Part 1: Proper Hydration

Update 001: Proper Hydration



And thus, the LP begins! Four survivors from the village of Sweet Water, chosen by fate(and Falagar), have been whisked to safety by magic and spent three years "training" to become the heroes Enroth needs and deserves. Let's have a look at them, shall we?



Say hello to Deadeye, Agnes, Richmond and Bobelix. I went with Deadeye and Richmond because they got multiple votes, and then Bobelix because someone choosing that image couldn't be ignored... and then Agnes was a perfect fit both because a Druid would round out the party's magic and you can't have Obelix without a druid.

Aside from picking a name, profile image and class for each character, we also have a pool of discretionary points and two extra skills we can teach them(different for each class). The skills are less vital since we'll eventually be able to learn them all in-game, but some will take a bit to reach a trainer for, since the starting town doesn't have them all.

The stats should largely explain themselves. Strength makes you hit things harder, Accuracy makes you land more hits with melee and bows, Endurance increases your total hit points(and helps shrug off an array of conditions), Speed reduces the cooldown between attacks and spells and Luck plays a large role in resisting status effects. Personality and Intellect, however, are a bit more vague. Personality gives bonus spell points for paladins, clerics and druids, and intellect gives bonus spell points for archers, sorcerers and druids. They also help you resist curses and insanity, respectively. To complicate things, however, each stat's number is translated into an "effect." For instance, a stat has the same effect at 13 and 14, and then at 15 and 16 a +1, 17 and 18 a +2, and so on upwards, but the "break points" where you gain benefits start growing longer and longer apart until eventually at 500 your stat no longer benefits you any more, so you want to spread stat boosts around some.



The stat assignments should mostly speak for themselves, except for the "dumped" luck, but there'll be an explanation for that shortly, too. Skill-wise, I wanted Deadeye and Bobelix to get some armor to start off with(though I later learned that armor is largely overrated, even with the maximum armor rating in the game and the worst attacker, you'll apparently be lucky to evade 50% of all attacks. Armor in this game reduces chance of getting hit, not the damage taken), having a trap disarmer speaks for itself(there are no locks, but most containers will absolutely have traps), Agnes takes meditation since it boosts her SP total and Richmond takes more magic types since it gives him some free spells(the two lowest-tier ones) if he starts with them, while learning new magic skills themselves is also quite expensive and I'll be a bit strapped for gold at the start.

Then I hit the thumbs up icon and get the game's first loading screen. There's only one, and on a modern machine I'll only be seeing it for split seconds, but I do like it.



The loading bar is the fireball travelling across the screen and smacking the demon in the face. Always loved it.




Man, I can't believe we're finally out of Falagar's shack! Three years in there, "studying."
Don't be so dismissive, I'm not sure how I'd ever have gotten my Master's in Monster Studies without it.
How's that going to help us save the world? Look, if it wasn't for my finding that letter in a goblin camp when Falagar sent us grocery shopping, we'd still be back there.
Hey, Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber: focus. The letter mentioned a guy here in town who was waiting for the letter. I say we look around, make sure we're not walking into an ambush, and then go have a talk with him.


The letter in question. Good of the villains to mail each other such incredibly incriminating evidence.



Rather than being legible, signs will display their text on the little bar above the portraits when moused-over. In fact this is the only place the game shows you any feedback information, so sometimes it's very easy to miss things happening in the heat of battle.

Looks like a nice enough town.




Looks can be deceiving, anything could be hiding here. For instance, that stable? Could have a dozen rogues in the horse stall ready to ambush us.
Then maybe we should ambush them first! Hah!



See? You're being too negative, just a pair of horseshoes.
We should hang on to those, they're supposed to bring good luck.

I believe all towns in the game barring one have a stable, and every stable has horseshoes in the horse stalls. They're very worth collecting since they're consumable items that give +2 skill points each. Considering that a level-up gives you +5, that's almost a full free level-up if, for instance, you find two, like we did here in New Sorpigal. I like to hang on them to bump me over the edge if I've almost got the points for a skill-up in something.




