What are the symbol combinations to make spells in 'Dungeon Master'?

Question

I just found the DOS game called Dungeon Master. It's a interesting point n' click with combat in turns, spells, puzzles, etc. I was searching some stuff around the DOS-BOX on Windows 93 when I found it.

But there is one thing about this game I don't understand. To cast a spell, you need to put symbols in a input, which when combined, turns into a spell. So, can you guys explain to me how do they work and what are the combinations? I'm not getting able to progress forward in the game without a spell to help me in combat.

Answer 1

I found a guide on GameFaqs that seems to cover Spells (section 6.), I never played the game and cannot make any sense of it, but hopefully it'll help you.

Spells are made of 2 to 4 runes. The first rune is the "power" of the spell (which affects the strength, duration, and mana cost). The other 1 to 3 rune(s) designate the spell itself. High power spells cannot be cast by low skilled heroes.

Each rune costs mana points, depending on the selected power...

Answer 2

To cast spells in Dungeon Master you have to combine runes.

The spells are found on scrolls throughout the game, but they use the names of the symbols rather than the symbols themselves. This is actually a copy protection feature, as the manual gives the names of each symbol in a chart. There's a comprehensive list here on the most comprehensive Dungeon Master website around.

The first scroll you find says cast FUL for a magic torch, if you look at the table on the link (or directly at the rune chart from the manual) then you'll see the symbol for FUL. The first glyph is the power, so initially you want to be using level 1 of the power or your spells will fail.

So you'd click the first rune, which looks like <<, followed by the rune that looks like (\), and then click the box where both runes appear to cast it.

If you grab a copy of the manual you can read what each glyph signifies, which allows you to sometimes infer spells rather than using blind trial and error.

Note that there's also a windows port of the atari ST version of the game which you might prefer to using the DOS emulated version (since it will run natively). There's also a very active forum for the game if you get stuck or want to ask questions.