New Mage Guide

Establishing a new mage hero on Tempora Heroica isn’t as daunting as it first may seem. A mage’s success is greatly aided by having higher-than-average Intelligence, Focus, and Wisdom attributes. To get high enough attributes, many players chose one of the races that have good base mage attributes. Any of the Faerie races, Gnomes, and Humans make fine mages that aren’t exceedingly challenging to play.

Once you have created your hero, it is helpful to have a quick review of the Ars Magica magic system used on Tempora Heroica. All the spells on the MUD are based on the Magical Arts, which are combinations of a Technique and a Form. First your mage hero will need to learn a Technique (verb) and Form (noun). Once your mage has adequate skill mastery, then he or she can study spells that utilize these arts. As a novice, your mage will want to focus on three arts: Creo, Corpus, and Ignem. This will allow your mage to study a spell that will heal wounds (Bind Wounds), illuminate dark areas (Lamp Without Flame), and hurt foes (Palm of Flame).

To be able to learn the Arts and study spells, your mage hero will need to have practice sessions available. (Use the score command to determine how many sessions your hero has available to spend.) A few old mages reside in Wivernhoe’s library and always willing to teach new mages. Consult the Wivernhoe Map and locate the library (it is represented by the book icon on the map) and go there. You may find it easier to move your hero around by using verbose exits. (This can be enabled by using the autoexit verbose command.)

When your hero is at the library, find a haggard, old mage named Pignatelli and he will teach you. Use the study command to see what spells are available to your hero. Your hero may be able to study a spell right away. If he or she cannot, you will have to have him or her learn the Magical Arts. Use the learn command to advance your hero’s mastery of Creo, Corpus, and Ignem just once and they study again to see if your mage is able to be taught a spell. Repeat until new spells appear on your hero’s list, or until you no longer have the required practice sessions to advance further. Note that the higher your hero’s mastery is of Bind Wounds, the more he or she will be able to heal with each invocation of the spell.

While new heroes that are physically strong can just take draw their swords and engage in battle, a new mage should keep one of his or hands free to gesture. Many mages prefer to go weaponless and rely on Fisticuffs to physically fight a foe, while concentrating on invoking spells.

Invoking a spell is easy once you learn the syntax. To invoke a spell on a target, use the invoke command like this: invoke 'palm' <target>. This may be a little much to type in during a battle, so many players use the MUD’s built-in alias functionality to create new commands as shortcuts. So, for example, use the alias command like this: alias palm invoke 'palm' . This will now allow you to type “palm <target>” to invoke this spell.

Now your mage can go to work at his or her first job in Tempora Heroica — cleaning up the vermin that infest Wivernhoe. Move about the city streets until you see an ant (a continual nuisance and an easy foe). Use your new alias “palm” like this: palm ant. Your mage will burn the ant with your spell. Keep invoking the spell until the ant is dead. This battle will reward your hero with a few experience points.

During the battle, keep a close eye on your hero’s health and vigor, which is displayed in the prompt by an H (Health) and a V (Vigor) each followed by a number. When your hero’s vigor goes negative, he or she will no longer be able to invoke spells. When his or her health goes negative, he or she is about to die without immediate healing. If you see either vital sign decreasing fast, use the flee command to escape from the battle. You hero will gradually recover health and vigor by waiting, or you can have him or her recover faster by resting and sleeping. Use the rest and sleep commands to do this. (The Wyvern’s Wing Pub (marked on the map with a mug icon) is a quick recovery area where you hero will regain his vital signs at twice the normal rate.) Mages can botch spells badly. If your hero botches and suddenly has very low vigor, it is best to flee, find someplace safe, and rest.

As a newcomer to Tempora Heroica, the Gawds reward you for ridding the world of this vermin if your hero cleans up after his or herself. To do this, use the get command to get the ant corpse and the junk command to destroy it. Most players create an alias to help automate this. To do so, use the alias command again like this: alias loot get all corpse && get corpse && junk corpse . You can then use your new “loot” command instead of always doing all that typing. After a while your hero will have a bunch of pennies. You will be able to see them all by using the inventory command. If you see your hero’s pennies showing up like this: (3*)a copper penny, then it is a good time to count his or her coins. Use the count coins command to do this. Once the coins are counted, they will be listed in your hero’s inventory like this: three copper pennies. Keeping your hero’s coins neatly stacked is a good way to prevent him or her from being encumbered.

You will want your hero to continue to explore the city and fight little things, such as chickens, beetles, mice, and sparrows. As your hero wanders about Wivernhoe, he or she will eventually become thirsty and hungry. Drink water from the fountain (marked by the fountain icon on the map) and buy and eat food from Sardo’s Bakery (marked by croissant icon on the map). If your hero meets up with a young mage with a singed beard that goes by the name Zippo. He will be able to teach your hero some better Ignem spells. (Selkies will want to concentrate their efforts on Aquam spells instead.) When you are standing in the same place as he is, use the study command again to see if he has any new spells to teach your hero. If not, learn some more of the Creo and Ignem Arts and check again. Eventually, you will be able to study Flash of the Scarlet Flames and Pilum of Fire. Studying these spells will allow you to do more damage and consequently battle larger foes and get more experience. Don’t enter the sewers, or leave through the city gates quite yet. If your hero dies, you can re-enter the MUD again and have your hero go loot his or her own corpse to retrieve his or her equipment (if something or someone else hasn’t gotten to it first).

Once your hero has studied Flash of the Scarlet Flames, he or she will be more than ready to explore the Guild Hall Cellar. Practice first on the spiders, rats, and bats and then take on the bugbear pipsqueaks and the puny kobalts. After these foes are routinely defeatable. it is time to have your hero study up his or her spells and then take on the brutish hobgoblin. When your hero is able to defeat the hobgoblin, he or she is well on his or her way to become a powerful mage.