I'm almost wondering if it is broken, since I can find no mention in any of the documentation about this. Whether I use a Fire Wand or Fireball it will devastate my party in addition to hitting the enemy. What is the point of fire magic ?

Hmm... my memory was that fireball could only be cast on enemies who were outside of melee range. It was a really useful spell since it could damage multiple enemies, but if enemies were all in melee range then I couldn't use it. I don't remember it hitting my party too.

Can someone confirm this?

As far as I can tell, I've been able to use any magic or ranged attacks to hit enemies regardless of their positioning. I've been using Lightning Bolt since it strikes all the enemies making it very powerful (although it consumes gems). FIREball however (or ever from the wand) kills my party too. :(


UPDATE: Ok, I figured out how it works. Lighting Bolt will allow me to safely AoE off of any target. Fireball MUST be used on rear-line enemies (anyone without a +) or it will hit my party too... splash damage I guess.

As I recall, MM1's documentation suggests that you can't cast Fireball into melee, but as you've learned, that isn't quite true - it'll generally do more damage to you than it does to the enemy, but it is allowed. I believe MM2 removes this... feature?... and makes Fireball an ordinary "can't be cast into melee" spell.

And in doing so, makes that spell nearly useless. It doesn't help that most enemies in MM2 seem to be immune to fire and ice (including things like skeletons), while far fewer are immune to electricity or poison.

Yes, those without + are out of mellee. If you use it on mellee characters you get damaged too.

Still, the spell is great for its level. You just have to remember you can't use it in every fight.