Wow, they've even got public drinking fountains.
Brimming with typhoid, cholera and industrial pollutants!

Most fountains and wells can be drunk from. In the early game they're mostly beneficial or do nothing, in the later game, they tend to either outright kill you or give you benefits and drawbacks both.



So, go on, tell me, how's this apple orchard going to kill us? Killer slugs, maybe? Pesticides?
Okay, okay, I've just been a bit on edge ever since we almost got killed.
It's been three years, you have to loosen up sometimes. Now, get your bags out, we're scarfing up as many of these as we can.

Fruit trees give you free rations when used, adding +2 to your current supply. Here in New Sorpigal, resting requires one unit of food, and the local inn can top us up to 6 units. Later areas require more food(justified by their being barren, and assuming that the party is collecting delicious-looking rocks and small animals as they go along to supply part of their dietary needs) but also often have innkeepers that can fill the party's food bags better.





Yoink! The best food is free food.
Hey, who's that over there? Is that one of the townspeople? He's in an awful hurry... you don't think we just took his apples, do you?
That's not a townsperson, that's a goblin!

New Sorpigal has no walls or guards, so stepping a bit too close to the edges of town can easily provoke some of the local bad guys to come for you, and while they're obviously scaled to the expected party level(i.e. 1), it's quite easy to fuck up and die. Especially since the game leaves the party with all their weapons and armor unequipped at game start, as well as their spells un-learned, instead just as spellbooks in their inventory.

Most of what you'll run into by accident is likely to be goblins.



Like most enemies in the game, goblins exist in three colour-coded variants. From weakest to strongest they're green, blue and red. Green ones run at you and swing swords, blue ones shoot fire at you from a distance and red ones shoot fire at you from a distance. Red ones can also break your equipment up close. Broken equipment needs repairing and isn't super bad for mages, but for, say, a knight, having a broken weapon would suck bigly. As appropriate for the game's first enemy, though, they're not too complicated.

Hey, I was just about to gut these adventurers, can we get back to that?

Right, sorry.



I don't have my weapon ready!
I don't have my spells ready!


The townspeople stroll around, somewhat unconcerned, while I run through the middle of their town with goblins in pursuit.




What a lovely day. Singing birds, screaming adventurers, growling goblins. I think today I shall have eggs for lunch.

This is all worsened by the fact that I've managed to forget which key attacks, first, even after equipping everyone and then, afterwards, the goblins are in the middle of town and I don't want to blast the peasants. MM6 doesn't have vengeful, teleporting guards like an Elder Scrolls game, but there are downsides to just blasting the townsfolk willy-nilly.





*huff, puff* Okay, shouldn't be any chance of townspeople getting caught in the line of fire up here. Spells and arrows!



With 13 hit points a piece, and attacks and spells around around 1 to 8 damage each at this early stage, goblins can suck up a good number of hits before going down, sometimes. Not to mention that most of the starting offensive spells barring, I believe, the starting Air attack spell, require a successful attack roll to hit, too. This will need remedying as soon as the party has some money.



Is he retreating? I think he's retreating!

Most enemies have the same AI: Zig-zag movement at long range, straight line movement at close range, attack until almost dead and then run for the hills. Fleeing enemies sometimes recover their courage after a while, or if you get within melee range again while chasing them down, but usually they're easily killed. M&M6 doesn't reward behavior like not shooting fleeing enemies in the back.

*Thwock* Bullseye.
I'm not sure how comfortable I am with our first day of adventuring. I almost get cut in half, Deadeye's shooting fleeing enemies in the back and we looted an orchard.
I agree, this is small potatoes, but we'll scale up soon enough. Just gotta find our pacing.
That's not what I mean- oh never mind.



Was that the last of them?
I've got a spell that'll tell us. Hold on.



Note the change to the minimap in the upper right. Wizard Eye is, unlike W&W's knockoff Spirit Eye, an extremely vital spell. It indicates enemies(red), friendlies(green) and corpses(yellow). Once the caster is sufficiently able at magic it'll also indicate dropped loot and "locations of interest" in dungeons, both of which can be very useful.

