Magic Marker questions ======================== by Boudewijn Wayers (kroisos@win.tue.nl). How many charges do you use when writing scrolls? ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This is from a spoiler file posted by dmd39855@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Dan DuBois) on 28 Jul 1993. Pawlak@zeubac.desy.de (Jerzy Michal Pawlak) added some more detailed information about the base costs (fixed) vs. the real costs (random) at 5 Oct 1993. Wsbusr1@urc.tue.nl (Boudewijn Wayers) added the last paragraph and edited the whole for readability and conciseness. Writing a Scroll. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You cannot write a scroll you haven't identified first. You just lose the scroll and the amount of charges from your magic marker that it takes to write the scroll you wanted. The base cost for writing scrolls is given below: Base cost 8: Base cost 16: light enchant armor gold detection remove curse food detection enchant weapon magic mapping charging amnesia fire Base cost 20: scare monster Base cost 10: taming destroy armor teleportation create monster punishment Base cost 30: genocide Base cost 12: confuse monster Base cost 14: identify The numbers given are just "base costs" for scrolls. The actual cost is a random number between half of the base cost and the base cost. It's easy to notice while playing that the cost is variable, it takes the source code to figure out actual formula. Writing a Spellbook. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ You cannot write a spellbook you haven't identified first. You just lose the spellbook and the amount of charges from your magic marker that it takes to write the spellbook you wanted. The base cost for writing spellbooks is 10 times the spell level. This level is given below: Level 1 spells: Level 4 spells: healing levitation detect monsters restore ability force bolt invisibility light fireball sleep detect treasure knock Level 5 spells: Level 2 spells: remove curse magic missile magic mapping confuse monster cone of cold slow monster identify cure blindness dig create monster detect food Level 6 spells: wizard lock turn undead polymorph Level 3 spells: create familiar haste self teleport away cause fear cure sickness Level 7 spells: detect unseen cancellation extra healing finger of death charm monster clairvoyance The numbers given are just "base costs" for spellbooks. The actual cost again is a random number between half of the base cost and the base cost. Note: In the above, I mentioned that you must know a spell(book) or scroll to be able to write it. This is actually not true. If you are a wizard, you have a one-in-three chance of being able to write any spellbook or scroll. Other characters have only a one-in-fifteen chance of succeeding. If this happens, you automatically know the scroll as well.