Bolt spell

Definition

A bolt spell is any attack spell that is based on the caster's Spell Aiming skill and resolved using an Attack Roll.

Casters benefit from a more offensive stance when using bolt spells. The COMBAT verb can be used to view a character's Spell Aim AS and Spell DS (if the character has at least some Spell Aiming skill), which will take the character's current stance into account.

Casting a bolt spell normally incurs up to 3 seconds of cast roundtime, rather than "hard" roundtime. During cast roundtime, the caster can still change stance or move between rooms but may not attack or cast another spell. Bolt spells may optionally be CHANNELed for a higher chance of hitting a vital area and subjects the attack to less critical randomization, but incurs 3 seconds of hard RT that cannot be mitigated by any haste effect.

Ball Spells

A possibly more intuitive explanation:

The appropriate lore determines the minimum size of the explosion caused by the spell whereas MOC determines how well you can place the explosion such that it hits the most targets. (A practical example: water balloons. The appropriate Lore skill determines what size water balloon you can throw; MOC ranks determine how accurately you place it within the group of targets with which you are dealing.)

Having at least one rank of the relevant Lore skill plus one rank of MOC will guarantee a splash to an additional creature--assuming that at least two creatures are in the room--because even if a 0 is rolled the first time the "possible" range is 0-1 (due to the full Lore benefit being added); on the second roll (a range of 0-1) even if 0 is rolled again then the rank of MOC will enable the splash effect.

Given that all of the Lore skills that affect splashes are seed 1 progressions, the rate at which additional targets are added is quite quick. A modest investment of training points for ten (10) ranks of Lore skill yields +4 targets--a +50% addition to the "possible" target pool--and guarantees that at least four (4) targets will always have the capability to be splashed ("possible" roll will be 0-8 with +4 added).

Ball spells are a subgroup of bolt spells that, if the initial attack roll is successful, may cause additional splash damage on several creatures (including the original target) due to an explosion upon impact.

There are four steps to determine the number of targets struck by a ball spell.

Step 1

A random number X is generated between 0 and 8, with lower numbers more likely to be chosen.

Step 2

Based on the caster's ranks in the appropriate Lore, a bonus is added to the initial X value (see table below).

The skills taken into account are:

• Spiritual Lore, Summoning for Fire Spirit (111)
• Sorcerous Lore, Demonology for Balefire (713)
• Elemental Lore, Water for Major Cold (907)
• Elemental Lore, Fire for Major Fire (908)
• Elemental Lore, Earth for Major Acid (1710) (Water lore will not work for Major Acid.)

Lore rank thresholds/Potential targets

Lore ranks	1	2	4	7	11	16	22	29	37	46	56
Potential targets	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
Lore ranks	67	79	92	106	121	137	154	172	191	211	232
Potential targets	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22

The exact bonus from lore is BONUS = [1 + sqrt((8 * Lore Ranks) - 7))]/2.

Step 3

Another random number Y is generated between 0 and (X + BONUS).

Step 4

The caster's training in Multi-Opponent Combat (MOC) is added to Y.

The final number of targets struck by the splash effect is the smaller of (X + BONUS) and (Y + MOC Ranks)

Lore Ranks and Damage Factor Bonuses

The Damage Factors (DFs) for many bolt spells can be increased by training in the appropriate lore skill. The DF bonus is based on the number of ranks trained.

Most bolt spells are tied to a single lore skill. For these spells, DF increases by 0.001 per rank up to 50 lore ranks, 0.001 per two ranks for ranks 51 to 100 and 0.001 per four ranks for ranks greater than 100. A character with 200 lore ranks would see a total DF increase of 0.100. (The one known exception to this formula is the evoked plasma version of Holy Bolt, which only counts lore ranks beyond 30.)

The following bolt spells are tied to two separate lore skills. The DF increase is 0.001 per two ranks up to 100 ranks and 0.001 per four ranks for ranks greater than 100. With 200 lore ranks the DF bonus is 0.075.

• Minor Shock (901)
• Minor Acid (904)
• Major Shock (910)
• Minor Steam (1707)
• Major Acid (1710)

Damage Factors

• Bold indicates highest value, Minor Shock (901) has lowest DF value against all armor types
• V indicates varies with associated spell cast

