Duck and Cover

I just started a female elf magician and I've some Q's:

1) Do spells "level up" or anything? I.e. does Harm do 40ish damage to creatures with no resistance the entire game? If I put some points into, say, IN, do my spells get more powerful, or do they do X damage and that's that?

2) I don't get the deal with spells with durations. Take Fire Elemental for example. It says "FT: 50 (5/10 seconds)." WTF does that mean? The spell lasts 10 seconds, with 50 FT used every 5 secs?

3) Along the same lines, there's five little boxes at the top-center of the screen. I also note that if I cast two Sheilds of Protection (i.e. one on me and one on Virgil), I can't cast any spell w/a duration (i.e. Wall of Fire). How do I get more "blocks" available?

Edit: Found out the answer to #3 by reading the manual. However, does anyone know the exact ratio of IN points to blocks available?

I'm guessing it may be one per five points.

Cheers Spazmo.

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Damn, that's like... 25 IN! That's alotta IN! Well, I was going to plop a bunch of points into CN (more FT and faster FT regen!).

Wait a sec, I think my character has 8 IN, so mebbe it's 4:1 like CH and #Followers? Curious note that the game's description of IN says its "the limiting factor in learning tech and spells," but all spells have a level and WP requirement, no IN. Hermmmm.........

*MV double-clickities the Arcanum shortcut on 'is desktop*

You know, it probably is 1:4. I'm just a bit dim.

Actually, it means that you will lose 5 fatigue for every ten seconds that elapse, to a maximum of 50 fatigue (100 seconds).

As for the leveling up of spells, a spell's power increases based on your magickal aptitude, nothing more.

bloodbathmaster2 wrote:Actually, it means that you will lose 5 fatigue for every ten seconds that elapse, to a maximum of 50 fatigue (100 seconds).

Actually, I just figured out that FT: 50 (5/10 seconds) means it costs 50 FT to case initially, with 5 FT being used for every 10 seconds. So, BBM2, you're half-right

And I wuz rite - "Magic blocks" and IN are a 1:4 ratio, jus' like #Followers and CH.

BBM2 wrote:As for the leveling up of spells, a spell's power increases based on your magickal aptitude, nothing more.

Arg... I attained 100 magickal (not quite used to spelling that with a K yet) aptitude a while ago...

Another mag question, sorta: Do any creatures have weaknesses? i.e. Fire Elementals weak to Water? I noticed, via Read Aura, that undead are resistant to everything. I wish undead were weak/non-resistant to fire, like in most fantasy/RPG games I've played (i.e. the Final Fantasy series n' stuff).

Well, thanks for the answers gents.

I'll settle with being half-right. I haven't played Arcanum in a looong time.