In the past!, every spell in crossfire was identified by a number, at the time featuring 201 spells.
The “spellnumbers” would work like an ID, and it was needed to specify spells in various object-types.
E.g. spellbooks, rods/wands/scrolls, firewalls… etc.

These days, spellnumbers are considered obsolete!,
and are replaced by inserting the spell object directly into the object's inventory.

Despite this though, spellnumbers may still be found in legacy maps,
and are still used in Gridarta's spell selector list,
and thus the server still supports them.

If you find spellnumbers in use in a map you're editing, it's generally recommended to replace it with inserting the actual spell object instead. Also, some objects give the option of specifying the spell object arch by name instead of inserting it. The spell objects are considered nicer than the old spellnumber system because now individual maps can do things such as have customized spells.

• A few spells are bold, these should not be used by map-makers in any way!
• Some are italicized, these are god-given spells, they can be used for monsters or firewalls, but they mustn't be handed out to the player