I see there have been some changes and have no idea how to train magic now. Any suggestions and/or tips?

What level (generally speaking) are you?

Or, what level are your magic skills? I'll assume they are over 200? If the below is too basic, I don't mean any offense, I'm just assuming you're coming back from a long break?

So, the bare bones basics of new DR 3.1 magic is this: you have, as you probably have noticed, a bunch of new skills. Warding, Augmentation, Utility will all be trained by casting a spell that uses that skill, pretty much like you are used to. Debilitation and TM function exactly like weapons. You have to cast them on critters, and have debil/TM ranks that are high enough to effect the critter, but still below the soft/hard cap.

PM is a sort of generic boost to every magic skill. It doesn't compensate for having 1 rank in warding and 1500 in PM, but it's a solid boost. Attunement is power perception. Arcana is MD, you'll learn it by just charing camb and using it, same as ever really.

Using camb now requires the 'invoke' command, instead of 'focus'.

There's a new spell type, cyclical. This is basically a spell which, once cast, will keep going. It will draw mana off you periodically according to the mana you cast it at, but you don't have to refresh it. The down side is that after a few minutes, it stops giving any experience. So you'd have to re-cast it. Paladins don't really have many of these, so not a particularly big deal.

Spells also have inherent difficulties according to tier. They are introductory, basic, advanced, esoteric, ritual. Intro you can cast with 0 ranks, basic will take 10, advance 100, and esoteric will vary a bit, 200-300.

If you have a few hundred ranks, you can access the research system, which, in all honesty, I still don't really 'get' because I've been playing a non-magic-user for a long time and just haven't put time into it. But it does a number of things, including allowing you to make spells significantly harder so that you can learn from intro/basic spells (and keep using very low mana casts) at hundreds of ranks.

Also, the analogous patterns book was expanded a bit. Personally, I use the TM spell from there rather than the Paladin TM spell, because I find 'have to hold a weapon' an idiotic requirement. Manifest force is a great damage barrier spell, by the way.

Here's a bunch of links:
https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Magic_3.0
The 3.0 link is a bit out of date, because we are in 3.1, but I feel like enough of the core systems remain that it's good review.

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Magic_3.1

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Category:Paladin_Spells

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Magical_Research

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/What%27s_new
Depending on how long it's been, there are several options.

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>>Divy: I see there have been some changes and have no idea how to train magic now. Any suggestions and/or tips?

In the past, all non-damaging spells were primarily powered by primary magic. Instead, those spells now fall into one or more skill types: augmentation, debilitation, utility, and warding. To train those skills, you must cast spells of the relevant type.

Debilitation is a combat skill. Like targeted magic, it is trained by casting in combat on creatures of an appropriate difficulty level. You can APPRAISE [creature] CAREFUL to get an idea of how well it would train.

To train the other three skills, you will want to cast the most difficult spells you know at your personal mana cap. If this requires an unsustainable amount of mana (because you have a lot of skill), you can try symbiotic casting. This makes your spells substantially more difficult, allowing you to train magic with a lot less mana. The chaos symbiosis is available to everyone with no feat cost. It does nothing but make the spell more difficult. With the right feats, you can use symbioses that provide stat or skill buffs.

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Research#Symbiosis

If you are using a cyclic spell, put as much mana as you can into the spell and re-cast every four minutes. (Cyclic spells no longer award experience indefinitely; the experience stops altogether after 4-5 minutes.)

Another option is the research system. Research allows you to train non-combat magic skills without casting spells. To use research, cast Gauge Flow at your personal cap. (The more mana you put into the spell, the less time research takes to complete.) Then type RESEARCH HELP to get a list of projects that are available to you. You do not get any experience until the project is complete, but you can mind lock a skill in 10-12 minutes.

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Research

Symbioses and research are intended to bridge the gaps that many guilds have in their spellbooks. (Traditionally, you would need a full difficulty ladder in each magic skill.)

Avoid using sorcery (and sorcerous research) in a justice zone. If you experience sorcerous backlash in a justice zone, you will be charged with forbidden practices.

https://elanthipedia.play.net/mediawiki/index.php/Sorcery

For attunement, power-walking is still the quickest way to lock the skill, but adding POWER to compatible training routines will keep the skill moving. There are also research projects for attunement.

Arcana is trained by using cambrinth to cast spells. Use the highest-capacity cambrinth that you can use reliably, and use as much mana as you can. There are also research projects for arcana.

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>Research is a waste of time IMO but to each his\her own.

I think most people just fling out a symbiosis or whatever and keep using it. I don't think they use the 'research' command for pure training.

It's quite useful for just making an easy spell teach without needing 100s of mana per cast, for adding bonus exp to a different spell, and I believe is a tolerably safe way to train sorcery.

But I think all of this really only comes into effect when you have 500-600 ranks in magic skills and don't want to spend 4 hours locking everything. Plus with some guilds, they have holes in spell selections.

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