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Jim's DragonQuest Campaign:
Battles

These rules cover combats that have too many participants for the normal DragonQuest combat rules. The rules assume a medieval combat style, mixing and matching rules from various games and ideas from various history books.

Note that when large bodies of troops are on the move, there's almost no opportunity for surprise. People notice, especially because scouts, foragers, camp followers, and various stragglers generally spread out into the countryside as the army marches. Two armies find out about each other, finally line up in front of each other, and trade jeers and taunts or maybe just nervous stares until one or the other decides to charge.

The Military Scientist skill becomes very important in these rules. For convenience, the relevant computations from the DragonQuest rules are repeated here:

• Ability to Lead Troops: A military scientist can lead [(3 + WP/2, rounded down) × (Rank squared)] troops effectively. Troops in excess of any leader's ability to lead them will probably desert. Loosed upon the countryside, they might turn bandit.
• Tactical Skill: The Perceive Tactics ability has a success chance of [PC + (9 × Rank)]%. The result is uncertainty if the roll is greater than the success chance but no greater than [(success chance) + (2 × Rank)]. The result is a failure if the roll is greater than that.
• Ability to Rally Troops: A military scientist who has shared at least one adventure or who has drilled for (12 - Rank) weeks with his troops can rally them with a success chance of [WP + (7 × Rank) - (range in feet/10)]%, rounded down. This chance is reduced by 25% for each failure. Since exact distances are not defined in these rules, use a standard range reduction of -10 (as if the troops are 100' away). New leaders, who haven't spent the necessary time with their troops, can't rally them.

Army Organization

Troops are organized into armies, battalions, and units.

Armies

An army is a collection of troops under a common leader. The leader of an army is called a captain. The captain must have enough Military Scientist skill to lead all the troops in his own battalion, plus the individual leaders of the other battalions in the same army.

The captain's main tasks are to keep the army organized and supplied while on the move, and to position the army as well as possible for battle.

The captain is appointed by a king or great lord.

Battalions

Each army consists of one or more battalions (also known as "battles"). The leader of each battalion is called a commander. The commander must have enough Military Scientist skill to lead all the troops in his battalion. The captain is also the commander of his own battalion.

A commander's main tasks are to be accountable for his troops when not in battle, and to decide when his battalion will advance or withdraw in battle.

The lord who formed the army might choose the commanders, or he might let the captain choose the commanders.

All of a battalion's units are in the same "space" on the battlefield. (See Battlefield Layout below.) If the battalion chooses to split up (e.g. to have some units stay in the battle line to cover a withdrawal by other units), the split-off units become a temporary battalion. If the units join each other in the same space again, they count as a single battalion.

Normally, an army forms into three battalions, but the number could be anywhere from one to five. The naming and usage of the battalions are shown below. In the table, the battalions within each group are listed from most prestigious and important to least, which normally affects who'll be assigned to command which battalion. The captain always has the main battalion, which customarily occupies the center position in the battle line.

Units

Each unit consists of a leader and the troops that answer to him directly. A unit leader must have enough Military Scientist skill to lead the unit. Captains and commanders each command a unit.

A unit leader's task is to keep his troops alive and together, to lead them in battle, and to have his unit act in concert with the battalion. The leader serves as a rallying point for the unit.

Each unit consists of people with the same social status, usually vassals (or mercenary hires) of the unit leader. They usually have similar weaponry. Otherwise, it would be hard for them to operate as a unit.

The unit leader ordinarily decides who'll be in his unit.

A unit of knights is called a banner, led by a banneret. A unit of foot troops in a feudal army is called a company, led by a sergeant. Units of non-feudal armies would use other terms, such as warbands. In these rules, however, a unit is a unit and a leader is a leader, regardless of knightly status.

Each unit is assigned to a particular battalion, although a few units might be held out as reserves. Reserves stay at the army's camp, waiting to be summoned into battle.

Acting Alone. Certain individuals might operate as units of one, in which case no Military Scientist skill is required. They act alone. This might be the case for spell-casters or the like, who might want to participate in the battle, but without fighting alongside other troops.

Unit Attributes

Units have several attributes that must be determined. Some of them need to be recomputed during battle as the size of the unit changes.

As examples, we'll use a group of 53 knights who charge with lances then switch to broadswords in melee. They carry kite shields and wear chain mail. Their leader has Rank 4 in Military Scientist. We'll find below that this unit has an attack strength of 5.04 when charging with lances or 2.97 in melee using broadswords. Their defense strenth, using shields, is 2.57.

