Magic

Name Description
Fire Could destroy arrows, scrolls, books, staves, chests and burns some armour and wooden/leather items. Lava terrain burns with fire damage.
Cold Shatters potions. Having resistance to the element will make an item less likely to be destroyed
Acid Can destroy items in inventory and damage equipment. Damage reduced if you wear armour, but it could lose AC.
Electricity Can destroy wands, rods, rings and amulets
Poison Damaging over time and you can’t regenerate. Gear that provides Poison resistance reduces damage and prevents the ‘Poisoned’ status effect; spells only reduce the damage. At high levels propose a high threat, you should have double resist.
Plasma Fire and electricity together. Could stun you.
Blindness You can not see. Cure Light Wounds heals it. Even blinded you could use Staves of Teleportation. Resistance to the ‘Blind’ status effect does not provide resistance to Light or Dark attacks.
Confusion You can’t move/attack straight; and can’t read. Confusion resistance will prevent confusion by a water bolt or ball. Cure Serious Wounds heals it. Even confused you could use Staves of Teleportation.
Chaos If unresisted will cause the player to hallucinate and be confused, and may drain life (experience). Chaos resistance does NOT provides Confusion resistance (as before).
Nether Element of the dead. Drain experience and make HUGE damage. Nether resistance reduces the experience drained, but does not provide resistance to other life draining attacks.
Light Creates permanent light and causes blindness, unless they have protection from blindness or resistance to light.
Darkness Darken surroundings and causes blindness. Resistance to Dark reduces damage, but does not provide resistance to Blindness.
Disenchant Could harm magical bonuses on equipment. If one item resists Disenchantment, all of your other items will be unaffected by disenchanting.
Gravity Stunning, slowing, confusing and randomly scatters items and creatures.
Inertia  Slow you down.
Force Stunning, confusing, pushing you away.
Nexus May teleport the player to the monster, away from the monster, up or down a level, or swap over two of the player’s “internal” stats temporary.
Paralyze

Can’t do nothing! Note that resistance from stunning (free action) won’t help all times, as you may still be paralyzed by being “knocked out” in melee or by a stunning attack

Shards Cause cuts and wounds; you will lose HP over time. Destroys potions.
Sound Could stun, if you don’t have stunning resistance. Drink healing potions to cure. If a character gets very stunned, they may be knocked out and at the mercy of the enemies.
Time Reduces all stats and experience even if all are sustained.
Terrify The terror which prevents you from attacking in melee. Potions of Heroism removes it.
Water  Could stun or confuse.
Ice  Could stun or cut you.
Mana  Powerful attack; there are only rumours about items which could protect from it… It’s destroy everything on its way.
Meteor  A huge blast of the meteor which shatters burning lava around…
Missile  Magic missiles (apart from non-magical ones).
Holy Holy Orbs are deadly for evil characters.
Curse You degrade over time
Forget Amnesia.. Sometimes you can’t even remember how to read.
Drain mana Especially deadly for casters…
Stun Could stun you. Items with stunning resistance is rare, but they exist.
Blast Confusion and amnesia
Psy Confuse, stun, fear, paralyze, drain mana

Depths on which it’s fun to get certain resistance:

  • 1000′: Free Action, See Invisible
  • 1250′: Basic four Resistances
  • 1900′: Confusion Resistance, Blindness Resistance
  • 2000′: Poison Resistance
  • 2500′: Hold Life (optional)
  • 2700′: Chaos Resistance, Nether Resistance
  • 4950′: Sustains, every resistance you could get. But it’s alright to have some gaps – with a possibility to swap items in inventory for certain resistances.

Remember:

  • Resistances cut damage to 1/3rd for the basic four elements (fire/cold/acid/electricity).
  • Equipment’s resistances stack with temporary resistances from potions, spells and activated items.
  • Drinking potions of resistance (fire, cold, etc) strongly protect both your inventory and worn items from harm.
  • Breath monster’s attacks deal 1/3rd of monster’s current HP. Max base damage cap is 1600 for basic and 800 for poison.
  • Higher elements resistances (chaos, nether, disenchantment, shards, light, darkness, confusion) are somewhat random (protect from 1/6th to 5/6 damage).
  • Time attacks pass by stat’s sustains.

