| Eldritch Weapon | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Chaos | |
| Spell Rarity | Common | |
| Spell Type | Unit Enchantment | |
| Casting Cost |
 75 | |
| Combat Cost |
15 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
1 | |
| Research Cost |
 130 | |
| ||
|
When the enchanted unit attacks a target with a  Magical Melee Attack if it does not already have a better one. | ||
Eldritch Weapon is a Common Unit Enchantment belonging to the Chaos Magic realm. For 75 it may be cast on a Normal Unit or Hero on the overland map to imbue its weapons with energy, turning its Melee Attack into a Magical Melee Attack (if not already better). In addition, when any enemy unit attempts to block damage from this attack, it receives a temporary 
-10% To Block penalty, increasing the chance of damage to get through its defenses.
Alternatively, a cheaper version of the same spell may be cast for 15 during combat, in which case it will temporarily bestow the same bonus on a unit for the duration of the battle (with no permanent effects or upkeep costs).
Effects[]
Eldritch Weapon imbues the weapons of a Normal Unit or Hero with fantastic properties, and makes them considerably harder to defend against.
Magical Attack[]
The first bonus bestowed by Eldritch Weapon is to turn the enchanted unit's Melee Attack into a Magical Melee Attack.
With its Magical Weapons, the enchanted unit can now attack targets possessing Weapon Immunity without increasing those targets' Defense score.
This bonus applies only if the unit had 
Normal Melee Weapons before this spell was cast upon it. Units already possessing 
Mithril Weapons or 
Adamantium Weapons will not "downgrade" to Magical Weapons as a result of this spell.
Target To Block Penalties[]
When a unit with Eldritch Weapon attacks an enemy target, the target's defensive ability is reduced in a special way that alters the normal combat rules.
In normal Melee Combat, each 
Shield possessed by the target has a 30% chance of blocking 
1 point of incoming damage. This is called its " To Block" chance. As a result, a unit with 10 will block only 3 on average from any attack.
However, when the Eldritch Weapon unit attacks a target, that target's To Block chance is reduced by -10%. Normally this would put the target's To Block chance at 20%. As a result, a target with 10 will now only block 2 on average! Note that the penalty is completely temporary, and disappears once the Enchanted unit's attack is concluded.
Note, that the -10% penalty also applies for 
Thrown and 
Ranged Missile attacks. However, it doesn't apply for 
Breath, 
Ranged Boulder and 
Ranged Magic attacks.
Usage[]
Eldritch Weapon may be cast during combat for the rather low Casting Cost of 15. In this case, the spell will only affect the targeted unit until the end of the battle - at which point it will dissipate.
Alternatively, Eldritch Weapon may be cast on the overland map for a lasting effect. In this case it has a base Casting Cost of 75, and requires an Upkeep Cost of 1 per turn to maintain. Failure to pay this Upkeep Cost due to lack of Mana will cause the spell to dissipate. However, as long as the spell is paid for (and not dispelled by any rival Wizard), the unit continues to enjoy its bonus.
Eldritch Weapon may only be cast on friendly Normal Units and Heroes. It cannot target Fantastic Creatures. If the desired target is in an overland army stack, click on that stack to get a list of units inside it, and then select your desired unit.
Note that during battle, Eldritch Weapon may not be cast on any units mutated by the Chaos Channels spell. Nonetheless you may target these units freely on the overland map, and the effects will carry into combat. The Undead are not valid targets in either case.
Once the spell is in effect, the unit will glow with a Red aura, unless there is a more powerful spell also affecting it.
If you've placed Eldritch Weapon on a unit, you may remove it by examining the unit's details and clicking the Enchantment's icon. The primary reason to do this would be in order to remove the spell's Upkeep Cost, thus conserving Mana for other spells.
Acquisition[]
As a Common Chaos spell, Eldritch Weapon may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least one Chaos Spellbook. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least 7 Spellbooks.
Customized Wizards possessing up to 10 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 with 11 Spellbooks are guaranteed to have this spell available for casting as soon as the game begins.
Wizards with 6 or fewer Spellbooks who have not chosen Eldritch Weapon as a guaranteed spell have a random chance of being able to Research it. The chance for this spell to appear increases with the number of Chaos Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With −3 Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research if it is not already available for casting.
Eldritch Weapon has a base Research Cost of 130.
With at least 1 Spellbook, the Eldritch Weapon 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[]
The ingame tooltip for Eldritch Weapon states rather unnecessarily that the spell stacks with Flame Blade. The truth is that the effects of these two enchantments are very different from one another, and that while the Uncommon spell bestows a simple attack bonus, this Common spell's effect of inflicting -10% is an exotic effect available almost nowhere else. This penalty is almost as strong as Armor Piercing (which halves shields) against ordinary foes, since their block rates will be reduced from 30% to 20%, and it even acts in concert with that ability.
Most importantly of all, Eldritch Weapon gets ever stronger as the enemies get stronger. It offsets the blocking conferred by enhancements like Lucky, Invisibility, and (High) Prayer, and its effect is most pronounced against bigshots with lots of Shields, such as dragons, colossi, and high-level Heroes.