• Size. This is the number of troops in the unit that are still capable of fighting and moving. As casualties occur, this number goes down (duh).

• Attack Strength. For each attack form the unit has (e.g. melee, ranged, charge vs. non-charge), compute the attack strength using the steps below.

  1. Start with the attack's damage modifier. (in our example unit: +6 for lance, +4 for broadsword)

  2. Compute an average or typical strike chance, including all appropriate modifiers for circumstances. (For the knights, their lance attack is 68%, modified to 88% for charging. Their broadsword chance is 78%.)

  3. Multiply the damage modifier by the strike chance as a percentage. (6 x .88 = 5.28 for the lance, 4 x .78 = 3.12 for the broadsword)

  4. Multiply the result by [(number of attackers)/100]. (5.28 x 53/100 = 2.80 for lance, 3.12 x 53/100 = 1.65 for broadsword)

  5. Multiply the result by [1 + (leader's Military Scientist Rank)/5]. (lance: 2.80 x 1.8 = 5.04, broadsword: 1.65 x 1.8 = 2.97)

  Ranged weapons might produce multiple attack strengths, one per range category (see Visibility below).

  • Range 0 (same space). Thrown weapons with a range of at least 6 hexes use a strike chance modifier of -18. Missile weapons with a range of at least 6 hexes use a modifier of -3.

  • Range 1 (one space away). Missile weapons with a range of at least 60 hexes use a modifier of -33.

  • Range 2 or higher. The range must be at least 300 hexes, but no missile weapon has this range.

• Defense Strength. For each form of defense (e.g. shielded vs. unshielded), compute the defense strength.

  1. Start with the protection rating of the prevalent form of armor found in the unit. (chain mail: 6)

  2. Compute the normal DragonQuest defense rating, then add 25. (45% with shields, 35% without)

  3. Multiply the results of the above two steps. (6 x .45 = 2.7 with shields, 6 x .35 = 2.1 without)

  4. Multiply the result by [(number of defenders)/100]. (2.7 x .53 = 1.43 with shields, 2.1 x .53 = 1.11 without)

  5. Multiply the result by [1 + (leader's Military Scientist Rank)/5]. (1.43 x 1.8 = 2.57 shielded, 1.11 x 1.8 = 2.00 without)

• Casualty Threshold. For each unit, estimate (or compute) an average WP score. Add one half of the leader's Military Scientist Rank; round down. Multiply the result by 2 to get the percentage casualties the unit can probably bear and still retain the will to fight. Example: A unit of doughty knights has an average WP around 17. If they're led by a Rank 4 Military Scientist, it becomes 19. The unit can therefore bear about 38% casualties.

Battlefield Layout

Positions

Each army is laid out on the battlefield as follows (somewhat like the layout found in the game Kingmaker):

• Battle Line: This is the line that faces the enemy army. Battalions in the battle line will span the battlefield. The main battalion holds the center, and the other battalions are arranged to the left or right.

  The "width" of the battle line (in "spaces") equals the number of battalions in the line. If the battle line holds three battalions, the battlefield is three spaces wide.

  Each unit within the battle line will always be in either of two states:

  • Engaged: in melee with a unit from the opposing army

  • Disengaged: not in melee

• Second Line: This is the line of battalions behind the battle line. Each battalion in the second line is necessarily behind a particular battalion in the battle line.

  The width of the second line is exactly equal to the width of the battle line.

  If a battalion ever finds itself in the second line without a friendly battalion in front of it in the battle line, one of two things must happen. If there's an enemy unit facing the battalion, the battalion automatically becomes part of the battle line. Otherwise, if there is no enemy facing it, the battalion automatically joins the second line in the nearest space behind a friendly unit that's in the battle line.

• Camp: This is where the reserves remain. It's also where the army keeps its war chest, and it's where the army's non-combatants remain while the battle rages. If all units in the battle line, second line, and camp are taken out of combat (through capture or casualties), the contents of the camp are captured by the enemy.

  The camp is one space wide, approximately centered behind the second line.

Visibility

There are six grades of visibility. The standard range in the table below is for those times when you need to know specifically how far away something is.

Battle Sequence

Beginning of the Battle

The following steps occur only once at the beginning of the battle.

