D1 Spellbooks: Difference between revisions

Unlike Diablo II with its skill trees of unique abilities for each character, Diablo featured no special attack skills at all. In Diablo and Hellfire all of the characters can cast the same spells from scrolls, charges on staffs, or from memory, after learning the spells by reading spell books.

*** The most possible with legitimate equipment is +5, and the highest possible spell level is 20. +1 [[D1 Unique Armor|Naj's Light Plate]], +2 [[D1 Prefixes|Archangel's]] Staff, +2 [[D1 Unique Helms|Thinking Cap]].)

* Most spells can be found on scrolls, which have magic requirements to cast, but do not cost mana. Casting a spell from a scroll casts it at the level your character has learned up to (or level 1 if it's not a spell you have read a book for). Scroll magic requirements are always the same, regardless of what level the spell is being cast at.

* Most spells can be found in charges on items; on staffs and some unique items. Some Hellfire spells can only be found on staffs.

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* Scrolls/Staffs only: Resurrect, Apocalypse, Nova. (Apocalypse and Nova exist in book form in Hellfire.)

** Staffs only: Jester, Magi, Mana.

[[D1 Bard|Bards]] are only playable in Hellfire, once they've been enabled by the [[Command.txt]] file. The Bard can use the Identify skill inherently, with no mana cost. She thus saves herself ever having to pay Deckard Cain 100 gold.

The Hellfire [[HF Barbarian|Barbarian]] has a skill called Rage. This skill is a short term buff that boosts his strength, vitality, and dexterity for 12 seconds. After that time he enters a 12 second lethargy phase, when those same attributes are reduced by the same amount. Afterwards his vitality is supposed to suffer a permanent penalty, however due to a bug in Hellfire, clicking on any item in his inventory will reset the vitality loss.

The [[HF Monk|Monk]] has inherent access to the Search skill. It works just as it does for other characters; the Monk just doesn't need to read a book to learn it or spend mana to cast it.

Determining your character's spell damage is notoriously difficult in Diablo and Hellfire, since the values scale up with character level. Determining the damage requires some math, which Jarulf explains in section 4.1.2 of his guide. How much good this explanation does you depends largely on how closely you're willing to embrace algebra. Since most readers feel their eyes glaze at the first equation, the calculation explanations are not reproduced here.

* Staffs: Magic requirement is equal to the magic required to read the level 1 book.  

* Scrolls: Magic req is usually lower than staffs/book reading.

===Diablo Spells===

===Hellfire Spells===

A handy chart from Jarulf's Guide. This lists the magic required to read every level of spellbook in Diablo and Hellfire. The formula is very simple: books have a set amount at level 1, which then increases 20% per level. Any values over 213 are automatically set to 255.  (The initial amount is also how much mana the blue bulb fills up when a character reads a book of that type.)

In Diablo, Rogues and Warriors can not achieve 255 magic no matter what equipment they assemble, (Rogues can get to 245, Warriors to 225) so can not read higher level spellbooks and must hunt for [[D1 Shrines|Enchanted Shrines]] to boost their spells to 15. In Hellfire all of the characters except the Barbarian can get to over 255 magic, thanks to some of the new uniques. See all the [[Diablo_Characters#Max_Stats_with_Equipment|max possible attributes here]].

==Spell Listing==

* '''Available: '''Scrolls and staffs only in Diablo. On books as well in Hellfire, but the only way to get a book is to kill Na-Krul.

A projectile spell most commonly seen being cast by Witches. Each Blood Star moves relatively slowly and in a straight line. There is no splash damage. This is the only viable, magic-type skill to kill targets at a distance, but the fact that it does so much less damage than comparable fire or lightning spells means it is very seldom used, except in special circumstances. (There are no monsters who are immune to Fire and Lightning in but not Magic in Diablo. There are a few in Hellfire.)

The biggest killing lightning type spell in the game, and a spell that can deal the most damage per cast.  Chain Lightning sends one bolt where your cursor points, and another one for each target in range (range is calculated irrelevant of walls and other obstacles), each time it is cast. The range increases with more points in the spell, as does the damage per bolt. This spell would clear entire levels in a single use if not for the "sprite limit" in Diablo/Hellfire. The game's engine will only display 255 sprites at once, and since each bolt from the Chain Lightning creates quite a few sprites, numerous "gaps" appear in the bolts. As a result, some strategy is required to use Chain Lightning effectively.

Players need to know where the monsters are around them, whether they are on the other side of a wall or not. For instance, it's wise to standing beside a wall so not many sprites will appear in that direction when you want to fire them forward.  Alternatively, hordes of monsters on the other side of a wall can be very useful if you maneuver so that the nearby monsters are between you and that wall with the monsters past it.  

The damage from each bolt is calculated multiple times per bolt, as they appear to move past. According to Jarulf's Guide, each bolt does a hit check each 0.05 seconds, for a total of [slvl/2] + 6 times per bolt.

Charged Bolt sends out several small squares of electricity per use. These squares move semi-randomly in the direction the caster is facing, spreading out and usually bouncing off of walls. They are not especially damaging, but can be useful to "wake up" all of the non-lightning immune monsters in a room, bringing them out to fight while leaving the other monsters in the area undisturbed.

