Now with organization!
The arcane compendium is pretty clear on how to create spells, but it is not always clear on what spells actually do and how to put them together. I have not been able to find a decent guide to spellmaking so I'm making one. Here we have a list of useful and interesting spells that will serve as examples for your own.
This is based on the 1.1.2b version of Ars Magica 2 from the TPPI v 2.3 pack by Mithion.
Every spell is composed of shapes followed by components followed by modifiers.
Utility
>Projectile | Light
Creates an inconspicuous purple sparkly light that hangs in the air. This is a bit dim unless cast at at least half moon (press c by default) but you will use it constantly while mining and for lighting up distant ceilings, and constant use equals easy leveling.
>Self | Divine Intervention
Ever forget your linking book? Cast once for poor man's /home. Cast twice for /spawn.
>Projectile | Forge
Converts sand to glass, cobble to smoothstone, wood to charcoal that instantly appears at your location, and live villagers to emeralds. Go forth and destroy the village!
>Projectile | Create water
Exactly what it says on the tin, creates a water source block at the target. Works in the nether too. Experiments trying various ways to combine this with freeze effects to create a cryogenic preservation spell were never quite satisfying.
>AoE | Freeze
Freezes nearby water, including flowing blocks. Gives you a nice platform in the ocean and lets you turn waterfalls into bizarre ice sculptures.
>Zone | Duration | Duration | Duration | AoE | Grow plants | Harvest plants
Creator: CaseyRobinson
Creates a zone that constantly applies a bonemeal-like effect to the ground and harvests the results. This will produce blue orchids, tamra root, and also desert novas if cast in the desert. Lasts a long time.
>Projectile | AoE | Plow
I could have made a hoe, but I didn't. Handy for when you need to make a big field ready.
>Projectile | AoE | Charm
Causes livestock orgies as if they'd all been fed their favorite food, and turns enemy NPCs to your side.
Movement
>Projectile | Mark | Self | Recall
Creator: aloy99
Fires a projectile that marks a location, then recalls you to that spot. This is basically a wizard's enderpearl. You may want to add range and velocity added modifiers after mark. I am not responsible for cases of motion sickness, suffocation, pizzaification or other unfortunate accidents.
>Beam | Range | Range | Range | Mark | Self | Recall
Clouds and treetops are convenient targets for this instant long-range grappling hook because you won't suffocate if you land inside them. It is still very cheap. I find beam spells unreliable though.
>Projectile | Mark | Piercing | Self | Recall
Piercing lets you place the mark spell underground or inside a wall on purpose. You teleport through solid blocks and effectively swim through land if you spam it, but you take suffocation damage.
>Self | Haste | Leap | Slowfall | Gravity | Duration | Duration | Duration
Creator: duaiwe of Reddit
This is an important part of your 3D maneuvering gear. Try making a running jump or using it to get on top of a tree so you can use the grappling hook spell. The gravity component makes you fall slightly faster so you spend less time stuck in midair.
In combination with either of the grappling spells above and longfall boots you'll be ready to fight a Titan in no time.
By the way, slowfall is bugged and if you've been in the air a while and then touch the ground an instant after the buff runs out it is the same damage as a fall from cloud level with no buffs.
>Self | Fling
It took me a while to figure out how to do this one right. Casting it just once does almost nothing but also costs next to nothing. The faster you spam it, the more efficient it is. You will be launched high up into the air where you can deploy an Extra Utilities hang glider or grapple a cloud. Also gets you unstuck from clouds.
>Self | Haste | Swim Speed
Creator: duaiwe of Reddit
Add night vision and water breathing for the full experience. This one lets you get around underwater better.
>Self | Flight | Duration | Duration | Duration
You really want to cast this on at least half moon. Smooth, creative-mode flight at a heftier mana price. Press space twice to use. Levitate is similar but slow and not usually worth the trouble.
>Contingency: Fall | Self | Slowfall
Ars Magica 2's version of a parachute. Longfall boots offer higher survival rates and there are better uses for the single contingency you can have active at once.
Mining
>Touch | Dig
Instantly digs the block in front of you. Crescent moon can break any block a stone pick can, and full moon can break any block a diamond pick can.
>Channel | Dig
An advanced version of the above, creates a short invisible mining beam that rapidly slices through dirt and stone. Requires less rapid clicking.
>Projectile | AoE | Dig
When cast at crescent moon it will provide a poor man's tinker's construct hammer that digs a 3x3, 5x5 at half moon, and 7x7 at full moon.