Looks like there are still a couple in town.
It is our fault, we should go deal with them.
I think I can see my liver through this wound, let me just have a drink of water first.



...huh, a healing fountain. That's handy.

New Sorpigal has, among other things, a healing fountain and a spell point regeneration fountain. They're only good for a certain number of sips per day, but rampant abuse of them will help the party need to rest less and also make sure they stay properly hydrated. Especially in a party as reliant on their spell points as this, especially the SP fountain is super important.



After patching everyone up, a scavenger hunt for surviving goblins ensues, most of them still being in town because they've gotten stuck on geometry or the party ran fast enough to get outside of their aggro distance.



Now let's try that again without the wanton slaughter.
I got a goblin hand stuck in my braids.
Yes, less of that.
While you guys were chasing down the last of the goblins, I went and got a map of New Sorpigal from the local tourist office.



Without a map, New Sorpigal and its environs can hold a few small surprises. Locations 1 through 30 are the town itself, while 31 and 32 are the two local starter dungeons(both of which are somewhat rough). The islands off the shore aren't ones we can visit(at least, not easily or cheaply) at the moment, nor are they ones we want to visit, since they'd eat up the party without needing to stop to chew.

Time for a tour of the town and a chat with some of the wandering NPC's.




Wandering NPC's will generally have two random conversation topics and the option to recruit them. Recruited NPC's take a starting amount of gold, and from then on a % of all your gold earned while they're in the party. In exchange they give you benefits like boosted skills, being able to cast a spell X times per day for free(as far as I know the speedrun strat for M&M6 still involves getting someone who can cast Fly and then abusing an easter egg) or just hanging out and being company. While recruited, they occupy the two coloured glass panes immediately below the minimap.

Let's also take this chance to do a fashion review and see how goofy our crew looks.



Deadeye and Agnes, looking sharp. Also look at how the game just feeds you all your derived stats with no bullshit. What a fucking relief after Wizards & Warriors




I didn't notice that tower when we came in, who do you think lives there?
According to the tourist guide, it's a defunct anti-dragon defense system.
Now that's my kind of infrastructure spending.



At least now we know where the inn with the contact is, but let's poke around town a bit first and see if anyone knows why there are goblins so close to the town limits and willing to chase visitors through the streets with rusty swords.





Houses can have between 1 and 3 residents and come in two types, not counting quest NPC's.

Either they're trainers, like Abdulai, who can upgrade one of your skills from its basic tier to either Expert, or if already Expert, to Master. They'll also usually tell you who can do the next tier of upgrade and have a random conversation topic besides. Upgrading used skills is really vital since it tends to make a big difference for spells and, in the case of non-spell skills, often up to doubles the skill's effect or adds some useful secondary function(for instance, for axes, basic Axe skill increases chance to hit, Expert axe skill also increases attack speed and Master axe skill also adds the skill level to damage done).

Or if they're not trainers, they're random conversation NPC's like Dimi who, being a Child, will always talk about School but also has a random topic besides which is why this eight-year-old is engaging us in a conversation about national politics.







Also like 99% of all the character portraits appear to be New World Computing employees or interns wearing the company's leftover Ren Fest gear. There are a lot of silly hats.



Some locals on the street also refuse to talk to you unless your rep is over(or under) a certain break point. The dialogue becomes somewhat comical when they accuse us of being violent criminals even just as we've started the game.

But I haven't even mugged anyone yet!
How about we make that "never" instead?
I told you guys this town was plotting against us.



Aside from the NPC's, there are also a few utility buildings. On the left here is the training center. A consistent feature of M&M games is that levelling-up requires you to go to a trainer and spend gold, no levelling up in the field. Some people hate that, I don't mind it. On the right is the Buccaneer's Den, which teaches misc. skills(disarming traps, merchant, perception, etc.). It's one of three training guilds, being the Buccaneer's Den, the Mind's Eye and the Blades' End. They're not all present in all towns and I believe they teach different skills from town to town. For instance, here in New Sorpigal there's no one to teach us about Plate Mail or Bows.



