| Torin The Chosen | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Type | Champion | |||
| Hiring Cost | n/a | |||
| Upkeep Cost |
 12 | |||
| Prereq. | The Incarnation spell | |||
| Moves |
 2 | |||
| Melee Attack |
 12 * | |||
| Defense |
 8 | |||
| Resistance |
 12 * | |||
| Hit Points |
 12 * | |||
| ||||
| ||||
| ||||
|
 Magic Immunity | ||||
| Random Abilities | 2 (Any) | |||
| ||||
| Please read Known Bugs, below. | ||||
|
Buggy Feature |
| As of Master of Magic v1.31, Torin the Chosen is known to be malfunctioning in at least one way. Please read the Known Bugs section below. |
Torin the Chosen is potentially the most powerful unit in Master of Magic, and one of the most unique. He is simultaneously both a Hero and a Fantastic Creature belonging to the 
Life realm. Torin obeys rules pertaining to both these types of units - with awesome results.
Torin the Chosen is available only to Life-wielding wizards who have acquired the Incarnation spell. Casting this spell (for a cost of 500) will summon Torin to your service. The same spell can also be used to bring Torin back from the dead - with his statistics intact - if he ever falls in battle or is dismissed. Torin will never appear for hire on his own under any circumstances, and cannot be summoned nor resurrected by any other spell.
Torin is an immensely-powerful Melee Attacker, possessing the highest initial attack strength of any Hero. Torin's attack also improves at a terrifying speed with each Experience Level, thanks to his Super Might. Furthermore, Super Leadership will improve the attack strengths of most units going into battle alongside this Hero, making Torin's entire army far stronger than normal.
Torin is also impressive on the defense. For starters, he has the highest initial Defense, Resistance and Health scores of any Hero. On top of this, the Prayermaster and Constitution abilities will raise his Resistance and Health scores rapidly with Experience. Prayermaster also boosts the Resistance of all friendly units accompanying Torin into battle - making it exceptionally difficult to hurt any of them with Curses and various types of Special Attacks.
On top of these impressive defensive traits, Torin also possesses complete Magic Immunity and Missile Immunity. The first will ensure that Torin cannot be targeted by the vast majority of enemy spells, and cannot be hurt by various magical attacks. The second makes him nigh-invulnerable to 
Ranged Missile Attacks, further protecting this Hero. In fact, there are few ways to hurt Torin other than engaging him in direct Melee combat - where he usually has the upper hand!
Furthermore, Torin also has the ability to cast spells, for which he will pay from his own Mana pool. In addition to any spell known to his employer, Torin may also cast the Healing, Holy Armor and Lionheart spells - assuming he has sufficient Mana to do so. Since he has no Ranged Attack, Torin can safely spend his Mana on casting spells whenever they are required.
If this is not enough, Torin also receives 2 additional Random Abilities selected from the "Any" category. Though some possible abilities are less useful for him, Torin does not actually require any extra abilities to become extremely powerful - and any good ability picks will make him absolutely unstoppable.
Torin may be equipped with the basic fare of Magical Items. He is usually equipped with the most powerful items you can acquire - and almost any bonus will make him even more powerful than he already is.
Torin is the only Hero whose Upkeep Cost must be paid in Mana. He requires exactly 12 for his maintenance, unless he has randomly acquired the Noble ability.
General Description[]
Despite his appearance, Torin the Chosen is not a man, nor indeed a living being as we understand it. He is an incarnation of the god of Life itself - an avatar of a divine force. Though he has taken physical form, his spirit is indestructible and eternal. Upon entering the physical world, Torin still has a lot to learn - but he will indeed learn and eventually become the single strongest creature ever to walk the land.
Torin incarnates into the body of an adult man with shoulder-length brown hair. He is clearly distinguishable from a man however, thanks to his two completely-white eyes and a glowing-blue "third eye" in the middle of his forehead. He has chosen to dress in a steel armor suit - made of stronger metal and of better construction than could ever be produced in a forge. Torin's horse is dark-grey - assuming it is indeed a horse at all!
