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13.1: Magic Training

Training is no less important for magic skill than for traditional weapons, however, unlike weapon use, risk is not a factor in advancing magic skill.

To train in magic, the magic user (MU) must go to the appropriate trainer of his class. In Kesmai, thaums go to Sven in the temple, wizards to Oskar near the pawn shop, and thieves to Lars in the thieves' guild. They take their personalized spell book in right hand and place their money on the counter or altar. Then, the command is ", train me". If you get the message that the trainer is unable to train you, you will need to go to another land for training. Spells written in spell books will only work for the person to whom the book was issued; others will be unable to use the spells. If you have lost your spell book, the magic trainer will sell you another for 100 coins.

To check on your progress, type ", critique magic skill". If you have gained a new skill level, new spells will be available. To view these spells, type ", show spells". To purchase a spell, place the appropriate amount of gold on the altar, on the counter, or in the hex with the trainer and type, ", teach ". Skill points are awarded each time a spell is cast. As a new player, there are three words you will want to remember. Cast, cast, and cast. Each and every spell you cast will bring you closer to gaining a new level of magic skill. Mana restore potions (MRPs) will replenish your mana points. Drinking these MRPs and casting spells repetitively will gain magic skill very quickly, especially through the first 6-7 magic levels, however MRPs can be difficult for a new player to acquire.

The sooner you can get a robe, the better off you will be. Robes have a property which causes your MPs to regenerate at twice the normal rate. A short discussion of each magic class can be found in the section "Developing Your Character".

13.2: Magic Skill Gain

Magic skill is gained by casting and training. Magic skill gain depends on your intelligence and wisdom stats, what spells you cast, and how big and powerful the crits you kill are. Your intelligence and wisdom stats should be maxed at creation. You get more skill gain casting spells that use higher amounts of mana. Casting directed spells like magic missile gives you better skill gain than an area spell such as fireball. Experience gain from killing crits with area spells is roughly 40% of that gained by killing the same crits using a targeted spell or traditional weapon. The bigger and stronger the crit, the harder they fall and the more skill gain you get. Training increases the rate at which you gain magic levels.

Section Fourteen: Developing Your Character

With fire protection and troll armor it is time to begin the development of your character's skills. Development paths vary according to character class; developing a fighter is quite different from developing a thief. Nonetheless, there are some basic techniques common to all classes. First, concentrate on building up offensive skills in as few areas as possible. There is little payoff for range of skills; what is important is degree of skill. Second, avoid taking risks with your character. Death comes all too easy. With death you lose hit points, skills, constitution points, and strength points. Upon dying, there is a good chance that your character will be "stripped," i.e., reincarnated without armor, rings, weapons, sack contents, and so forth. You will be stripped and sent to UW if your constitution points are too low or your eaten. Third, train, train and train some more. In the current version of the game, training is arguably more important than fancy weapons.

14.1: Developing a Fighter/Knight

After the acquisition of fire protection and troll armor, a fighter's next goal is knighthood. Knighthood will be granted to any lawful fighter of the eighth level in experience or higher. Stick to level -2 of the Kesmai dungeon until you cross this threshold. By then, your character's hit points should be in the mid 70s to low 80s. An occasional foray into level 3 is fine, but be wary of fast-hitting gargoyles and groups of hobgoblins. Use balm often.

Some fighters like to develop skills in two weapon categories: melee weapon and distance weapon. Melee weapons include swords, greatswords, hammers and axes. Most fighters tend to gravitate toward greatswords as their principal weapon. One of the most effective weapons in the game is the black broadsword (BBS), which requires greatsword skills. There are also several critters in Axe, Leng and Oakvael which can only be hurt by silver weapons. Since few people care to battle major critters with silver daggers, a greataxe is necessary and also requires greatsword skill to use. Quest weapons will be covered in detail later.

However, others like to concentrate on a single melee weapon, like a greatsword or halberd, and simply THROW the weapon when they need to drop a fleeing opponent. The halberd has the additional advantage of being able to POKE critters in an adjoining hex, and knights can quest for a very powerful halberd.

The second weapon class of interest will be distance weapons like bows, daggers/shurikens, hammers and axes. For a beginning character, development of bow skills will be important. Bows are readily available, even ones that have combat adds, and can be used to kill fleeing critters. Even more important than killing fleeing critters, bows can allow you to challenge tougher critters from relative safety. A favorite technique of many players is to wear a ring with the spell of breathe water (WB) and lead critters to water. Most critters don't know how to swim, so a player with a bow can jump stand in water and shoot away without having to fear for his life.

Although bows are great for beginners, as you advance and can survive in tougher areas of the game, one item close to the top of your shopping list should be a returning hammer (rhammer) or returning axe (raxe). The primary benefit of these weapons is you can throw them every round instead of spending every other round loading an arrow. They also hit considerably harder than most bows.