Knocking on doors is thirsty work, though, let's get everyone rehydrated.





There are a few stat-boosting fountains around the gameworld, this is one of them. It only has a certain number of charges, and a long recharge period(people disagree whether it's time-based or based on you travelling to another map region and then back again), and it can only shift characters up to a max of 15 Luck, but it does a lot to negate the luck malus I chose at chargen, getting Deadeye up to 15 and Agnes up to 13.

Does this water feel... lucky to anyone?
There's no such thing as lucky water.
What about lucky horseshoes?
Those are just established science. But lucky water...
Maybe it's lucky for people who get paid to build wells.




Eventually I get around to the town hall, I believe every town in the game has one, and that they're also offering at least one quest, alongside several generic services.




You'd figure that their being named "The Shadow Guild" would be proof enough that they're up to no good.
They could argue that they're just unionized shadow puppeteers.

Aside from the Mayor, there's also Janice the Clerk who handles the secondary quest and also some generic services.



She hands us the keys to the small fort across the road from New Sorpigal, tells us that the town gets shipments on tuesdays(I think that means tuesdays are when shop inventories reset?) and informs us that there's a bounty on ghosts. Every town has a new bounty every month, but it's one of those features you'll never use. To find a ghost you'd need to travel multiple zones away and back again which, by itself, would stretch the odds that you'd make it within the month. Secondly, that entire zone is high enough level that by the time you can go there and kill a ghost, the 900-gold bounty wouldn't be hugely valuable(at the moment, 900 gold is a big deal to us, though).

Occasionally you get lucky and the bounty is on a creature from the same area, but I've had that happen like... once, I'd say, in three full playthroughs. And of course there's also the chance that you've completely depopulated the area of said enemy type by the time you get the bounty. Most overworld areas repopulated once a year or every two years, with New Sorpigal repopulating every six months. Dungeons don't repopulate at all.



Stepping out and hydrating a bit from the steroid fountain. Most of the stat-boosting fountains don't really make a big enough difference to be worth chugging from, sadly, though if you wanted to optimize your performance you'd certainly figure out which ones were the most worthwhile(likely any boosting Luck or resistances) and set some beacons to go have a drink before entering a dungeon.

The east side of town hosts most of the stores as well as a couple more quest-dispensing NPC's.





The third one isn't exactly a quest, I suppose, more just an NPC informing us that he'll pay for any cobra eggs we manage to collect. There are a few of these scattered around, and they're important to keep in mind since they're a less RNG-dependent way to make early-game money for spells and gear upgrades.



And finally we make it to the inn.

Alright, let's play it casual. This guy has no reason to doubt we're not his contacts.
The moment he makes a wrong move, I bonk him with my club, got it.
...Richmond please handle this one while I stay out here with Deadeye.



Inns are important as the places where you can guarantee being able to stock up on food, and also where you can waste gold getting drunk so the bartender can give you very lame hints.



Maria's just another lore/rumour NPC.





Andover, who's mentioned in the letter, does in fact pony up some gold, a whole 1000 of it, which'll handle guild memberships(thankfully being per-party and not per-person) and training for now. Spells we want will cost about 600 gold a piece, and learning new magic types will cost about 700 gold a piece. I'd like to have everyone with full magic access for their classes(except dark/light which we won't have for a while yet) by the time I leave New Sorpigal.



So what happened? Did you have to gut him like a fish?
He gave us some money and said he'd give us more if we found a candlestick for him.
A candelabra, but yes, apparently the followers of Baa had a very not suspicious underground temple just across the creek.
So we wait until he's paid us twice and then we gut him. I like how you think, Richmond.


So at this point we have a number of official quests:

Go east to Castle Ironfist and show the letter to the royals.
Search the Baa temple across the river for A Girl, A Big Spider, A Candelabra and Some Eggs.
Bust into Goblinwatch across the road and find the new password for the deeper dungeons.

Nothing tells us which of these to do first or really forces us to do them in any specific order.



