Idlechasing for wizards

From Discworld MUD Wiki

Wizards are not the most newbie-friendly when it comes to idlechasing. Getting most out of the commands available requires reasonably high skills and a vast amount of guild points. However, at the other end of the scale, you can have an alias 10 seconds long with a 5 minute gap inbetween. This to many is the holy grail of idlechasing.

Contents 1 Spells 2 Guild Commands 2.1 Octograve 2.2 Scribe 2.3 Recharge 3 Minor Guild Commands 3.1 Contemplate 3.2 Spellcheck 4 Thaums 5 Example Aliases 5.1 Example 1 5.2 Example 2 6 Footnotes

[edit] Spells

Spells should only really be used in the early stages when TMs are more likely and you don't have access to the better idlechasing commands (The Spellcheck Project can help you decide which spells to use if you're chasing TMs, and Sekiri's site has lists of spells and where to find them). Note that all spells give 15x GP to XP rate, and 'cast'ing different spells counts as using different commands.

The following is a list of commonly used idling spells, in order of GP cost:

Spell	GP	XP	Notes
Fabrication Classification Identification	45	675	Can be cast on any item, you do not need an artifact.
Brassica Oleracea Ambulata	40	600	Eat the summoned cabbages for the achievements 'Cabbage Cruncher 1000' and 'Coleslawter'.
Floron's Fabulous Mirror	40	600	Gazing into the mirror after casting is not necessary.
Wurphle's Midnight Snack	35	525	Requires extra alias time to drop and bury the summoned food.[1] Summon roast sheep for the 'Founder of the Feast' achievement.
Duander's Thaumic Luminosity Disperser	30	450	Requires a light to extinguish. (See MWLC)
Collatrap's Instant Pickling Stick	20	300	Requires extra alias time to drop the stick and bury it if necessary.[2]
Objandeller's Thaumic Funnel	15	225	Requires extra alias time to drop the funnel and bury it if necessary[3]
Master Woddeley's Luminescent Companion	15	225
Torqvald's Many Colours	15	225
Eringyas' Surprising Bouquet	10	150	Requires extra alias time to drop and bury the bouquet.[4]
Friddlefrod's Hydratic Extrusion	10	150	Will make you slightly wet if you were already dry (Which you probably will be).
Grisald's Chilly Touch	10	150

[edit] Guild Commands

This is where the XP comes from. Wizards have three unique 30x commands, they are:

[edit] Octograve

The simplest of the commands, costs 50 GP and gives 1500 XP with no complications, all that is required is a staff or cane. Octograve should be learnt as quickly as possible (31 levels in magic.items.staff).

Note that if your skills are too low there is a risk you will drop your staff in the process, just remember to pick it up again.

[edit] Scribe

Scribe is slightly more complex, given that you must include holding a quill, making a piece of paper available and disposing of the resulting scroll if necessary. After Octograve, learning scribe should be your second priority (51 levels of magic.items.scroll).

Scribing a spell costs the same amount of GP as it would to cast it. The best way to include scribe in your alias is to get yourself a small piece of cigarette paper to ensure your mind balks when you try to scribe the spell, cutting out the dropping and burying of the scroll and having to restock on paper. However, if you want to chase the scribing achievements while idling this is a reasonable option.

Quills and cheap flimsy chapbooks^[5] are available for this purpose at Salter Rhogain's Legibles, inside the Magical Supplies Emporium, Ankh Morpork, and various other locations.

The current largest spell to scribe is Crondor's Marvellous Sequestration, costing 350 GP and giving 10500 XP. Professor Flambardie's Grim Amulet is also a popular choice, costing 200 GP and giving 6000 XP.

[edit] Recharge

Recharge is the hardest and most expensive command to use as an idlechasing Wizard. It requires 100 levels in magic.items to learn.

Due to the changes to recharge it is no longer a viable option to be used in the common idle alias. Now recharge only takes gp when it is successful, so you'd always need new reagents.