The low elements (fire, cold, acid, electricity and poison) can be resisted once by equipment, and once by spells. A combination of equipment and spells gives double resistance. Some ego items ignore low attacks. Some artifacts give immunity to low attacks. The damaging effects on your items can only be stopped by the ignore or immune abilities.

Special low elemental resistances:
Ignore lows – the item cannot be harmed by low attacks, but does not necessarily give resistance.
Immunity to low – the item allows you to take no damage from the low attack. It also prevents all your other items from being damaged by the low attack.

 

Dragon Scale Mail resistances

DSM stands for Dragon Scale Mail. There are several different types, and a knowledge of which ones are useful will stand you well. They all activate to breathe the element specified by the name, which while useful at low levels, is often underpowered later. None of them can be harmed by any element.

Low DSM’s

You may be lucky to get one of these five DSM on relatively low lvls, but in most cases they  aren’t useful by the time you start finding them on regular basis, as their technical value and depth is much higher than their practical worth.

Black BkDSM Resist Acid
Blue BlueDSM Resist Electricity
White WDSM Resist Cold
Red RDSM Resist Fire
Shining SDSM Resist Light and Dark

 

Middle DSM’s

These can be useful for mid-level characters that don’t have the resist the DSM provides.

Gold GoDSM Resist Sound
Bronze BrDSM Resist Confusion
Green GrDSM Resist Poison
Multihued MHDSM Resist Cold, Fire, Acid, Electricity, and Poison

 

High DSM’s

These fine armours are expensive, rare, and useful. They have high armour bonuses and give multiple high resists.

Law LDSM Resist Sound, Shards
Chaos CDSM Resist Chaos, Disenchantment
Balance BDSM Resist Sound, Shards, Chaos, Disenchantment
Power PDSM Resist Acid, Fire, Cold, Electricity, Light, Dark, Poison, Nether, Nexus, Chaos

 


Next there are some magic spell’s effects. In most cases the damage of offensive spells depends on your character’s level. Spells could have different forms:

Type Effect
Bolt Affects the first monster it hits. Some Bolt spells may turn into a beam.
Beam Affects all monsters in a line.
Ball Affects all monsters in a radius from where it hits.
Area Affects all monsters in a radius from your character.

[Magic for Beginners]

Magic Missile (Bolt) Does Mana damage and may beam. 
Detect Creatures Shows all monsters and players in your sector. It does not show invisible creatures.
Phase door Teleports your character a small distance.
Light Area Creates permanent light in an area around your character. If used in a room in the dungeon, the entire room is lit up. It also damages monsters who can be hurt by Light attacks.
Treasure Detection Shows all $ in your sector, eg treasures buried in mineral veins.
Cure Light Wounds Recovers some HP.
Object Detection Shows all items in your sector.
Find Hidden Traps/Doors Shows all traps, doors, and stairs in your sector.
Stinking Cloud (Ball) Does Poison damage.

 

[Conjurings and Tricks]

Confuse Monster (Bolt) Attempts to confuse the target for a short amount of time. It can be used more than once on a monster.
Lightning Bolt (Bolt) Does Electric damage and may beam.
Trap/Door Destruction (Area) Removes all traps and doors in a 1 square radius.
Sleep (Bolt) Attempts to make the target fall asleep.
Cure Poison Removes the ‘Poisoned’ status change.
Teleport Self Teleports your character a large distance.
Spear of Light (Beam) Creates permanent light in a line. It also damages monsters who can be hurt by Light attacks.
Frost Bolt (Bolt) Does Frost damage and may beam.
Turn Stone to Mud (Beam) Turns one granite, magma, quartz, rubble, or door square to mud. It does not affect permanent rock. Items or treasure buried in the wall or rubble will remain. It also damages monsters made of stone.

 

[Incantations and Illusions]

Satisfy Hunger Fills your character’s stomach to certain point.
Recharge Item Adds charges to a staff or wand, or recharges a rod. It may destroy the wand/staff or drain the rod further.
Sleep (Area) Attempts to make all monsters near your character fall asleep.
Polymorph Other (Bolt) Attempts to change a monster into a completely different, fully healed monster. It also can attempt to change a player into a Fruit bat and shuffle his stats.
Identify Identifies an item.
Sleep (Area) Attempts to make all monsters near your character fall asleep.
Fire Bolt (Bolt) Does Fire damage and may beam.
Slow Monster (Bolt) Attempts to make the target become slower for a short amount of time. It can be used more than once on a monster.

