Usefulness

Usefulness is a gauge of spells that is entirely my own opinion, based on my experience with the game. Your mileage may differ. Who knows? Someone somewhere may come up with a valid reason for casting Violent Storm.

1

Exorcise, Make Whole, Fiery Blast, Absorb Essence, Transform, Remedy.

These spells are must-have. If you have the chits and access to the colour, then you probably should be taking these spells. It is possible to survive (and even win) without them, but they sure do make your life easier.

2

Small Blessing, Persuade, See Hidden Signs, Hurricane Winds, Lightning Bolt, Broomstick, Dissolve Spell, Enchant Artifact, Melt Into Mist, Unleash Power, World Fades, Protection From Magic.

The spells of Usefulness 2 are the ones that you should take after you have all of the Priority 1 spells that you can get. They are all very handy, but they are not as essential to character strategy as the Usefulness 1 spells.

3

Peace, Prophecy, Stones Fly, Talk To Wise Bird, Elven Grace, Blazing Light, Pentangle, Control Bats, Peace With Nature, Sense Danger, Deal With Goblins, Guide Spider or Octopus, Whistle For Monsters.

These spells could be interesting. They all have their uses, but they are specific, and they may not be useful enough to take at the beginning of the game.

4

Blend Into Background, Fog, Witch's Brew, Faerie Lights, Illusion, Lost, Elemental Spirit, Roof Collapses, Curse, Power of the Pit, Phantasm, Premonition, Bad Luck.

Don't bother. I can imagine someone coming up with a use for these spells, but I don't expect it. Use them to fulfil victory conditions, and if a situation happens to occur where the spell would be useful, cast it. Most of the inconveniencing spells and all three of the chit-changing spells fall into this category.

5

Violent Storm, Ask Demon.

These two spells are the most useless spells that I can think of. I cannot even imagine a situation where someone would want to cast one of these.

Inconveniencing Spells

I have never seen a point to the "inconveniencing spells" - Bad Luck, Curse, Fog, Illusion, Lost, Violent Storm. For me it just doesn't seem worth annoying the other players to the extent that they feel like trying to kill you for it. Bad Luck in particular seems to me to be more-or-less suicide for a caster, since the victim will try and kill you in order to break the spell. Curse is annoying, but perhaps not enough to be used as a weapon against another character. It's also very dependent on the roll you make - the more common Curses aren't very annoying, and may even be ignorable depending on the target's victory conditions. Fog, Illusion and Lost don't seem to me to have a serious application, although if you're in a savage player-vs.-player game then it's likely to hinder people considerably. Violent Storm is as much of an inconvenience to a spellcaster as it is to anyone else, and I can't see why anyone would want to cast it, unless they had a whole bunch of bonus phases from special abilities and items.

Chit-changing spells

Druid

Can get spells from:

II: Scroll of Nature, Eye of the Idol, Altar, Shaman

VIII: Black Book, Beast Pipes, Statue, Crone

=8 unique sources

With additional chits from Witch's Brew:

III: Scroll of Nature, Glimmering Ring, Altar, Shaman

IV: Book of Lore, Enchanter's Skull, Warlock

=12 unique sources (+4)

The additional spells that the Druid can get from casting Witch's Brew are all Purple (IV) or Gold (III). He can get the colour magic required to cast these spells from enchanting tiles. This would give him access to the powerful Type IV attack spells, if he can find them.

Elf

Can get spells from:

III: Scroll of Nature, Eye of the Idol, Altar, Shaman

VII: Good Book, Glowing Gem, Statue

=7 unique sources

With addditional chits from Faerie Lights:

II: Scroll of Nature, Eye of the Idol, Altar, Shaman

VI: Scroll of Alchemy, Hidden Ring, Warlock

The additional spells the Elf can get from casting Faerie Lights are the moderately-useful Type II and the extremely useful Type VI spells. He would need to enchant a tile to get the Purple magic required for the Conjuration spells.

Sorceror

Can get spells from:

IV: Book of Lore, Enchanter's Skull, Warlock

VI: Scroll of Alchemy, Hidden Ring, Warlock

=5 unique sources

With additional chits from Elemental Spirit:

VIII: Black Book, Beast Pipes, Statue, Crone

V: Black Book, Blasted Jewel, Statue, Crone

=11 unique sources (+6)

The Sorceror would require Black magic to cast most of the Type V spells, but fortunately he can convert some of his VI chits to V chits, which he can then enchant. If he doesn't use them that Evening, they revert back to their original type. He can enchant Valley tiles to provide Grey magic for the VIII spells. If he is lucky enough to find the Remedy spell, he can use Elemental Spirit to cast it.

Witch

Can get spells from:

II: Scroll of Nature, Eye of the Idol, Altar, Shaman

V: Black Book, Blasted Jewel, Shrine, Crone

VIII: Black Book, Beast Pipes, Statue, Crone

=10 unique sources

With additional chits from Witch's Brew:

III: Scroll of Nature, Glimmering Ring, Altar, Shaman

IV: Book of Lore, Enchanter's Skull, Warlock

=14 unique sources (+4)

Again, the Witch's Brew would give her access to the Type IV attack spells, which can be powered by enchanting a tile. The Type III spells are less useful (although the image of the Witch with Elven Grace boggles the mind).