When your character has reached the eighth level, it is time to pursue knighthood. Knighthood is granted to lawful eighth level fighters who have no karma points. This is done by one of several knight trainers. They are Hermann in the northeast corner of Kesmai, Aniet in Oakvael, and Rea in Leng.

Hermann (the hermit) was the very first knight trainer and can be found in the far northeast corner of the Kesmai surface. The trip there is very hazardous for an eighth level fighter. Look for an escort or be very cautious. Your character will need either a water breathe ring or crocodile boots.

The way to Hermann is populated with all sorts of animals. Crocodiles, boars, sharks, wolves, bears and last but not least, a pair of very nasty griffins will be encountered. It helps to have some (big) friends when you go to visit Hermann.

At this point, a more attractive alternative is to visit the Oakvael knight trainer, who can be found in the northeast corner of Oakvael. The big advantage here is there are not nearly as many critters to deal with and you can generally outrun anything you find on the surface of Oakvael. Another advantage is you can get the first knights quest from Cudyll while you're there.

At the knight trainers, empty your right hand and type ", train me". The trainer will then place a knight's ring in your hand. While you wear the ring you can cast several spells: strength, cure, light, locate and enchant. These spells dramatically improve the effectiveness of your character.

The most commonly used spell will be cure, which will restore anywhere from 30% to 80% of maximum HP. This spell may be cast on your own character, or any other character or monster in your hex.

The next couple of spells are used about equally; the locate spell is used to locate critters you want to attack (or avoid) and light is used to disrupt darkness spells.. Strength is pretty self explanatory and comes in really useful when you have built up your character to the point where you can find 50K coins in a game session. This is a very realistic goal when you can play areas like the undead level (-280ft) in Oakvael.

The last spell available to a knight is to enchant weapons. The weapon in question must have no combat adds to begin with. With the availability of powerful quest weapons like the knight's halberd, the enchant spell is not nearly as important as it once was.

In addition to the above advantages, there is a special quest available to knights, which will be covered in detail later.

14.2: Developing a Martial Artist

For the first few levels of life, some people recommend that a martial artist (MA) wear a light armor, like the skin of a troll. However, many modern MAs recommend never wearing armor. The extra damage during combat will allow an MA to advance rapidly in skill because of the risk bonus. Be careful to avoid combat with multiple critters and to balm frequently. Hand blocking will soon become very effective and armor will detract from that ability.

Fire and ice protection should be by means of protective amulets or rings, or robes if available. Furs are also allowable if nothing else is available, but can be a bit encumbering.

Jumpkick starts to become an important weapon around red belt. Below that, frequent sprains and falls will occur that will inflict light damage on the MA. By 2nd dan, a 3 hex jumpkick can be executed by the unencumbered MA with total confidence. Kick and jumpkick should always be executed with a bare foot. Boots increase the likelihood of being blocked by armor. Keep feather fall boots on the belt for easy access for those times you must leap off of cliffs.

Bare hand/bare foot damage is the same for all modes of attack: jumpkick, kick and fight. Blocking and damage ability will steadily increase with each new skill level. However, battle against heavily armored critters can be frustrating even up to high skill levels.

The MA should quest for crystalline gauntlets as soon as possible, since these gauntlets dramatically increase ability to penetrate armor, at a price of reducing the top end of damage inflicted. This quest will be covered in detail later.

14.3: Developing a Thaumaturge

Thaums start the game with 14 spells written into their spellbooks, and a magic skill level (usually) of 2 (Apprentice). At this skill level, the only spells that will work with any measure of reliability are Strength, Curse, and Fear.

Casting strength upon oneself will give a little bit of combat advantage, or help with carrying heavy objects.

Casting fear will cause the target to run in a random direction for approximately 10 rounds.

Casting curse at a crit will cause damage at roughly 2-4 times the thaum's magic skill level.

Thaums can, however, attempt to cast any of the spells written in their spellbooks; sometimes the spell will work if the thaum has enough mana even though the spell was designed for a higher skill level. This is a good way to gain skill because whether the spell succeeds or fails skill is awarded for the attempt.

Several advantages accompany attainment of the next magic skill level. First, the spells of light, blind and protection from fire (prfire) will become more reliable. Thaum spells are never totally reliable and tend to fail at the worst possible times. Light can be used in dark areas and to disrupt undead crits like wraiths and wights. Blind can be cast at crits or groups of crits and lasts several rounds, depending on the magic skill level of the thaum. Prfire will give the recipient a degree of protection against fire.

However, just as important as the new spells gained is that all spells become more potent. Curse, which at level 2 does about 6 points of damage, will now do between 9 and 12 points. Once magic skill level 10 (Summoner of Snakes) is reached curse will do nearly 40 points of damage, more than enough to slay most wraiths for example.

