GENERAL TRICKS
ATTACK SPIRITS
・ Ghosts are the best all-round spirit. They know spells and can attack in
spirit combat. Since they target MPs, they're useful vs. almost anything.
Ancestor Worshipers have the best powers to deal with ghosts. If you have only
one attack spirit, get a ghost. The best spells to teach your ghosts are 1)
Dispel Magic, to Dispel anti-ghost magic - it only takes a Dispel Magic 2 to
eliminate a Spirit Block; 2) Spirit Screen, to help it when it intercepts enemy
ghosts.
・ Passion spirits are "cheap ghosts" - only 1 POW to bind, but not as useful
overall. Frex, a fear spirit cannot harm an INT-lacking elemental. Know your
passion spirits - a fear spirits is terrific vs. fixed-INT critters, while a
pain spirit is best-used vs. humans, who usually have more INT than CON.
・ Wraiths are terrifying. (Beware an INT-affecting wraith even on the spirit
plane!) Keep a wraith just for shock value -- they cost no more to bind than a
ghost, and are better against mundane foes. (But they can't cast spirit magic
and are useless against other spirits.)
・ Perhaps the most effective use of a hellion is often to use all its MPs in a
sacrificial drain on one target, eliminating that target for a long time.

ELEMENTALS
Elementals are useful for a variety of tasks. If you specialize in elementals,
you can fly, burrow underground, and never fear drowning. Since an elemental
matrix takes a hefty 3 POW, shamans should keep small elementals in their
fetch.
・ Defensive magic greatly enhances elemental lifespan. A little Protection
goes a long way.
・ Take only sylphs and gnomes when traveling, (plus shades if you expect
trouble by night & undines if on a boat). Normally, undines, shades, and
salamanders are best at home, where you can keep the appropriate element
readily available.
・ SALAMANDER -If you have time, a salamander can create a brush fire between
you and your foe. Also, salamanders inside larger fires are impossible to see.
To summon a colossal salamander, start with a small salamander. Use the small
salamander to start a big fire, (use a sylph to fan the flames). When you have
a big enough fire, you call forth a salamander as big as you like. If it's POW
is too high to Dominate, what the hell. Let it burn everything it sees.
・ SYLPH -Place a sylph between you and the foe. You can see through it to cast
spells, but their missiles hit the sylph, not you. Remember Protection, because
sylphs have low HP.
・ UNDINE -Use a sylph to carry an undine into combat. (Gnomes are too heavy,
and salamanders & shades can fly by themselves.)
・ SHADE -Use a shade as a cheap illusion at night. Hide behind it, shaping it
to cover you. If you set an ambush with a shade in a dark place, the enemy
can't see the shade to aim missiles (missiles are the bane of shades), and so
you can Fearshock the foe before he can react.
・ GNOME -Gnome-to-Gargoyle kicks major butt, especially when properly
supported. Use at least a 3-meter gnome. Cast some accompanying spells; after
all, you're losing 1 POW for the gargoyle, so a few MPs are worth supporting
your investment. Give the gnome Fanaticism(!), plus Protection or Shimmer.
(Most Earth cults have a pretty good assortment of defensive spells). Now that
it's a gargoyle, your opponents can't use Command or Dominate to wrest control.
To keep your gnome safe while it's moving to the attack, have it travel
underground, so it can't be targeted. Turn it into a gargoyle just as it erupts
in the midst of the enemy party. Just-plain-gnomes are at their best vs.
mounted foes -- horse (or bison) legs are rarely armored, hard to heal, and
often injure your enemy when he falls off his steed.

MAGIC SPIRITS
Magic spirits can't target enemies except via Second Sight, and even then they
have to figure out who the bad guys are. Proper training mitigates these
drawbacks.
・ Teach your magic spirits to obey one-word commands. In combat, simply sing
out, "Melee!" and one spirit casts Protection while another Fireblade. Or
whatever they're trained for.
・ If a magic spirit casts an asymmetrical Lightwall (an arrowhead, say), it is
easier to direct the spirit to move it into position.
・ Spirits in a shaman's fetch are on the spirit plane, hence can always see a
target's POW. Since they can also see spells being cast, simply order your
spirits to cast their spells at the same target as you. For instance, cast
Disrupt on SR 3 followed by the spirits' simultaneous Disrupt (or whatever) on
SR 4. Likewise, if a shaman casts a spell at you, watch out -- you might be
about to get hit by a barrage of spells cast by the shaman, his fetch, and a
medley of bound spirits.

