History VideoGame / MasterOfMagic

** Axes: Less variety in enchantments, but a higher limit to its +attack score. In addition, heroes with an axe throw attack add the attack bonus of their axe to the Thrown score, allowing extremely powerful heroes to wipe out enemies before even engaging in melee.
%%** CoolSword
%%** DropTheHammer / EpicFlail (They are under the same category)
** MagicWand: Wands and Staves can be wielded only by mage heroes, but the items can carry spell charges of their own, letting the hero cast magic without resorting to their personal mana pool. And can make the wielder's spells harder to resist.

* {{Magitek}}: In the Slitherine DLC ''Rise of the Soultrapped'', the Soultrapped are a new race that utilize a fusion of magic and {{Steampunk}} / ClockPunk technology.

In 2022, Slitherine has made an official remake of Master of Magic as well as its DLC ''Rise of the Soultaken''.

* {{Magitek}}: In the Slitherine DLC ''Rise of the Soultaken'', the Soultaken are a new race that utilize a fusion of magic and {{Steampunk}} / ClockPunk technology.

''Master of Magic'' is a 1993 FourX game for DOS [[UsefulNotes/IBMPersonalComputer PCs]] from the makers of ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion''. It enriches the usual world domination schtick with a spellcasting system, tactical combat and various details such as hero units and ItemCrafting.

Not related to the 1985 game of the same name released for the UsefulNotes/ZXSpectrum and UsefulNotes/Commodore64.

* AnimateDead: The bread and butter of Death magic.

* CoolAirship: Airships are a special unit constructable only by the Draconians. However, you can "cheat" by casting Fly on a regular warship; this itself can become a GameBreaker, especially when combined with Invisibility, due to the facts that the AI is bad at dealing with invisible units and warships, unlike pretty much every other ranged unit in the game, have essentially unlimited ammo.
** Note that, while each warship has enough ammo for 99 turns of combat, the combat will end in a draw ("All units retreat exhausted") if one side is not victorious after 50 turns. Casting Haste on your warship will squeeze the full effectiveness out of its ammo.
* [[CoolHorse Cool Mounts]]: Many of the races get fantastic mounts as their end unit. Some, like High Men and Halflings, do not.

* DeathFromAbove: The "Meteor Shower" global enchantment that every turn hits EVERY UNIT IN THE WORLD with fire from the skies.

* EnemyExchangeProgram: Your starting race is only important at the early-game, since by middle-game you will probably have 3-4 races in your domain.
** It does, however, affect the loyalty rates of your conquered cities; the race of your capital city determines which other cities get an unrest penalty. In general, Halflings have the best overall racial relations, while Dark Elves and Klackons the worst. The nature spell that allows you to change your capital city can get around this, however.

* HeroUnit: You can hire[=/=]summon maximum six of them.
* HorseOfADifferentColor

* IsometricProjection: During the battle.

* [[LethalJokeCharacter Lethal Joke Race]]:

* LuckilyMyShieldWillProtectMe: Units with Large Shield have defense bonus vs. ranged attacks. Heroes with proper slots can use shield items--the same effect plus any enchantments allowed for armor.
* MagicKnight: Some of the heroes.

* MassiveRaceSelection: 14 main 'races' not counting associated creatures (especially Beastmen).
** AllTrollsAreDifferent: Tall, regenerating brutes. Trolls are also descended from corrupted nature spirits, and while stupid, they are suprisingly spiritual beings whose shamans can build great Cathedrals.
** BeastMan:
*** Beastmen, an innately-magical Myrran race (though "collection of related races" might be more accurate) of demi-animals. They serve as the Myrran equivalent to Orcs: a highly technologically-advanced and civilized JackOfAllStats.
*** Gnolls, large dog-men from Arcanus. Not very advanced, but their low-tech basic units make for excellent conquerors in the early-game rush.
** BigCreepyCrawlies: The Klackons, an incomprehensible hive race that swarm freely over the two worlds.
** {{Hobbits}}: Halflings fit the standard model: peaceful, low-tech farmers who are [[BewareTheNiceOnes surprisingly capable]] with their [[SufferTheSlings slings]]. Their main quirk for this game is that not only are the little guys okay with almost any other race ruling over them, almost no other races mind ''being'' ruled by a halfling empire.
** HumansAreDivided: There are actually three human races that play rather differently.
*** TheGoodKingdom: High Men are standard fantasy humans, notable for being [[HumanityIsAdvanced a highly-advanced civilization]] whose technology is only equalled by Orcs, with their nation defended by knightly {{Paladin}} cavalry and skilled Pikeman footsoldiers. [[HumansAreAverage They're one of the more balanced races in the game.]]
*** TheHorde: Barbarians fit this reasonably well; a fast-breeding race of Vikings with expert shipbuilders and throwing axes. They're also anything but AlwaysChaoticEvil, and they get along reasonably well with subjugated races.
*** BornInTheSaddle: Nomads are this in theory, though in practice they're similar to High Men, as well as being a nation of [[ProudMerchantRace merchants who get extra income from trade routes]]. Instead of regular cavalry, they get [[HorseArcher Horsebowmen]], harkening back to their raider origins. Also unlike High Men, they don't get Engineers and roads - instead, they are masters of traversing untracked wastes, and their merchants don't ''need'' roads or rivers.
** LizardFolk: The Lizardmen, who are uncivilized, low-tech brutes from the swamps and waters of Arcanus, and the Draconians, an ancient, civilized and winged race of dragon-men from Myrror.
** OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame: Their only distinct feature is that one of their units, the hammerhands, have hammers instead of hands. Also, they manage to be a high-tech species without actually being good researchers or scientists; their knowledge of steam and machinery is a part of their racial tradition, and they disdain science in favor of "practical knowledge."
** OurElvesAreDifferent: High Elves are the only Arcanus race whose population naturally generates mana, and their longbowmen are absolute terrors against anyone not built up to fight them. Dark Elves are the most powerful magical race in the game; even their ''spearmen'' are powerful magical combatants, their warlocks have magical attacks on par with the player mage's powers, and their population generates more mana than any other race in the game.
** OurOrcsAreDifferent: Instead of being TheHorde-like, they are a fully civilized race with access to engineers, universities and cathedrals (among other things) - in other words, these are ''classic'' Tolkien Orcs, though their morality (also like Tolkien Orcs) is a function of their master rather than being AlwaysChaoticEvil. They can build every building in the game and have [[JackOfAllStats no particular specialty]], and their normal units are the baseline from which other races' units vary.

