Evocation
Evocation is one of the wizardry disciplines of spell casting .
Evocation spells belong to many different Spell Paths , with Missiles,
Transference, and Frost being the most common.
Most evocation spells are attack spells, although a few are for defense or information.
Followers of Ixalovh are attuned to the Frost path ,
and followers of Sorig are attuned to Missiles,
so they may be drawn to this spell family.
The evocation skill is acquired by learning the skill from a scroll or
by finding and applying a talisman of evocation.
Spellcasters may also be created with evocation as part of their initial skill set as humans
start with a random skill scroll and evokers are stuffed with a talisman of evocation.
List of Spells
This is a complete list of the evocation spells1), sorted by level.
-- Level 1 --
Armour
| Level: | 1 | SP: | 8 | Paths: | Protection, Self |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | books, scrolls |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a field of force which raises the caster's physical resistance, reducing the damage from physical attacks. Will not reduce the damage from spells or enemies whose melee attacks deal damage of a magical nature. As with most protection and enhancement spells, it can also be cast on other players by standing directly next to them and firing the spell in their direction. |
| Notes: | An inexpensive, weaker equivalent to the prayer Protection from Attack that can be used far earlier. The amount of resistance it provides is obviously less useful if you're already wearing a lot of heavy armour, but it can still make a difference in survival. It stacks with Protection from Attack so it's possible to cast both together. |
Icestorm
| Level: | 1 | SP: | 5 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a cone of ice which freezes monsters in the direction of the caster. The sheer force of the cold will often encase items in ice, or destroy items outright. As with all cone spells, it can be cast in a wider, but short-ranged circle around the caster by readying the spell and using the “stay fire” command. This spell increases in power with the caster's evocation level, so it remains powerful even at high skill levels. |
| Notes: | The cold equivalent of Burning Hands. Very useful early on for raising maximum Mana as a powerful cone spell makes training quick and easy. Many classes also start with evocation, making it probably one of the most readily available general purpose damage spells. If it destroys too many items for your taste, Evocation also gets a number of bullet type spells to use that are less flashy and effective on crowds, but won't destroy items enemies carry. |
Small Bullet
| Level: | 1 | SP: | 1 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a small magical bullet at the enemy in a straight line. Weak, but can be fired rapidly. |
| Notes: | More or less functionally the same as Sorcery's Magic Bullet spell, except there's more upgrades available later as you level up Evocation. Handy for beating enemies without destroying their loot. |
Small Snowstorm
| Level: | 1 | SP: | 6 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of ice which explodes to freeze everything in the area. Especially useful against fire creatures. |
| Notes: | Long ranged explosive, but generally not as useful as Icestorm which can pierce through crowds without hitting yourself. Friendly fire against yourself and player allies tends to be significantly reduced compared to the spell's actual damage, so you generally don't have to worry too much about accidentally killing yourself or friends with this unless they're a race that's very susceptible to cold damage. |
-- Level 2 --
Detect Monster
| Level: | 2 | SP: | 2 | Path: | Information |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | books, scrolls |
| In-Game Description: | Unseen or hidden monsters become visible in a wide area around the caster. |
| Notes: | Works in a massive area of the map, and finds enemies even behind walls, allowing you to cheaply scout the area. It's generally far more practical and useful for detecting danger than casting the rather mana hungry X-Ray Sorcery constantly tends to be. |
Mana Blast
| Level: | 2 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a cone of energy which inflicts pure magic damage. Useful against creates who are immune to fire, cold, or lightning. |
| Notes: | Not many enemies in the game are actually weak to pure magic element damage, but there are some very dangerous enemies immune to many common attack elements like fire, cold, and electricity that can be killed by pure magic. Acid spheres for instance. Mana Blast hits a very wide area much like Icestorm does, making it easy to quickly sweep these enemy types if they approach you rapidly, but note that Evocations's magic elemental spells are all vastly more expensive than their cold elemental counterparts. This means that Mana Blast tends to see less use than Icestorm generally does. |
Small Manaball
| Level: | 2 | SP: | 12 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of magical energy which explodes on contact, doing pure magic damage over a small area. |
