Spell

A spell is an activated magical effect produced directly by a character or monster without the use of items. Spells come in two types: arcane spells (cast by Bards, Sorcerers, and Wizards) and divine spells (cast by Clerics, Favored Souls, and experienced Paladins and Rangers). Some spellcasters select their spells from a limited list of spells known, while others have access to a wide variety of options.

Despite these different ways that characters use to learn or prepare their spells, when it comes to casting them, the spells are very much alike.

Casting Spells
Whether a spell is arcane or divine, and whether a character prepares selected spells in advance from a larger list or knows a small list that is always completely prepared, casting a spell works the same way.

To cast a spell, you must be able to speak (if the spell has a verbal component), gesture freely (if it has a somatic component), and have the right material component in your inventory (if the spell needs one).

Casting a spell reduces your spell points, which do not regenerate on their own. You must return to the city or a tavern, or find a rest shrine, to regain your spell points. Alternatively, assets like an Elixir of Mnemonic Enhancement or the Cleric Enhancement Divine Vitality can partially restore spell points.

Caster Level
A spell's power often depends on its caster level, which for most spellcasting characters is equal to your class level in the class you're using to cast the spell.

If you have a bonus to your caster level, that adjustment applies not only to effects based on caster level (such as duration or damage dealt) but also to your caster level check to overcome your target's spell resistance and to the caster level used to resist attempts to dispel it.

Spell Failure
If a spell's target is no longer legal when the spell finishes, the spell has no effect on it.

Spells also fail if your concentration is broken and might fail if you're wearing armor while casting an arcane spell with somatic components.

Concentration
If you take damage while trying to cast a spell, you must make a Concentration check (Difficulty Class 10 + points of damage taken + the level of the spell you're casting). If you fail the check, you lose the spell without effect.

Armor Spell Failure Chance
Shields and suits of armor have a chance of causing arcane spell failure - complete failure of a spell due to difficulty performing the intricate gestures it needs. This does not apply to divine spells or to spells that don't have a somatic component. Bards ignore the ASF penalty from light armor (though not from shields).

You may find the arcane spell failure chance for each shield and armor in its description.

Saving Throw
Usually a harmful spell allows a target to make a saving throw to avoid some or all of the effect. A spell's details and description explain which type of saving throw the spell allows and how a successful save affects it.


 * Negates
 * The spell has no effect on a subject that makes a successful saving throw.


 * Partial
 * A successful saving throw means that only some of the spells effects occur or that a weaker effect occurs instead.


 * Half
 * A successful saving throw halves the damage this spell deals to that subject (round down).


 * None
 * No saving throw is allowed.

Saving Throw Difficulty Class
A saving throw against your spell has a DC of 10 + the level of the spell + your bonus for the relevant ability (Intelligence for a Wizard, Charisma for a Sorcerer or Bard, and Wisdom for a Cleric, Favored soul, Paladin, or Ranger). A spell's level can vary depending on your class. Always use the spell level applicable to your class.

Spell Resistance
Spell resistance is a special anti-spell defense possessed by some characters and monsters. Spell resistance is like an armor class against magical attacks. If your spell is being resisted by a creature with spell resistance, you must make a caster level check (1d20 + caster level + ability bonus) at least equal to the creature's spell resistance for the spell to affect that creature. Include any adjustments to your caster level to this caster level check.

Spell resistance only matters if the spell's subject actually has it and the spell being cast is one that can be stopped by SR. In DDO, most purely damage-causing spells ignore SR.

Spell resistance and saving throws are separate mechanics. A spell that gets past SR may still be saved against.

Spell Result
Once you know which creatures (or objects or areas) are affected, and whether those creatures have made successful saving throws (if any were allowed), you can apply whatever results a spell entails.

Stacking Effects
Spells that provide bonuses or penalties on attack rolls, damage rolls, saving throws, and other attributes usually do not stack with themselves. More generally, two bonuses of the same type don't stack even if they come from different spells.


 * Different Bonus Names
 * The bonuses or penalties from two different spells stack if the modifiers are of different types. A bonus that doesn't have a type stacks with all other bonuses.


 * Same Effect More than Once in Different Strengths
 * In cases when two or more identical spells are operating in the same area or on the same target, but at different strengths, only the best one applies.


 * One Effect Makes Another Irrelevant
 * Sometimes, one spell can render a later spell irrelevant. Both spells are still active, but one has rendered the other useless in some fashion.


 * Spells with Opposite Effects
 * Spells with opposite effects apply normally, with all bonuses, penalties, or changes accruing in the order that they apply. Some spells negate or counter each other. This is a special effect that is noted in a spell's description.

Rays
A ray spell shoots in a straight line toward its designated target, like a ranged weapon, and like ranged weapons, rays affect the first enemy they strike regardless of which enemy you highlighted. Ray spells automatically miss if blocked by terrain or if all enemies move out of the way before the ray is cast.