Initial Properties[]
Note: All data below assumes Torin is at his lowest Experience Level, and without any Magical Items or Random Abilities. Nevertheless, even with these "basic" statistics he is already more powerful than any other Hero. Non-default bonuses will be explained later in this article.
Attack Properties[]
Torin the Chosen possesses only a Melee Attack. Even at his starting level, he is already the most powerful Melee Attacker amongst all Heroes - and will only get stronger with more Experience!
The default strength of this Melee Attack is 12. Torin's Super Might ability immediately raises that score to 13. With a default To Hit chance of 
30%, he can be expected to deliver about 
3.9 points of Damage - clearly enough to damage any other unit in the game, even a very-well-armored one.
Torin's Super Might ability will rapidly increase his attack strength as he gains Experience. Unfortunately, because the game considers Torin to be (at least partially) a Fantastic Unit, his attack strength does not benefit from his own Super Leadership ability. However, as explained below, it does apply to every unit accompanying Torin into battle.
Defensive Properties[]
By default, Torin the Chosen has a Defense score of 8 - the highest Defense score of any budding Hero, and an impressive score even compared to some of the tougher Fantastic Creatures. It can block an average of 2.4 points of Damage from any damage source, making it very hard to do harm to this avatar.
On top of this, Torin's starting health stands at 12 Hit Points, which are immediately boosted to 13 Hit Points thanks to his innate Constitution ability. Torin's health will rise very rapidly as he gains Experience too. Coupled with the high Defense score described above (which also improves with Experience), Torin can eventually become extremely durable against any direct damage!
Furthermore, Torin the Chosen possesses both Magic Immunity as well as Missile Immunity - making him almost totally impervious to the majority of ranged attacks. Magic Immunity will temporarily raise his Defense score to 50 whenever struck by a 
Magical Ranged Attack or a direct-damage spell. Missile Immunity acts the same way when Torin is struck by a Ranged Missile Attack. As a result, the only Ranged Attack that can hope to hurt this Hero is a 
Ranged Boulder Attack.
Magic Immunity does more than protect Torin from damage - it also ensures that he cannot be targeted by any enemy spell! The only spells that will ever have a chance of affecting Torin are those with an area-effect (such as Black Prayer) or those that are targeted indirectly (such as Cracks Call).
For those few cases where Torin's Magic Immunity does not apply (such as against Special Attacks and non-targeted spells), Torin possesses a default Resistance score of 12 - which is immediately raised to 13 thanks to his innate Prayermaster ability. This already gives him immunity to the vast majority of such effects, and within a few Experience Levels he will be absolutely immune to all of them.
Other Properties[]
Torin the Chosen has a basic Hero's Movement Allowance of 2. This is good for speeding up his movement on the overland map, through plain land tiles like Grassland and Deserts. During battle, Torin may need to use his speed to quickly make contact with enemy units - and annihilate them.
As mentioned earlier, Torin's Super Leadership ability does not improve his own Melee Attack strength, but it does improve the strength of any friendly Normal Unit and Hero on the battlefield (but not friendly Fantastic Units). Each such friendly unit receives +0.5 Melee Attack for each of Torin's 
Experience Levels (rounded down). Units with a Ranged Missile Attack, Ranged Boulder Attack, 
Thrown Attack and/or 
Breath Attack receive a bonus of +0.25 to the strength of each of these attacks (rounded down). Note that all this applies only during combat, and only when Torin is present.
Torin's Prayermaster ability is also very important. Whenever he goes into battle, he will bestow a certain bonus to the Resistance score of each and every friendly unit on the battlefield. The bonus equals +1 for each of Torin's Experience Levels. The bonus is also bestowed on Torin himself, as described above, rapidly making him immune to many types of magical effects not covered by his Magic Immunity.
Spellcasting[]
Torin the Chosen possesses the Caster ability by default, and initially has 15 Mana to spare. This Mana pool increases with Experience.
Torin may cast any combat spell known to his employer. In addition, regardless of whether they are available to the employer, Torin also has access to the Healing, Holy Armor and Lionheart spells (though a known bug may prevent this). Some spells, including these three, may be unavailable for casting until Torin can gain some Experience and increase his available Mana.
