Casting Spells
Casting Spells in Soulrend works through Iron’s Spells 'n Spellbooks. A spell can be cast from three things: a spellbook worn in the Spell Book slot, a weapon or staff with a spell imbued in it, or a scroll. Spellbooks and weapons cost mana and start a cooldown; scrolls cost neither, but each one is used up by its cast.
How it works#
Spellbooks and weapons#
- Put a spellbook in the Spell Book curio slot. Pressing the cast key while holding a spellbook with nothing in the slot equips it there.
- Its spells appear on the spell bar above the hotbar. Spells imbued in held weapons, staffs and worn gear join the same bar.
- Pick a spell with the spell wheel or the spell bar (below).
- Press Cast Selected Spell (V by default) to cast it.
Scrolls#
A scroll holds one spell at one level. Hold it and use it (right-click) to cast that spell.
Scrolls are single use
Casting a spell from a scroll uses the scroll up. A scroll costs no mana and ignores cooldowns, but each one gives a single cast. To cast a spell again and again, inscribe the scroll into a spellbook at the Inscription Table, which also uses the scroll up but keeps the spell in the book.
Eldritch scrolls can’t be cast until the spell is learned with an Eldritch Manuscript (“You can’t understand this spell…”).
Spell wheel and quick casting#
There are two ways to choose which spell goes off.
The spell wheel picks the spell the cast key will use. Hold Spell Wheel Hold (E by default), move the mouse onto a spell, and let go: that spell stays selected until another is picked. Iron’s also has a Spell Wheel Toggle key (press once to open, again to close), and a Spell Bar Scroll Modifier: while it is held, the mouse wheel steps through the spell bar. Both are unbound in Soulrend.
Quick casting skips the selection. Iron’s has 15 Quick Cast Slot keys; each casts the spell in that position of the spell bar at once, and the selected spell stays as it was. They are all unbound in Soulrend: set them in Controls under “Iron’s Spells 'n Spellbooks - Quick Cast”.
| Spell wheel + cast key | Quick cast keys | |
|---|---|---|
| Keys needed | Two (E and V) | One per spell |
| Speed | Pick, then cast | Casts at once |
| Best for | Large spellbooks, spells used now and then | A few spells cast often, mid-fight |
| Changes the selected spell | Yes | No |
| Set up | Works out of the box | Bind the keys first |
The slot numbers follow the order of the spell bar, so changing the spellbook or the held weapon can change which spell a quick cast key fires.
Details#
- Cast types. Each spell’s tooltip gives its type:
- Instant spells go off at once.
- Cast-time spells (“Cast Time”) charge before they go off.
- Continuous spells (“Duration”) keep going and cost mana every second (“Mana/s”).
- Stopping a cast. Pressing the cast key again while the same spell is casting stops it. A stopped cast-time spell doesn’t start its cooldown; a stopped continuous spell does.
- A failed cast shows a message: “Not enough mana to cast …”, “… is on cooldown.”, “… cannot be cast from a scroll.”, “This spell requires a target.” and others.
- Imbued weapons cost mana in Soulrend, and their spells have half the normal cooldown.
- Spells don’t grief. They don’t break blocks or start fires.
- Spell Power, Cooldown Reduction and Cast Time Reduction change a spell’s numbers; the school pages under Spells list the base values.
Tips#
- E opens the spell wheel because Soulrend moves the inventory to I.
- V is also the default key for Epic Fight’s charged attack, Nightfall’s doppelganger and Medieval Origins’ Tertiary Active power. If a class uses one of those, rebind one side in Controls.
- Keep a few scrolls of an emergency spell (a heal or a teleport) for when mana runs out: they still work at 0 mana.