Overview
	Without the utilization of spells your experience gathering efficiency will dwindle
	exponentially as you continue to level.  If you are purposefully sacrificing the
	universal spells, and have methods to succeed without them then all is well.
	Otherwise, for the rest of us who need supplemental help to increase experience
	efficiency I have an answer: pay attention to the universal spells, no matter
	which class you are specializing in.

	The universal spells are those that benefit everyone, usually because they tend
	to make experience gathering more efficient.  The universal spells are: armor,
	shield, displacement, sanctuary, cure spells, detect invisibility, fly and
	invisibility.  Some of these help you gain experience faster directly with a
	defensive approach while others	help you to walk safely to places where you need to
	go.

	Artificial Armor
	Armor, shield and displacement are artificial armor spells.  They protect the user
	by directly lowering armor class (ac).  Armor affects ac by -20, shield affects ac
	by -30 and displacement affects ac by -40.  Armor costs 8 mana, shield costs 18 mana
	and displacement costs 24 mana.  Armor is a cleric spell(level 7) while shield and
	displacement are both mage spells(level 12 and 20, respectively).  These spells all
	have a long duration.  Also remember that armor can be cast on others (shield and
	displacement cannot).  These spells are the most important universal spells because
	they are so useful at every level.  They are just as useful to lower-level characters
	as they are for high-level characters.
	
	Players should allow their characters to practice armor, shield and displacement as
	soon as they can.  Obviously a warrior/thief will find practicing displacement
	difficult because it is a level 20 mage spell, but the general rule of thumb is to
	get them as soon as possible.  The better your armor class the less time you have to
	spend regenerating hitpoints.
	
	Other Protection Spells
	Sanctuary and stone skin are protection spells that decrease damage inflicted to the
	character affected by the spell.  Sanctuary halves all damage done while stone skin
	only decreases damage from physical (not magical) attacks.  Both of these spells can be
	cast on others.  Stone skin is not a universal spell because it requires the caster
	to be level 25 mage to cast it.  Sanctuary is a universal spell because of its usefulness
	and because it requires its caster to only have at least 13 cleric levels.  Cutting
	half of all damage done to you is an incredible advantage.  Its limitations are its
	cost to cast (75 mana) and its short duration (18 minutes).

	Since sanctuary has these limitations other things must be considered before spending
	practices on it.  Low-level characters using sanctuary can be overkill.  If a
	character is not getting hit too hard in battle and is gaining a good amount of
	experience then sanctuary might not be necessary.  Those who use offensive spells to do
	damage for experience may find that the loss of 75 mana before battle is not worth the
	benefits.  It is tough to make generalizations about this spell, but here are some
	guidelines anyway:  Lower-level warriors and thieves tend to benefit more from
	sanctuary than mages and clerics who need their mana for doing spell damage.  But
	sanctuary is one of the most powerful spells in the game.  Why?  Because its
	usefulness increases as your levels do.  In many cases lower-level characters will
	benefit more from cure spells.

	Take this example:  You are killing some mobs without sanctuary.  You began with
	300hp 250m 150mv.  You come out of the battle with 200hp 100m 100mv (you used some
	damage spells).  Had you used sanctuary you would have ended up with 250hp 25m 100mv.
	But instead you are a wiser newbie and you cast heal at the end of battle (this is
	just an example to show an example with numbers, most likely some other cure spell
	would be used because heal is a high level cleric spell).  You have 300hp 50m 100mv.
	You increased 50hp and saved 25 mana.

	And now a high level example:  You do not practice sanctuary ever because you read my
	example above and did not want to read anymore.  You start your killing with
	600hp 500m 230mv.  When you are done you have 200hp 200m 190mv.  You cast heal 4 times
	sending you to 600hp 0m 190mv.  Had you cast sanctuary at the beginning it would have
	gone like this:  600hp 500m 230mv -> 400hp 125m 190mv (mana for sanctuary and mana used
	to kill the mobs) -> (2 heals) 600hp 25m 190mv.  Again this is not a real example but
	only to show simple numbers.  Real scenarios of this type actually tend to be more	
	dramatic than saving only 25 mana.

	Cure Spells
	Cure spells are spells that restore hitpoints.  They may be cast on yourself or others.
	They are clerical spells that must be learned in progression.  So although these spells
	are generally useful for every character to have, there are exceptions.  These exceptions
	tend to	be characters that made cleric their fourth or third class.

	The cure spells are cure light, cure serious, cure critical and heal.  Cure critical is
	the spell that is most universal.  It is level 15 cleric, costs 28 mana and restores a
	good amount of hitpoints.  The major downside is that because these spells must be
	practiced in progression it means that cure light and cure serious must be practiced
	first.  So you can expect to spend 6 practices on cure critical.  But most likely you
	will find that it is worth it.

	Why decrease mana to increase hitpoints?  Well there is one obvious answer to this and
	another not-so-obvious answer.  The obvious answer is so that you do not die when you
	are fighting, or so you can restore enough hitpoints to continue without dying.  The
	less obvious answer is that as your levels increase in most cases you start to
	regenerate more mana than hitpoints, especially if you are a cleric or mage.  In effect
	you can increase your hitpoint regeneration rate by casting a heal spell.  Of course
	having heal is not an excuse to ignore protection spells.  See my example for sanctuary
	if you do not believe me!

	Other Universal Spells
	Fly is not a necessity unless you need to travel through rooms where you could fall,
	or rooms that you need fly.  What makes fly universal is its broad range of usefulness
	and its relatively low casting level (level 16 mage, 22 cleric).  As already noted this
	spell is useful for walking through air-rooms, but there are other uses this spell has
	hidden too.  The user can also levitate over water, eliminating the need for a boat.
	Another added advantage to this spell is that movement costs are decreased when the
	spell is in use.  This makes walking great distances easy.

	Invisibility cannot be learned without knowing detect invisibility.  Invisibility is an
	important spell mid- to high-level spell.  There are just some areas that you cannot
	survive in without it.  They are the areas that have lots of mobs that attack you on
	sight.  It saves much time and frustration if you can make your form invisible.  What
	they can't see can't hurt you.  Invisibility is level 22 mage and costs 45 mana.

(Posted 3/10/01)