Unlike the other commands, Recharge requires a consumed reagent to use. This can be either a charged black shell, purple mineral powder or grey dust. Grey dust is impractical to use as it is 100x less powerful than purple mineral powder and can only be obtained in small amounts.

As charges are added to the artifact each time the command is used, the wizards must either use them, remove them with a wand of cancellation or let the artifact explode and replace it with another.

The GP cost of recharge depends on the artifact used. The following is a list of known artifacts and GP costs:

Artifact	GP	XP	Obtainable from
Balsa wand	240	7200	Magical Supplies Emporium Sator Square
Black fluted wand	220	6600	The Majjik Stall
Long white wand	220	6600	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts
Red staff	210	6300	Hillshire Magic Shop, Magic & Meddlers
Charred wand	200	6000	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts, The Majjik Stall
Blue crystal ring	190	5700	Hillshire Magic Shop, Magic & Meddlers
Grey wand	180	5400	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts
Pink crystal ring (Ring of Energy)	180	5400	Hillshire Magic Shop, Stumplott's Taliasmans
Thin stick	180	5400	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts, Hillshire Magic Shop
Pine wand	165	4950	Hobliet's
Short wand	155	4650	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts
Oak wand	55	1650	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts, The Majjik Stall
Small stick	55	1650	The Majjik Stall, Summoned with CIPS
Yellow wand	25	750	Hobliet's, BP Artifacts, The Majjik Stall, High Tide Market

[edit] Minor Guild Commands

These commands give only 10x GP to XP, and thus should be avoided like the plague.

[edit] Contemplate

Contemplate uses all of your GP to have a good think about the spell. TMs are possible, but quite unlikely.

[edit] Spellcheck

Spellcheck costs 25 GP per stage of the spell checked. Full spellchecking, i.e. checking each stage of a spell, counts as repeating the command and thus is fairly useless for idlechasing purposes.

[edit] Thaums

One disadvantage of using a spell-heavy alias is that casting spells in a room with high levels of background magic may cause you to take damage, or even break and lose limbs. See thaums for more information.

[edit] Example Aliases

Here are a few examples from players so you get a general idea of how things work.

[edit] Example 1

GP: 490

hide
unhide
conceal my staff
unconceal my staff
get whistle from <container>
blow whistle
play whistle
perform solo with whistle
serenade human 1 with whistle
slip whistle into <containter>
hold staff
octograve
get quill, cigarette paper from <container> into left hand
scribe Crondor's Marvellous Sequestration on my cigarette paper with quill
put quill, cigarette paper into my <container>

This is the best 4gp regen alias, the concept is to fill the 9 15x filler commands needed with the lowest gp expended, so the 30x commands can be fired off as much as possible.

Other 10gp commands such as the following can be substituted depending on the players failure rates on hide and conceal
palm <item> from <container>
consult <map>
read thaumometer
point thaumometer at < enchanted item>
peek human 1

[edit] Example 2

GP: 440

hide
unhide
conceal my <object>
unconceal my <object>
octograve with my staff
scribe Crondor's Marvellous Sequestration on my cigarette paper with quill

This alias is the best 3gp regen alias Other 10 gp commands listed in the previous 4gp regen alias and list can be substituted for
hide, unhide, conceal and unconceal

[edit] Footnotes

1. ↑ Not burying summoned food or flowers will result in a lot of spam, especially when the food starts to rot. Small Sticks and Blue Funnels, however, produce minimal spam and can be useful in some situations.
2. ↑ See footnote #1.
3. ↑ See footnote #1.
4. ↑ See footnote #1.
5. ↑ The best way to incorporate chapbook scribing into your aliases is to buy them in bulk, but before putting them into your bag 'open chapbooks' and use 'get open chapbook from <container>' in your alias. When the last page of a chapbook is torn out it automatically closes, so this way you don't have to worry about trying to tear a page out of an empty chapbook.