spellcasting questions

[quarague]

I played a couple of rogue-likes before but new angband. A few questions on spell casting that I didn't find in the help files, playing v3.3.2.
1) what does 'advanced spell casting' mean? I've been playing mostly rangers and they are still fairly good at spell casting. A mage could cast the same spells, only difference I noticed was that the level requirement seemed to be much lower.
2) is the failure rate a best case scenario or is it always the exact percentage?
Ie if I'm down to a quarter of my hitpoints and half a dozen strong monsters surround me, do I still get the same failure rate as fully healed in town?
3) failure rate decreases with level ups, does it also depend on frequency of casting, or if I ever tried to cast this spell before?
4) minimum failure rate seems to be 5 or 6%, does this ever change? What does it depend on?
5) some spells in the initial spell book are 'illegible', is it random on character generations which ones you miss? Is there a way to get these spells later on?
Thats all I can think of for now, thanks

[Magnate]

1) what does 'advanced spell casting' mean? I've been playing mostly rangers and they are still fairly good at spell casting. A mage could cast the same spells, only difference I noticed was that the level requirement seemed to be much lower.

This means that mages (and priests) can achieve 0% failure when casting. Other spellcasters can never do better than 5% fail.

2) is the failure rate a best case scenario or is it always the exact percentage?
Ie if I'm down to a quarter of my hitpoints and half a dozen strong monsters surround me, do I still get the same failure rate as fully healed in town?

I don't think loss of hitpoints affects your failure rate, but insufficient mana does, badly. Some other status conditions increase failure rate too (stunning and fear spring to mind; not sure about others).

3) failure rate decreases with level ups, does it also depend on frequency of casting, or if I ever tried to cast this spell before?

No, not in Angband.

4) minimum failure rate seems to be 5 or 6%, does this ever change? What does it depend on?

It depends on your class (see 1 above) and your spell stat. IIRC, to get a mage or priest down to 0% you need 18/200 in your spell stat. Getting other casters down to their 5% minimum is much easier (18/50 or so).

5) some spells in the initial spell book are 'illegible', is it random on character generations which ones you miss? Is there a way to get these spells later on?

No, this is because all casters of the same realm share the same books, but they can't all cast the same spells. So a mage will see the rogue-only spells as "illegible", and vice versa.

[relic]

You will probably get several responses to your questions, I will try to answer some:

1. Advanced spell casting could be referring to using the higher spell books found in the dungeon


2. Spell failure rate does note depend on your hitpoints, but only on your spell casting stat (i.e. INT or WIS) and your level (as you note in question 3).

If your mana is less than you need for casting a particular spell that may increase the spell failure and also if you are stunned. This last statement could very well be wrong, if so someone will surely correct me. :-)


3. As far as I know, failure rate does not depend on frequency of casting.


4.Minimum failure rate is 5% for rangers, paladins and rogues. Mages and priests can get 0% failure rate at high enough levels.


5. Illegible spells are not available for that particular class, that is, a ranger can not get access to some spell that a mage gets for example.

[Siggesigge]

Also, to clarify, the failure rate is the exact percentage, i.e. if your failure rate for some reason changes (low mana, stunning, using blunt weapons as a priest, probably a few others) it will show when you browse the book.