Posted July 12, 2021
Magic users need to specialize from the very start in these games, but it's not always clear what specialization you might want to choose. Here's a brief overview of the magic schools (for the Spellforce series only, not Spellforce 2 or 3) and what they are useful for. For magic, you need to level up both the main school as well as the sub-discipline. You can expect to level up about 5 total disciplines in the game. That means if you go for a full magic user you normally do one 'primary' school (with two sub-disciplines) and one 'secondary' (with only one sub-discipline). The different schools also have different controlling stats.
White (Wisdom, Charisma)
School of magic for assisting units on your side, and also fighting against the undead.
Boons - Buffs for friendly units, but this school also includes dispel, anti-undead, and the invulnerability spell. Generally only for support characters until the highest levels, at which point it becomes perhaps the most useful and powerful discipline.
Nature - Kind of a fun mix. The most notable spell is summoning helper beasts. This is also where the cure spells are. Probably best as a secondary.
Life - Healing spells of all sorts.
Black (Intelligence, Wisdom)
School of magic for hurting opponents. It's a negative mirror of the White school in a way.
Curses - Inflict negative effects on enemies. Kind of situational and best as a secondary.
Necromancy - Probably the best type of Black Magic for a primary magic-user, as it includes Lifetap (steal health from enemies). As expected, this school also allows you to summon helpers to fight for you.
Death - Mostly spells that inflict damage. These tend to be the most useful against single opponents, but since it's coming from a magic user it often needs to be cast as a support role.
Elemental (Intelligence, Wisdom)
Magic that causes elemental damage, and also some that provides forms of protection. This school is a good adjunct for a fighter.
All three elemental sub-disciplines have a very similar spell list. Each has a direct damage spell, a protection spell, an elemental summon, and (at high levels) an area attack spell. The area attacks are the most powerful attack spells in the game. Since these are so alike, it's probably best to make this a secondary and specialize in only one of them.
Fire - Sets things on fire, causing some direct damage and additional damage over time. Fire inflicts the greatest total damage of the elemental spells.
Ice - Freezes enemies, causes direct damage, and some damage over time. Because it both damages enemies and stops them from acting, ice magic is the most powerful magic in the game.
Earth - Inflicts physical damage (ignoring magic resistance but not ignoring armor), and has no damage over time. This school also has a spell that reduces the armor of enemies to make its attack spells more effective, as well as one that temporarily stops them (petrify).
Mind (Intelligence, Charisma)
School of magic for manipulating enemies mentally. Mind magic is the least usable of the magic schools for player characters, but it does have some interesting effects.
Enchantment - Most of these spells do something that prevents enemies from attacking you (by distraction, charms, etc.)
Offensive - Spells that disrupt the enemy's ability to fight.
Defensive - Curiously enough, most of these involve stealing/boosting mana (it is Enchantment that works better for 'defense'). It's highly situational, but could be useful as a secondary school for a magic user.
A few further notes:
Playing a magic user is the more difficult path in these games. A decent 'might' hero can often solo most of a map, making the RTS portion irrelevant. Pure magic characters end up having to not only fight out the large-scale battles, but need to be at a high level to make it through the solo/small-party maps as well. There's also the added difficulty that getting the spells you want is going to be a matter of luck (although it helps that the disciplines you specialize in will be more likely to show up).
Something that's interesting balance-wise is that magic users typically get really good armor, often much better than that available to weapon-oriented characters at the same level. It keeps their survivability about the same, although fighters still tend to be better at killing enemies. This holds up until you get to the really high levels, where the fighter character not only has access to the *best* armor but also has the higher stats that make them extremely tough.
Unless you favor a high-apm play style it can be difficult to wield non-aura magic effectively in the bigger fights. You have to manage both your character and everything else that's going on. The schools with summons or aura effects will be easier to handle.
White (Wisdom, Charisma)
School of magic for assisting units on your side, and also fighting against the undead.
Boons - Buffs for friendly units, but this school also includes dispel, anti-undead, and the invulnerability spell. Generally only for support characters until the highest levels, at which point it becomes perhaps the most useful and powerful discipline.
Nature - Kind of a fun mix. The most notable spell is summoning helper beasts. This is also where the cure spells are. Probably best as a secondary.
Life - Healing spells of all sorts.
Black (Intelligence, Wisdom)
School of magic for hurting opponents. It's a negative mirror of the White school in a way.
Curses - Inflict negative effects on enemies. Kind of situational and best as a secondary.
Necromancy - Probably the best type of Black Magic for a primary magic-user, as it includes Lifetap (steal health from enemies). As expected, this school also allows you to summon helpers to fight for you.
Death - Mostly spells that inflict damage. These tend to be the most useful against single opponents, but since it's coming from a magic user it often needs to be cast as a support role.
Elemental (Intelligence, Wisdom)
Magic that causes elemental damage, and also some that provides forms of protection. This school is a good adjunct for a fighter.
All three elemental sub-disciplines have a very similar spell list. Each has a direct damage spell, a protection spell, an elemental summon, and (at high levels) an area attack spell. The area attacks are the most powerful attack spells in the game. Since these are so alike, it's probably best to make this a secondary and specialize in only one of them.
Fire - Sets things on fire, causing some direct damage and additional damage over time. Fire inflicts the greatest total damage of the elemental spells.
Ice - Freezes enemies, causes direct damage, and some damage over time. Because it both damages enemies and stops them from acting, ice magic is the most powerful magic in the game.
Earth - Inflicts physical damage (ignoring magic resistance but not ignoring armor), and has no damage over time. This school also has a spell that reduces the armor of enemies to make its attack spells more effective, as well as one that temporarily stops them (petrify).
Mind (Intelligence, Charisma)
School of magic for manipulating enemies mentally. Mind magic is the least usable of the magic schools for player characters, but it does have some interesting effects.
Enchantment - Most of these spells do something that prevents enemies from attacking you (by distraction, charms, etc.)
Offensive - Spells that disrupt the enemy's ability to fight.
Defensive - Curiously enough, most of these involve stealing/boosting mana (it is Enchantment that works better for 'defense'). It's highly situational, but could be useful as a secondary school for a magic user.
A few further notes:
Playing a magic user is the more difficult path in these games. A decent 'might' hero can often solo most of a map, making the RTS portion irrelevant. Pure magic characters end up having to not only fight out the large-scale battles, but need to be at a high level to make it through the solo/small-party maps as well. There's also the added difficulty that getting the spells you want is going to be a matter of luck (although it helps that the disciplines you specialize in will be more likely to show up).
Something that's interesting balance-wise is that magic users typically get really good armor, often much better than that available to weapon-oriented characters at the same level. It keeps their survivability about the same, although fighters still tend to be better at killing enemies. This holds up until you get to the really high levels, where the fighter character not only has access to the *best* armor but also has the higher stats that make them extremely tough.
Unless you favor a high-apm play style it can be difficult to wield non-aura magic effectively in the bigger fights. You have to manage both your character and everything else that's going on. The schools with summons or aura effects will be easier to handle.