Maybe I'll try it again.
I really hate losing half when exchanging gold and mana. And the way I play, I try to get 5-8 cities perfect, while building up a hero army with maxed weapons. Artificer helps on that. I just wish I could build them quicker.

I do not like using more than one type of magic, and I only use Nature. I find Earth Lore and Regeneration to be necessities. I cannot even bear the thought of losing a champion with maxed stats and items. So they all get regeneration.

So this makes it very hard for me to choose a retort that needs points spent in multiple books.

I'm 47 years old. You were born when I was 14 or 15. ;)

We all have our particular playing styles. I'm addicted to Healing (Life) and Word of Recall (Sorcery) which fortunately are Common spells I can guarantee having even when I take the Runemancer option.

If you haven't yet read about the Artificer/Runemancer combo, one of its greatest advantages is that you'll be generating mana income hand over fist. Under those circumstances, who cares whether you lose half of it to gold every so often? The only reason to be an Alchemist is if your starting race is Troll (in which case you've also taken Myrran and probably Warlord, so not a lot of spellbooks left over anyway).

Another thing to keep in mind is the game isn't a roguelike; you can save before a battle, and if it doesn't play out the way you hoped, either try it again or change your mind. Magic Spirits aren't as effective as Earth Lore, but they get the job done. And there is a cheat code to give you* Nature Awareness (along with Detect Magic); I'm not going to spoil it here, but if you're interested, either PM me or remember that Google is your friend.

*Along with each of your opponents. Fair's fair, after all; and besides, they'll probably research it ahead of you anyhow.

Well I am 34 years old and discovered the game around the same time you did.

I have to say when I first started playing this game I also was not that flexible and would never NOT choose Myrran and absolutely loved Dark Elves and Trolls and the Warlord retort.

Since I discovered the Artificer + Runemaster combo and how many ways it can go though I have been converted. With the A+R combo the artifact that you payed 1000 for I got for only 500 and can then break to get back 1000. That's right I can get back 2x the amount I craft them for.

Also If you were to start with 5 Nature/2 Life/ 2 whatever and A+R if you could manage to find 1 more nature book in game you could craft artifacts with Regeneration embedded in them. 3 Sorcery books on the other hand lets you put Flight and 5 Magic Immunity + Invisibility on your Artifacts so your Heroes would not even be hurt by Cracks Call unless they managed to Web you first.

Check out the list of abilities you get to add with various number of spell books in the A+R thread seriously you will be surprised. Besides you can only get some of the best Heroes in the game with either a Death or Life Book. Mortu FTW!!! although ofc I love Malleus way better hehe even made a thread dedicated to him.

http://www.gog.com/forum/master_of_magic/artificer_runemaster_build_help_me_tweak_this/post7

41.

Being set in your ways simply means you've only seen the tip of the iceberg when it comes to what MoM has to offer.

I'm not addicted to any one build. In fact, I almost never play the same type of wizard twice in a row. Whenever I start a new game I begin by trying to figure out some strategy I've never tried before. The more you experiment, the more you'll come to see that there are lots of different ways to play the game and win.

Archmage is actually very powerful. It's more and more valuable the longer the game lasts, and it allows you to reach insane levels of late-game casting skill - levels you could never attain otherwise.

Alchemist+Artificer is not a great build. There's nothing wrong with it, necessarily, but you can do way better, even sticking to one type of magic.

I started and finished a game with Artificer + Runemaster + Archmage.

Being without Alchemist was not a big deal.

The problem was that I was not able to get Regeneration. Thus, I lost like 4 heroes over a few battles. They all had maxed out items, which were incredibly cheap and quick to make relative to how I had it before.

It's just that the most enjoyable part of the game is being able to have a party of 6 heroes who can get to any tile of the map in 4-5 turns, and banish a wizard who decided to cast the SoM, and going around the map and destroying any monsters that occupy any mana node. It's a severe hindrance to my time to have to summon a new hero and make new items for them, if I happen to have lost two, then that's 2 items I have to throw away. And then I have to rejoin them with the rest of the team.

I also use only High Men. Paladins are OP as it is. A party of 9 Paladins built with magic weapons through a war college is the best non-creature stack in the entire game.

The only thing in my experience that beats Paladins are a few Sky/Fire Drakes, Great Wurms, and a stack of Shadow Demons. Using the Web spell also brings down a lot of flying monsters.
So I'm pretty much set on High Men. Not using Paladins is out of the questions.