Magic Systems checklist for MUDs

Ensure spell mana costs scale proportionately to maximum mana pools at level intervals 10, 30, and 50 to prevent infinite casting at high levels.

Confirm spells fail and consume no mana if required inventory items are missing; verify reagents are consumed only upon successful cast completion.

Ensure global cooldowns (GCD) effectively prevent macro-spamming of high-impact spells in both PvE and PvP contexts.

Check that regeneration rates correctly shift between standing, resting, sleeping, and combat states as defined in the recovery formulas.

Test behavior when a spell's cost exceeds current mana during the casting lag or warm-up period.

Execute 100 iterations of primary damage spells to confirm output falls within the defined +/- 10% variance range.

Confirm that a target with 50% magic resistance reduces damage or effect duration by the exact intended percentage.

Verify that spells using 'level * d6' or similar formulas have a hard cap to prevent one-shotting mobs in lower-tier zones.

Test that 'plus spell damage' or 'intelligence' equipment bonuses apply correctly to the base spell damage formula.

Verify that spell criticals do not bypass absolute damage caps and that fumbles do not crash the combat loop.

Ensure identical buffs from different sources (e.g., a potion and a spell) do not stack unless explicitly flagged for additive behavior.

Verify that 'Dispel Magic' or 'Cancelation' removes effects based on a comparison of caster level versus the original effect's level.

Ensure no single stun, sleep, or paralyze effect exceeds a 3-round duration in PvP combat to prevent infinite lockdown.

Confirm that 'lower resistance' debuffs correctly modify the target's saving throw variables in the combat struct.

Verify that active status effects are visible in the 'affected' or 'score' command output with remaining durations.

Check the spell_type table for null entries in the spell_fun field to prevent segmentation faults during lookup.

Test spells against self, NPCs, players, and room objects to ensure invalid targets trigger a clean error message rather than a crash.

Track memory allocation when 100+ 'Damage over Time' or periodic effects are active simultaneously to ensure proper cleanup on expiration.

Confirm that AOE spells respect 'no-pvp' room flags and do not initiate combat with protected NPCs.

Measure latency when multiple complex scripted spells (e.g., Lua or Python hooks) are triggered in the same combat tick.

Ensure all spell output follows a consistent {Caster} {Verb} {Target} format for parsing by player scripts and triggers.

Verify that players receive a distinct, unique message when a buff or debuff expires (e.g., 'The shield surrounding you fades.').

Ensure 'Out of Mana', 'Target Not Found', and 'Spell Interrupted' messages are distinct and provide actionable information.

Verify that third-party observers in the same room see appropriate messages for spells cast by others.

Ensure a 'wiznet' or log message is generated when a spell fails due to a configuration error in the area files.