1. Battlefield Maneuvering [captains]. The captains attempt to maneuver their armies into advantageous positions. To represent this, make a Perceive Tactics roll for each captain. Apply the following modifiers:

   • +20 if the captain is very familiar with the locale
   • -10 if the army is on a difficult terrain type (e.g muddy ground for any troops, or rocky ground for mounted troops)
   • +/-5 for each point of difference in TMR between the two armies (bonus for the faster army, penalty for the slower)
   • +30 if the captain's army outnumbers the opposing army by 3:1 or more
   • +20 if the captain's army outnumbers the opposing army by at least 2:1 but less than 3:1
   • +10 if the captain's army outnumbers the opposing army by less than 2:1
   • -10 if the opposing army outnumbers the captain's army by less than 2:1
   • -20 if the opposing army outnumbers the captain's army by at least 2:1 but less than 3:1
   • -30 if the opposing army outnumbers the captain's army by 3:1 or more

   If the Perceive Tactics roll is successful, the battalion commanders receive an initiative bonus equal to the captain's rank with Military Scientist. The captain has positioned his army well.

   If the Perceive Tactics roll results in uncertainty, there is no initiative modifier.

   If the Perceive Tactics fails completely, the battalion commanders will have an initiative modifier equal to [(captain's Military Scientist rank) - 10]. The captain has made a tactical blunder.

2. Battle Lines [captains]. Roll non-engaged initiative for each captain, applying the modifier from the previous step. The captain with the highest initiative chooses to form his lines first or last. (You'll need to remember this order of deployment for later parts of the battle.) Whoever deploys first assigns battalions to positions on the battle line, the second line, or the camp. Players must state where their characters will deploy, but presumably those attached to particular units will deploy with those units.

   If any battalions find themselves positioned in violation of the battle layout rules (e.g. if the first to deploy puts three battalions into the battle line, but the second deploys only two), reposition them immediately.

3. Unit Positioning [commanders]. Each commander in the battle line positions his units from left to right as he sees fit. He may make up to three attempts to spot particular individuals in the facing battalion while making these decisions, so that particular units from his battalion will face particular units in the opposing battalion.

Battle Rounds

Each battle round follows this sequence. One battle round represents about 30 minutes.

1. Battle Line: Engaged Actions [unit leaders]. Roll initiative (by the normal DragonQuest rules for non-engaged initiative) for each unit leader in each engagement. In initiative order, each unit leader takes one of the following actions:

   • Attack. The unit makes a non-charge attack against the engaged enemy. Use melee weapons or a ranged attack at Range 0.

   • Disengage. The unit tries to disengage from its opponent. The unit leader must make a Rally check; if the opposing unit has also tried to disengage during this same battle round, apply a modifier of +30. Apply a modifier of +/-5 for each point of difference in TMR (bonus if faster unit tries to disengage from slower unit, penalty otherwise). Finally, apply a modifier of (# of troops)/5, to represent the range penalty from the DragonQuest rules. If the rally succeeds, the unit disengages successfully; if not, the unit remains engaged.

     Exception to the normal DragonQuest rules: for the purposes of disengaging only, don't apply the -25% modifier for previous failed rally attempts, and don't count failed attempts to disengage toward other attempts to rally.

     The unit's casualty threshold indicates the fraction of the unit's wounded who are carried along with the unit when disengaging. The others automatically become the prisoners of the enemy unit. Example: If the unit has 3 troops wounded, with a casualty threshold of 38%, one of the wounded is carried out of combat; the other two are captured by the enemy.

2. Battle Line: Non-Engaged Actions [commanders]. Roll non-engaged initiative for each commander in the battle line. Apply the modifier from the captain's Perceive Tactics roll. In initiative order, each commander takes one of the following actions:

   • Charge. Each unit makes a charge attack against a facing unit in the enemy battle line.

   • Fire. Each unit makes a ranged attack against any unit in the facing battalion. Normally, this is an attack at Range 1, and the unit remains where it is. Certain units have been trained to loose short-range missile attacks while charging the enemy. If the unit has been trained in this tactic, it may make a ranged attack at Range 0; it will then be engaged with the opposing unit.

   • Move. All disengaged units in the battalion move together to an adjacent space (including diagonal movement). Alternatively, if the commander chooses not to move the battalion, disengaged units may rearrange their left-to-right positioning. Because of the battlefield layout rules, the only way to cover a retreat is to leave some units in the battle line while the rest move to the second line. When a battalion splits up, the units left behind can reform into a temporary battalion, as long as there's a leader who can lead it.

