The orbs, the staves and the talismans

"You will learn that the only true man's talismans are his head, his hearth and his arm."

Thorgal, l'enfant des étoiles (Album 7)
Jean Van Hamme 1984
Adapted by Gandalf

Using orbs and talismans is a new feature in Disciples II. Orbs and talismans incorporate a new twist in battle.

A leader needs to specialize in the "Orbs and Talismans" special ability in order to use the orbs and the talismans. These magical items can only be used during combat. The orbs allow one (1) use and the talismans will allow five (5) uses of that same power and then vanish. A leader using talismans will be able to summon creatures to fight at his side, cast a healing spell on his party or cast a devastating spell on the enemy.

When a talisman runs out of charges, a leader will need to recharge it at a merchant having the ability to do it.... but... but nobody encountered a merchant able to do it so far. Another mystery in Disciples!!!

The orbs and the talismans have the same magical effects that are either summon an unit in battle, cast a damaging spell, poison an enemy unit or heal or strengthen on of your unit... but each orb or talisman can have a different level of power. I am not using orbs or talismans often. My main leader is always a mage who has a magical attack that is most of the time more deadly. Orbs and talismans can be more interesting for a warrior who can only hit one enemy unit at the time. A banshee or an Archangel can make good use of them having no attack ability.

The ability to use these powerful magical items is limited to their acquisition and their number in a scenario or a campaign. You will have to find them first! You can also buy them sometimes but they are expensive... really expensive if you consider the one time use. The more powerful they are, the more gold is asked.

These magical items can only be use by the leader, they could be more interesting if they could actually be use by all the units. This feature could really change the issue of battle and make us review our strategies.

Unlike the spells and scrolls, the orbs and scrolls can only be used in battle.

The staves are items that heroes can find while traveling the lands or buy them at the merchant shops. They were a feature of Disciples I. Only a leader with the "Staffs and Scrolls" ability is able to use the staffs. The power of the staffs is based on the spells that are in the magic book. You don't have a staff for each spell but most of the time, you get the more interesting one and often the ones that belong to another races and that you don't have in your book. Combined with your spells book, they give you the ability to cast twice or four times the same spells like healing or regaining moving points. Think seriously about it.

If you chose a Mage Lord, not a mage leader!, you will be able to use twice by turn a particular staff but enough resources in mana for the type of spell is necessary.

The staves can be use only on the adventuring map and can not be use during the battle.