To cast a spell with Torin during combat, you must select Torin, press the "Spell" button, and then select "Chosen" from the pop-up list. If Torin is out of Mana, out of Movement Points, has been killed or is otherwise incapacitated, his name will not appear on this list.
Note that using Torin to cast spells does not reduce your own available Spell Casting Skill or Mana - he is completely independent and uses up his own skill and Mana.
Finally, the Caster ability also allows Torin to augment your wizard's own Spell Casting Skill. To perform this, place Torin in the same tile as your Fortress town. While he is inside this town, your Spell Casting Skill is increased by half the value of Torin's Caster skill, rounded down.
Hero and Fantastic Creature[]
While Torin the Chosen behaves for the most part as a Hero, he is also considered to be a Fantastic Creature belonging to the Life realm. There are no other units that possess these two types simultaneously.
The addition of the Fantastic Creature type makes Torin a valid target for some types of spells and effects - and invalid for other types. For example, when a spell stipulates that its target must be a Normal Unit, such as Holy Armor, it cannot be targeted at Torin. On the other hand, the Great Unsummoning spell will affect Torin as it does any other Fantastic Unit.
Note: Due to a programming oversight, most Normal Unit spells will affect Torin on the overland map, but not during combat. Therefore, Unit Enchantments like Holy Armor can be placed on him while outside of combat.
Furthermore, Torin's association with the Life Realm means that area-effect spells like Darkness and True Light will affect him as they do all other Life creatures. He is the only Hero to be affected by either spell.
Experience[]
The following table illustrates how Torin's various skills and attributes increase as he gains Experience. His innate Super Might, Constitution and Prayermaster bonuses are already taken into account in the values below. Attributes not appearing on this list do not improve with Experience. Also note that Torin's chosen Random Abilities may also increase with Experience, and may adjust any of the attributes listed below!
| Icon | Level Name | EP | Melee | To Hit | Defense | Resist | Hits | Mana | Leader | Prayer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Hero |  0 - 19
|
13
|
30%
|
8
|
13
|
13
|
15
|
0 | +1 |
|
Myrmidon | 20 - 59
|
16
|
30%
|
9
|
15
|
15
|
30
|
+1 | +2 |
|
Captain | 60 - 119
|
18
|
40%
|
9
|
17
|
17
|
45
|
+1 | +3 |
|
Commander | 120 - 199
|
21
|
40%
|
10
|
19
|
19
|
60
|
+2 | +4 |
|
Champion | 200 - 299
|
23
|
40%
|
10
|
21
|
21
|
75
|
+2 | +5 |
|
Lord | 300 - 449
|
26
|
50%
|
11
|
23
|
23
|
90
|
+3 | +6 |
|
Grand Lord | 450 - 599
|
28
|
50%
|
11
|
25
|
25
|
105
|
+3 | +7 |
|
Super Hero | 600 - 999
|
31
|
50%
|
12
|
27
|
27
|
120
|
+4 | +8 |
|
Demi-God | 1,000
|
33
|
60%
|
12
|
29
|
29
|
135
|
+4 | +9 |
Average Damage Output[]
The following table shows Torin's average Damage output with each of his attacks, based on his current Experience Level. The effects of the Super Might and Super Leadership abilities have already been taken into account in the values below. You can use the checkboxes to see the effect of some of the Random Abilities that Torin may occasionally possess. Note that this table completely ignores bonuses from Magical Items, if any.
|
Improvement Overview[]
At starting level, Torin is easily the most dangerous of all Heroes, and can be directly compared to a low-tier or mid-tier Fantastic Unit in terms of combat performance, depending on his selected Random Abilities. Each additional Experience Level he gains will massively improve his performance, to the point where, at Level 9 ("Demi-God") he can easily be the most powerful unit in the game.
Torin's Melee Attack is increased each level thanks the Super Might ability he possesses by default. Even when To Hit bonuses are lacking, Torin should be giving out enough damage to subdue or severely injure the majority of units. He will have a Melee Attack strength of 33 by the time he is at Level 9 ("Demi-God"), even without any additional bonuses.