[[Image:D1-icon-flash.gif|frame]]

There are actually two spells cast; the first hits targets in front of and to the sides of the character, while the second covers the three rear spaces. Like other timed spells, Flash hits once every .05 seconds, for a total of 19 attempts in just less than a second.

A summonable stone man, the Golem is a slow moving but fairly damaging companion, most commonly used by sorcerers against triple immune monsters.  Golems can also be helpful to distract enemies, and to kill targets on the other side of a wall. They benefit greatly from the stone curse spell, since if their targets are stationary and helpless, the golem hits with every strike and takes no damage during the battle. Golems are not useful against higher level melee monsters, who will kill them quickly. A single golem can terrorize entire levels in the Church, though.

Golems are primarily useful against Advocates, since they can withstand a lot of damage from Flash spells, and are not touched by the Advocates' Fireballs. They are less successful against Witches, and take damage from Bloodstar. Also, due to a bug in the Golem's light radius (it's set to infinite) every witch on the level sees the golem the moment he's cast, and will fire at him if they have a line of sight. Golems home in on nearby enemies. If nothing is nearby, they will walk in the direction their caster is facing.

An essential skill for all non-mana shield using characters, and even those types enjoy it, from time to time.  Higher levels (Slvl and Clvl) lower the mana cost and increase the healing, so it's useful to build this one up even for Warriors, Barbarians, and other rock-headed melee fighters.  

Nothing resists Holy Bolt in ''Diablo''. In ''Hellfire'', Diablo and the Bone Demons are resistant to it.

In Diablo and Hellfire, items can be equipped and used without being identified. However, all magical and unique items found in the dungeons or given as quest rewards are unidentified, and must be identified (by this spell or by Deckard Cain) before their special properties become active.  

Nova is only found on scrolls and staffs in Diablo. In Hellfire it can be found in book form.

This spell is a random teleport. Using it instantly transports the player to a random location somewhere on the visible screen. It's only utility is an an emergency escape spell, if your character is surrounded by enemies. Since Phasing is non-targeting, it's thought to be slightly faster to cast than Teleport.

Spell: Phasing

Type: n/a

 

 

A hugely useful spell, Stone Curse turns the targeted monster to stone, rendering them statues: helpless, immobile, and defenseless. Immunities are not countered, but stoned monsters have zero Armor Class and will be hit by every attack.

You can not cast it on your own Golem.  

Spell: Stone Curse

Type: n/a

Duration: 4.8 + 0.8·slvl seconds (12 sec max)

Jester is only found on staffs. Jester staffs will cast a semi-random spell each time the charges are used. Spells are fired at the character's appropriate Slvl, or at level 1 if the character has not yet read a book for that spell.

An extremely damaging spell to any target foolish enough to stand still in it. Multiple Lightning Walls can be stacked on top of each other, increasing the damage proportionally.  Most monsters will not advance into the lightning, but this AI can be used against them. Simply cast a Lightning Wall in front of them, and then cast one on top of them. They will stand and sizzle since they're not smart enough to move backwards out of the fire. This is a very popular way to kill Diablo himself.  The central sprite of the Lightning Wall does double damage, so be sure you target the monster you are using.

Like Firewall, Lightning Walls work best when cast in a straight line, rather than diagona, since there are gaps between the active sprites on diagonal walls. Lightning Wall deals double the damage of a Firewall, but it seems to have more gaps and spaces, since monsters are more likely to walk right through it.

Unlike most spells, Lightning Wall can damage the player who casts it, and this damage is treated as fire from a trap (thus "of thieves" item will half it). Each space in the flame hits every .05 second for the duration.  

Found only in charges on staffs, the Magi charges work like drinking a full mana potion. They completely refill the mana of the caster, unlike the partial mana fill granted by the Mana charges.

Many of the spells in the demo were unbalanced and buggy, but they had some interesting effects not found in the final game. We don't have full stats for these, just the icons and a quick description of how they worked. Thanks to [http://www.ladyofthecake.com/diablo/spells.htm Lady of the Cake] for most of the info in this section. The following skills were only found in the demo, and are not in the final game, though a few of the icons were eventually reused.

[[Image:D1-icon-blood-boil.gif|frame]]

An odd sort of proximity-based magical attack. When cast with enemies nearby, they would take huge damage, as though their blood was boiling from within. Presumably it did not work on undead, since skeletons pretty clearly lack blood.

[[Image:D1-icon-blood-ritual.gif|frame]]

A spell-casters aid, this one this one transferred health points to mana points. It's interesting to think who would use this in the final game. Sorcerers wouldn't much bother, since they have such high mana and low hit points anyway. Rogues, before going into mini-mage mode? Bards?

 

[[Image:D1-icon-doom-serpent.gif|frame]]

This one summoned two serpents from out of the ground, which then slithered over to attack nearby targets. They did not attack the Undead. The graphics were not finished, and it's hard to see who would have found this useful in the final game, when so many spells do the same thing, but more quickly, and against Undead as well.

[[Image:D1-icon-ethereal.gif|frame]]

A precursor to Stone Curse, this one turned living things solid. It did not work on the Undead.

[[Image:D1-icon-invisible.gif|frame]]

 

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