ILLUSIONS
Use Illusions cost-effectively, to mislead rather than overwhelm.
・ Instead of creating a warrior to fight for you, place a visual illusion over
a foe's eyes. Make your sword look twice as long, or half as long -- it will
be harder to parry.
・ Shoot illusory Firearrows from a foe's unshielded side -- when he shifts his
position to defend, he'll expose himself to you.
・ Illusory caltrops slow pursuit as much as real ones, especially if you
scatter a few real ones among them. Or throw real caltrops and cast an illusory
floor just above the points, so they can't be seen.
・ Illusory sight hides a door you escaped through.
・ Illusory sound muffles footsteps, or makes a clamor to distract a guard.
・ Illusory scent makes it difficult for dogs or trolls to track you.
・ Illusory touch can tap a foe's shoulder from behind. Even the most
disciplined warrior will glance backwards, giving you a free blow. With
Illusory sound at the same time, it's irresistable.
・ Illusory Fireblades, Trueswords, Seal Wounds, and Fangs of Wachaza are
cheaper than real ones, and can scare off weak enemies.
・ Illusory gnomes are the cheapest elementals, since they're just a swirl on
top of the ground. Slows pursuit and terrifies many enemies, especially mounted
ones. Also wastes their missiles and spells.

ENCHANTMENTS
Enchantments are best used in combinations.
・ Target conditions activate instantly! Think about it. A magic wand with six
Disrupt matrices and an MP source can be linked so that all 6 Disrupts fire
together, with a target condition to fire at what the wand is pointing at when
the wand's holder says "Tanstaafl!" The wand fires on the user's DEX SR at the
target (perhaps after a DEXx5 roll to ensure it's pointed accurately). This
approach provides needed speed in a world full of SR 3 archers.
・ To use this speed defensively, make a small round Heal 6 matrix and link it
to an MP source. Place a condition such that it casts itself when the user is
maimed or reduced to 0 or fewer hit points. Swallow it. When you are seriously
injured, you'll be brought back to life, up to the matrix's MP total. If you
use a Heal Body matrix, you're rendered immune to death from a single blow.
・ Armoring enchantments are best on shields. Shields protect every hit
location, and work vs. critical hits. The only disadvantages are missiles,
multiple attacks, and shield breakage.
・ Convenience: a Multimissile matrix with the condition that it "fires" when
touched by an arrow. If the matrix is in a ring, it is cast automatically while
the arrow is drawn, with no SR loss.
・ Flexibility: a magic point matrix linked to any non-Power spirit. This lets
you use it like a power spirit by ordering it to put its MPs into the matrix.

MONKEY TRICKS
Summon a chonchon, hellion, vampire, or wraith. Bind it, and bring it out of
its enchantment periodically to drain POW from a dozen stray dogs. It can
accumulate 750 magic points in less than a season. Cast Mindlink, and you have
all the MPs you can ever use ere the spell expires. (There are 750 SR in 15
minutes.) Don't ever let it loose!
・ To control very powerful spirits, prepare several binding enchantments.
Summon the strongest ghost you can control, then bind it. Summon a ghost
stronger than the first, and have your first ghost engage it in combat. When
the second ghost is weak enough, bind it into a second enchantment. Summon a
third ghost, stronger than the second, and sic the second on it. Keep doing
this, going up 2-3 POW each time. This gives you a procession of power,
eventually ascending to spirits far more powerful than anything you could
summon ordinarily. Caveat: some ghosts are smart enough to realize what's
happening, and will attack you rather than your agent. Have defenses prepared.
・ Put skeletons in a room equipped with an area-effect Repair matrix to amuse
opponents. This is nearly as much fun as riveting tubes of bronze around a
skeleton's bones.
・ For a good familiar, possess an elemental with a ghost. All it lacks is CON
and DEX.
・ To haunt a house, link a Summon Ghost matrix to a POW supply and set it to
continuously summon ghosts, setting them free to torment whatever happens to be
around. Keep the ghosts inside an area enchantment if you wish. Or you can
summon something else if ghosts don't appeal.

