Spells and Item Use

Spells and Item Use

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Spell organisation

Two schools — Sorcerer and Cleric — each with 9 levels. Each level has a different number of spells (the counts are identical for both schools):

Level	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	total
# spells	7	7	6	6	5	5	4	4	4	48

Within a level the spells are numbered in the order below (alphabetical, which matches the in-game numbering used by item "use powers").

Sorcerer

L	Spells (1..n)
1	Awaken, Detect Magic, Energy Blast, Flame Arrow, Light, Location, Sleep
2	Eagle Eye, Electric Arrow, Identify Monster, Jump, Levitate, Lloyd's Beacon, Protection from Magic
3	Acid Stream, Fly, Invisibility, Lightning Bolt, Web, Wizard Eye
4	Cold Beam, Feeble Mind, Fire Ball, Guard Dog, Shield, Time Distortion
5	Disrupt, Fingers of Death, Sand Storm, Shelter, Teleport
6	Disintegration, Entrapment, Fantastic Freeze, Recharge Item, Super Shock
7	Dancing Sword, Duplication, Etherealize, Prismatic Light
8	Incinerate, Mega Volts, Meteor Shower, Power Shield
9	Implosion, Inferno, Star Burst, Enchant Item

Cleric

L	Spells (1..n)
1	Apparition, Awaken, Bless, First Aid, Light, Power Cure, Turn Undead
2	Cure Wounds, Heroism, Nature's Gate, Pain, Protection From Elements, Silence, Weaken
3	Cold Ray, Create Food, Cure Poison, Immobilize, Lasting Light, Walk on Water
4	Acid Spray, Air Transmutation, Cure Disease, Restore Alignment, Surface, Holy Bonus
5	Air Encasement, Deadly Swarm, Frenzy, Paralyze, Remove Condition
6	Earth Transmutation, Rejuvenate, Stone to Flesh, Water Encasement, Water Transmutation
7	Earth Encasement, Fiery Flail, Moon Ray, Raise Dead
8	Fire Encasement, Fire Transmutation, Mass Distortion, Town Portal
9	Divine Intervention, Holy Word, Resurrection, Uncurse Item

(Spell names/levels transcribed from the RPGClassics MM2 spell list.)

Item "use power" = a flat spell index

The items.dat effect byte (0x0F) is a flat spell index, not a type/amount pair — it pins one exact spell. Verified byte-exact against the RPGClassics "Use Ability" column for 49 items (0 mismatches), and corroborated by the perfect thematic match of every item to its spell.

0x00          no use power
0x01..0x7F    non-spell stat boost (hi nibble = kind, lo = amount)
                kind: 0 Max HP, 1 Might, 2 Speed, 3 Accuracy,
                      5 Level (Enchant), 6 Spell-Level
0x81..0xB0    Sorcerer spell #(byte-0x80)   (flat, 1-based)
0xB1..0xE0    Cleric   spell #(byte-0xB0)

Flat-index → level/number: subtract the per-level counts (7,7,6,6,5,5,4,4,4) until the running value fits inside a level.

Examples that show the 1:1 design intent:

Item	byte	Spell	Item	byte	Spell
Wakeup Horn	0x81	S1/1 Awaken	Magic Herbs	0xB4	C1/4 First Aid
Lantern / Torch	0x85	S1/5 Light	Hero Medal	0xB9	C2/2 Heroism
Slumber Club	0x87	S1/7 Sleep	Quiet Sling	0xBD	C2/6 Silence
Monster Tome	0x8A	S2/3 Identify Monster	Magic Meal	0xC0	C3/2 Create Food
Witch Broom	0x90	S3/2 Fly	Antidote Ale	0xC1	C3/3 Cure Poison
Invisocloak	0x91	S3/3 Invisibility	Air Disc	0xC6	C4/2 Air Transmutation
Web Caster	0x93	S3/5 Web	Air Talon	0xCB	C5/1 Air Encasement
Dog Whistle	0x98	S4/4 Guard Dog	Cure-all Wand	0xCF	C5/5 Remove Condition
Hourglass	0x9A	S4/6 Time Distortion	Water Talon	0xD3	C6/4 Water Encasement
Disruptor	0x9B	S5/1 Disrupt	Earth Disc	0xD0	C6/1 Earth Transmutation
Lich Hand	0x9C	S5/2 Fingers of Death	Earth Talon	0xD5	C7/1 Earth Encasement
Energizer	0xA3	S6/4 Recharge Item	Moon Rock	0xD7	C7/3 Moon Ray
Magic Mirror	0xA6	S7/2 Duplication	Ruby Ankh	0xD8	C7/4 Raise Dead
Meteor Bow	0xAB	S8/3 Meteor Shower	Fire Talon	0xD9	C8/1 Fire Encasement
Star Bow	0xAF	S9/3 Star Burst	Divine Mace	0xDD	C9/1 Divine Intervention