* Myth/{{Merlin}}: Here he is a Sage Master (25% bonus to Research) and uses Life and Nature magic.

* MutuallyExclusiveMagic: Life and Death schools are not compatible.
* NationalGeographicNudity: Sharee, the African voodoo priestess.
* {{Ninja}}: One hero is this, and several others skirt it.
* NonElemental: The Arcane spells.

* OneManArmy: Torin, a Great Drake, or any high-leveled, well equipped, advanced hero can easily take a moderately defended empire all on their lonesome.
** Wraiths are a complete game-buster - an all-Black caster can rustle up a single troop of these that can fly, steal life, and raise defeated enemies as undead. You can not only take out poorly-defended cities (that's just about everywhere in the early game) but staff them with unpaid undead garrisons in the process.
* OurMonstersAreDifferent:
** OurAngelsAreDifferent: Angels and Archangels, which you can summon.
%%** OurDemonsAreDifferent
** OurDragonsAreDifferent: A variety of trainable and summoning dragons, plus a race.
** OurFairiesAreDifferent: And very annoying.
** OurGeniesAreDifferent: No [[GenieInABottle bottles]], but two types of genies. Efreet (Chaos) are fireball-slinging units and Djinni (Sorcery) can use Wind Walking to ferry units across the overworld, both can cast spells of their own type.
** OurGiantsAreBigger: Fire Giants are the weakest, with a thrown rock attack and decent stats. Stone Giants are more powerful, with much better stats and bigger thrown rocks. Storm Giants are here, as well; instead of rocks, they launch powerful, armor-piercing lightning bolts.
** OurGryphonsAreDifferent: High-end Nomad unit.
** SnakePeople: The Nagas, a Sorcery summon.
* ThePaladin: The Mounted Elite Unit of High Men.

* PointBuildSystem: The custom wizard creator is using one (no negatives for more points, though), and it is the precursor of custom race creation for future 4X games.
** And as not all abilities are equal in value, it's possible to build very powerful, or rather inferior wizards.
*** The fans naturally set about to try and concoct the worst possible wizard. The results were [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9brjomS95VA&list=UU3Q13RAmFVfDkYOWnnqFM2A spectacularly bad]].

* RandomEvent: Tons of these. From opportunities to blow your gold on a hero / mercenary unit / magic items from a wandering merchant, to Diplomatic Marriage (if you agree, the neutral town instantly becomes your vassal), Baby Boom, Plague, discovery of depletion of minerals, and to...
** DivineIntervention: "The Gift. An ancient god has returned, bearing the relic of (random artifact) to aid your cause". May require shrines anywhere or everywhere.
** {{Pirate}}: They raid and take 30% - 50% of the gold reserve. May require access to water or a Ship Wrights Guild.
** WhenThePlanetsAlign: Astrological status. Conjunctions double mana output of one Node type and halve others. Under Good Moon and Bad Moon respectively temples of Life and Death wizards give 1.5x more mana and the opposing force is halved.

* SquishyWizard: Caster units, you and your enemies.
* SufferTheSlings: Beware the Halfling slingers.

* SummoningRitual: Used for summoning units, naturally.

* TimeStandsStill: The most expensive spell in the game, Time Stop.
* TitleDrop: Used at the end of the game.
* {{Unicorn}}: Life magic associated teleporting unicorns.

** DropTheHammer / EpicFlail (They are under the same category)

* {{Wutai}}: Mostly averted, with only one wizard (Lo Pan) and some heroes (the Ninja, the War Monk) being of wutai-ish flavour. No race or mass-produced unit corresponds to this trope.

