| Suppress Magic | ||
|---|---|---|
 | ||
| Realm |
 Sorcery | |
| Spell Rarity | Very Rare | |
| Spell Type | Global Enchantment | |
| Casting Cost |
 1,250 | |
| Upkeep Cost |
50 | |
| Research Cost |
 5,000 | |
| ||
| While Suppress Magic is in effect, any overland spell cast by a rival wizard must resist a dispelling attempt at strength 500, or fizzle immediately. | ||
Suppress Magic is a Very Rare Global Enchantment belonging to the Sorcery Magic realm. For 1,250 it may be cast on the overland map to make automatic dispelling attempts at each overland spell cast by any rival wizard. Each dispelling attempt has an assumed strength of 500 (though it costs nothing). Suppress Magic itself, however, requires a per-turn Upkeep Cost of 50.
Effects[]
Suppress Magic automatically attempts to dispel any overland spell cast by any rival wizard.
Dispelling Rival Spells[]
While Suppress Magic is in effect over the world, it will automatically react to any overland spell cast by any wizard (apart from Suppress Magic's owner, of course) by attempting to dispel it immediately.
The effect occurs when a rival wizard completes the casting of any overland spell - including anything from Summoning Spells to Instant Spells, Global Enchantments, Disjunctions and so forth. Even the Spell of Return is subjected to this effect.
When such a spell is cast, the dispelling attempt occurs immediately. The targeted spell must make a dispelling roll to figure out whether it was successfully cast, or whether it has fizzled as a result of Suppress Magic.
To calculate Suppress Magic's dispelling potency against the target spell, the game uses the following formula:
Potency = (500 / (500 + TSCC)) * 100
Where TSCC is the total Casting Cost of the targeted enemy spell.
The game rolls a random number between 1 and 100. If the roll comes up equal to or lower than the dispelling potency as calulcated above, the targeted spell fizzles immediately, accompanied by an on-screen prompt. The prompt reveals the spell's name, the spell's caster, and the fact that it has fizzled. The spell's casting wizard will have simply wasted all of the Mana it took to cast the spell.
If the targeted spell rolls higher than Suppress Magic's dispelling potency, it is successfully cast as normal. Suppress Magic however remains in effect, continuing to dispel any future spells.
There is no limit to the number of spells that Suppress Magic may dispel during its lifetime.
Note: Combat spellcasting is not affected in any way by Suppress Magic.
Example[]
- While Suppress Magic is in effect, a rival wizard attempts to cast an overland spell with a total Casting Cost of
200. Suppress Magic immediately attempts to dispel it.
- The potency of Suppress Magic against this spell is calculated as follows:
Potency = (500 / (500+200)) * 100 = (500 / 700) * 100 = 0.71 * 100 = 71%
- If the spell rolls 71 or less, it fizzles immediately, wasting its caster's invested Mana and having no further effect.
Usage[]
Suppress Magic may be cast only on the overland map, for the extremely-high Casting Cost of 1,250. To keep it in effect, the casting wizard must pay an Upkeep Cost of 50 per turn! Failure to pay this cost due to lack of Mana will cause Suppress Magic to dissipate.
After casting the spell, its name will appear on the "Overland Enchantments" list in the Magic menu. The color in which the name is printed indicates which wizard controls the spell. If the player controls the spell, he or she may cancel it manually by clicking the name of the spell. 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 Very Rare Sorcery spell, Suppress Magic may become available to any Wizard who possesses at least 3 Spellbooks. However, its availability during the game is not guaranteed unless the Wizard acquires at least 10 Spellbooks.
Suppress Magic may not be acquired at the start of the campaign regardless of how many Spellbooks the wizard possesses. It must either be Researched during the game, or acquired through other means.
Wizards with 3 to 9 Spellbooks have a random chance of being able to Research Suppress Magic during the game. The chance for this spell to appear for research increases with the number of Sorcery Spellbooks the Wizard possesses or obtains during gameplay. With 10 or 11 Spellbooks, the spell is guaranteed to appear for Research at some point, if it is not already available for casting.
Suppress Magic has a base Research Cost of 5,000.
With at least 3 Spellbooks, Suppress Magic 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[]
Suppress Magic confers a huge advantage to its casting wizard, as she will be the only wizard who can keep casting spells successfully, without fear of wasting Mana or effort. Other wizards will struggle to cast any spells at all, though more powerful spells (i.e. spells with higher Casting Costs) have a significantly better chance of getting through Suppress Magic.
This will force enemies to rely on Normal Units and Heroes (instead of Fantastic Units), prevent them from casting new Global Enchantments, and possible even thwart their attempts to dispel Suppress Magic's owner's own spells. The strategic importance of Suppress Magic should therefore be quite evident.
As a bonus, because the game reports a lot of detail each time a rival's spell was dispelled, it allows Suppress Magic's caster to learn which wizards are attempting to cast which spells (and thus which spells they have in their repertoire), to get a better idea of what their rivals are capable of.
Removing Enemy Suppress Magic[]
For 1,000 a wizard may cast Spell Binding. This spell has a 67% chance of success per casting.
Alternately, a Disjunction may be used. The base success of this spell is extremely low:
success rate = (1 - suppression chance) * (disjunction chance) = (cost/(cost + 500)) * (cost/(cost + 1250)) = (cost^2) / ((cost+500)*(cost+1250)) = 200^2 / (700 * 1450) = 0.0394 (3.94%)
On average, it will require (cost/success rate) tries, so total average cost is:
total cost = cost * (cost+500) * (cost + 1250) / cost^2 = (cost+500)*(cost+1250) / cost = (cost^2 + 1750*cost + 625,000) = cost + 1750 + 625,000 / cost
At 200 cost, this has a value of 5075. It has a minimum where cost = sqrt( 625,000 ) or 790, at which point the total average cost is 3,331.
Disjunction True has similar math, except that disjunction chance is (cost*3)/(cost*3+1250); the ideal casting cost is 456, and total average cost is 1,830.
Overall, your best option for dealing with Suppress Magic is probably killing the wizard who cast it, since even if you break the spell he may just cast it again.