MoM, books and nodes

[Tayran]

What different does the amount of spellbooks chosen really do? Ive never figured it out. Except the spells chosen in the beginning.

And what is really a node? It have something to do with mana, but what else?

[Father Beast]

Yegads, a Newbie!!!

Welcome. the number of books you have determines the amount of spells you will be able to research, eventually.
if you have 10 books of a realm , you will be able to learn all the spells of that realm. if you only have one book, you will only get 4 spells.

Nodes are sources of magical power. once you send a magic spirit (or guardian spirit, life magic) to meld with it, it will supply you with power. Didvided, of course, into mana, skill, and research as chosen on your MAGIC screen.

all this is explained in the manual, along with tables that explain (among other things) exactly how many spells you get for each book.

you can get the manual and spell book at the underdogs at:

http://www.the-underdogs.org/manuals.php?offset=750&id=

have fun.

[Tuberski]

Further, if you have spellbooks of the corresponding node type, for instance nature, you can cast nature spells IN nature nodes with no problems. Other magic types may be negated by the node.

ACK!

[MariOne]

If "THINK" (needs a check) that having book of the corresponding node type is not strictly the point for immunity from the node dispelling power.

More plainly, SPELLS themselves from a different realm have a high chance being dispelled by the node and fizzle, and only SPELLS of the corresponding node realm are immune.

As you say, you only can safely cast Nature Spells in a Nature node.
USUALLY, you get Nature Spells from Nature Books INDEED, but not necessarily so.
You can have a Nature Spell as a Hero ability (was it Greyfairer? The same principle stands for Malleus Chaos Spells in Chaos nodes), or as a Nature Spell Charge in a Magical Item you found, without having any Nature book....

You could instead point out, that having at least a book in each of the three "Node" realms (i.e. Chaos AND Nature AND Sorcery, Life/Death not required) would allow you to pick the Node Mastery retort, which amongst other benefits will make any of your spell immune from fizzling in any node, regardless ot the spell and the node realm.

[aaglo]

If you have many spell books, the spell research and cast cost in that realm are cheaper

Out of the hat: 10% discount with 7 books, 20% with 8 books, 30% with 9 books 40% with 10 books, 50% with 11 books (I may be off a bit here... hehee)

In the nodes there is an equivalent of 150(?) dispell magic against all magic except the magic of the node (nature spells in green nodes). So if you don't have any nature books, and you have hero grayfarer, the hero can cast nature spells in that node.

With node mastery retort, the node dispelling effect is bypassed...

[Father Beast]

nodes and dispelling

as I recall, you can cast spells of the same realm as the node without fear of them fizzling under any circumstances.

with node mastery, your spells never get dispelled by a node.

but (I'm not sure about this), but I think one of the realm masteries (nature mastery, sorcery mastery, chaos mastery) will allow you to cast ANY spells in the corresponding nodes with them fizzling. i.e. with nature mastery, you can even cast sorcery spells in a nature node without them fizzling. can somebody check on that?

I've also read in the manual that squares overshadowed by the magic aura of a melded node also have some sort of dispelling power also. but since I've never had occaision to fight in one of those squares (or cast spells in one at least), I'm not sure if this actually happens.

[Tayran]

well, I'm not really a newbie. Ive played the game for years, just never read the manual .

But I think I got the whole picture now, thanks.

[moomin]

You played the game for years w/out figuring out how the books works and what the nodes do?

Lysande, Sickan!

[bakalov]

Actually the node tries to dispell your spells with a 50 power dispel, and the chance to successfully block your spell is 50/(50+the spell cost). The chaos, nature and sorcery masteries makes twice harder to dispell your spells from the corresponding type (i.e. halves the chance), but does not make them immune.
Archmage reduces this chance further.

So these masteries help, but not make you immune to the power of the node.

Another thing - from the formula is clear that the more expensive spells are dispelled/fizzled harder ....

[bakalov]

Other things that the number of books does:

Determines what kind of enchantments you can put on your artifacts. This does not depend on the researched spells except for the charges. There is a table in the manual which describes these dependencies.

Determines the max quality of the realm spells you can possess. With one book you gain access to common and uncommon, with 2 books you get to rare spells, and with 3 books you get access to all spells from the realm.
You will get only 12 to research but you can gain the others from training, rewards, etc.

There is exception from this rule for the Colossus nature spell which is very rare but you may have it only with 2 nature books (May be this is a bug?)

[Sandman]

The number of spellbooks also determines the amount of mana your fortress generates.

Also, has anyone else ever found extra spellbooks whilst playing? I've occasionally found some in the toughest nodes on Myrror.

[Father Beast]

Originally posted by Sandman

Also, has anyone else ever found extra spellbooks whilst playing? I've occasionally found some in the toughest nodes on Myrror.

I generally find a spellbook or two in a some nodes while playing on easy difficulty. I'm told that as you raise the difficulty, the prizes get to be less. like a guy talks about taking a sorcery node with 6 sky drakes and getting just a prisoner.

[MariOne]

Well, I was goofing off during the holidays with a Myrran - Archmage - 7 Life books game, and not so far into the game I found 2 more Life spell books in a Temple controlled by 4 Angels. Easy match for my Invulnerable SuperAgility Taki, merely defending.
It was on Hard difficulty (that's what I mean by "goofing off", i.e. not playing on impossible....).

I confirm that the troves are more frequent at lower difficulties, also because at impossible most of the hardest nodes are likely conquered by the AI before you...
Personally, I have mainly found Life books in Towers, and rarely in Temples. I almost never play with Death magic, so I can't say. And despite I enjoy playing with Powerful and Node Mastery, I'm not even sure that I have ever found any node Realm books inside a node.

I can say that at the easier levels you can instead gain some additional retort, instead of a book: imagine becoming suddenly a Warlord!

Damn, now I gotta get to play MoM again!

[Sikander]

I can corroborate the extra books / retorts, even at Impossible difficulty. One trick to get a better chance at them is to choose powerful nodes as a pre-game generation option. This can make those nodes really hard to take out, but they also pay out double mana, and the rewards are pretty good.

Why hasn't someone made an updated version of this great game?!

[bakalov]

Yes, on Impossible with powerful nodes I never finish with less than 13 spellbooks and 6 retorts (and this is the maximum which a player may have if he is not using an editor). Usually the most heavily guarded nodes contain these. Sometimes but rarely you can get books or retorts from other dungeons too (not nodes) - usually death or life books, but may be others too ....