Witch King

Can get spells from:

IV: Book of Lore, Enchanter's Skull, Warlock

V: Black Book, Blasted Jewel, Shrine, Crone

VI: Scroll of Alchemy, Hidden Ring, Warlock

=9 unique sources

With additional chits from Elemental Spirit:

VIII: Black Book, Beast Pipes, Statue, Crone

=11 unique sources (+2)

The Witch King already has access to Type V spells, and the Type VIII spells are (generally) not all that useful - unless he is lucky enough to find Remedy, which can be powered by enchanting a Valley tile.

Wizard

Can get spells from:

II: Scroll of Nature, Eye of the Idol, Altar, Shaman

III: Scroll of Nature, Glimmering Ring, Altar, Shaman

IV: Book of Lore, Enchanter's Skull, Warlock

=8 unique sources

With additional chits from Elemental Spirit:

VIII: Black Book, Beast Pipes, Statue, Crone

=12 unique sources (+4)

No additional sources from Faerie Lights (he already has II chits and he has no VII chits to transform)

No additional sources from Witch's Brew (he already has IV chits and he has no VIII chits to transform)

The Wizard does not have a large number of chits available to transform, and he gets no benefit from 2 of the chit-changing spells. The third he gets only partial benefit from, as he has no Type VI chits.

Conclusion

The chit-changing spells can be used in order to learn spells that would not otherwise be available to the character. It can then be used to cast them. As noted above, this could allow a Witch to learn and cast Fiery Blast, or a Sorceror to cast Absorb Essence.

Sources of colour magic are important when considering these spells. Any spell that can be cast with Grey, Gold or Purple magic can be energised by enchanted tiles. For example, if the Witch (using Witch's Brew) learns and tries to cast Fiery Blast, she can do so by enchanting a tile. White and Black magic are not normally available from tiles, so any recorded spell that requires White or Black magic (Black specifically) will require some other method. The Toadstool Circle is a good source of Black, but doesn't always appear. The Chapel is the only constant source of White magic, so usually any Type I spells can be cast there. In this case it is academic, since no-one can use a spell to get access to Type I spells.

The most benefit in terms of Recorded Spells can be gained by the Sorcerer taking Elemental Spirit. 6 additional sources of learned spells become available. The next most beneficial are the Druid with Witch's Brew, the Elf with Faerie Lights, the Wizard with Elemental Spirit, and the Witch with Witch's Brew, which each gain an additional 4 sources of spells. Last in the list is the Witch King with Elemental Spirit. 2 sources of spells become available. The Magician already has access to all of the spell sources, so does not gain this benefit from the chit-changing spells.

The Sorceror is an interesting case. On the one hand, he is likely to gain the most benefit from Elemental Spirit. But on the other, he has no way of safely removing Curses gained from Reading Runes. The Chapel is not safe for a Sorceror, and he doesn't get access to Remedy or Exorcise. If he is lucky enough to find the Remedy spell, he can cast it by using Elemental Spirit to change one of his IV chits into a VIII chit (and use Grey magic from an enchanted tile), but I wouldn't count on it, or base a strategy around it. Learning spells for the Sorceror is a risky business.

The Magician is also an interesting case. Any one of the chit-changing spells will give him the pairs of magic chits he needs to enchant tiles or cast spells. The number of spells he can cast with the chits he has available is otherwise quite limited. However, he needs access to the appropriate Colour magic in order to cast the chit-changing spells in the first place - they are all of the same colour type as the chit required. With some method of "getting started", he will be able to use these spells effectively. On the other hand, whatever allows him to cast the chit-changing spells will also allow him to cast other spells, so it seems to me to be a little redundant.

The Wizard does not have very many chits to dedicate to chit-changing spells, and I would suggest that it is probably not a practical option.

If I was going to take a character with VPs in Recorded Spells, I would probably take either the Witch or the Druid and use Witch's Brew. Both of these characters have access to Remedy, which in my opinion is essential when you're Reading Runes. The Witch gets a -1 to Reading Runes which is an additional benefit. She also has a Familiar, which helps to locate those treasure sites. She has access to the Absorb Essence spell at the beginning of the game, which will allow her to defend herself against most of the monsters she will come up against. The Druid has Peace With Nature, which ensures that he will only be attacked by Tremendous monsters, and Concealment, which will allow him to Hide from them. All in all, the chips are down on the side of the Witch.

Artifacts and Spell Books

Like using the chit-changing spells, characters who do not normally get access to certain types of spells can sometimes cast them from artifacts and spell books. For example, if the Druid finds the Book of Lore, and awakens the Fiery Blast spell, he can use the spell book to cast it when in the presence of Purple magic, such as an enchanted tile. If the Sacred Statue has the Make Whole spell awakened, then any character can use this artifact to cast the spell while at the Chapel (or on Day 7 of the game).

The Magician is, again, a special case. As he does not have any more than a single chit of each type, he must use other sources of colour magic to cast his spells. If he gets his hands on an Artifact or two, then he can dedicate his chits to providing colour, and use the virtual chit provided by the Artifact. The only problem is that the Artifact can only be used to cast the spell that it contains - which isn't a lot of help if he finds the Enchanter's Skull and it contains Violent Storm. This is where the Enchant Artifact spell comes in handy. The Magician can add a spell that he already knows (say, Absorb Essence) into the item, and cast it wherever he can find the appropriate colours. In this case he would need Purple (to energise Enchant Artifact) and Black (to energise Absorb Essence). Since he no longer needs the chits to cast the spell, he can use Spell phases to enchant his chits to provide the colour magic required - in this case his IV and V chits. Or he could use an enchanted tile or the Toadstool Circle. The disadvantage of using this method is that you will often be required to provide two colours, unless the spell you put into the artifact is itself Purple.

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