PRIEST TRICKS
・ Never underestimate Mindlink. It becomes extremely impressive when several
priests use it to combine efforts.
1. Lodril -- Earthwarm becomes a potent offensive weapon; Earthwarm 18 raises
the temperature of a 100m x 200m area by 55 C (100 F) -- too hot to stay alive
in. Also works for weather magic.
2. Yelm -- Bless Worshipers, mindlinked, is stupendous.
3. Babeester Gor -- stack 10-20 points each of Shield & Slash, plus put 30-40
MPs into Axe Trance. (Don't forget Earthshield.)
4. Humakt -- never cast an important Oath with less than 100 MPs backing it up.

・ Warding. You can cover huge expanses of territory if four separate spells
are used, each formed as a very thin (10 cm), very long (100m) rectangle.
・ Red Goddess initiates: Amplify adds +1 to damage per point in Disruption.
More efficient is to use Combine: each point does +1d3. The trade-off is it is
harder to disable a single location.
・ Tricksters: use Hallucinate to make a bridge or ladder that only you can
use. Or a flying carpet (with Sight, Substance, and Motion).
・ Triolina: Proteus has some attractive uses:
5. Turn into a fly & spend all but 1 MP. You'll go unnoticed by anyone with
normal or Mystic Vision.
6. Turn into a cave troll when injured, regenerate the damage, turn back. Note:
turning into a chaotic creature probably taints you with chaos. If you're
tainted anyway, become a broo when you're ill or poisoned to scoff at the ill
effects.
7. Kidnap an official, Meld Form, and take his place.

SHAMAN TRICKS
Find or create a sanctuary with an area enchantment or Warding. Typical shamans
are jumped by a random spirit every few days. Almost anything might attack --
wraiths, ghosts, disease spirits, elementals, chonchons, you name it. Second
Sight has a range of only 50 meters, and most of these critters travel twice
that far in a round...

