with a young <14th circle> ranger, i'm having difficulty casting certain spells which are listed as basic on elanthipedia <loaded from the 3.0 site>, whereas i'm not with others.

<although the ones i list below - granted the targetted spells i can cast and learn from - but not actually kill anything with, as stated before>

intro spells: can cast these. instinct, hands of lir, compost* <bug with this spell listed below>, eagle's cry, and stampede.

basic spells I can cast: wolf scent,sott, blend,devitalize.

the following spells are listed as basic, but i can't cast them: swarm, earth meld

are they actually of harder difficulty?

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Bug with compost:
cast area
You lift your right hand, forming your fingers into the shape of a vulture's talons.
There is nothing here that could decay.

A giant oak tree stands erect here, its massive branches reaching out to form a canopy over the local swimming hole. Some sort of wooden structure is nestled in the foliage high up in the tree. The grassy area surrounding the swimming hole appears to be a perfect spot for picnicking or lounging. You also see some grass.
Obvious paths: north.

Grass doesn't decay? always have used that as a "clean-up" spell after foraging...


<<The real thing DR needs is to get out there to the kids who actually read books.>>

Hi!

<<the following spells are listed as basic, but i can't cast them: swarm, earth meld>>

Ok first swarm is cast in two ways. First you can cast it at an individual critter/PC, second you can area cast it. From my testing the first method is the hardest way to cast it and at your current skill level is probably the reason its not working for you. The second way is actually a bit easier to get something to happen. Swarm spell, spell slots 3, min prep 10, max prep 99. Notice the minimum prep is 10, which automatically makes this spell a bit harder to cast and it takes 3 spell slots indicating its a bit harder than your normal basic spell.

1st way to cast is prep swarm 10, when spell is ready (you really dont want to snap cast this spell, wait for full prep). Cast CRITTER.
2nd way to cast is prep swarm 10, when spell is ready. CAST AREA. This will put the swarm on anything in the area that is not in your group. My preferred method of casting it myself.

Now Earth Meld even though its a basic spell, is also harder to cast. EARTH MELD spell, spell slots 2, Min prep 20, max prep 99. At a minimum prep of 20 this spell is going to be hard to cast early on. In fact 20 could make you fail the cast depending on the room your in. If the life power is low in that room a min prep of 20 can backfire alot because you are close to the room max cast, in that case you almost have to use cambrinth to cast the spell. You can also fail the spell if you have to put too much power into it to cast it. So yes Earth Meld is a hard basic level spell.

You can look at Blend for instance its 1 spell slot, min prep 6, max prep 95. That makes it easier to cast than earth meld and if I remember right earth meld is required before you get blend (yeah think I would have made blend the harder of the two to cast in that case, but oh well, it is what it is). SOTT 2 spell slots, min prep 10, max prep 99, so its easier to cast than earth meld. Devitalize and wolf scent have min prep of 5 so I would also expect both to be easier to cast than the Earth Meld Spell.

The key to learning your ability in the 3.0 magic, is to find a good room to cast in (for non-combat spells and when you test combat spells too), and do two things. Make sure you can cast it at the minimum power and then find out the maximum you can cast the spell at. Finding the maximum you can cast a spell at almost requires cambrinth so you can prep at a lower value and not use up all your harness too fast. Most of our spells refresh so you can recast again fairly easily if needed or you can use RELEASE SPELLNAME to drop it. If you backfire use HEALME to get rid of the nerve damage so you can keep experimenting. The debilitation and TM spells you learn on what you can hunt (as long as your skill there is about what your weapons learn at), so testing those out for max cast is not as important as the augmentation, warding, and utility spells.

Now why do you want to cast the augmentation, warding, and utilitly spells at min and find a max you can cast them at. Its simple really, it will show you the max cast you can cast an intro spell at is higher than it will be as you go up in difficulty of the spell. Knowing what those are will help you select spells that you can use ok and not end up getting a spell you simply cant use yet because of your skill level. That means one of the spells you want to get is Essence of Yew (EY), its a warding spell and uses up 1 spell slot. The only other two warding spells we have are Cheetah Swiftness (CS) and Bear Strength (BES), both of which are difficulty level 4 (Esoteric). The other level 4 difficulty spell we have is memory of Nature (MON). At 500+ magic skills I have difficulty casting those spells and folks who have 200 skill usually backfire those spells all the time or get the message they dont have the skill yet to cast it. So getting those 3 spells early is plain useless for younger rangers. In fact you will find this when you test them. Prep CS (which will use min prep 20 dont put a number in, it will cause you to fail the cast), when the spell is ready, harness 20, then cast. Im pretty sure if you have 200 or less skill it will tell you that you dont have the skill to cast the spell. If you are close to casting it, it will backfire and fail. This means CS, BES and MON should probably be close to the last 3 spells you get unless your magic skill reaches the level you can finally cast it at a usable level, (somewhere around 300+ skill).

Now your last item about the grass not decaying when you cast compost. I'm not sure this is what happened to you, but you can check it out. Once you drop something (grass, limb, etc), there is a timer that will not allow it to be composted till that timer ends. You have to wait about (just guessing here 1 to 2 minutes - probably closer to one), Then try your cast again. Its possible you did your test too soon and it failed to compost the item.

Ranger Pfanston and his Soggy pup.