Chapter 18: Spell Sets

When a wand component, and by extension a wand crafted with that component, excels at casting a certain spell, it often excels at casting closely related spells. A related set of spells that all have the same elemental or phase and that tend as a group to be exceptionally well strengthened or focused by wands having certain component(s) is called a spell set. For example, if a wand is crafted with a component having the elemental Air and this wand excels at casting one weather control spell, then that wand will tend to excel at casting all weather control spells.

Spell sets are very useful to wand makers. When crafting a commissioned wand for a mage who will be casting numerous spells that control the weather, it is sufficient to consider wand components that excel at casting spells in the weather control spell set. The wand maker does not need to consider individual weather control spells such as such as Creare caligine (create mist), Creare caligo (create fog), Creare fortis ventis (create wind), Creare fulgur (create lightning), Creare nubibus (create clouds), Creare tempestas (create storm), and Creare turbo (create tornado).

Although a single spell set contain spells that achieve similar ends, all of these spells do not always have the same elemental or phase. Some spell sets have two, and very occasionally, some even have three. For example, as the following table shows, the spell set Be Bound contains three different types of spells: Earth spells, dark spells, and twilight spells. This is why it is important to learn the special cases of mixed spell sets; assuming that all spells in the same spell set are especially well strengthened or focused by wand components have the same elemental or phase can lead the wand maker astray when choosing the wand's composition.