Dispel Evil | ||
---|---|---|
Realm | Life | |
Spell Rarity | Uncommon | |
Spell Type | Combat Instant | |
Casting Cost | 25 | |
Research Cost | 450 | |
| ||
Each figure in a target Death or Chaos unit must make a Resistance roll at -4 or be destroyed. Undead figures must resist at -9 instead. |
- This article is about the Life Combat Instant called "Dispel Evil". For the inherent unit ability of the same name, see Dispel Evil (Ability).
Dispel Evil is an Uncommon Combat Instant belonging to the Life Magic realm. It may only be cast during combat, and must be targeted at an enemy unit belonging to either the Death Realm or the Chaos Realm. The spell is cast for 25. Upon casting, each figure in the target unit must make a Resistance roll at a penalty of -4. Each figure that fails this roll is instantly destroyed. Enemy Undead units are even more vulnerable to this spell, with each figure having to make its roll at a penalty of -9!
Effects[]
The Dispel Evil spell makes a powerful divine attack at the magical bonds that keeps Death and Chaos creatures under their master's control. If successful, severing these bonds means instant destruction to the affected creatures. The Undead are even more vulnerable to this spell.
Destroying Figures[]
When Dispel Evil is cast on an enemy Fantastic Unit from the Chaos or Death realms, each individual figure in that unit must make a separate Resistance roll to try and save itself.
Dispel Evil gives the target a Resistance penalty of -4 for this attempt. For each figure, the game rolls a random number between 1 and 10. If the number comes up higher than the target unit's Resistance score minus 4, that figure is destroyed immediately (the unit takes Irreversible Damage Points equal to its Hit Points). Note that figures destroyed in this way cannot be healed in combat, and units primarily destroyed in this way cannot Regenerate.
Target units with a Resistance score of 4 or less are unable to succeed their rolls at all - because the penalty reduces the unit's Resistance to 0. Such units will always be completely destroyed whenever targeted by the spell.
Target units possessing a Resistance score of 14 or higher will never fail their rolls, and therefore are completely immune to Dispel Evil.
Undead Resistance Penalty[]
Undead creatures are units that have been turned into creatures of Death through various spells or effects, such as Animate Dead, Black Channels, et cetera.
When such units are targeted by Dispel Evil, they suffer a significant penalty of -9 to their Resistance score, and thus are far more likely to get destroyed by the spell.
Target Undead units with a Resistance score of 9 or less will be completely destroyed by this spell, as they cannot possibly succeed their rolls.
Conversely, Undead units would need 19 (!!) to be completely immune to this spell. It is highly unlikely that any unit would have such a high score.
Usage[]
Dispel Evil may only be cast during combat, for a basic Casting Cost of 25.
The spell must be targeted at an enemy unit belonging to the Death or Chaos realms. The Undead, as well as Chaos Channeled units, are both included as valid targets. The game will refuse to cast the spell if no such targets are found on the battlefield.
Dispel Evil is shown on screen as a few rotating sparkles around the targeted unit. Any figures in the target unit that fail their Resistance roll will simply disappear during this animation. If all figures failed their rolls, the unit is destroyed entirely.
Acquisition[]
As an Uncommon Life spell, Dispel Evil may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Life 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 Dispel Evil 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 Life Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay.
Dispel Evil has a base Research Cost of 450.
With at least 1 Spellbook, the Dispel Evil 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.
Strategy[]
Dispel Evil is extremely useful during wars against Death- or Chaos-wielding wizards. Very few units have a high-enough Resistance score to avoid its destructive effects, so it can utterly savage most low-tier units, and still stands a good chance of taking out the more powerful enemy units in an instant.
Most importantly, this spell will utterly annihilate any Undead units you come across. Rival wizards do not often create Undead units, but when they do they'll make perfect targets for this spell, having virtually no chance to resist it.
Note that the spell is better against low-Resistance targets, but is also significantly better against Multi-Figure units than it is against Single-Figure units. This is because it has a higher statistical chance of killing off at least some figures in a Multi-Figure unit, thus weakening it, whereas a Single-Figure unit only has to succeed one roll to waste the spell entirely. On the other hand, if the Single-Figure unit fails its roll, it is completely destroyed.