-- Level 3 --
Frostbolt
| Level: | 3 | SP: | 12 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a directed bolt of frost. Especially useful against demons and other creates vulnerable to cold. |
| Notes: | This thin beam spell is useful if you need cold damage but don't want the massive collateral damage Icestorm tends to cause! |
Mana Bolt
| Level: | 3 | SP: | 18 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a directed bolt of mana which does pure magic damage. |
| Notes: | A lot of the enemies that require a pure magical spell to deal with also happen to be rather dangerous and hit with draining or acid damage. As such, a wider, more aggressive approach like Mana Blast is usually preferable to ensuring you hit them, but this spell certainly still has its uses. |
Medium Snowstorm
| Level: | 3 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of ice which explodes on contact and freezes everything in the area. |
Small Speedball
| Level: | 3 | SP: | 3 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a bundle of magical energy which seeks out an enemy to hit. The speedball does a small amount of damage and slows its target, then dissipates. |
-- Level 4 --
Large Bullet
| Level: | 4 | SP: | 3 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Like Magic Bullet, but more powerful and with a longer delay between shots. |
Medium Manaball
| Level: | 4 | SP: | 6 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of magical energy which explodes on contact, doing pure magic damage over the surrounding area. |
Negative Energy Bolt
| Level: | 4 | SP: | 13 | Path: | Electricity |
| Attack Types: | cold, drain | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | A negative energy bolt which drains the target of experience points and does cold damage. |
Rune of Frost
| Level: | 4 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Fire |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Sets a magical trap which will detonate and do freezing damage to anyone who steps on it. |
-- Level 5 --
Large Snowstorm
| Level: | 5 | SP: | 16 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a small snowball that explodes on contact, freezing everything in a large area. |
-- Level 6 --
Large Manaball
| Level: | 6 | SP: | 32 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of magical energy which explodes on contact, doing pure magic damage over a large area. |
Large Speedball
| Level: | 6 | SP: | 6 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a bundle of magical energy which seeks out an enemy to hit. The speedball damages and slows its target, then dissipates. |
-- Level 7 --
Bullet Swarm
| Level: | 7 | SP: | 6 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires many magic bullets in the direction the caster is facing. The number and damage of the bullets varies according to the evocation skill level of the spellcaster. |
-- Level 8 --
Asteroid
| Level: | 8 | SP: | 15 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | weaponmagic (direct hit), cold (explosion) | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Calls forth a gigantic ball of rock and ice to smash into the enemy, releasing a massive, intensely cold shower of ice down around the surrounding area. Its power is so great that it can deal damage to enemies normally immune to magic. |
| Notes: | The cold elemental Evocation equivalent of Pyromancy's Comet spell. The asteroid itself deals Weaponmagic type damage, a special element found only rarely on artifact weapons that is typically only resisted by very powerful creatures, and the cold burst it releases is pure cold element damage, hitting an exceptionally large area for lots of damage. It is generally less practical or useful than Comet is, assuming you're able to get both Pyromancy and Evocation early because a) enemies weak to cold tend to be rarer, and the ones that are worth hitting with this strong of a spell are often things like dragons that carry very valuable loot you won't want destroyed with this, and b) Comet is found far earlier in the game and the dungeon it's found in can be done at a far lower level than where you can find the Asteroid spell. |
Create Frost Wall
| Level: | 8 | SP: | 8 | Path: | Creation |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a line of frost squares in front of the caster. Creatures can cross the line, but will take frost damage. If this spell is cast multiple times on the same spot, the damage increases. |
-- Level 9 --
Ball Lightning
| Level: | 9 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Electricity |
| Attack Types: | magic, electricity | Sources: | rods, scrolls, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of electrical energy which flies around somewhat randomly looking for an enemy. The ball sticks to the first creature it strikes (if any), following it around and continuously shocking it and any creatures in the immediate vicinity for a limited time. It will not damage the caster. |
