Beta on 9/8/2002 at 12:29

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As many posts have been made requesting the effects of spells including Sanctuary, Chameleon, etc, i thought i should point out that once u have bought spells from a mage, their effects are ( more ) clearly explained by their listings in Spellcrafting and Enchanting screens. I.E. (by which i mean ) if u go to an npc mage who does Spellcrafting, or drop a filled Soul Gem onto ur character's picture in inventory, u bring up lists of the spells u possess which have much more detailed information than ur normal spell list. I assume that this is the screen that npc Enchanters show u as well. If u r deciding which spell to buy, i am afraid u r out of luck, sorry.

Enuf community service, time to open up my Cheese Shoppe. The Lactose Intolerant should beware the following text.

***Danger Danger -Cheese Alert- aaaaaaaaaaaagghh!***

If u find spells in this game weeble and feak and want to sprint up levels in them, or just want a little less downtime to get ur mana back, there r 2, at least, solutions.
Head to ur nearest Spellcrafting Mage and make urself a 1 mana cost version of ur Frost, Shock, and Heal spells. Since level advancement is calculated by the number of times u cast a spell rather than kills or damage dealt or points healed, u can chaincast Healing 30 or so times and go up a level with mana to spare, depending, of course, on ur level, whether it is a Major or Minor skill, ur Intelligence, and racial bonuses. From other posts, it seems that it might be possible to chaincast 1-mana Destruction spells on a corpse, altho I havent tried that; I have to admit that single-mana Shock spells aren't going to kill much of anything, but if u play a Battlemage, u can afford to take a hit or 5 while casting and do the majority of ur damage with a Halberd (endurance based, to match the Platemail). To be honest, i don't think i have gone up more than 2 or 3 levels of the 40-some i have in Destruction by using them, but rather by selling potions and buying training.
Which leads me to my 2nd tip, a slightly less direct route, but it bestows greater power. Many Alchemy ingredient sellers, notably the 2 in the basement floor of the Balmora Temple, sell ingredients which restock as soon as u cancel out of the barter screen. Reopen it, and buy, close, repeat. These 2 sellers are among the smaller number of sellers whose restocking potions are also combinable into potions; buy, buy, buy, create potions, and sell til they run out of money. Without ever leaving Balmora, u can get to 100 in Alchemy, or develop a nervous twitch in ur facial muscles; my money is on the twitch, I never said it was exciting :o) The alchemist in Balmora also has restocking, combinable ingredients, a total of 3 combinations at a time to buy, a Grandmaster's Mortar and Pestle once u make it up to 4k beans, and has more cash, but the 'reagents' arent as cheap, and are more obscure. If u can afford the extra weight, hang on to all the Conberries u can afford to keep; u will want them for Restore Magicka potions, the other half being Frost Salts or Void Salts, the latter are sold by the Telvanni Canton Alchemist in Vivec. As u may be able to deduce, i did not save them; I have been, and for now am still, using 1-mana spells for the most part, and have 100 Void Salts and 3 Conberries...