Casting a maximum of 3 spells?

[JoeGrocottJames]

Has it ever been mentioned on the actual programmes anywhere that the teams are allowed to cast a maximum of 3 spells during the quest? (Because I saw it in a Knightmare review somewhere). On the logs for seasons 1 and 2 of the Knightmare RPG, this rule is used. Has there ever been any quests where more than 3 spells were cast (or would have been cast?) Also, Ali Everett ignored this. His first challenge was based on the first Knightmare gamebook (Can you beat the challenge?) In that book, did you have to cast more than 3 spells? Is this mentioned in any of the gamebooks?

Edit - just realised that series 1 team 3 cast FREEZER and FLARE in level 1, then LANTERN and had ANVIL, which I think they should have used to overcome Gibbet.

[JamesA]

Series 1 Team 4 earned three spells from Merlin, so in this case this team would have cast three spells if they had got further than they did. I reckon they would have used all three spells at the end of Level 2. Here's why:

The previous team - Series 1 Team 3 (Simon) - needed to use both their spells at the end of Level 2, the LANTERN spell to light up the room (which they did) and then use the ANVIL spell to stop the guard (however they dispelled LANTERN and as a result the room plunged back into darkness again and their quest was finished).

Now, this team as previously mentioned, had three spells, FLARE, FREEZE and ENERGY. Upon entering the final room of Level 2, they would have used the same process: use the FLARE spell to light up the room, then the FREEZE spell to stop anyone that may have been guarding the wellway. Before going down the wellway itself, Treguard may have indicated that their Life Force status was in critical condition (red) so that they would need to cast the ENERGY spell immediately in order to restore their Life Force back to Green, then descend into Level 3.

Hope I've explained that thoroughly.

[JamesA]

Also, the Knightmare gamebook "Labyrinths of Fear" states that you can have no more than three spells at a time, so yes, there is the possibility of you having three spells in a gamebook.

And to back up my previous post, a good example of a team needing a spell such as Energy to restore thier life force before going down a wellway is Series 2 Team 12. When they reach the final room of Level 2, Treguard warns them that their life force is at a critcial stage and only Merlin's magic can save them, unfortunately they answered Merlin's riddle incorrectly, hence had no such magic or spells, and therefore died.

[Drassil]

I've done some checking. It does seem that in the whole of Knightmare, no team cast more than three spells. A possible exception is Mark's team in Series 2 (Team 4), who cast four: FREEZER, SUN, SLEEP and FREE; though FREE perhaps doesn't count, as it was arguably just a device for signalling the successful completion of the quest.

Most teams never even had the chance to cast more than three spells. One exception is Team 1 of Series 3, who (as mentioned in the first post of this topic) cast FLARE, FREEZER and LANTERN, had ANVIL but didn't cast it, and failed as a result. Had they succeeded and proceeded to Level 3, they might have obtained even more spells to cast in addition to those four. Another exception is Team 4 of the same series: they cast ITCH and ANVIL, then got awarded three spells at once (as mentioned above: FLARE, FREEZER and ENERGY), and may have acquired yet more on Level 3; but as it was, they perished having cast none of the latter three.

Before going down the wellway itself, Treguard may have indicated that their Life Force status was in critical condition (red) so that they would need to cast the ENERGY spell immediately in order to restore their Life Force back to Green, then descend into Level 3.

That's certainly how ENERGY was used during Series 3; but in Series 1, it was described as 'high magic'. So maybe it would have accomplished something more dramatic than topping up Life Force - which, after all, was something that any old piece of food could do! (And there's nothing to say that in those early days, a team couldn't have retained a spell between levels, since Team 6 of Series 1 acquired SHIELD on Level 2 but hadn't used it by the time they reached Level 3.) We can only speculate.

[Pooka]

In Series 1 and 2 of the Knightmare RPG, one of Adam's rules was that you only had enough manna to cast three spells during the quest, whcih made the choice of spells much more interesting.