>Zone | Projectile | Dig
Here we have some deep magic. This creates a zone that causes you to involuntarily spam projectile dig spells, and the effects of multiple zones are stackable. Basically, spam this combo until out of mana and then slice a mountain in half with an exploity uncontrollable magical mining gatling gun. The same principle works on damage spells...
>Projectile | Zone | Gravity | Duration | Duration | Duration | AoE | Dig
Creator: Exadi
Far, far faster than a normal quarry and very cheap to cast, this digs a giant square hole straight down to bedrock or until it hits a fluid. Careful where you cast this as it can easily eat your base.
>Projectile | Piercing | Piercing | Piercing | AoE | Dig
This is a revolutionary mining technology brought on by the community's increased understanding of spell grammar. Carves a 3x3x7 hole. Kind of uneven when fired on a diagonal.
Defense
>Self | Heal | Regeneration
Heals you up and gives you a regen effect. This will probably be one of your first spells.
>Self | Dispel
Removes unwanted status effects, like cave spider bites but also night vision if you accidentally applied it in a certain dimension.
>Self | Regeneration | Shield | Duration | Duration | Duration
You'll shrug off most kinds of damage and heal constantly.
>Projectile | Heal | Regeneration
Allows you to heal injured livestock and friends. The heal component does mild damage to undead.
>Projectile | Dispel
Heals the sick, disempowers the evil.
>Contingency: Health | Self | Heal | Health | Health | Health
Contingency spells make stuff happen when their conditions are met. Contingency: Health triggers when you are down to about two hearts. You will then be healed up back to nearly full. The health runes make the healing effect much stronger, and come after the component they're modifying.
>Contingency: Damage | AoE | Blind | Disarm | Entangle | Summon
Warfare in FTB is often kind of fast-paced. This is an automated opener. As soon as you are damaged by anything (fall, cactus, griefer) you will inflict crippling debuffs on everything nearby and summon minions of your choice to help beat them to death. Don't use minions that carry weapons like skeletons or they get disarmed too.
>Contingency: Health | Self | Divine Intervention | Heal | Regeneration | Dispel
This is a spell to make you a semi-immortal coward. If your health is critically low you heal, teleport to your bed or spawn, start regenerating, and dispel unwanted status effects like poisons. It won't protect you from instant kills and radiation effects cannot be dispelled. Note that Contingency: Death is unreliable except for revenge spells.
Offense
>Projectile | Disarm
Your basic expelliarmus. This causes the targeted player or NPC to drop what they're holding, and also works on skeletons, zombies and zombie pigmen. Dark mages drop NONE affinity tomes. Disarm is a good early target for self-defense because of its position in the talent tree and overwhelming effectiveness against other players.
>Projectile | Mark AND >Projectile | Recall
A poor man's portal gun. Mark a spot with one spell, and then send enemies to that spot with recall. Handy for getting things into a dark nexus. Costs tons of mana across dimensions.
>Projectile | Light | Mark | Piercing | Piercing | Piercing
Put your enemies six blocks under by firing this straight down and then hitting them with a separate recall spell. If it is an NPC they suffocate and their items pop up to the surface and if it is a player they probably escape but take some suffocation damage. The floating ball of light serves as a grave marker so you remember where you buried them.
>Projectile | Dig | Ignition | Piercing | Piercing | Piercing
This spell does have legitimate uses in certain high-level dungeons where a block breaking spell that can shoot holes through walls and ignite multiple things is actually a sane and rational part of your casting bar. It passes through seven blocks, trying to dig all of them and ignite their neighbors. It will continue to pass through and try to reach interior blocks even if the outer blocks are indestructible.
>Projectile | Watery grave
The compedium was a bit vague on this component. It makes the target unable to float in water and sinks them about 40 blocks down. Zombies drown if the water is deep enough, but a player can just barely escape. This is kind of useless on land but could be a hilarious and deadly prank if combined with a recall spell set to the middle of the ocean.
>Projectile | Attract | Ignition
The pulling effect of attract isn't strong, but if cast on the ground it creates a fire that draws nearby enemies into it for really low mana cost.
>Projectile | Zone | AoE | Fire Damage
Creates a zone of deadly burning fog. Zone spells create a spot where a spell is repeatedly cast. For fun, add Ignition after fire damage.
>Rune | AoE | Lightning Damage
Creates a basic shock rune close to you that damages the first thing stupid enough to step on it and anything nearby. This doesn't really work unless cast on at least half moon and can't be cast directly on a monster. Oh, and the rune it creates replaces a block if it strikes it from the side. Any block, even bedrock, can be deleted if it can be attacked from the side. Like many other spells this has griefing potential; I would rather you didn't use my invention to be a dick.
