To cast spells either overland or during combat, you must first get to your spellbooks. For overland spells, click on the main movement screen’s spells button; during combat, click on the spell button.
After you open your spellbook, all spells available for casting appear. You can turn the pages of the spellbook by clicking on the upper corners of the pages.
Below each spell, you can see symbols that indicate the magic type of the spell (white ankh for life magic, purple skull for death, red fireball for chaos, green tree for nature and blue diamond for sorcery magic). The number of symbols under the spell indicates the number of turns it takes to cast the spell if you are casting overland. The number of symbols also indicates the number of times you can cast the spell if you are casting during combat.
Choose a spell to cast by left-clicking on the spell name. Right- clicking on a spell calls up its description.
Outside of combat, spells that are currently being cast appear in glowing letters with the number of symbols below them equivalent to the number of turns left before casting is complete.
During overland casting, click on a spell to abort the casting effort. Note that all magic power already spent on the spell is permanently lost. Clicking on a new spell also aborts the old spell, but chooses a new spell to start casting. In this case, all the magic power already gathered to cast the old spell is funneled into casting the new one; excess mana (if there is any) is lost.
To abort a combat spell, left-click on thecancel button that appears in the bottom right corner of the screen before choosing a target. Note that you can only abort combat spells that have unique targets.
Spells cannot be cast without magic power, and the amount of magic power required to cast a spell is called its casting cost. During overland casting, the number of symbols under a spell’s name signifies the estimated number of game turns required to complete casting the spell (under current conditions); during combat, the number of symbols signifies how many times that spell can be cast during the battle, given the number of remaining spell casting skill points or the amount of mana left in the reserve.
When casting spells overland or during combat, the amount of mana you have to work with (per game turn for gathering enough magic power to cast a non-combat spell and per battle for combat) is equivalent to your spell casting skill.
There are a few, mostly combat, spells that can be made stronger by spending more magic power when casting them. These spells can take an input of up to five times the base cost of the spell (limited by available mana reserves or spell casting skill). When you cast a spell of this type, a window appears in which you can choose how much magic power to add to the spell (to increase the spell’s strength). Click on and then drag the nub in the window to choose the amount of additional mana, if any, to put into the spell.
Click on the red ribbon at the bottom of your spellbook to close it. Casting Overland
Your spellbook only shows you the spells it is possible to cast overland (i.e., not in combat) when you click on the spells button of the main movement screen. Click on spell page corners to turn the spellbook pages, and select your choice for casting by clicking on the spell’s name. You may, however, only cast one overland spell at a time. When casting overland spells, you may take as many turns as you need to complete the spell. The total amount of mana you can put into a spell every turn depends on your spell casting skill (magic summary screen) and the amount of mana in your mana reserves. Once you have spent an amount of magic power equal to its casting cost, the spell is cast. Spell casting heroes may help you cast overland spells. At the end of every turn in which such a hero remains in your enchanted fortress city, half of his or her spell casting skill is added to that of your wizard. This allows your wizard to cast overland spells at a faster rate, because more mana can be contributed to the casting per turn. The mana itself, however, still comes from your wizard’s sources (the hero’s mana is only accessible during combat; see Casting During Combat).
Casting During Combat
When attempting to cast a spell during combat by selecting the spell button, you may be asked to choose which spellbook to use. This choice decides who is actually casting the spell, your wizard or an active hero on the battlefield (assuming that hero has some spell casting
Every combat allows you to spend up to your spell casting skill in magic power to influence the battle. This magic power is drawn directly from your mana reserves and, therefore, the size of your mana reserves may limit the amount of magic power you can spend during a battle (if your mana reserves have less magic power than you can theoretically use, based on your spell casting skill).
In addition to your wizard’s ability to cast spells during each battle turn, heroes with magic abilities can also cast spells each battle turn when they are the active unit. (Your wizard can cast spells when any unit is active). Such heroes start every combat with an amount of mana equal to their spell casting skill level. Some heroes also have their own spellbooks with special spells (in addition to those in their controlling wizard’s spellbook) from which they can choose combat spells to cast.
The heroes’ own mana can also be used to make regular ranged magic attacks, at a cost of three mana per attack.
See the information under Spells in Combat for more details.