Discrepancy worth noting: the byte gives Dove's Blood = C4/3 Cure Disease where RPGClassics lists "C4/2"; the byte-derived value is thematically correct and preferred.

spells.dat (decoded)

spells.dat is 256 bytes = 96 spells × 2 bytes (Sorcerer records 0..47, Cleric records 48..95, in the same flat order as the item effect index) plus 64 trailing bytes of leftover/unused data (stray item-name bytes), which are preserved verbatim on round-trip.

Each 2-byte record encodes the spell's runtime cost and cast restrictions. The decode was cross-validated against the manual (Appendix B) cost/gem/type columns: gems 96/96, cast 96/96, outdoor 12/12, SP 95/96 (only Meteor Shower differs — its base SP is computed per-monster in game code).

byte0 — cast restriction + gem cost

bits	meaning
0x40	combat-only (cannot cast outside combat)
0x80	non-combat-only (cannot cast in combat)
neither	castable Anytime
0x10	special / computed cost — gem cost is hard-coded in game code (>15 gems, per-plus, per-monster). The low nibble is not the real gem count for these: Duplication, Star Burst, Enchant Item, Divine Intervention, Uncurse Item.
0x20	observed only on the non-combat special-cost spells (alongside 0x10)
low nibble 0x0F	gem cost (0..15) when not special

byte1 — outdoor flag + spell-point cost

bits	meaning
0x80	outdoor-only spell (matched 12/12 the manual's "Outdoor" type)
bits 6-4 (0x70)	per-level SP multiplier (the X in "X/L"), used when the low nibble is 0
low nibble 0x0F	flat spell-point cost (1..10); 0 ⇒ cost is per caster level

Example records (file bytes → decode):

Spell	bytes	decode
S1/3 Energy Blast	41 10	combat, 1 gem, 1/L
S2/1 Eagle Eye	80 A0	non-combat, outdoor, 2/L
S3/5 Web	42 03	combat, 2 gems, 3 SP
S8/3 Meteor Shower	48 80	combat, outdoor, 8 gems, +per-monster SP (special)
S9/3 Star Burst	54 C0	combat, outdoor, special-cost (20 gems hard-coded)
C2/4 Pain	40 02	combat, 2 SP
C9/4 Uncurse Item	B2 0A	non-combat, special-cost (50 gems hard-coded), 10 SP

The manual's prose (cost / TYPE / OBJECT / description) for all 96 spells is transcribed into the reference tables in editor/src/core/Spells.cpp and tools/mm2_spells.py (SPELL_META).

FAQ cross-check (Might and Magic FAQ.txt §3-7)

The Schultz FAQ item table (v2.2) matches our items.dat decode for almost all 256 entries. Two use-power typos in the FAQ — trust items.dat bytes:

Item	FAQ lists	0x0F byte	Correct spell
Hourglass (0x9A)	S5-0 (invalid slot)	0x9A	S4/6 Time Distortion
Cure-all Wand (0xC3)	C6-1 Earth Transmutation	0xCF	C5/5 Remove Condition

Spell names, school order (7/7/6/6/5/5/4/4/4), and class-forbidden columns in the FAQ align with this doc. Guild/temple prices in the FAQ are approximate and often wrong — use 31-spell-sources.md / shop_tables.json (ASM tables).

Tools / code

• tools/mm2_spells.py — spell tables, decode_effect(byte) (items), full SPELL_META, and the spells.dat record codec (decode_record, encode_record, load_spells_dat).
• tools/decode_spells.py — dumps spells.dat divided per spell with cost/gems/cast/outdoor; --check validates the bytes against the manual.
• editor/src/core/Spells.{h,cpp} — 96-spell kSpells[] reference table + flat-index/item-effect helpers.
• editor/src/core/SpellsFile.{h,cpp} — SpellsFile model (2-byte record decode/encode/load/save), used by the editor's Spells section.
• Effect dispatch in ASM: combat_use_item_handler 0x133EC.