Editing Talk:Spell

==...==

  Q: After all these years, can you shed some new light on the technology present in the world of M&M? 
  A: When it comes to deep Might and Magic lore, Paul Rattner is really the best person to ask, but I will do my best.  To start, I’m not sure what you mean by ‘new light’, as what is publicly known is relatively accurate.  Regardless, from my understanding, at its most basic, the idea was simple.  ‘Ancient’ high technology machines, typically hidden, could be accessed and manipulated to produce ‘magical’ events, via ‘physical and mental ritual’.  This excluded high tech machines, such as the Heavenly Forge, which made magical artifacts via simple instruction.

Behemoth Cave [http://h3.heroes.net.pl/nowina/3765] Interview (2020.11.20)

[https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter08 Fanstratics Newsletter #8	 (April 2021)]

  HoMM3 Fan Question:  Hello, may I ask you are there actually magic in Might and Magic universe or is it all technology?
  This is really a question for Jon Van Caneghem or Paul Rattner.  Jon created the M&M universe, and Paul basically took over lore duties when Jon took a back seat after Might and Magic 5.  As for myself, to the best of my understanding, there is no ‘actual magic in the Might and Magic universe’.  For example, if a Wizard casts a Fireball spell... what actually happens?  In my mind, the Wizard’s mental, verbal, or physical ritual invokes the capabilities of technological machines, deep within a world, causing the machines to create the Fireball and its resulting behavior.  This is a pure guess on my part, but I suspect JVC was inspired by Arthur C. Clarke and his famous quote, “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.”

Greg Fulton, the lead designer of HoMM3 (RoE and AB)

[https://www.fanstratics.com/fstnewsletter19 Fanstratics Newsletter #19 (March 2022)]

== Redirected form direct damage discussion ==

Do spells like [[Land Mine]] and [[Fire Wall]] count as "direct damage"?  I would consider them "indirect damage", because you don't get to choose which stack(s) the spells hit.

:Well, your logic is valid. Personally I am not convinced that that this page is even necessary. After all, "direct damage spell" is an unofficial word not known by the manual or the game itself. So I would be more than happy to merge this page to [[spell]] page. There is already [[Spell#Type of spells|adventure map spells]] section.

:What comes to your question, I would say that Land Mine and Fire Wall are considered to be direct damage spells. I think the key here is, that their effect directly cause damage to creatures, although the effect might be delayed and the player can not choose the affected creatures. But of course this is a matter of perspective and opinnion. –[[User:Kapteeni Ruoska|Kapteeni Ruoska]] ([[User talk:Kapteeni Ruoska|talk]]) 06:57, 14 September 2015 (CEST)

::I think merging is a good idea.  The [[spell]] page has a list of "Adventure map spells" with subsections for Charting, Recognaissance, boats and movement.  Would it be better to have another section for "Combat spells" with subsections for "damaging" and "buffing", etc, or would it be better to have a section for "Damaging Spells" and a section for "Buffing spells", etc, with subsections for things like "single-target" and "mass spells"? [[User:Ibraesil|Ibraesil]] ([[User talk:Ibraesil|talk]]) 03:14, 15 September 2015 (CEST)

:::I merged the pages (poorly). If there is a need to categorize spells, I think your idea is good - the main categories would be ''Adventure map spells'' and ''Combat spells''. Furthermore, combat spells section could be categorized as you suggested. –[[User:Kapteeni Ruoska|Kapteeni Ruoska]] ([[User talk:Kapteeni Ruoska|talk]]) 08:41, 15 September 2015 (CEST)

== Colours ==

As far as I'm aware, stacks have a box which tell you how many units are in the stack.  When a stack has a buff, the box goes green (purple by default).  When a stack has a debuff, the box goes red.  When a stack has both, it goes yellow, and depending on if it has more buffs or more debuffs, it can go various other colours.  
I'm not really sure how to word that so that it can be added to the page (for instance, does the box have a proper name?).  [[User:Ibraesil|Ibraesil]] ([[User talk:Ibraesil|talk]]) 02:35, 16 September 2015 (CEST)

:I am not familiar with this word "buff", but it does not mean pretty much anything. :) The word I would use would probably be "enhancing spells" or even "enhancements", and could the word for debuffs be just "curses"? As I said, I am not a fluent speaker so buffing might be a correct term when used in the game world. –[[User:Kapteeni Ruoska|Kapteeni Ruoska]] ([[User talk:Kapteeni Ruoska|talk]]) 07:54, 16 September 2015 (CEST)

::I did try (and fail) to think of better words than "buffing" and "debuffing" spells, so thank you.  I'm not 100% sure about your suggestion, "Curses", though, because [[curse]] is a spell, so that might cause a bit of confusion.  I'll go ahead an replace "buffing" with "enhancing" in the article.  Also, I don't really know what you meant by "...but it does not mean pretty much anything.".  Sorry. [[User:Ibraesil|Ibraesil]] ([[User talk:Ibraesil|talk]]) 08:28, 16 September 2015 (CEST)

:::It seems ok to me, until we or someone else comes up with better words, or more official words. I just meant by "it does not mean pretty much anything" that even though I do not regognize word it does not mean that its a poor choise of words. :) –[[User:Kapteeni Ruoska|Kapteeni Ruoska]] ([[User talk:Kapteeni Ruoska|talk]]) 07:14, 17 September 2015 (CEST)

== Spells casted on expert level without being an expert ==

I am not sure if this topic isn't covered somewhere else on this wiki but if it is, I failed to find it. Recently, I noticed that some of my heroes were capable of casting some of the low levels spells on expert level but they were not expert in the respective school of magic. I believe that once it was Speed and I don't remember the exact spell the other times. I noticed the anomaly because the spells effected all my troops. Once my hero was defending a Rampart, the other time my hero (not the same one) was in battle outside any town. I haven't come to any conclusion what caused that. Is the expert spell casting without being an expert a bug in the game or is there a real cause of it? I'll appreciate any ideas.

:Could it be that the heroes were on Magic Plains, or one of the other [[Terrain#Magical_Terrains|Magical Terrains]]? [[User:Ibraesil|Ibraesil]] ([[User talk:Ibraesil|talk]]) 14:16, 9 November 2016 (CET)

::Also [[Armageddon's Blade (artifact)]] places Expert level [[Armageddon]] spell to hero's spell book. –[[User:Kapteeni Ruoska|Kapteeni Ruoska]] ([[User talk:Kapteeni Ruoska|talk]]) 09:15, 10 November 2016 (CET)

:::It was during the original The Restoration of Erathia campaigns. I know that once it definitely happened during The Road Home in Seeds of Discontent.

==In-game spell descriptions==
{{:talk:spell/descriptions|col=collapsed}}

==In-game spell descriptions ({{hota}})==
{{:talk:spell/descriptions_(HotA)|col=collapsed}}

== In-game explanation of magic in general ==

Too bad if this is the only expressed stranger’s point of view (indeed, why would anyone else bother explaining something as normal as magic). Are there any more bits of info?

 Complex spells… make up magic. …Everything is about formulas, equations, and complicated actions - all to draw the desired result. It takes forever to memorize a simple spell.

— ''[[Tarnum]], [[Walking on Clouds|here]]'' (notably, he wonders 'who came up with the complex spells' first, the Infinite Monkey?)