   • Wait. The battalion remains where it is. Characters can take individual actions.

3. Second Line and Camp: Non-Engaged Actions [commanders]. Each army's battalions in the second line and at the camp may act. The armies act in the same order as the order of battlefield deployment, according to the captains' initiative at the beginning of the battle. The available actions are:

   • Move. Each battalion may move to an adjacent space (including diagonal movement).

   • Wait. The battalion remains where it is. Characters can take individual actions.

4. Rally [unit leaders]. Leaders of disordered or panicked units may attempt to rally them.

5. Another round? Up to 12 battle rounds can be fought, as long as there are intact units on both sides and as long as either captain wishes to continue the fighting.

After the Battle

There are several customary tasks an army carries out after a battle. Whether, when, and how these are carried out is up to the captain and his commanders and unit leaders. Many of these tasks might be left to the victor; the loser might not want to linger any longer than necessary.

• Appoint patrols to seek out lost and missing troops so they can rejoin the army.

• Set up a field hospital for tending to the wounded.

• Set up some sentinels or scouts to make sure no other force arrives unnoticed.

• Appoint some burial details before crows, vermin, and time do their thing with the corpses.

• Appoint some plunder gatherers who will gather valuables from the fallen, so the captain can see that the plunder is distributed fairly.

• Appoint some guards and patrols to prevent looters from taking their own plunder. Sometimes the looters are members of the captain's own army, and sometimes they're locals who smell an opportunity.

• Captains, especially victorious ones, often find their troops are interested in rape, pillage, and the destruction of whatever they find nearby. Some captains take the view, "Let them have their fun, they've earned it." Others try to stop this behavior.

• Victorious captains of a religious bent might like to have a religious service on the spot, in thanks for their victory. Those with a more worldly orientation might have a big party for the troops.

• Prisoners need to be handled. Knightly prisoners can be ransomed, so messages need to be dispatched announcing who has been taken prisoner. Some knightly prisoners will be trusted to give their "parole" that they'll send along the ransom when they can collect it; these prisoners are released immediately. Others will be held until their lieges or families cough up the ransom; that can take many months in some cases. Non-knightly prisoners usually don't merit a ransom; a lot of captains will simply have valueless prisoners put to death.

Attacking and Defending

Individual units attack individual units. Each unit can attack no more than once per battle round. Compare the attacker's strength to the defender's strength as a ratio. Refer to the following table.

Attack Odds

Attack Results

Roll D10 on the following table.

Casualties

The results from the attack table are explained below.

• Minor casualties: d10% of the current troops lost (3/4 of them wounded, 1/4 killed); unit disordered

• Moderate casualties: (2d10 + 5)% of troops lost (1/2 wounded, 3/10 captured, 1/5 killed); unit disordered

• Heavy casualties: (2d10 + 20)% of troops lost (1/3 captured, 2/3 killed); unit disordered

Exceptions:

• Charge attacks and ranged attacks yield no captures. Treat the result as wounded instead.

• For ranged attacks, ignore all casualties inflicted on the attacker.

If a unit has captured prisoners, the casualty percentage equals the fraction of prisoners freed during the fighting. For noteworthy prisoners, the casualty percentage is the chance of that individual having been rescued. Freed prisoners immediately join the friendly unit that inflicted the casualties, as wounded troops.

The way to apply the results depends on how relevant the individual troops are for the role-playing adventure.

• Minor NPCs (ordinary troops). Apportion the total casualties among the three categories according to the fractions noted above.

• Noteworthy NPCs (ordinary leaders). If it matters which individuals were wounded, captured, or killed, turn the casualty breakdown into an ad-hoc percentage table. (There's an example below.) Roll against this table for each individual of interest to find out which casualty category the individual fell into.

• Player characters, major NPCs. To find exact individual results, there are two d100 rolls to make. First, roll d100 against the casualty percentage. If the roll is greater than the casualty percentage, the character isn't a casualty. If it's less than or equal to the casualty percentage, the die roll equals the EN points lost; double that to find the FT points lost. In addition, if the first roll is greater than the wounded percentage, the character is also captured (if still living).

  The second roll applies only if the first roll made the character a casualty. There's a chance for a grievous injury equal to one third of the casualty percentage. If this happens, roll on the grievous injury table; if the result could only come from a weapon not used by the enemy unit, ignore it.

  At this time scale, we're not going to worry about being stunned. Any character who's been stunned probably has plenty of time to recover within the battle round.

