View source for Miscast effect

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Failure to cast spells causes various generally nasty things to occur, becoming nastier with spell level and spell failure. Miscasts come in severity 0,1,2,3; 0 is always harmless, although it can occasionally make a moderate amount of noise.  Note that most monsters resulting from a miscast are summons: they do time out, can be [[abjuration|abjured]], do not leave items behind, and are not worth experience. Sometimes, they can be ''durable'' summons. ''Durable'' summons do not time out and cannot be abjured. There is a special case if [[Hell's mystical force]] produces a [[Miscast_effect#Hell_effects|miscast effect]] that spawns any monsters: those monsters are not summons and are worth experience.

Unless otherwise stated, all miscast effects for a given school and level are equally probable.

==Air Magic==
*1: 4-12 electric damage, or rain cloud, or [[Mephitic Cloud]]
*2: 3d8 electric explosion or [[Poisonous Cloud]]
*3: 12-40 [[Airstrike]], or [[twister]], or [[ball lightning]]

==Conjurations==
*1: smoke or 6-12 damage
*2: 9-25 damage or 3d12 explosion
*3: 12-40 damage or 3d20 explosion

==Divinations==
The Divinations school has long since been removed from the game, but its miscasts remain.  They can be triggered by [[Sif Muna]]'s wrath, [[orange crystal statue]]s, [[crystal ball]]s, or any source of "random miscasts" (such as Zot traps).

*1: confusion or no effect
*2: confusion plus either 1-3 INT loss or 3-12 MP loss
*3: confusion plus either 3-5 INT loss or 5-24 MP loss

==Earth Magic==
*1: harmless
*2: 10-22 damage (checked by AC)
*3: 3d15 explosion

==Hexes==
The [[Enchantments]] school was removed in [[0.8]] and broken into Hexes and Charms (''below''). Currently both these schools' miscasts are identical. 
*1: [[corona]] or [[scroll of random uselessness|random uselessness]]
*2: curse one item (3/7 chance), slowing (3/7), or berserk (1/7)
*3: curse several items (iterates through pack, with 1/3 chance of stopping after each item cursed), paralysis, confusion, or 0-18 glow

==Charms==
*1: [[corona]] or [[scroll of random uselessness|random uselessness]]
*2: curse one item (3/7 chance), slowing (3/7), or berserk (1/7)
*3: curse several items (iterates through pack, with 1/3 chance of stopping after each item cursed), paralysis, confusion, or 0-18 glow

==Fire Magic==
*1: smoke or burnt scrolls (plus 2-14 damage, ''only'' with Fire Vulnerability 1 or worse)
*2: burnt scrolls plus 5-33 fire damage, or 3d14 [[Fireball]]
*3: burnt scrolls plus 9-41 fire damage, or 3d20 Fireball, or [[Sticky Flame]]

==Ice Magic==
*1: nothing or freeze potions (plus 4-8 damage, ''only'' with Cold Vulnerability 1 or worse) 
*2: freeze potions plus 5-16 ice damage or 3d11 ice explosion
*3: freeze potions plus 9-31 ice damage or [[Freezing Cloud]]

==Necromancy==
[[Torment]], [[rotting]], and [[draining]] damage have no effect on undead. For spells, no effect at all if Kiku** and Piety/150 chance.  These effects are also frequently seen as [[death curse]]s from non-plain [[List of mummies|mummies]].  For death curses, if Kiku**, then Kiku has a 1/2 chance of blocking it entirely, otherwise reduces the severity by one level.
*1: Slowing, rotting, or 5-19 [[torment]] damage
*2: Draining, 1-3 [[shadow|shadows]], or 15-37 [[torment]] damage
*3: Draining, [[reaper]], [[soul eater]], random stat loses 1-7, 1-6hp rot, or player-targeted [[torment]]

==Poison Magic==
Poison resistance blocks the damage and stat loss, and renders the clouds harmless.
*1: 2-4 [[poison]] damage or [[Mephitic Cloud]] on your location only
*2: 3-11 poison damage, large Mephitic Cloud, or random stat loses 1
*3: 10-28 poison damage, [[Poisonous Cloud]], or random stat loses 1-5

==Summonings==
*1: 5-13 damage (1/2 chance), [[spatial vortex]] (1/6), or [[lesser demon]] (1/3)
*2: 2-4 spatial vortices (1/6 chance), [[common demon]] (1/3), or 2-3 imps (1/2)
*3: small abomination, 2-3 [[common demon]]s, [[greater demon]], [[Malign Gateway]], or [[Banishment]].  Reroll if Banishment or Gateway is selected and is impossible.

==Translocations==
*1: 4-12 damage (1/2 chance), 4-10 damage and [[Blink]] (1/3), or [[spatial vortex]] (1/6)
*2: 9-31 damage (3/7 chance), 5-13 damage + confusion + 66% chance blink, 33% chance teleport (2/7), 2-4 spatial vortices (1/7), or banishment (1/7).  If banishment is selected when not possible, instead reroll the effect.
*3: 15-43 damage, 9-25 damage plus teleport and confusion, banishment, or 0-18 glow.  If banishment is selected when not possible, reroll the effect.

==Transmutations==
*1: 1-11 damage or random uselessness
*2: polymorph, 3-25 damage, 0-18 glow, petrify, or confusion
*3: polymorph (1/2 chance), 3-20 damage plus 0-34 glow (1/6), 5-27 damage plus remove mutation (1/6), 5-27 damage plus 1-2 bad mutations (1/6)

==Hell effects==
*[[Miscast_effect#Necromancy|Necromancy]] miscast: 16.66%
*[[Miscast_effect#Summoning|Summoning]] miscast: 8.33%
*[[Miscast_effect#Conjurations|Conjurations]] miscast: 4.16%
*[[Miscast_effect#Charms|Charms]] miscast: 2.08%
*[[Miscast_effect#Hexes|Hexes]] miscast: 2.08%
*Miscast appropriate to each branch: 22.22% ([[Miscast_effect#Fire_magic|Fire magic]] miscast in [[Gehenna]], [[Miscast_effect#Ice_magic|Ice magic]] miscast in [[Cocytus]], [[Miscast_effect#Necromancy|Necromancy]] miscast in [[Tartarus]], and [[Miscast_effect#Earth_magic|Earth magic]] miscast in [[The_Iron_City_of_Dis|Dis]])
*Summon a greater demon appropriate to each branch: 14.15% ([[Brimstone fiend]]s in [[Gehenna]], [[Ice fiend]]s in [[Cocytus]], [[Shadow fiend]]s in [[Tartarus]], and any greater demon in [[The_Iron_City_of_Dis|Dis]])
*Summon 1-5 random monsters: 9.88%
*Nothing happens: 19.75%

==See Also==
[[Magic contamination]]

==History==
Prior to [[0.13]], [[Zot trap]]s inflicted a random severity 3 miscast, instead of having a hardcoded list of effects.

[[Category:Magic]] [[Category:Spells]] [[Category:Crystal Ball Articles]]