Um, where we do we go from here?
Good question, we've got two dungeons that need looting, now I'm thinking we hit Goblinwatch first...
Hold it. We almost got our asses kicked by four goblins and now you want to charge an entire fort of them? Not happening. We're getting in some exercise first.
Please not Crossfit again.
Oh, I've got something better in mind.




...perhaps the goblins are just peacefully camping on their native land?
Or perhaps they're planning to burn New Sorpigal to the ground. You gonna let that happen, Richmond? Bobelix?
No! We should save them!
...I'll get my spellbook.

So, yeah, definitely what I do before hitting either dungeon is to clear out this goblin camp. It's mostly just base goblins and then a single shaman. Approach close enough to aggro a small group, pull, kill, hydrate, repeat until fountains tap out, sleep, take it from the top.



Pretty easy work so far, I can feel myself getting stronger!




Did you really have to say that?
We'll pull back and lure him over the hill so he can't hit us from far away.

Essentially what Agnes said. Ranged enemies can be hard to fight without getting hit since they'll shoot while still at zig-zag range and only stand still while winding up for a shot, which is also when you want to be moving to not get hit.



After one of the rests, I end up getting some "weather." Occasionally you get fog in M&M6 which is just about the only weather system that really exists. Some areas have precipitation, but as a constant effect, not something that hits occasionally(it's a bit away, so we'll see if I remember right!), and aside from that it's just day/night cycles.



Too many! Back! Back!

I end up getting too close to the goblin camp and having to beat a retreat up one of the hills bordering New Sorpigal. Just lucky it was at a climbable angle, enemies can climb any non-vertical wall, but player characters cannot.



...is that a sword in a stone?
Keep running you fool!

Don't you dare stop for that sword.




...arms... burning... need... magic water...

I think about half of the overworld regions in the game have a sword in a stone, if not more. They produce non-set, random swords which I believe are all two-handers, and require more strength and give better swords the deeper in the game they are. I generally remember being deeply disappointed by most of them. I knew Deadeye couldn't pull out that sword, but I wanted to catch his comical face when he tried.

In any case, I think it takes me about a total of three in-game days to clear the goblins from the peninsula east of New Sorpigal.



Some of the last flee down to the docks where they get stuck on the pier. Coaches and ships will safely, and quicker than walking on foot, take you to other cities, but their destinations vary along a set schedule, so they might not be going where you want to go.



As I chase down the goblins, I also aggro some enemies from the south.



Apprentice mages are all ranged, shooting fire, cold and electricity as they advance in ranks. Definitely pinchier to fight than the goblins, especially if you don't have an all-caster party that can blast them from range. I nuke the couple coming over the hill and jam Deadeye's face into the nearby barrels before I piss off any more.



Might and Magic has a thing where it colour-codes stat boosts, and with these barrels being Might and Endurance, Deadeye seemed like the obvious choice.

Why would you drink out of an uncovered barrel standing outside? It was green!
What doesn't kill me makes me stronger!
I want the next one we find!
I'm holding you responsible if he gets dysentery.




Alright, gang. We've cleared out the goblins, now let's check that hut, be careful, could be a goblin king in there.
We could ask that lady before going inside.
What lady?



With enemies not attacking civilians, sometimes they can be found wandering around in slightly incongruous settings.

...I'm just gonna open the door.



Where this guy tells us laser guns are real and he totally knows how to use them and will share his cool tricks.

Well, that was a waste of time.
Oh, I wouldn't call it that. Plenty of cardio, and while you guys were talking to the dude in the hut, I looted the goblin camp. We're rich now.

The party is, in fact, wealthier than they've ever been before. But not exactly rich. The costs of teaching Deadeye how to ID items(to keep down costs) and getting Agnes a spell that scales with skill(I'll make a spell update post after this one), pretty much ends up stripping the party of most of it.



At least Deadeye now has an actual weapon. I went for axes since their higher skill levels also add damage, not just accuracy, based on skill, which will help keep him competitive in melee. Unlike earlier games, as far as I can tell, characters never get more attacks per swing(though they CAN get a quicker cooldown between swings with a combination of skills and stats), so not getting left behind takes a considerable skill investment.



