Magic is a late-blooming path. You begin the game with just 2 Max Mana and no way to cast, so a mage run is really a plan you set in motion early and pay off later. This guide covers the road to becoming a 
Fire Mage, where your Mana comes from, how the Magic Circles work, and the spells worth chasing.
How to become a mage
Magic only opens up later, so spend the opening chapters leveling and farming Ore. The clearest route is to join the Old Camp and follow the Fire Mage path, which trains you up to the 6th Magic Circle. Higher Circles unlock more powerful spells.
Joining the Old Camp locks you out of the New Camp and Swamp Camp for that playthrough. The New Camp's Water Mage path also reaches the 6th Circle, but the Swamp Camp's magic is capped at the 4th Circle.
Once Casting Shadows grants you inner-castle access, two quests set up your magic. A Letter From the Fire Mages rewards you when you give the letter to Milten unopened and then take the 
Essence of Spirit potion from 
Torrez for +2 Max Mana. The Price of Magic awards your first rune, where you choose between the Fire Rune and the Healing Rune.
Mana and learning magic
To cast at all you first learn Novice Magician from Torrez in the Old Camp, which lets you use Runes. After that, invest 2 to 5 Learning Points into the Mana skill, trained by Chronos in the New Camp. Chronos does not require you to join the New Camp, so this is open to you even as an Old Camp mage. More Mana means you can cast Firebolt more often.
Mana also gates scrolls. If you try to cast without the required Mana, the spell fails but the Mana is still consumed, so check your pool before casting from a one-use scroll.
Do not hoard every Learning Point for magic. A mage still needs to fight and explore, so reach the Trained tier of One-Handed Weapons, keep raising Strength and Dexterity, and pick up Acrobatics for the dodge roll and Climbing for exploration.
Build items to pre-gather
- Firebolt Rune: the first rune reward from The Price of Magic with Torrez in the Old Camp, available in Chapter 1.
- Essence of Spirit: from delivering the
Sealed Letter to Milten in the Old Camp castle in Chapter 1, granting +2 Max Mana. - Ball Lightning Rune: in a chest by the cliffside ruins east of the Swamp Camp, guarded by two
Zombies, and it requires the 2nd Circle of Magic to use. - Fist of Wind Inscription: at the cliff camp near Temple Square in the Swamp Camp, reachable only after you learn Climbing from
Theron via the Aiming High quest.
Spells, scrolls, and runes
Every spell is cast from a Scroll, which is single use, or a Rune, which is reusable and wielded like a weapon. Both are bought from merchants such as Torrez. The table below lists the notable spells with their form, mana cost, and effect. Some spells exist as both a Scroll and a Rune with slightly different mana costs.
| Spell | Form | Mana | Effect |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fire Bolt | Rune | 1 initial + 1/sec charge | 35 Fire damage per second |
| Fireball | Scroll | 5 / 7 / 10 by charge tier | 60 / 90 / 120 Fire damage |
| Fireball | Rune | 5 / 7 / 9 by charge tier | 60 / 90 / 120 Fire damage |
| Fist of Wind | Scroll | 2 | 20 Wind damage |
| Healing | Rune | 2 initial + 1/sec charge | Restores HP |
| Light | Scroll | 5 | Light source |
| Light | Rune | 6 | Light source |
| Charm | Scroll | 5 | Charms or persuades the target |
| Sleep | Scroll | 3 | Puts the target to sleep |
On top of these, there are 14 creature transformation scrolls. Mana cost scales with the creature: the 
Meatbug, 
Molerat, and 
Scavenger forms cost 5 Mana each, while the toughest forms such as the 
Snapper and Shadowbeast cost 25 Mana.
The list above gives mana costs and forms only; it does not state which Magic Circle each spell needs. Circle gating shows up on individual spells, for example the Ball Lightning Rune requires the 2nd Circle before it will cast.