>Projectile | Summon
You must throw in a filled phylacteryl during spell creation. If you press "make spell" in creative it summons a skeleton. Summon spells last a long time. The Hell Cow from the Moo Moo Farm dimension is probably the strongest obtainable summon. It makes an excellent tank, distracting bosses for quite a while even without buffs. Vanilla nether mobs (blazes, wither skeletons) don't seem to work.
>Chain | Lightning Damage
Cheaper and more instant than a projectile but with less range, zaps the target and their two nearest neighbors. Also looks cool.
>Projectile | Velocity Added | Blind | Entangle | Disarm | Mana Drain
Completely disables the target for a few seconds by rendering them unable to see, shoot, or move. Also refunds part of the mana cost from their mana pool. Live test subject commented that he was glad I was on his side.
>Projectile | Lightning Damage | Entangle
Don't tase me, bro. Keeps the target from running off while you inflict armor-piercing damage.
>Chain | Lightning Damage | Rune Procs | Rune Procs | Rune Procs
Targets nine entities instead of three. This is an inefficient use of mana compared to casting a version without the rune procs three times.
Silver-Level Unlocks!
Some of the most powerful spell components cannot be purchased with skill points. You discover them by creating a spell with related components and attempting to cast it. You don't actually have to possess enough mana to succeed at casting this combination or meet any prereqs (not sure this is intended) so you can borrow a set of spell unlocks from somebody else on your server.
I found a few of these combinations by accident, most of them from various sources on the internet, and all the rest of them by looking at SpellUnlockManager.class.
The targeting shape isn't actually important, but don't try to leave a targeting shape out of the recipe. I'm just picking what makes the most sense here.
Order of components doesn't actually matter!
Mana Shield Unlock:
> (Self) | Shield | Reflect | Life Tap
Mana Link Unlock:
> (Projectile) | Mana Drain | Entangle
Firestorm Unlock:
> (Projectile) | Fire Damage | Ignition | Storm | Solar
Blizzard Unlock:
> (Projectile) | Storm | Frost Damage | Freeze | Damage
Starstrike Unlock:
> (Projectile) | Magic Damage | Gravity | Astral Distortion
Moonrise Unlock:
> (Self) | Night Vision | Ender Intervention | Lunar
Daylight Unlock:
> (Projectile) | True Sight | Divine Intervention | Light
Spellmaking With Advanced Components
> Projectile | Firestorm | Storm
This only costs 8 mana more than a pure firestorm spell, and 8 mana is worth it for the Adele reference and dramatic look.
Firestorm is a very powerful component that bypasses the normal restrictions on how fast damage can be dealt. Basically, it does a fuckton of damage over a few seconds in a 3x3 area and kills any non-boss mob before they can cross it at the price of also vaporizing most of the drops. Does not light flammable blocks on fire ever. Radius runes to not increase the radius, although duration makes it last much longer. Some variation (probably without the rain) will be your primary offensive spell once you get it.
> Projectile | Starstrike
This would not be a bad spell if Firestorm were not such an awesome spell. With no other modifiers and at crescent moon strength it does about 6 damage (3 hearts) in a 9x9 square but only if your target has a clear path to the sky. There is also a bit of a delay between when it hits and when the star falls.
> Self | Starstrike
The saving grace of Starstrike is that you can have more than one star falling at once. Cast this every half second while walking backwards and you will annihilate hordes of zombies that are trying to chase you in a somewhat efficient manner.
> Projectile | Blizzard
Enemies freeze in place and take about 20 damage (10 hearts) for the duration of the spell in a 3x3. Sometimes destroys drops.
> Contingency: Damage | Self | Firestorm | Blizzard
You asked for it, so here it is. This is a spell to discourage harm.
Coming soon: Boss strategies and summoning!
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Things that are in various stages of broken:
Slowfall. This is afflicted by the fall damage accumulation bug that I've seen in a couple other mods that try to have this feature. If it runs out while you've been in the air a while and you're a tick away from touching the ground safely, you take damage as if you'd been falling full speed the entire time you were in the air.
Projectile mark plus light, then self recall. I've had some trouble reproducing it but I've had two testing worlds where teleporting myself inside a ball of light caused a CTD and an unloadable world.
Random teleport. If cast at full moon it moves you a very short distance for a very high mana cost.
Ender Intervention. Works on NPCs, but when attempting to send my little brother to the Nether the server crashed and when it restarted he was on the roof of the nether. Test subject retrieved eventually. Haven't retested this bug in a while...
Harvest. Causes wildly excessive drops when it strikes a Thaumcraft flower, and possibly other plants.