After the acquisition of troll armor and fire protection, thaums need to develop their magic skills. The secret to a steady advancement in magic skills is to constantly cast spells. The more magic points you burn up, the faster the process. As more powerful spells start functioning they should be used, mostly because they use more magic points. With frequent trips to the thaum trainer, you can see a steady increase in magic skills. The four most important thaum spells are: stun, lightning, death and phantasm. Stun comes first, becoming effective at magic level four. Stun will freeze an opponent or group of opponents for about four rounds depending on your character's skill. Thaums then wade into their frozen opponents with a melee weapon. The curse spell is used to bring down wounded opponents fleeing from such encounters after the stun spell lapses. As with fighters, because of the structure of the game, the melee weapon of choice is the greatsword. With the spells available to thaums, they do not need to rely nearly as much on distance weapons.

The lightning spell allows thaums to strike at groups of opponents. Care needs to be taken with this spell. More thaums have been killed by their own lightning then by critters. Cast it only at unmoving opponents, stunned groups or archers, or cast it at a hex rather than a crit on the hex. DO NOT cast lightning while in the water, or attempt to cast it over water. Lightning is also the only 'area' spell that is available to thaums, that is, a spell that affects groups of critters standing on one hex.

The death spell is the second best offensive spell in the game, second only to the wizard's ice spear. Death cannot be blocked, is not affected by armor, and cannot be effectively saved against by creatures. It hits for ten times the thaum's skill level. A stun and death combination is effective for all but the toughest critters.

The next and most important spell a thaum can aim for is the phantasm spell, obtained at level 11. This will allow the thaum to create djinn, magical characters that will obey certain of his commands. Djinn are useful in "baiting" critters; sent ahead of the thaum, zoos (or more commonly dragons) will focus on the djinn, and continue to try to slay it, and the thaum can fight them while the crits are thus engaged with little danger to himself.

Djinn can be commanded to follow, to stop, to attack crits, to take items from the ground or drop them to the ground, to climb up or down stairs or cliffs. Djinn wield spells themselves; casting icestorms or concussions at crits they have been commanded to fight, or advancing on them to attack with MA skills or held weapons. They make wonderful partners for thaums, even though they aren't very conversational. Once the thaum has this spell, there is little point in continuing rigorous magic training. Higher magical levels will continues to make present spells more potent, and earn the ability to learn new spells.

14.4: Developing a Wizard (By Fang..Zand)

How does one become the most powerful character in Legends of Kesmai? Be a Wizard of course! Who else can wipe out whole rooms of nasty creatures with one wave of the hand. Who else can cast a spell that will destroy all the super baddies on the first four levels of the vampire tower. Who else can cast a "never fail" spell of at least 140 points damage.

So I have convinced you, you say? How do I become such a super power you ask? The formula is simple but the course of action requires determination and concentration. As per the other good advice, be a fighter first! Once you find that you don't really know anything it is time to do the following:

1. Download and read the FAQ's and maps.
2. Read the help files provided with LOK.
3. Keep playing a Fighter to build up cash reserve.
4. Now make your first Wizard.

Wizards when they arrive at the dock are almost useless. They have extremely low hit points and very low mana. They know only two spells, magic missile and bonfire, both of which are very useful at higher levels but neither of which can protect the wizard from the instant death awaiting him in the dungeons at the first wrong move. Now if you have followed my suggestion, you will have built up quite a nice nest egg for your "dock baby" wizard. Take the funds to the Sage and get your wizard enough experience to raise him to level 7 or 8. With these type of hit points the wizard now has a chance of dungeon survival. Don't forget to retain enough coins to buy a recall ring and lots of balms. You are ready for your first adventure. With the proper choice of homeland, (I prefer MU) your wizard will also have some weapon skills, and if you have ancestored from your fighter (highly recommended) then some good fighter knowledge may have been passed on. Personally I like to be able to use the mace skill (for the future when the procurement of an raxe/rhammer is possible) and martial arts skills for that all important time when close in combat is all that will work. Why an raxe or an rhammer rather than hand skills only? Throw either at a magic using opposition and fizzle their spells before they can get off a shot. It take 2 rounds to warm and cast a spell but only one to throw a hammer or axe. Good martial arts skill means that in close combat you are able to block the opposition while you are warming your all important spell. I usually carry the raxe in the left hand and use the right for close combat. However, you won't have to worry about this for a while unless your fighter was lucky enough to find and kill the Kwolf or you had a knight which did away with Daisy and went on to finish the ghouls in which case you probably don't need this advice anyway!

