The Spell Compendium's Glossary of Terms

       Type |Target | Duration| Effect |Mana/Movement |Saving Throws

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      Type - the type of magic or ability the skill or spell is. Type is defined by both what the spell or skill does and from what source the spell comes from. Spells & Skills can be of two compositetypes (ex: Protective Enchantment or Elemental Conjuring).
        Ability - something that is learned through much practice.  Typically does not need any outsideinfluence.
        Combat - a learned, psychical skill used in combat.
        Conjuring - a spell that requires a caster using his mana to conjure matter (organic & non organic).
        Elemental - involves envoking the power of an elemental to be cast.
        Enchantment - the spell or skill allows the caster to place an enchantment.
        Healing - the spell or skill can heal back your attributes.
        Protective - gives the caster a better chance at survival, adds to an attribute or gives you anenchantment that is to your liking.
        Offensive - spell or skill causes injury to the target.
        Religious - These spells will bring praise to the spellcaster's diety.  They can invoke the direct blessings of your deity, or where once taught to your guild by the diety itself.
        Summoning - caster summons a monster that is already in existence (unlike conjuring).
        Zen - a spell that is gained on the psionist's journey to 'zen'.
      Target - whom the spell or skill is aimed at. Can be Self, Friend (playing or non-playing character you are grouped with), Enemy (someone you are fighting or otherwise doing harm too by stealing, enchanting or charming), or Area (powerful spells that affect all the people or objects in rooms within the same geographical features, i.e., within the same building, valley, or city).
      Duration- how long the effects of the spell or skill last. Some spells can accumulate durations but not effects. Durations are usually gives in hours, and many spells have instantaneous effects, such as reducing health points (offensive spells), or spells that can conjure a monster, person or object(conjuring and elemental types).
      Effect - what the spell or skill does.Damage is represented as a die roll, ex: 9d9 +9 would be 9-81 +9. All spells causing damage will do more damage the higher level the spellcaster is. This is represented in the chart below.

      *note: if a level 40+ caster casts an offensive spell, the damage is found by taking the level of the caster and subtracting 40 from it, divide that number by 2 and then add a base of 5.  That number (listed below) is what you mulitply the damage dice of a spell to. So if you are level 48 casting 'harm', you would multiply the damage of the spell (8d8 +8) by 9, doing 80-584 points of damage.

      Spellcaster's Level Mulitply Spell's Damage by: Spellcaster's Level Mulitply Spell's Damage by:
      25 2 44 7
      30 3 45 7 1/2
      35 4 46 8
      40 5 47 8 1/2
      41 5 1/2 48 9
      42 6 49 9 1/2
      43 6 1/2 50 10
      Mana/Move - how much mana or movement the spell or skill uses to cast. If you learn a spell at level 3 with a mana of 20-40 (+2), the cost of the spell when you first learn it would be 20 mana points, at 4th level 22 mana points, 5th level 24 mana points, etc. until it reaches the maximum of 40 at level 13, and would then never raise above 40. *You must have the maximum number of mana points to cast the spell, so even if you have 80 mana points and the spell has a mana of 50-100 (+2), you would not be able to cast the spell. See mana's full description for more details.
      Saving Throw - determines which saving throw, if any, is needed to resist the effects, and which effects can be resisted.  The most common saving throw used is saving throw versus spells, which measures your ability to block the effects of offensive spells cast upon you. Many spells do not allow a saving throw, and the save for each spell is unique (though most will allow the character to absorb only half damage). See saving throw vs. spells to view your saving throws rating per level.
       

      Many other types of saving throws (save vs. paralyze,  vs. fire,  vs. poison and save vs. breath weaponscan be viewed in the Player's Attribute page under Saving Throws.