Example results: A unit of 53 troops plus the leader suffers moderate casualties of 15%. Three members of the unit are player characters, but they're not the leader. For the 50 ordinary troops, the casualty breakdown is all we care about. The 15% casualties break down to 7.5% wounded (4 troops), 4.5% captured (2 troops), 3% killed (2 killed). The unit leader's individual case is of some interest, but we don't care how many EN or FT points he loses. With an ad-hoc table of 01-08 wounded, 09-12 captured, 13-15 killed, 16-00 unharmed, a roll of 27 shows that he's not a casualty in this attack. For the three player characters, the rolls are 60, 42, and 06. The first two suffer no harm, but the third one loses 6 EN and 12 FT, The roll of 06 is not greater than the wounded percentage (7.5%), so the character remains uncaptured. The character has a 5% chance of a grievous injury; a roll of 31 spares the character a grievous injury. If the character remains conscious, it's up to the player to decide whether the character is still fit to continue fighting.

This same unit had 6 prisoners, one of them a major NPC. Of the 5 ordinary prisoners, one is freed (15% of 5, rounded). For the NPC, there's a 15% chance of being rescued; a roll of 23 says the NPC remains a prisoner.

Disorder

When a unit is disordered, it has simply lost its formation in the heat of battle. This renders it less effective until the leader can regroup (rally). The unit's attack and defense scores are halved while the unit is disordered. It can't move until it's rallied.

As noted in the battle sequence, the unit leader can regroup the unit by rallying the troops.

Panic

Panic checks must be made each time the following circumstances occur:

• The unit is charged at 2:1 odds or better.
• The unit is attacked while leaderless.
• The unit takes casualties beyond its casualty threshold.

The chance of avoiding panic equals a difficulty factor times the unit's overall WP score. The difficulty factor equals 5 times the percentage of the unit remaining. Example: If a unit has accumulated 35% casualties, it has 65% remaining. The difficulty factor is 3.25 (5 x .65). If it has an overall WP of 15, the chance to avoid panic is 49%.

Modifiers:

• +15 if the commander's unit isn't panicked (doesn't apply when checking panic for commander's unit)
• -15 if the commander's unit is panicked (doesn't apply when checking panic for commander's unit)
• +10 for each additional unit in the battalion that's not panicked
• -10 for each additional unit in the battalion that is in a state of panic

Panic results:

• If the roll succeeds, the unit has avoided panic.

• If the roll exceeds the success percentage but is no more than double the success chance, the troops have lost their will to attack. The unit will not move or attack until it can be rallied.

• If the roll is more than double the success percentage, the troops drop everything and run. There is only one opportunity to rally the unit, at the end of the current battle round. If the rally attempt succeeds, the unit reforms. If the rally fails, the troops scatter in ones and twos into the countryside; the unit has disintegrated and is no longer part of the battle.

  When a unit is routed like this, separate panic checks may be made for individuals of interest within the unit (player characters, major NPCs). Use the same difficulty factor, but the character's own WP score. Apply the appropriate panic results.

Magic

The normal DragonQuest magic rules operate at a very tactical level, not at an army level. Few spells affect large areas or large numbers of targets, or last a long time. Few spells will be usable in a mass battle.

For the sake of playability at the army scale, and to spare the GM from tracking individual or partial results for dozens, hundreds, or thousands of NPCs, we'll have to simplify a few things about magic.

At a scale of about 30 minutes per battle round, rituals become a possibility during battle. A typical one-hour ritual would take two battle rounds.

Duration

Spells with immediate effect still have immediate effect.

For spells with durations, the duration in battle rounds is the spell's duration in minutes, divided by 30, rounded down. In effect, a spell with a duration of less than 30 minutes can't be used in battle. It won't last long enough to matter.

Spells Targeted at Units

A spell cast on a unit must affect the entire unit, or it can't be cast in battle. If the spell affects a certain number of targets, then the number of individuals in the unit is the number of targets the spell must affect.

If the spell has an area of effect expressed in square feet, it must cover [15 x (# of troops)] square feet. Double that if the unit is disordered, or quadruple it if the unit is panicked. If the area of effect covers a radius, the radius must be [2.2 x sqrt (# of troops)] feet; for disordered troops use [3.1 x sqrt (# of troops)], and for panicked troops, use [4.4 x sqrt (# of troops)]. Example: Against a unit of 53 troops that aren't disordered or panicked, the spell would need to cover 795 square feet, or a radius of 16 feet.