SORCERER TRICKS
・ Your greatest weakness is combat. Sorcery spells are simply too slow to
compete with spirit or divine magic on the battlefield. This disadvantage can
be overcome by intelligent enchantments. Combine an offensive spell with a
simple user condition (such as a trigger word) and a supply of MPs. The magic
item's effect goes off on your DEX SR no matter how many MPs are spent.
・ Use Homing Circle as a two-way transportation system. Two sorcerers each
give the other a homing circle, then exchange goods. Create a whole network of
cooperative sorcerers.
・ Everyone knows Animate Dead generates an instant Zombie. Boost Damage
enhances effectiveness and Enhance DEX provides a passable attack skill.
・ Instant bodyguard: find a small predatory insect (a praying mantis is fine)
and Dominate it. Few bugs have POW>1. Keep the bug in a fold of your robe. When
endangered, cast Enhance STR, CON, SIZ, and two Boost Damage (one for each
claw) on the mantis and lob it at the threat. It's easy to get a STR 8, CON 8,
SIZ 8 mantis doing killing damage with its claws. Mantises already have high
DEX. Wasps, spiders, shrikes, shrews, vampire bats, weasels, etc. are good
choices, too. If you have access to water then a hellgrammite, snapping turtle,
or piranha make sense.
・ Son of instant bodyguard: instead of using small, dangerous animals,
Shapechange big, placid ones, allowing you to start with a good STR, CON, and
SIZ. Tap the critter's POW to 1 to cut down on Intensity. A good target is a
riding horse, which has all the STR and SIZ anyone could need. Dominate the
animal, since it still has its former (pacifistic) instincts. Shapechanging a
Dominated ox into a wyrm is good. Adding Resist Magic is advisable, given that
it has POW 1. Even smaller animals such as dogs or cats can become useful with
a little imagination. A 40 pound dog isn't too scary -- but a 40 pound
rattlesnake is terrifying.
・ Enhance STR, CON, DEX, and APP substitutes for Immortality, keeping your
stats high so they won't drop below 1 through aging. You can create extremely
loyal guards by casting these life-extending spells on elderly men. Resist
Magic is a good investment for someone using this technique.
・ A chain or rope is a good tool in magic contests. Such a chain can be
Animated, then thrown to wrap round an enemy. Attach a lock to the chain and
click it shut with Animate! If you have a good DEX, tie a knot instead.
・ With Skin of Life, Fly is a good underwater spell. Water resistance keeps
you from going too fast, but your natural buoyancy lets you apply almost your
entire Fly to lifting cargo.
・ Fly is a natural mate to Diminish SIZ.You can use this to do enormous damage
to enemies, as well as the obvious practical value. Example: using 9 Art
levels, you can get Range 1, Multispell 1, Intensity 7. This diminishes the
average human to SIZ 6, which you can then move at speed 5 up 20 meters in 4
SRs, then drop him for 6d6 damage ignoring armor. Not only that, but his HP are
fewer to start with!
・ Multispell Diminish CON and Venom.
・ To protect an enchanted item, bind a spirit into it, use a condition to keep
it there, then Apprentice Bond the spirit. If the item is ever stolen, you'll
know the approximate distance and direction of the spirit and hence the item.
・ Summoning Halls are common in Fonrit and the West. Several magicians each
cast 3-4 points of area enchantment, with appropriate spell matrices set to
attack disembodied spirits within the enchantment. Hrestoli Colleges of Magic
use Drain Soul matrices. All colleges use Dominate spell matrices. This makes
the hall relatively safe and convenient to do summonings in.
・ Early Warning System No. 1 (in decreasing order of cost & efficacy) Place
the following matrices and conditions upon four large, nondescript rocks: Glow
1, range 6 (500m); a condition such that the matrix casts Glow on a specified
wall in the house when an intruder passes between it and one of the two
"adjacent" rocks. Add a magic spirit to run the show and maintain Detect Life
to notice the intruders. Have each stone cast Glow on a different wall of a
central room. Since each intruder causes two stones to activate, the sorcerer
can tell from which quarter the intruder comes. To add offensive oomph, add
Venom or a bound demon to the detectors. Disadvantages: the stones can be
tampered with.
・ Early Warning System No. 2 Enchant a stone with Sight Creation, and Sight
Projection range 5. Add Phantom Sound, if desired. Bind a spirit into it. The
spirit casts Sight Creation, then "patrols" the territory using Sight
Projection. If it sees anyone, it uses Phantom Sound to alert the sorcerer
(whispering in his ear). A good enough spirit can be equipped with Venom or
similar nasties as well. Disadvantages: simply hiding in bushes and shadows may
evade the spirit's view. Also the spirit may be disloyal.
・ Early Warning System No. 3 Shapechange guards into squirrels and chickadees
(plus Diminish SIZ) and patrol unobtrusively. Make them use up their MPs so
they don't show on Mystic Vision. Tap their POW so they won't show up on Second
Sight. Or Dominate ghosts and have them possess the chickadees. Disadvantages:
the guards can't do anything when they spot a foe except alert you. If you have
other magic defenses, even very mild damage kills a guard (by blundering into a
Venom 1, for instance).
・ Early Warning System No. 4 Cheapest of all, bind a few ghosts and wraiths
and set them to patrol in person. Disadvantages: if the defensive spirits are
defeated, the sorcerer won't know it.
・ Use Animate Darkness on a patch of shadow to form a cloak around yourself.
This greatly enhances your ability to hide in shadows. This darkness can be
dispelled by bright light, so 'ware lanterns.
・ Insane Power Gaming Sorceror Tactics Part 1: Two sorcerors each in turn have
Fix INT then Create Familiar cast on them by each other. Share spells and MPs
and other benefits. Of course, the first to go under the process must utterly
trust the other...
・ Insane Power Gaming Sorceror Tactics Part 2: reduce all stats to 1 with
appropriate Vows to gain 35+ presence. Use Permanence or magic items to restore
your stats -- don't cast the spells yourself, or it wastes the Presence you
just worked so hard to get.
・ Fun With Saints: the most sorcery-oriented saints are:
1. Arkat Bringer of Darkness - makes the ill effects of a spell you're casting
permanent, so you don't have to spend precious Presence on it! Use Suppress
Sorcery to cripple your rival without actually killing him (useful in the Lunar
Empire where such subtleties are noted). Perfect for Shapechange!
2. Daly - invoke him after you've cast a spell & before you check for the
target's Resistance. This way you ensure a spell overcomes the target. Ideal
for those nasty high-defense shamans.
3. Hrestol - increases your POW … and therefore your Magic bonus (and
therefore your Presence)! Also, remember that the extra MPs you generate don't
go away after the POW does. If you have enough MP matrices, you can keep your
personal MPs at the POWx2 level indefinitely.
4. Josselyne - Add your INT to the spell's Intensity. Not as good as Raceen,
but cheaper.
5. Malkion - Since your spell costs nothing, it's a good combo with Josselyne,
who greatly increases spell cost. All good Malkioni sorcerers have already
sacrificed for Malkion anyway.
6. Raceen - the best of all saints for Sorcerers. If you combine Raceen with
Josselyne you get The Almighty Spell of Dread: with an INT of 15, you can add
30 Art levels to the spell being cast, so long as at least 15 are Intensity.
7. Valkaro - good for newly-learned spells to ensure they work (ensures a skill
check, too). Good combo with Daly; Valkaro ensures the spell goes off, and Daly
ensures it takes effect.
8. Sedalp Dyad - good both defensively and offensively.
9. Sedalp Quaternion - excellent vs. the ignorant and animals, who won't know
not to attack you.
10. Insane Power Gaming Sorceror Tactics Part 3: Assume the sorceror has INT
16, casting chance 151% (using ceremony and spell matrices it's not that hard).
Evoke Josselyne for Intensity 16, and use your own skill for another 16. Then
invoke Raceen for yet another Intensity 16. Presto: Intensity 48.
・ Boost Dex This grants +24 to Magic bonus in addition to other useful
effects.
・ Boost Attack Bonus: Intensity 48, gives +120 percentiles - behold a master
in every weapon.
・ Boost Damage: +48 to damage.
・ Bless Sword: +240% to attack and parry.
・ Permanence: make the above effects permanent at the price of halving their
power. So you'd get a DEX of "only" +24 (+12 Magic bonus), or +60 to all
attack skills, +24 damage, or +120% to a sword's attack & parry. And it's only
Presence 1 per each of these monstrous abilities! Best of all, the Intensities
are so high they're practically impossible to Neutralize.