| Notes: | Ball Lightning requires a bit of searching to find, but it gives Evocation a bit of elemental variety that's very helpful since all of the “Mana” type spells tend to be rather expensive for what you get. The balls try to chase down enemies in the direction you fire it quite aggressively, and while you won't always get them locking onto the target you want immediately, keep firing them and eventually they'll hunt down enemies and clear rooms for you. They're also a good choice if you want a balance between sheer killing power, and keeping the items that get destroyed to a minimum. Arguably one of the best automatic/homing spells in the game. |
Negative Energy Ball
| Level: | 9 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Electricity |
| Attack Types: | cold, drain | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a ball of negative energy. The ball sticks to the first creature it strikes (if any), draining it and doing cold damage for a limited time. |
-- Level 10 --
Bullet Storm
| Level: | 10 | SP: | 8 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | magic | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires many large bullets in the direction of the caster. The number and damage of the bullets varies according to the evocation skill level of the spellcaster. |
| Notes: | | | | | |
Cancellation
| Level: | 10 | SP: | 30 | Path: | Abjuration |
| Attack Types: | cancellation | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Removes magic, curse, and damnation from locations and items. It also removes enchantment, so be careful not to use it on your prized magic items! It can be useful in improving items with negative magic bonuses (sword -3). |
Create Pool of Chaos
| Level: | 10 | SP: | 10 | Path: | Creation |
| Attack Types: | chaos | Sources: | books, rods, wands |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a line of chaotic energy in front of the caster. Creatures crossing the line will be hit with a variety of attacks. The effect does not block line-of-sight, and if it is cast multiple times, the damage will increase. |
| Notes: | Unfortunately it can't be deployed underneath enemies directly; you need to have an empty space to cast it, then wait for enemies to walk into it. This makes it a bit cumbersome and impractical to use, but a creative evoker can potentially deal a lot of damage with it. |
-- Level 12 --
Build Bullet Wall
| Level: | 12 | SP: | 35 | Path: | Creation |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a wall that fires magic bullets, as per the Magic Bullet spell. The bullet wall can be torn down by creatures, or it will expire after a limited time. |
Frost Nova
| Level: | 12 | SP: | 30 | Path: | Missiles |
| Attack Types: | weaponmagic (direct hit), cold (explosion) | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a series of asteroids at the enemy to explode into giant clouds of chilling icestorms. |
Large Icestorm
| Level: | 12 | SP: | 13 | Path: | Frost |
| Attack Types: | magic, cold | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a cone of freezing cold air. It has the side effect of encasing objects in the area with a block of ice. |
| Notes: | The far less impressive cold elemental equivalent of Pyromancy's Dragonbreath, Large Icestorm deals way less damage and has magic as an element, meaning it won't work against many targets that are immune to magic, whereas Dragonbreath only cares if a target defends against fire. The only cold elemental spells that really get to smash magic immune enemies are Asteroid and Frost Nova. |
Sigil
| Level: | 12 | SP: | 5 | Path: | Creation |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | books |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a special rune which encapsulates another spell of the caster's choosing. When a creature activates the rune by stepping on it, the encapsulated spell is cast on the creature. |
-- Level 14 --
Rune of Magic Drain
| Level: | 14 | SP: | 30 | Path: | Transference |
| Attack Types: | N/A | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Creates a rune on the floor. When a creature steps on it, the rune activates and drains mana points from the creature. |
Shockwave
| Level: | 14 | SP: | 26 | Path: | Null |
| Attack Types: | physical, magic | Sources: | |
| In-Game Description: | Fires a cone of force which hits with both magical and physical damage. |
Should Rune of Frost really be a Fire spell? That's what the arch for it says.
The descriptions for Ball Lightning in the arch and on the website don't match very well. The former says it goes in the direction cast, while the latter says it hunts out enemies. I haven't used it myself, so I went with the arch description, figuring that may be more current.
A few spells don't have descriptions from either source; anyone who knows what they do, feel free to fill them in.
Armour has a path_attuned value of 33, which would make it belong to both Self and Protection. Since it's the only spell that doesn't match a single bit in the path_attuned bitmask, I'm guessing that's a typo? As pyromancy Searing Weapon also contains multiple paths, I believe this is valid.
Credits
All information retrieved from the archetype files in the
SVN repository, or from the
Spells section of the main Crossfire site.
