September 2, 2000
Some of the most important items in Medievia are expendable items such as scrolls, wands, potions, and staves. However as a newbie, one tends to have a very limited grasp of what these items can do and just how important they are. The purpose of this guide is to make all of Medievia's new players better understand the system of expendable items. Because of this, I have decided to divide this article into 3 sections, offensive items, defensive items, and miscellaneous items.
There are many different offensive items in the world of medievia, the vast majority of which are staves or wands (at least one newbies can afford :)). In my opinion, the best and most versatile of the lot is the heavy oak staff from Riverton. This staff is so powerful that I recommend that most newbies keep a large supply on their person at all times. This staff casts a level 22 harm spell 8 times. While this spell, will overpower single newbie mobs very quickly, the real power of this staff lies in its ability to room-spell the spell effects (therefore casting harm on all mobs in the room). This can utterly devastate groups of mobs you never even dreamed you could take on single-handedly. There are only a few drawbacks to this staff, some of which include its weight (10 stones), its cost (1000 coins) and its restrictions (level 14 and Anti-Good).
Now while the heavy oak staff is great for those newbies of higher levels, it still hasn't solved the problems of those newbies at the lower levels. The offensive wand I recommend for newbies lower than level 10 or so is the platinum wand available in Karlisna or the gold and platinum banded wand available in the Mage's quarter of Medievia City. The platinum wand casts a level 10 magic missile spell 10 times while the gold and platinum banded wand cats the same spell three times. Of the two the gold and platinum anded wand is a far better deal as it holds 3 charges instead of 10 it costs far less (55 coins compared to 2090 coins) and weighs only 1 instead of 8 for the Karlisna model. Therefore one can carry 24 charges instead of 10 for the same weight and far less gold. Just make sure you have plenty of containers handy!
There are other offensive wands or staves newbies could use, such as the opalescent wand (casts a level 9 lightning bolt 5 times, and is available in Karlisna for 583 coins), the wand of fireballs (casts a level 15 fireball five times, and is available in Karlisna and Riverton for 506 coins. Remember not to use this inside though as you will scorch yourself and your form), and the prism wand (casts a level 11 colour spray 5 times, and is available in Karlisna and Riverton for 7700 coins. However, the two versions of the platinum wand and the heavy oak staff are the two attacking items I used to gain my initial levels and they are also the two I recommend everyone use if they want to level quickly.
I consider defensive items to be any items that cast spells that are a) healing or b) that affect your combat performance. The vast majority of these items are potions and there are quite a few. I'll start with healing items as they are the most common.
If you are not a cleric, healing items are definitely some of the most important items you will ever find. They can help you survive a long combat or recuperate on the fly. The most common healing item is the green potion. This potion casts a level 20 cure critic spell on the quaffer. The easiest way to get these potions is just to pick them up off mob's corpses, but you can also buy them from the Labyrinth, New Ashton or from auction where I have seen bags of almost 100 go for reasonable prices. A more powerful variant is available in Trellor (enter trellor at Medievia City's portal). These are known as golden seal potions and cast a level 21 cure critic spell. While these do heal more hitpoints, they also weigh twice as much so most people go totally with greens. There are other healing potions, such as tan, and potions of life- bringing, but tan is very weak and potions of life-bringing and others like it go for quite a lot of money on auction. Healing rods are also an option but are probably to expensive for most newbies. Therefore, as a newbie I would use either green or gold healing potions.
I consider other defensive items to be any that alter your combat performance for the better (yes I do include bless in this category). Really, the only potion in this category a newbie will need is potions of godlike protection available in the Medievia City market. These potions cast armor (armor class - 30) and bless (5 hitroll, -1 saving spell), and are essential for non clerics. You might also consider cloudy potions (available in Trellor), which affect your strength (great for warriors and thieves) and also cast invisibility on you, which can be really helpful for avoiding those mobs that are to tough for your level, or to weak, Effervescent potions (available on Ungiri village mobs) also cast strength and will not cost you anything if you kill the mob. Potions of protection (- 110 to armor class (they cast armor, a level 30 spell of stoneskin and shield)) are excellent but expect to pay a hefty price for them on auction (also always remember not to use stoneskin in a form unless you are a current class mage). Another potion available in the Ungiri village is the deep blue potion which casts remove curse and remove poison, both of which are nice spells to have. A variant on this are Yrani roots from the Medievia City market which also cast remove poison, but cost next to nothing.
All that said, the most sought after item in this category are green and blue orbs which cast sanctuary on every person or mobile in the room. These are great as they save tons of mana and time (imagine casting sanctuary on your whole formation at 75 mana a time). They are found on mobile's corpses, but are rare. If you cant find one on a corpse you will have to look to auction where green orbs (4 charges) fetch around 50000 coins and blue orbs (10 charges) fetch around 100000 coins. All prices are subject to wild variations dependant on number of people on, a bidder's desire to obtain the item and whether or not confetti has recently been rained.
One thing you will notice about scrolls as you continue to learn more about Medievia, is that scrolls are almost exclusively for non-casters. Every single scroll I have seen can be performed as a spell by at least one of the two casting classes, usually both (this also applies to potions). The most useful scroll in Medievia is probably the scroll of identify which casts identify on the scroll's target. This allows you to see the items statistics (exactly what the machine in the donation room does), and will save you a ton of work. Almost all the other scrolls perform low level cleric or mage spells. Unfortunately there are not that many stores that sell scrolls, and when you do find one they don't sell a huge variety (only a couple). This leads to the problem of how to actually attain the scrolls. There are two solutions to this problem, one being getting a mage to scribe one for you (help scribe gives you the specifics on this spell and also lists virtually all the scrolls one can purchase), the other being buying them from auction (definitely the recommended route).
As mentioned earlier, potions are meant generally for non-casters, the major exception being healing potions. Probably the most common miscellaneous potion is the misty potion. Found on mobile's corpses or bought in the Labyrinth or New Ashton misty potions cast detect invisibility, detect magic, and detect evil on the quaffer (opaline potions, available in Trellor, cast exactly the same spells). This potion is mainly used for the detect invisibility spell, so rather than using misty potions I would recommend most newbies use crystal potions available in Trellor or yellow potions available in the Medievia Castle Mage's Workshop. Other potions which can be useful include amber (Trellor) or orange (Riverton), which both cast sense life, swirling blue and white (available literally everywhere) (word of recall, though it should be noted that talismans of transportation also cast this and are a one time purchase (they regenerate 10 charges of word of recall)), and menthol (available in Riverton and Trellor) (teleport). While there are definitely others that will be useful to single class non-casters those are the major ones I used, and the others are more specific.
Wands of invisibility are very important to non-mages (though guised cloaks and shadow cloaks both can cast this spell). These wands can cast invisibility on people, mobiles, or even equipment, although their small size (2 charges) can be a serious drawback. Another, better, option is clear glass wands available in Riverton, which hold 3 charges and cost 330 coins. Staffs of sleep, can be very interesting, as they cast sleep on mobiles (sleeping mobiles are very vulnerable to attacks), and staffs of ruling (found on the Goblin King or on auction) can charm mobs into your formation (help charm for a detailed explanation of this spell). Remember, though, you cannot charm mobs that carry keys.
Well that's the end of my guide. I know there are a lot of items out there and that I just covered the basic newbies ones. I hope this helped some of you a little bit in progressing on Medievia.