Wall spells are mostly too short to be usable in battle. If the wall is intended to serve as an obstacle to stop movement from one battle space to another, the wall must be at least 100 yards long. If the wall is intended to obscure or cover a unit, the wall's length must be at least 1 yard per troop. Example: At Rank 20, a Wall of Fire could be up to 40' long; it's useless as a barrier, and it could serve as cover only for units of 13 or fewer troops.

If the unit being targeted is engaged, the spell must cover all units in the engagement, or none of them.

Spells Targeted at Individuals

To be especially nice to the GM, the only individuals targeted should be those that are already being handled as individuals anyway, such as player characters and major NPCs that are part of the story outside of the current battle. Rule of thumb: If you don't know the character's name, the individual might not be a good target for spells in battle.

We'll handle others case by case, but let's keep the number of individual results to be tracked to a minimum.

Multiple Castings of the Same Spell

In some cases, a spell couldn't affect an entire unit in one casting, but multiple castings would handle the situation. We'll handle the series of castings with some calculations and a die roll. This is more trouble for the GM than a single casting, but it would expand the number of spells usable in battle.

1. Figure out how many successful castings would be needed to cover the entire unit. Example: The Spell of Mass Charming, at Rank 11, affects 11 targets. It would take 5 successful castings to cover a unit of 53 troops.

2. Divide that number by the cast chance, using the cast chance as a fraction, then round up the result. This gives the number of attempts n that would likely result in the necessary number of successes. Example: If the caster has a 41% cast chance with the Spell of Mass Charming, it would take 13 castings (5/0.41 = 12.2, rounded up to 13).

3. If the caster doesn't have enough FT points to cover n castings, the spell can't be cast. Example: For 13 castings of a General Knoweldge spell, the caster spends 13 FT.

4. Compute the backfire threshold, namely the cast chance + 30%. Example: The backfire threshold for a cast chance of 41% is 71%.

5. Raise the backfire threshold to the nth power. This gives the chance of not having a backfire on any attempt. Example: 71% to the 13th power is about 1% (rounded).

6. Roll d100 against the resulting percentage. If it's successful, the caster got the necessary number of successful castings. If it fails, the caster suffers a backfire effect, and we assume that all of the castings failed. Example: This isn't a wise spell to use in battle, because there's only a 1% chance it will work. A roll of 51 means the caster suffers a backfire, and all 13 spells failed.

To remove the risk of backfire, any spell to be used multiple times within one round should have a cast chance of 70% or better.

Usable Spells

The spells listed below are the ones most likely to be usable in battle against units.

The spells that aren't listed are either too brief in duration, too short-ranged, too small in area of effect, or too impractical to apply on a large scale (e.g. walking unseen). They might still be usable against individual targets.

College of Celestial Magics

• Spell of Darkness: 1000 cubic feet of darkness can be shaped into a volume 10' high by 100 square feet, which is enough to cover 6 individuals. It must be at Rank 2 or better to have the necessary duration. That would also give it enough range to be used on a target in the same space as the caster. Only at Rank 19 or better is the range enough to reach an adjacent space.

• Ritual of Summoning and Binding Shadow Creatures: This takes two battle rounds. If it succeeds, the caster is creating an extra unit of the summoned creatures, under his command. If his concentration is broken, his own unit turns on him.

• Meteor Spell: With a diameter of 25' (radius 12.5'), the meteor could strike a unit of 32 troops if they're not disordered or panicked. It would cover a disordered unit of 16 troops or fewer, or a panicked unit of 8. Given the delay before the meteor strikes, this spell should be used only against non-moving units. It can reach a unit in the same space as the caster at any Rank; most likely, that means an enemy unit engaged with (intermixed with) the caster's unit, which in turn probably makes the spell useless at such close range except against fixed targets. At Rank 16 or better, the spell can reach an adjacent space.

• Meteor Swarm Spell: This can cover triple the troops of the Meteor Spell. It can reach an adjacent space at Rank 15 or better.

• Spell of Shadow Walking: This lets the caster become a unit of one, instantly transporting to anywhere on the battlefield.

College of Shaping Magics

None of the spells of this college are likely to be usable in battle.

The Spell of Creating Mudslick comes closest, but with a duration of only 30 seconds + 10 seconds/Rank, its best duration is less than 4 minutes. The affected unit would still have most of the battle round to avoid the mudslick or just let it dry up.