 

[Sorcery and Evocations]

Frost Ball (Ball) Does Frost damage.
Recharge Item Adds charges to a staff or wand, or recharges a rod. It may destroy the wand/staff or drain the rod further.
Teleport Other (Beam) Teleports the monsters and players in the line a large distance.
Haste Self Adds +10 Speed to your character for a short amount of time.
Fire Ball (Ball) Does Fire damage.
Word of Destruction (Area) Destroys everything except artifacts in a 15 square radius. You will not gain experience for destroyed monsters. The walls are rearranged randomly. The blast will blind your character for some time.
Genocide Destroys the monster closest to you and all monsters of the same symbol on the level. You will not gain experience or items from the destroyed monsters. You will lose a few HP for each monster destroyed.

 

[Resistance of Scarabtarices]

Resist Fire Reduces damage taken from Fire attacks, spells, and breaths. It is cumulative with equipment that provides Fire resistance. It will wear off after some time.
Resist Cold Reduces damage taken from Frost attacks, spells, and breaths. It is cumulative with equipment that provides Frost resistance. It will wear off after some time.
Resist Acid Reduces damage taken from Acid attacks, spells, and breaths. It is cumulative with equipment that provides Acid resistance. It will wear off after some time.
Resist Poison Reduces damage taken from Poison attacks, spells, and breaths. It is cumulative with equipment that provides Poison resistance. It will wear off after some time. It does not prevent your character from being affected by the ‘Poisoned’ status change.
Resistance Casts Resist Fire, Cold, Acid, Electricity, and Poison at the same time. They each wear off individually.

 

[Mordenkainen’s Escapes]

Door Creation (Area) Creates closed, unlocked doors in a 1 square radius.
Stair Creation Creates a random direction staircase on your square. It destroys objects or doors on that square.
Teleport Level Randomly makes you sink through the floor, rise through the ceiling, or get blown sideways.
Earthquake (Area) Randomly rearranges the walls and damages monsters in a small radius. It may cast Word of Destruction.
Word of Recall Teleports your character to your maximum dungeon level if cast in town. It teleports your character to the town if cast in the dungeon or wilderness. It can take you to a specific level if the book is inscribed {@R} followed by the dungeon or wilderness level in feet. When the spell is first cast, the air becomes charged for some time before you recall. You can cancel the recall by casting the spell again.

 

[Kelek’s Grimoire of Power]

Detect Evil Shows all evil monsters in your sector.
Detect Enchantment Shows all magic items in your sector. It shows enchanted equipment but does not show cursed equipment. It shows all rings and amulets even if they are cursed.
Recharge Adds charges to a staff or wand, or recharges a rod. It may destroy the wand/staff or drain the rod further.
Genocide Similar to Genocide in ‘Sorcery and Evocations’ but is more reliable and cost more mana.
Mass Genocide (Area) Destroys all monsters except uniques in a large radius around your character. The radius is slightly larger than that of Word of Destruction. You will not gain experience or items from the destroyed monsters. You will lose a few HP for each monster destroyed.

 

[Tenser’s Transformations]

Heroism Increases maximum HP, recovers some HP, increases To Hit, and gives resistance to fear. The heroism wears off after some time.
Shield Increases Armor Class by 50. The shield crumbles away after some time.
Berserker Reduces Armor Class by 10, increases maximum HP, recovers some HP, and increases To Hit. The effects wear off after some time.
Essence of Speed Gives your character +10 Speed for some time. It lasts longer than Haste Self but is not cumulative with Haste Self.
Globe of Invulnerability Prevents your character from taking damage for a short amount of time. You still can still suffer effects of attacks, spells, and breaths.

 

[Raal’s Tome of Destruction]

Acid Bolt (Bolt) Does Acid damage and may beam.
Cloud Kill (Ball) Does Poison damage. 
Acid Ball (Ball) Does Acid damage. 
Ice Storm (Ball) Does Frost damage. 
Meteor Swarm (Ball) Does Fire damage.
Mana Storm (Ball) Does Mana damage.

 

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