You know, I saw some more goblins across the river to the west.
You haven't had enough of fighting them?
C'mon, Richmond, they could be a danger to New Sorpigal. It's our public duty to go clear them out.




There are two bridges over, and as soon as you cross the northern one, a trigger spawns three goblins behind you. You can just run south(north is a dead end), but it could make a new player panic and make them vulnerable to the additional enemies to the west(visible on the minimap, guarding the old Temple of Baa).



They're a mix of normal goblins, apprentice mages and a single goblin king, so I promptly fall back to give me a chance to shoot them. I back on to the bridge and wait for them to come to me.



...why aren't they coming up the bridge?



Turns out their pathfinding gets them stuck next to the bridge where I can pelt them with arrows and spells pretty much without any resistance. They're so stuck that I can even go back to town and top up from the fountains, and come back, and they're still there. Har har, losers. This is also sufficient to get everyone to level 2.



Richmond's happy face is just so goofy-looking. I spend the extra skillpoints on getting Deadeye better with his bow, Agnes better at earth magic and Richmond better at fire magic(as I just bought him Fire Bolt with the goblin king's treasure). I bank Bobelix's skill points for the moment while I figure out exactly I want him to be good at doing.



Why are we going here? Why are we fighting wizards?
These dickheads shot flaming arrows at us! We're not gonna take that, are we, Bobelix?
No we're not!
See? Two in favour, you're outvoted.
What about me?
I figured as a druid you'd have a pact of neutrality and you'd abstain on all votes that didn't involve animals.
I'm more the "human sacrifices under the full moon"-kind of druid.
So that means...?
You bet I'm all in on this.
CHARGE!





I think they're meant to be tougher than the goblins, but between Deadly Swarm and Firebolt I can now reliably one-shot all of them except for the blue-clad level 3 lightning mages, of which there's all of one.



There are a lot of wizards to kill, though.



This place looks kind of familiar, doesn't it, guys?




Yeah, for some reason Falagar's lawn is crawling with like a hundred angry wizards. I presume he was hosting some sort of Harry Potter cosplay convention and we just gibbed an entire Quidditch field. Falagar does seem to think we're a bit farther into the game than we actually are, though.



On the bright side, they're cosplayers who left behind a huge sword for Bobelix.




And what looks like an old piece of cast-iron cookware for Agnes to wear on her head. While armor and shields require skills, anyone can wear huge clunky metal helmets, boots and gauntlets, so obviously they go to Agnes and Richmond first off.



At least you three can hardly think of any more slaughter to perpetrate around here, the only things moving on the mainland are us and the townsfolk!
You're forgetting Goblinwatch and the Temple of Baa.
But which one do we handle first? Hmmmm.
We could flip a coin!
Heads for Goblinwatch, Tails for the Temple of Baa!

Vote of the Post

Does the coin come down Heads or Tails? I've usually done the Temple of Baa first every time I've played, but guides seem to suggest Goblinwatch first, so I leave this choice up to the thread!

Spells

Spells in M&M6 aren't gated by level or skill level, really only whether your character has access to the right type of magic and can afford(or find) the spellbook. Due to the way scaling works, some also aren't really worth using until you get higher levels of skill or expertise/mastery of the relevant type. So let's have a look at what's reasonably accessible for the party at the moment.

Fire Spells

Torchlight: Generates Light, unlike the spell of the same name in Wizards & Warriors, it actually works. Skill level determines the duration, while Expertise and Mastery makes the light brighter.
Flame Arrow: It does a flat 1d8 damage but requires an attack roll to hit, making it extremely unreliable. Higher skill level increases the bonus to hit, while Expertise and Mastery makes it cheaper to cast, culminating in it being free to cast at Master tier.
Protection From Fire: Protects the entire party against Fire. More skill means more protection, and more mastery means more protection per skill point. Resistances work in the odd way that they have no guaranteed effect and are instead rolled, but each time they're successfully rolled they get rolled again and each successful roll halves damage, though it can never zero it. The Luck stat also features in these rolls at as important a level as the resistance, though it's usually easier to get a high resistance than a high Luck effect since the Resistance just uses its "raw" value rather than using breakpoints to translate into an "effect."
Fire Bolt: 1d4 damage per skill point, with expertise and mastery lowering recharge time. Always hits. Surpasses Flame Arrow very quickly. Currently Richmond's main offensive spell.