You are ready for that first all important step into the dungeon. On level -1 Kesmai, look for individual monsters to pick on first. You need to increase your magic skill levels. In order to do this you need to cast magic missile over and over again even though it may be tempting to use your fighter skills at this point since you will be taking damage. Use your balming technique learned as a fighter to keep your hit points built up and keep casting until you complete the mission. If you ancestored and or bought experience from the Sage, you will have enough points to keep alive on Kes -1 if you stay out of big zoos.

Since you are not yet ready to survive without armor, try to kill a troll and get it to the tanner. If you can't lift it push it. The effort is well worth it. Remember magic users can't use chain or plate as it interferes with spell casting, therefore your original fighting armor, unless it was scale, will not work. Fire is a problem. That is why I do not suggest using your bonfire at this point unless you are proficient at judging where a monster is going to move on its next turn. Skeletons are easy to predict. Put the bonfire between you and them and they will walk into it. Remember that you can run 3 squares where most monsters on this level can only move one. If you meet a pack of them, run! Next round warm a spell. Run again. Cast the spell at a monster. And repeat until all are gone. Don't however run though your own bonfire. You might not survive! Stay away from Kes -2 at this point as orcs cast fire there.

Once you have built up your magic skill levels so that you have shield and protection from fire, a wizard has it made. Cast shield first then cast protection from fire. You can judge when the protection from fire is about to expire since the shield goes first. Now you can cast bonfire on your own square. Monsters with you will take damage every round if they don't expire on the first hit. Protection and offense. Now that is what I call a spell!

The next most important spell a wizard obtains is fireball. Once he has this he can start wiping out zoos with one cast. This will make it possible to venture onto -3 Kesmai easily and even onto -4 Kesmai if cautious.

Use the stairs and water. Against other magic users on a lower floor, warm magic missile, go downstairs, cast and get back up fast. Once you hear the fizzle of the opposition's magic repeat the process. From a safe water hex use magic missile over and over again until you get the entire pack of monsters. They will stay close to you for the most part. Remember, fire doesn't work on docks in Kesmai and will not cast over water, although your fireball will cast onto adjacent land hexes and affect any monsters standing there.

Develop the friendship of a Knight or Thief. These individuals are the only ones who can help you get the all important tool of your trade; the night vision helm. Wizards cannot take on most lair monsters on their own. LOK is not IOK. The wizard, darkness and the NV helm, as it is affectionately known, make a powerful combination.

At level 14 of magic skill the Wizard obtains the all important ice spear spell and at level 15 the firestorm spell. Knights stand in awe at the destruction a wizard can cause with these.

Have fun and remember, cast and train. These are the mottoes of a Wizard.

14.5: Developing a Thief

Like wizards, thieves begin the game with only two spells; hide and fsdoor. Running a thief can be a frustrating experience at low levels and is not recommended as a first character. Aside from the hazards of the dungeons, thieves also have to cope with NPC knights in town like the sheriff, who will attack them on sight. They have only one (1) offensive magic spell, they don't receive many HPs, and they can only use a couple of the game's best weapons. Moreover, the steal command is not very effective unless at high thievery skill level, and only then when used in combination with hide and darkness.

Now for the fun part of operating thieves; the hide spell. Hide allows the thief to go unnoticed through the dungeon. A thief in or adjacent to the hex of another player or crit will always be seen. But from two or three hexes away, thieves can hide very effectively at the eighth magic level.

The effectiveness of the hide spell is determined by the thief's magic skill level versus the experience level of the player or crit from whom he/she is hiding. A thief with magic skill of 3 (Diviner of Magics) can rarely hide from a crit of high experience at any distance, however a thief with a magic skill of 10 (Master of Secrets) can successfully hide from anything in the game, from three hexes away.

A thief can only hide when he/she is in darkness, or in a hex adjacent to a wall, tree, mountain or ruin. Once cast the hide spell remains in effect until the thief moves into the open, takes damage, draws a large weapon, or holds a large object. There is always a chance, however slight, that a thief with hide active will be momentarily detected.

The thieves' fsdoor spell allows them to find and open secret doors. When this spell is cast, any secret door within sight will fly open and remain open for several rounds.

With troll armor and fire protection, thieves should work concurrently on pursuing magic skill and weapon skill. Stealing requires quite a bit of patience and technique to develop into an effective mode of play, so most thieves don't bother with it.

In magic skill, the key spells are darkness, venom and night vision. Once your character has night vision, he can go anywhere in the game save the lairs of drakes and dragons by casting darkness and hiding. Bigger crits can be fought in the darkness and the thief can remain unseen. Be warned that several crits can see in the dark, including ogres, rockworms, ghouls, dragons and drakes. Venom is the thief's only offensive spell. However, it is a very effective spell envied by the other classes. Venom is used to envenom daggers and shurikens. It's effectiveness is unmatched when used with the returning dagger. If a lawful character finds an envenomed weapon and throws it the lawful character will be turned neutral. Lawful characters are strictly forbidden from using poisoned weapons.