* WizardBeard: Merlin and some Mage heroes have these.

* {{Familiar}}: A Dove for Life Wizards, a Cat for Death Wizards, a Snake for Nature Wizards, a Devil for Chaos Wizards and a Beetle for Sorcery Wizards. They serve as announcers of events.

{{Stardock}} was in talks as of 2007 to make a sequel, ''Master of Magic 2'', but these talks broke down. Instead, they made a SpiritualSuccessor, ''VideoGame/ElementalWarOfMagic'', which has been released in 2010. Another SpiritualSuccessor was released in May of 2012, this time by Paradox and InoCo, titled ''Warlock: Master of the Arcane'', which used a hex-grid map and combat system very similar to ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}} V'', while changing the setting to the ''VideoGame/{{Majesty}}'' universe of Ardania. Another SpiritualSuccessor is in the works, called ''[[http://myworldsofmagic.com/ Worlds of Magic]]'', which is more of a lawyer-friendly remake of ''Master of Magic'' instead of being "inspired". However, the critical and popular reception was not kind.

* AllThereInTheManual: The Prima Guide for ''Master of Magic'' is one of the best computer game guides ever - some people just bought the game after reading the guide.
** It's also somewhat more difficult to play the game without the spellbook that accompanies it -- without it, you can only read spell descriptions when spells become available for research, making it harder to plan your character or figure out what enemies are capable of.

* TheArchmage: In gameplay, Archmage is a special trait that lets you cast better. Trope-wise, Rulers and High-level Mage heroes are this.

* CriticalExistenceFailure: Played straight with individuals (Heroes, One-man units), but subverted with multiple-person units, where with each dead person the unit fights worse.

''Master of Magic'' only held together after patching - in the pre-WWW era - and has more [[GameBreaker GameBreakers]] than you can shake a stick at, but is still fresh and offers numerous things to fiddle with. The in-game help system is marvelous. The game remains appreciated and has the odd SpiritualSuccessor, particularly the ''VideoGame/AgeOfWonders'' series, which is similar in having tactical combat, ItemCrafting and "research from random spellbook" approach, but weaker non-linearity factors.

* ShoutOut: One of the artifacts is named "The Idspispopd", referring to a ClassicCheatCode from ''VideoGame/{{Doom}}''.

* BladeOnAStick
** The spearmen, the weakest unit of all races whose only good point is that it is so cheap that it doesn't require gold to upkeep. Made obsolete by Halberdiers, which are basically upgraded spearmen, and...
** The Pikemen, and their skill to negate the first strike (a free attack before the enemy can retaliate) of Cavaliers.

* CoolAirship: Airships are a special unit constructable only by one race. However, you can "cheat" by casting Fly on a regular warship; this itself can become a GameBreaker, especially when combined with Invisibility, due to the facts that the AI is bad at dealing with invisible units and warships, unlike pretty much every other ranged unit in the game, have essentially unlimited ammo.

** The High Elves and Dark elves absolutely hate one another with a staggering 40% increase to unrest if one rules the other. The Trolls and Dwarves also similarly have a 40% increase to unrest, which is the highest increase to unrest in the game.

* TheBerserker: Units with increased attack strength while sacrificing all their defense. A spell can cause this for non-berserker units.

** In a case of ElvesVersusDwarves, dwarves and elves have a 30% increase to unrest. The dwarves have the same penalty for orcs and dark elves.

* DarkIsEvil / LightIsGood: AI Death Wizards are more likely to be Maniacal/Ruthless and will never be Peaceful. In contrast, AI Life Wizards are more likely to be Peaceful and will never be Maniacal.

* DemonLordsAndArchdevils

* {{Golem}}

* ObviouslyEvil: Rjak.

** OurDemonsAreDifferent

* {{Pegasus}}

* PlaceOfPower: The Nodes of Nature, Chaos and Sorcery types generate mana and counteract all other types of magic in vicinity. Masters of these schools get double the amount of mana from them. Node Mastery gives double mana for all three types and bypasses the suppressive aura.

* SorcerousOverlord

** CoolSword
** DropTheHammer / EpicFlail (They are under the same catetory)

The players picks or customizes a wizard, founds a city with one of the StandardFantasyRaces, and goes on to crush all competing wizards in the coterminous worlds of Arcanus and Myrror. Options are military force and researching and casting the Spell of Mastery. Mage or no mage, it's as necessary as usual to found cities, levy taxes and build armies. Moreso, in fact, as here the wandering monsters might breathe fire and the goody huts are dungeons.

*** TheHorde: Barbarians fit this reasonably well; a fast-breeding race of Vikings with expert shipbuilders and [[AnAxeToGrind throwing axes]]. They're also anything but AlwaysChaoticEvil, and they get along reasonably well with subjugated races.

** AnAxeToGrind: Less variety in enchantments, but a higher limit to its +attack score. In addition, heroes with an axe throw attack add the attack bonus of their axe to the Thrown score, allowing extremely powerful heroes to wipe out enemies before even engaging in melee.

* WeaponOfChoice: Different heroes with their own preferences. You can find them or craft them.