| Basilisk | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Nature | |
| ||
| Spell Rarity | Uncommon | |
| Casting Cost |
 325 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
7 per turn | |
| Research Cost |
 800 | |
| ||
| # of Figures |
 1 | |
| Moves |
 2 | |
| Melee Attack per figure |
 15 | |
| Defense per figure |
 4 | |
| Resistance |
 7 | |
| Hit Points per figure |
 30 | |
| ||
|
 Stoning Gaze -1 | ||
The Basilisk is a type of Fantastic Unit featured in Master of Magic. Basilisks belong to the Nature Realm, and may be summoned using a Summoning Spell of the same name. The Basilisk is a surprisingly powerful Melee combat unit, and poses a danger to most Normal Units and weaker Heroes, primarily thanks to its ferocious attack, high speed, and tough defense. Its Stoning Gaze can destroy its targets even before they get a chance to exchange physical blows with it. As a result, a single Basilisk can wipe out a large number of weaker enemies without suffering any damage!
The Fantastic Unit
Physical Description
The Basilisk is a heavy-bodied reptilian creature resembling a large crocodile. It has three pairs of short, powerful legs. The entire creature is clad in green scales, and its mouth sports powerful jaws and sharp teeth. The Basilisk's eyes can often be seen to have a greenish or bluish glow, belying their terrible magical nature.
Basilisks appear in ancient folklore dating back to Roman times.
The Basilisk is a Single-Figure Unit.
Attack Properties
The Basilisk is a single but very powerful Melee combat unit, capable of delivering a powerful physical Melee Attack and surviving battles despite fierce opposition.
The Basilisk has a Melee Attack rating of 15, and delivers about 
6 points of Damage thanks to its 
+10% To Hit bonus (see below).
More dangerously however, the Basilisk's Stoning Gaze ability allows it to wipe out enemies with low Resistance scores even before any melee damage is exchanged. Each 
figure in a target enemy unit must make a Resistance roll at -1 - and failure means instant death. A figure killed by Stoning Gaze dies before dealing its Melee damage, so the Basilisk can potentially destroy an entire enemy unit without receiving any damage at all.
Defensive Properties
Furthermore, the Basilisk is quite tough. Although it only has a Defense rating of 4, it packs 30 which allow it to suffer plenty of damage before being destroyed - well more than most Normal Units can dish out until they reach a very high Experience Level.
The Basilisk is fairly Resistant to Curses and other combat maledictions thanks to its 7. However this is far from giving the creature immunity to any such ill effects.
Finally, as a Gaze ability, the Basilisk is able to launch a Stoning Gaze even on a counterattack, meaning that many normal units that attempt to attack it will find themselves ravaged by the Gaze attack before they're even able to damage the Basilisk.
Other Properties
For a ground-crawling bulky creature, the Basilisk is surprisingly quick, moving at 2. This allows it to rapidly cover the distance towards its enemy, rendering it less vulnerable to Ranged Attacks.
Basic Tactics
When put together, the Basilisk's statistics make it a much-feared unit despite its deceptively low Casting and Upkeep Costs. It will usually charge straight into enemy lines, lashing out first at units with low Resistance scores to get to the weaker units in the enemy's rear. Basilisks have little fear of taking on any enemy unit that does not have a good Resistance score (or the Stoning Immunity ability). They do however need to watch out for highly resistant units - especially heavy-hitting Heroes. They should also be slightly more wary of units with Breath or Thrown attacks, as these units can deal damage to the Basilisk before the Stoning Gaze reduces their numbers, allowing them to surround it and chip away at its health.
Enemy Basilisks
Basilisks occasionally appear as neutral monsters, mostly in mid-level encounters like Ruins and some Nature Nodes. Early-game armies have little hope of taking even a single Basilisk on in combat. Later on, as units begin receiving experience (and therefore, Resistance), the Basilisk becomes somewhat less threatening.
When fighting Basilisks, consider bringing along units with high Resistance scores or Stoning Immunity. Alternately, pummel the Basilisk repeatedly with Ranged Attacks in order to avoid its gaze.
When encountered in the wild, Basilisks are often accompanied by Stone Giants or Sprites.
Ability Overview
+10% To Hit
- This unit has an extra 10% chance to hit its target with every attack. This improves its statistical chance to inflict more Damage with each attack it makes.
Stoning Gaze -1
- Whenever this unit makes a Melee Attack against an enemy target, it first delivers a Stoning Damage Gaze Attack.
- Each figure in the target unit must Resist at a penalty of -1 or be destroyed immediately.
- This is a Gaze Attack, which means it takes place before Melee Damage is dealt by either unit. However, it occurs after Breath Attacks and Thrown Attacks (if any).
- Gaze Attacks allow non-flying units to make Melee Attacks against Flying units.
- The Stoning also occurs when the unit Counter Attacks against an enemy assailant.
- This effect does nothing against targets possessing the Stoning Immunity ability.
The Summoning Spell
Usage
Basilisk may only be cast on the overland map, for the base Casting Cost of 325. Upon casting, the new Basilisk unit will appear in the town currently containing the caster's Summoning Circle.
The new unit is created with full Movement Points, and may move and/or attack immediately as necessary.
To keep the Basilisk in play, it is necessary to pay an Upkeep Cost of 7 per turn. This is drawn automatically from the caster's Mana pool each turn. Failure to pay the required costs due to lack of Mana in the pool will lead to the Basilisk being immediately destroyed, along with any Unit Enchantments currently affecting it.
If the unit is destroyed in combat, then it is gone from the world entirely, and there is no further need to pay its Upkeep Costs.
You can also dismiss the Basilisk voluntarily. To do this, right-click the unit's icon and then press the red "Dismiss" button on the bottom right corner of the unit's details panel. A dismissed unit is gone forever, but of course you can always cast the Basilisk spell again to get a fresh new one. The primary reason to dismiss a Fantastic Creature would be to remove its Upkeep Cost (conserving Mana as a result).
Acquisition
As an Uncommon Nature spell, Basilisk may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Nature Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is almost never guaranteed.
Customized Wizards possessing 11 Spellbooks at creation time may choose this spell as one of their default spells before starting the game, in which case the spell will already be researched and available for casting immediately on the first turn.
Wizards who possess at least 8 Spellbooks, or Wizards with 11 Spellbooks who did not select Basilisk as a guaranteed spell, will be able to Research this spell at some point during their campaign. Wizards with fewer than 8 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Nature Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay.
Basilisk has a base Research Cost of 800.
With at least 1 Spellbook, the Basilisk spell may be acquired as a reward for winning encounters in creature Lairs, Towers, et cetera, or when conquering the Fortress of a rival wizard who has already researched this spell.
Known Bugs
It may happen that the Basilisk loses the ability to use its Stoning Gaze, if the opposing wizard uses the spells Black Prayer or Mind Storm.
More explicitely, the Basilisk has a hidden variable set to 
1 which corresponds to the Ranged Attack strength of ranged units. This variable has no influence on the strength of the Gaze Attack, but if it is reduced to 0, then the Basilisk's Stoning Gaze won't be executed.
Note, that the hidden variable will be increased by +2 in Nature Nodes. Thus Black Prayer won't stop the Gaze Attack in this case.