Spell	Mana Cost	Cloth	Leather	Scale	Chain	Plate	Splash	Lore DF Bonus
Fire Spirit (111)	11	0.400	0.333	0.270	0.256	0.244	Yes	Yes (Summoning)
Web (118)	9	0.520	0.420	0.330	0.300	0.210	No	Yes (Summoning)
Holy Bolt (306)(L)*	6	0.455	0.345	0.283	0.242	0.173	No	No
Holy Bolt (306)(U)*	6	0.750	0.500	0.405	0.400	0.265	No	Yes (Religion)
Holy Bolt (306)(Evoke)	6	0.600	0.410	0.310	0.290	0.270	No	Yes (Religion)
Hand of Tonis (505)	5	0.520	0.420	0.330	0.300	0.210	No	Yes (Air)
Hurl Boulder (510)	10	0.710	0.520	0.460	0.435	0.440	No	Yes (Earth)
Cone of Elements (518)	18	V	V	V	V	V	V	Yes (special)
Moonbeam (611)	5	0.515	0.410	0.315	0.280	0.185	No	Yes (Summoning)
Disintegrate (705)	5	0.525	0.383	0.314	0.350	0.197	No	Yes (Necromancy)
Balefire (713)	13	0.435	0.360	0.325	0.310	0.295	Yes	Yes (Demonology)
Minor Shock (901)	1	0.149	0.133	0.111	0.122	0.128	No	Yes (Air and/or Water)
Minor Water (903)	3	0.455	0.345	0.283	0.242	0.173	No	Yes (Water)
Minor Acid (904)	4	0.525	0.383	0.314	0.350	0.197	No	Yes (Earth and/or Water)
Minor Fire (906)	6	0.667	0.455	0.345	0.323	0.303	No	Yes (Fire)
Major Cold (907)	7	0.445	0.350	0.245	0.217	0.208	Yes	Yes (Water)
Major Fire (908)	8	0.400	0.333	0.270	0.256	0.244	Yes	Yes (Fire)
Major Shock (910)	10	0.750	0.555	0.433	0.415	0.433	No	Yes (Air and/or Water)
Empathic Assault (1110)	10	0.680	0.490	0.365	0.280	0.205	No	Yes (Transformation)
Telekinesis (1206)**	6	0.600	0.410	0.310	0.290	0.270	No	Yes (Manipulation)
Telekinesis (1206)**	7	0.625	0.425	0.325	0.320	0.290	No	Yes (Manipulation)
Telekinesis (1206)**	8	0.650	0.450	0.350	0.340	0.310	No	Yes (Manipulation)
Telekinesis (1206)**	9	0.675	0.475	0.375	0.360	0.330	No	Yes (Manipulation)
Telekinesis (1206)**	10	0.700	0.500	0.400	0.375	0.350	No	Yes (Manipulation)
Astral Spear (1408)	8	0.650	0.450	0.350	0.350	0.310	No	No?
Arcane Blast (1700)	0	0.149	0.133	0.111	0.122	0.128	No	No
Minor Steam (1707)	4	0.600	0.550	0.385	0.333	0.267	No	Yes (Fire and/or Water)
Minor Cold (1709) ***	3	0.667	0.460	0.385	0.375	0.355	No	Yes (Water)
Major Acid (1710)	6	0.600	0.333	0.275	0.370	0.196	Yes	Yes (Earth and/or Water)

*(L) is living targets and (U) is undead targets.

**can be cast with a variable amount of mana, denoted in the Mana Cost column

***requires a cast of 512 to start, and 10 ranks of Water

AvDs

• V denotes a variable AvD. Actual AvDs are determined by the spell used with Cone of Elements (518)

Spell	Cloth		Leather					Scale					Chain					Plate
AsG	1		5	6	7	8		9	10	11	12		13	14	15	16		17	18	19	20
Fire Spirit (111)	70		60	59	58	57		50	48	46	44		45	41	37	33		40	34	28	22
Web (118)	52		44	43	42	41		39	37	35	33		44	40	36	32		52	46	40	34
Holy Bolt (306)(L)*	30		30	29	28	27		29	27	25	23		31	27	23	19		25	19	13	7
Holy Bolt (306)(U)*	40		38	37	36	35		35	33	31	29		37	33	29	25		32	26	20	14
Hand of Tonis (505)	52		44	43	42	41		39	37	35	33		44	40	36	32		52	46	40	34
Hurl Boulder (510)	40		40	39	38	37		40	38	36	34		40	36	32	28		40	34	28	22
Cone of Elements (518)	V		V	V	V	V		V	V	V	V		V	V	V	V		V	V	V	V
Moonbeam (611)	68		58	57	56	55		49	47	45	43		41	38	35	32		34	30	26	22
Disintegrate (705)	40		38	37	36	35		35	33	31	29		37	33	29	25		32	26	20	14
Balefire (713)	65		55	54	53	52		45	43	41	39		38	34	30	26		30	24	18	12
Minor Shock (901)	35		25	24	23	22		30	28	26	24		33	29	25	21		36	30	24	18
Minor Water (903)	30		30	29	28	27		29	27	25	23		31	27	23	19		25	19	13	7
Minor Acid (904)	40		38	37	36	35		35	33	31	29		37	33	29	25		32	26	20	14
Minor Fire (906)	55		37	36	35	34		33	31	29	27		42	38	34	30		44	38	32	26
Major Cold (907)	65		55	54	53	52		45	43	41	39		40	36	32	28		35	29	23	17
Major Fire (908)	70		60	59	58	57		50	48	46	44		45	41	37	33		40	34	28	22
Major Shock (910)	50		40	39	38	37		45	43	41	39		48	44	40	36		51	45	39	33
Empathic Assault (1110)	55		45	44	43	42		30	28	26	24		15	11	7	3		7	1	(-5)	(-11)
Telekinesis (1206)	52		44	43	42	41		39	37	35	33		44	40	36	32		52	46	40	34
Astral Spear (1408)	52		44	43	42	41		39	37	35	33		44	40	36	32		52	46	40	34
Arcane Blast (1700)	35		25	24	23	22		30	28	26	24		33	29	25	21		36	30	24	18
Minor Steam (1707)	70		60	59	58	57		50	48	46	44		45	41	37	33		40	34	28	22
Minor Cold (1709)	45		40	39	38	37		35	33	31	29		40	36	32	28		30	24	18	12
Major Acid (1710)	65		55	54	53	52		45	43	41	39		42	38	34	30		33	27	21	15

*(L) is living targets and (U) is undead targets.

Critical Weighting

Critical weighting is applied to bolt attacks using the formula: trunc((INT + WIS) / 6). The following table shows the aforementioned relationship.

Intuition + Wisdom Bonus 0 6 12 18 24 30 36 42 48 54 60 66 72 78 84 90 96 Critical Weighting 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Resources

• Attack strength (Bolt Spells)
• Saved posts
• Elemental lore review (saved posts)
• Lore chart