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DEFEATING SORCERERS
・ Multimissile. A swarm of arrows gets multiple resistance rolls, so has an
excellent chance of penetrating Damage Resistance. Each arrow that gets through
forces a Concentration roll. If your target has INT 18, that gives each
penetrating arrow a 46% chance of aborting his spell. Also, any solid sorcery
spell takes over a melee round to get off, and you should be able to send at
least two volleys of Multimissiled arrows!
・ Darkwall or Lightwall. A sorcerer can't target whom he can't see. Ducking
for cover when the sorcerer starts chanting serves the same purpose.
・ Nets, lassoes, and bolas. A tangled sorcerer casts no spells.
・ Elementals. Sorcerers have few defenses against these, and they are fast to
use. If you are a sorcerer, maintain an elemental in a handy matrix, to
intercept attacking elementals.
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DEFEATING PRIESTS
Turn their own Mindlink against them. Use Mystic Vision or Second Sight to
determine what object is likeliest to hold the allied spirit, then attack it. A
priest rarely protects his ally as well as himself, so you can bypass Shield
and Reflection by aiming at the ally.
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DEFEATING SHAMANS
When attacked in spirit combat, don't fight back! Either Spirit Resistance will
protect you or it won't. Even if the spirit's attack is overwhelming, it should
take several rounds before you're possessed. Attack the shaman during the grace
period with everything you have. Use weapons, not magic, since spirit combat
interferes with spell-casting.
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DEFEATING ARCHERS
Archers are a real problem for Gloranthan magicians, especially with
arrow-affecting magic. So, here are the Top Eight Gloranthan defenses against
archers, in rough order of decreasing difficulty:
・ Sylphs, shades, or salamanders formed up in front to take the hits instead
of you.
・ Sorcerers only: long-range Animate Wood to screw up their bows.
・ Darkwall or Lightwall, moved up as you advance by a stationary specialist
(probably only the Lunars are disciplined enough for this on a mass basis).
Other vision-dampening spells (like Mist Cloud) fall into this category.
・ Storm Gods only: rain magic to make the enemy bowstrings wet. Affects your
side, too.
・ Storm Gods only: wind magic (even a little breeze helps a lot vs. arrows in
flight).
・ heavy armor (plate or chain enhanced by Protection is hard for even longbows
to penetrate consistently)
・ speed-enhancing spells, to cross the beaten zone faster.
・ Shimmer (vs. a 50% archer, Shimmer 2 cuts losses by a fifth).

