Ars Magica - Starting Your First Spell

[PART 1]

Once you have got an Arcane Compendium, the next step forward in Ars Magica is to create your first spell.

Firstly, you will need to create an oculus by putting some coal in the bottom left and bottom right slots on the crafting bench! with some blue topaz in between (blue topaz is an Ars Magica item, which spawns in s an ore at around y11/around the same levels as diamond). There is then a pice of cracked stone in the middle as well as the top left and right corners, and lastly there is a piece of glass in the middle of the triangle of cracked bricks.

Once you have created and placed the oculus, you need to right click it. There, you will see five separate tabs at the top of the interface. The first four tabs are for your attack, defence, talent and utility spell trees. The last tab shows your current affinity.

In the corner of the interface, you will see some coloured numbers. These show your current skill points, which you can use to unlock the different components of the spells you can create (The three colours show the three separate tiers of points: red is the best, green is the 2nd best and blue is the least useful, however you need it early on in the game). You will start off with three blue skill points, with no red and no green. You can unlock skill points by either battling Ars Magica bosses, which you can spawn in later on in the game, by finding them in dungeons and also by using spells, which will give you more Ars Magica levels,  which in turn can give you different skill points when you level up.

To create your first spell, you will need to unlock different spell components with your skill points. It is advisable to use these to unlock at least two components in one of the first three tabs/trees, because otherwise you wouldn't be able to create a working spell, so you would only be able to get more skill points to create working spells by looting dungeons or defeating Ars Magica bosses, however it would be advisable to wait until you have a few good attack spells before trying this, because some of the bosses can be hard to defeat.

Once you have unlocked the spell components for the spell you wish to make, you will need to create an Inscription Table using a crafting bench with two wood planks at the bottom right and bottom left had corners, three slabs across the middle of the grid, a torch in the top let hand corner, a feather I the top right and a spell parchment (created by a stick at the top and bottom of the grid, and a piece of paper exactly in between them so they create a line) in between them. Next, you will then need to make a written book using a book, an ink sack/some black dye and a feather.

Now, you need to open the inscription table interface, and drag some spell parts into the large grey rectangle at the bottom. You will need a shape (eg touch, projectile, self), and also a part. Shapes tell the spell what to target (eg self will target the player casting it, while projectile will throw a projectile out in the direction you are looking and will use the spell on whatever you hit first). while parts control what the spell actually does (eg a spell that sets players on fire, a spell that creates light, etc)

Once you have selected the spell parts you want, and dragged them down to the box, put the book and quill into the box with an icon of it in the inscription table interface, then, after typing a name for the spell in the text box below, take the book and quill out of the interface. You will now need to create a crafting altar to finish making your spell.

[PART 3]