Air Spells

Wizard Eye: Reveals enemies, corpses and friendlies on the minimap, with skill determining duration. With expertise it also spots dropped treasure and with Mastery it also spots "points of interest" inside dungeons.
Static Charge: 2d3 damage and always hits, like Flame Arrow it's free to cast at Mastery and cheaper at Expertise.
Protection from Electricity: Like above, but for lightning.
Sparks: A shotgun blast of sparks that does 2+skill level damage. Bounces off walls and produces more sparks at Expertise and Mastery. The poor scaling makes it rapidly outclassed but electrical resistance is one of the less common types.

Water Spells

Awaken: Awakens the entire party, countering the Sleep status. Status effect removal spells are somewhat similar in that the skill level and mastery level determines how "old" a status effect they can counter. For instance, at level 1, anyone who's been magically asleep for over 3 minutes of in-game time cannot be roused. Sleep goes away if someone gets whacked, though, so no big deal.
Cold Beam: Cold-flavour Static Charge.
Protection From Cold: See Above
Poison Spray: Works much like Sparks but scales better, at 2+(1d2*skill level) damage and poison resistance is even rarer than lightning.

Earth Spells

Stun: I have never, ever cast this spell. Supposedly it attempts to briefly stun an enemy, which I presume is that it makes them do their flinch animation since there's no "stun" condition.
Magic Arrow: Flame Arrow, but 1d6+2 damage and physical elemental.
Protection From Magic: Not all spells in general, but specific attacks considered to be "magic." I think it's primarily various gaze attacks that get filed under this.
Deadly Swarm: 5+(1d3/level) damage is pretty nice! It starts out stronger than Fire Bolt, but then scales slightly more weakly. As it's physical damage, though, almost nothing will end up resisting it. At the moment, Agnes is, appropriately enough, drowning enemies in angry wasps.

Spirit Magic

Spirit Arrow: 1d6 magic damage Flame Arrow.
Bless: 5+1 per skill to attack bonus on the target, which is very big in the early game, about as much as all your inherent bonuses added together. Skill also increases duration, at Expertise it affects the entire party, and Mastery improves the duration scaling. If you have a Knight, you wanna be casting this at all times
Healing Touch: Non-scaling healing spell, skill just reduces cast time, Expertise and Mastery increases the healing(1d5+2, 1d5+4 and 1d5+6 respectively).
Lucky Day: A Luck boost which is all-party at max level. Since Luck affects almost all things you roll, this is in fact a quite good buff if it pushes you over some break points. With a boost of 10+(2*skill), at lower levels, it'll almost certainly move you past several.

Mind Magic

Meditation: Lucky Day, but for Intelligence and Personality... not that great. It'll boost your max but not current SP, so I guess you could cast it and then hit up a +SP fountain, but eh. I wouldn't really bother.
Remove Fear: Cures the Fear condition, single-target but otherwise like Awaken.
Mind Blast: 5+(2*level) spell. One of the two early-game scaling attack spells for divine casters. As it does Magic damage, it's good at getting around resistances.
Precision: Boosting Accuracy is a decent deal. Stacked with Bless it'll really boost your ability to hit enemies.

Body Magic

Cure Weakness: A really important one, enemies that cause Weakness are common, if you go too long without resting partymembers will also become Weak and some buffs, when they wear off, leave the targets Weak.
First Aid: Cures a small amount of static hit points(5, 7 or 10 depending on mastery).
Protection From Poison: I remember poison as being relatively rare compared to other bullshit like Disease, Weakness and Insanity, as a condition, poison-type damage is also very rare.
Harm: 8+(1d2*skill) damage, so it's slightly better than Mind Blast, but also costs slightly more spell points to cast. Shortly after finishing recording, I picked this one up for Bobelix so he can punch people from across the room with magic.