Magery is a skill that uses magic spells. In order to cast magic spells, the mage requires reagents.
There are 8 different reagents:
Black Pearl, Nightshade, Sulfurous Ash, Blood Moss, Mandrake Root,
Ginseng, Spider's Silk & Garlic.
Each spell uses a different combination of these reagents.
Spells are written on scrolls which can be purchased from Mage Shops or be crafted by a Scribe (a player with Inscription skill). There are a total of 64 spells in 8 difficulty levels (called circles). Mages store their spells in a Spellbook so they only have to have one copy of each scroll. The spellbook can be opened by double clicking on it. The spells are sorted into difficulty circles: 8 spells per circle. As you develop your magery skill you will find yourself "fizzling" on higher level spells. Continue working at it and when you get to Grandmaster level (100.0 skill) you will rarely fizzle.
Setting Up Your Spells:
Since a Mage relies entirely on their spells, these spells must be easily accessible when needed. If you have not already done so: Go into your Options menu on the Paperdoll. Click on the second tab on the right (looks like an eye). Where it reads "Game Play Window Size" make sure 640x480 is selected. This will leave a black area around your game window to place shortcuts to your spells.
To set up your shortcuts, open your spellbook (double click it), click on the spell you'd like to create a shortcut for. The spell page will open and you will see a little icon on the page. Drag this icon off the book and place it in the black area below your game window. Now each time you want to cast that spell all you have to do is double click this icon. A typical mage setup looks something like this:
Each player sets up their screen differentely, depending on their skill level, favorite
spells, etc.
Mages also benefit from having high Intelligence, Meditation skill and Evaluating Intelligence skill and/or Inscription skill.
Casting Magery directly from scrolls:
When casting from a scroll, the game treats that scroll as if it were 2 spell Circles lower in order to determine chance of success. (For example, if a player were to cast the 8th Circle spell Resurrection from a scroll in order to restore a fallen comrade to life, that player would have to be able to cast 6th Circle spells and would have a chance to cast that scroll equal to his success rate of casting spells of the 6th Circle.) So if you have low Magery skill you can still use the more advanced spells by casting directly from the scrolls, instead of using a Spellbook. Just double click the scroll to use it. Keep in mind though that scrolls still take the same amount of mana that the spell normally would.
Lower Reagent Cost (LRC) & Lower Mana Cost (LMC) items:
LRC items spawn as both jewelry and armor, and each 1% LRC gives a 1% chance of a spell not requiring any reagent to cast. As different items with this property stack, it's possible to get this property to 100%, which means that you can cast spells without ever using a reagent (note: this works for chivalry and necromancy as well, but no other skill).
LMC items are very similar to LRC items, except that they enable the Mage to use less mana each time a spell is cast.
Mage weapons:
These weapons temporarily lower your magery by 20-30 points when you have them equipped, and if you can find a spell channeling one (allowing you to cast with it; wands are excellent) you can cast much lower circles of spells than normal and still expect to see gains; for instance, if you're at 90 show real magery and equip a -28 mage weapon wand, you'll be at 62 displayed magery, and be able to gain from 5th circle spells instead of having to cast 7th circle - that's a nice 26 mana less per spell you cast! Just don't expect gains to come faster in terms of actual gains, but you will get to try more due to having to spend less mana.
A second use for mage weapons is that you can use them to gain in melee - yes, you can actually hit things with a mage weapon and gain just like a warrior would. How you gain basically relies on the same gain chart as melee gains, just keep in mind that you still have to look at your displayed magery; e.g., as in the example above, you'll want to hit lowly things as corpsers and skeletons due to the 62 displayed magery.
Mage armor:
The failure or success of active (using the skill) Meditation is influenced by the type of armor that you wear. To make sure you can use active meditation, only dress in Leather items or items that have the "Mage Armor" attribute bonus.
Spell Channeling:
Weapons and shields that do not have Spell Channeling on them will un-equip themselves when casting any magery spell or when using the Meditation skill.