Listed Spell Details
Mousing over a spell in your spellbook gives a wealth of information about it. You can also mouse over a spell icon in your hotbars, but that summary is less detailed.

Cooldown
The time you must wait after casting the spell before you may cast that specific spell again. You may always begin casting a different spell after only one second.

Spell Point Cost (base)
The base number of spell points it normally takes to cast the spell.

Target
Keywords that describe what the spell affects.

Note that this is not the same thing as whether you have to aim the spell by highlighting something first. Some spells always affect an area around you no matter what you have highlighted. In many cases a spell will not hit its intended target, even if it's legal, due to intervening obstacles or other enemies. Some spells are cast at a default direction or target if your highlighted target is illegal.


 * Self
 * You.


 * Friend
 * Any PC, NPC, or creature other than yourself that isn't hostile to you. This can include hirelings, summoned creatures, friendly combative NPCs, and other players both in and outside your party.


 * Foe
 * Any PC, NPC, or creature hostile to you.


 * Positional
 * The spell creates a stationary effect centered on its initial target (or at the spot along a line to that target at the spell's maximum range, if that target is too far away). The effect does not move with the target afterwards. Also used for spells that summon things to specify where that thing is initially created.


 * Directional
 * The spell only affects targets in the direction of its casting.


 * Breakable

Save
The difficulty class and type of saving throw used to escape the full effect of the spell.

Duration
How long the spell's effects last.

"Permanent" effects are not inescapably permanent. They simply do not end on their own. Permanent effects on players end if the player exits a successful quest, spends a minute in a tavern, or logs out for several minutes. Permanent effects can also be dispelled or cured with appropriate countermeasures.

Spell Point Cost (current)
The total number of spell points it would take to cast the spell right now, including all adjustments from active Metamagic Feats and cost-reducing effects.

Level
A number that defines the spell's relative power. Spell levels range from 1 to 9 for dedicated casting classes. The maximum is lower for classes with minor casting ability. A spell's level determines its spell point cost and affects the Difficulty Class for any saving throws allowed against its effects. The same spell may be different levels for different classes.

A spell's level is not the character level at which it can be cast. It generally takes spellcasting classes two or three character levels to gain access to each new level of spells.

Components
A spell's components are what you must do or possess to cast it. Not every spell requires every component.


 * Verbal
 * A verbal component is a spoken incantation. You cannot cast spells that require this component if you cannot act or speak.


 * Somatic
 * A somatic component is a measured and precise movement of the hand. You cannot cast spells that require this component if you cannot move.


 * Material
 * A material component is one or more physical substances or objects that are annihilated by the spell energies in the casting process. You must have the required items in your inventory.

School
Cutting across the categories of both arcane and divine spells are the eight schools of magic. These schools represent the different ways that spells take effect.

Every spell belongs to one of eight schools of magic. A school of magic is a group of related spells that work in similar ways. Feats and magic items can give you bonuses to casting spells from specific schools.


 * Abjuration
 * Conjuration
 * Divination
 * Enchantment
 * Evocation
 * Illusion
 * Necromancy
 * Transmutation

Metamagic
This field lists which Metamagic Feats work with this spell.

Arcane Spell Failure
Your current chance of failing to cast this spell due to interference from your armor. This field does not appear for divine spells or if the failure chance is 0%.

Spell Resistance
Shows whether the spell can be stopped by spell resistance.

Effects
The rest of a spell's description covers its effects in detail.

Descriptor
Some spells have a descriptor that further categorizes the spell in some way. Descriptors generally depend on the spell's effects in a straightforward way. For example, a spell that causes sonic damage is a "sonic spell". Some spells have more than one descriptor.

The descriptors are acid, chaotic, cold, death, electricity, evil, fear, fire, force, good, healing, lawful, light, negative, mind-affecting, repair, and sonic.

Most of these descriptors have no game effect by themselves, but they govern how the spell interacts with other spells, with special abilities, with unusual creatures, with alignment, and so on.

A mind-affecting spell works only against intelligent, living creatures with an intelligence score of 1 or higher.

Range
A spell's range is the maximum distance from you that a spell's effect can occur. For spherical area spells, it's the maximum distance for the center of the sphere.

Attempting to cast a spell on a target beyond the spell's range expends the spell anyway, and is usually a waste. If it's an area spell, it still affects any legal targets that happen to be in its affected area. Spell targets that move during casting are affected based on where they are when the spell finishes, not where they were when it started.

Area
Most spells that affect an area have a particular shape, such as a cone, line, or sphere.


 * A cone-shaped spell shoots away from you in a quarter-circle centered on your target.


 * A line-shaped spell shoots away from you in a line in the direction you designate. A line-shaped spell affects all valid targets that the line passes through.


 * A sphere-shaped spell expands from its point of origin to fill a spherical area.

Touch Attacks
The pen and paper rule concept of touch attacks does not exist in DDO.