FOLK SORCERY
The most common sorcery spells among peasants are: Bless Object, Enhance
Characteristic, Catch Child (Haste), Delay Mean Dog (Hinder), Holdfast
(formerly Bind), Locate Object, Mystic Vision, Gossip (Project Sense) and Skin
of Life.
・ Animate Bronze is usually called by its proper name of Animate Plow -- a
fine spell that lets you tend a field whether you own an ox or not.
・ Animate Handle (aka Animate Wood) is helpful for using a broom, dustmop, or
other utensil for cleaning cobwebs out of hard-to-reach places, safely
hammering shingles into a steep roof, etc.
・ Diminish Size is the perfect hunting tool. A typical hound is SIZ 4-5, and
this way it's easy to send him right down a badger hole. Or shrink a cat to the
size of a rat, and send him into the walls of your house after mice. Or squeeze
through that hole in the fence.
・ Dominate [species] is a terrific anti-vermin and small-game spell. Zap a POW
2 crow and he just sits there till you thwack him with a stick. Good for
nailing mice and rats, or hunting squirrels. All these critters have a small
POW, so it doesn't take much effort to nail em. Not too great for insects,
because there's so many the spell's hardly worth the effort. But a single day
and 5-10 MPs and you can practically rid your house of mice.
・ Produce and Evoke [Energy] are handy, once you know the spells by their
proper names.
1. Produce Cold = Preserve Food
2. Evoke Flame = Light Stove
3. Produce Heat = Hot Lunch
4. Evoke Lightning = Clean Drains
5. Evoke Water = Wash Windows, Water Garden, Firefighter
6. Evoke Windblast = Sweep Road, Clear Dead Leaves.
・ Fly = Recover Ball From Roof. arrow from treetop, or acquire a bird's nest
full of eggs.
・ Phantom Odor = create a mild perfume to mask the stink of cooking cabbage or
your own smell, if you haven't bathed recently.
・ Phantom Sight = Hide Unsightly Mess
・ Phantom Sound = Elevator Music
・ Phantom Taste = A little Phantom Taste on the tuna fish casserole and you
don't need garlic or pepper. The only risk is that a person addicted to Phantom
Taste may start using it too much on potatoes alone, and not get sufficient
vitamins or something. When combined with Phantom Sight, the food looks good,
too.
・ Resist Damage = Ward Mosquitoes. A 1-point spell halves the number of bites
you'll get. Also good vs. poisonous snakes .
・ Sense [substance] is obvious, I hope. Sense Dirty Child can be handy if
Herbie dislikes his baths.
・ Shapechange is a good, if rare spell. Shapechange Dog to [harmless animal]
is known by most door-to-door salesmen, tinkers, and mailmen.
・ Stupefaction = Insomnia Antidote.
・ Telepathy = "Martha, this party is stultifying. Pretend you have a headache
so I can take you home."
・ Venom 1 = Kill Rats for the sorcery set.
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