Winds of Magic: Lore of Shadow

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Trickery and illusion are powerful allies on the battlefield.  Being able to summon phantasmal blades, summon pits to other realities, or polluting the enemy with a numbing fog are the the specialities of this mystifying lore.

Lore Attribute: Smoke and Mirrors

After successfully casting any spell, a wizard using Lore of Shadow can swap places with any other friendly character, within 18" of the same type.  Sadly, like a few other lore attributes, this is one that you won't be taking advantage of often.  Probably the single most powerful use of this spell is when your caster is in combat and you need him out, so you swap him with a fighty character who will be beneficial there.

Signature Spell: Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma

As far as signature spells go, I think this one takes the cake.  It has a very low casting value, that can be cast reliably even by a level 2 with a single dice, and it also has a very long range.  It can be used to reduce the target's M/WS/BS/I by D3 or all of them at once when boosted.  When cast on the right unit, this is devastating.  Reducing a big block of Glade Guard's BS to 1, will certainly hamper their effectiveness, similarly, reducing a unit's movement, and thus charge range, can prevent the enemy from charging into one of your tender units.  I never skip this spell when taking Lore of Shadow, and I often will try to take 2 mages with this lore to double up on it.

1. Steed of Shadows

This spell is simply a maneuverable spell, you pick a character within 12" and it can immediately make a move as if it had Fly.  There is no requirement for the character to be on foot, which is nice, so it can help you move up a character riding a monster just fine.  Unfortunately however, you cannot use it to charge into combat.  Generally speaking, this is the spell that I always swap for Miasma if I roll it.

2. The Enfeebling Foe

This is a Remains in Play spell, which reduces the strength of your enemy, which if used intelligently, can be extremely effective.  With my Beastmen, simply reducing someone who is S3 to S2 means my enemy is wounding me on 6's instead of 5's, which is a 50% reduction.  Additionally, if you're reducing someone from S6 to S4 and they're fighting against your, lets say, Empire Knights, They're now wounding you on 3's instead of 2's, and your armor is reduced to a 2+, instead of a 4+, now you're taking a ton less damage.  This spell can be boosted for range, and has a moderate casting value, which will require spending 2-3 dice to reliably dispel in the following turn.  Generally, this is a must-keep spell for me.

3. The Withering

Like the Enfeebling Foe, this spell is a remains in play hex, but instead of reducing Strength, it reduces Toughness.  This can be handy when fighting extremely tough opponents, taking a monster from T6 to T3 is quite nice, but unfortunately, if you're fighting something which relies on their save (damn those knights again), then it's not really going to dramatically increase the damage you can dish out.  This spell is most effective when used against moderately tough opponents with low saves, and is often left behind in favour of other spells in my experience.  Similar to The Enfeebling Foe, you can increase it's already high casting value for extra range.

4. The Penumbral Pendulum

This is one of the two direct damage spells in the lore, in which you draw a line 6D6" long, and every model under that line must take an initiative test, or suffer a S10 hit, causing D3 wounds, and you can increase the casting value to make the line double the distance rolled.  If you are facing someone with a high initiative value, this spell is obviously less effective, but when you combine it with Melkoth's Mystifying Miasma, you can reduce someone to I1, then smack them with a bunch of I tests.  Ultimately, I think that the casting value of this spell is a tad high, it is very situational, and nearly worthless against elf armies, so it is one that I'm going to swap out for sure, unless I also roll Steed of Shadows...

5. Pid of Shades

Now for the other direct damage spell.  This is a small blast, which kills any model touched if they fail an Initiative test.  Pit of Shades has a medium range, and can be boosted to be a large blast, though less accurate.  Similar to Pendulum, this spell can be made more effective by Miasma, but is still not a great choice against high Initiative armies.  Against armies like my precious Ogres though, outright slaying them on a 3+ is really damn nice.

6. Okkam's Mindrazor

Now for the infamous Skill-razor.  If there is one spell which I just about always 6-dice when it will be useful, this is it.  The spell has a high casting value and kind of a short range, but it's an augment which allows you to roll to wound using your Leadership value instead of Strength.  Even my low leadership Beastmen get a huge benefit from this, striking with a bunch of S7 attacks.  If you roll this, keep it, it will be handy and you will destroy anything you touch with it.

Lore of Shadow is accessible to: Beastmen, Daemons of Chaos, Dark Elves, High Elves, Lizardmen, The Empire, Vampire Counts, Warriors of Chaos.