As mentioned earlier, Super Leadership does not apply to Torin himself as it would for other Heroes, but it does act on Normal Units and Heroes accompanying Torin into battle, to the point where at Level 8 ("Superhero") each unit receives +4. By this level, friendly units with various Ranged and Special Attacks also receive +2 to these attacks. This is no small bonus, and would be particularly useful for 
Multi-Figure units, since they benefit more from each additional point.
Torin also becomes more survivable with each level, primarily thanks to a fast-growing Maximum Health. Torin can absorb a lot of damage before dying, and would be very hard to kill even at his median levels. His Defense score improves only at the "normal" pace ( +1 per level), but is already great to begin with and can eventually be expected to block most or all damage from a variety of attackers and magical sources.
Torin's Resistance score is affected by Prayermaster, and will probably make him immune to any ill effect by Level 3 or 4; that is, any ill effect that can actually get through his Magic Immunity to begin with. As with Leadership (above), all other units in Torin's army receive similar bonuses, and will likely be rendered highly-resistant to such effects as well.
Finally, the Caster ability will increase the size of Torin's Mana pool by +15 with each Experience Level. This allows Torin to cast his most-powerful personal spell, Lionheart, by Level 3 ("Captain"). In fact, he can cast any Life combat spell by Level 4, including Invulnerability, Righteousness, High Prayer and Holy Word - if they are known to his employer. With additional Mana, Torin will be able to cast these high-power spells several times in each battle.
Ability Overview[]
Super Leadership[]
- During combat, this Hero bestows a certain bonus to the attack strength of each friendly Normal Unit and Hero, including him/herself (but not including Fantastic Units).
- The bonus to Melee Attacks is +0.5 per every Experience Level this Hero possesses, rounded down.
- This Hero also gives a +0.25 bonus per level to each friendly unit's Ranged Missile Attacks, Ranged Boulder Attacks, Thrown Attacks and Breath Attacks, rounded down.
- No bonus is given to friendly units' Ranged Magical Attacks.
Constitution[]
- This Hero receives +1 Hit Points to his maximum health per each Experience Level, including the first level.
Super Might[]
- This Hero gains +1.5 Attack Strength to his Melee Attack with each Experience Level (rounded down), including the first level.
Prayermaster[]
- During combat, this Hero bestows a certain bonus to the Resistance score of each friendly unit on the battlefield, including him/herself.
- The bonus to Resistances is +1 per every Experience Level this Hero possesses - including the first level.
- This bonus only applies during combat, and does not affect the Hero nor any units stacked with him/her while on the overland map.
Caster ( 15)[]
- This Hero may cast spells during combat, withdrawing Mana from his/her own personal Mana Pool to do so.
- The Hero may spend only 15 per battle. This Mana Pool is reset at the end of each battle - assuming the Hero survives at all.
- With each Experience Level gained, this Hero receives a permanent bonus of +15.
- Spellcasting takes up all of the Hero's remaining Movement Points for the turn.
- While this Hero is inside his/her employer's Fortress town, the owner's Spell Casting Skill is increased by half the value of the Hero's Caster ability.
Missile Immunity[]
- Any Missile Attack performed against this unit will temporarily raise the unit's Defense score to 50 - allowing it to block virtually any incoming damage.
- Magical or Boulder attacks do not trigger this effect, and will damage the unit as normal.
Magic Immunity[]
- This unit may not be directly targeted by any enemy spells, including Curses and direct-damage spells.
- The unit's Defense score is boosted to 50 whenever targeted by a Magical Ranged Attack or Breath Attack.
- The unit's Resistance score is increased by +30 against Fear Attacks, Gaze Attacks and all Touch Attacks but Poison.
Random Abilities[]
When a new game is started, the program randomly chooses 2 additional abilities for Torin. These are called Random Abilities. The selection is done completely at random (while observing a limit on the strength of certain abilities) from the list below:
 Agility
|
 Arcane Power
|
 Armsmaster
|
 Blademaster
|
 Caster
|
 Charmed
|
 Constitution
|
 Legendary
|
 Lucky
|
 Noble
|
 Prayermaster
|
 Sage
|
Whichever Random Abilities are picked, they are permanent. Torin will never re-randomize his abilities during the course of a single game. He may, however, pick different abilities in the next game.
The Might and Leadership abilities are missing from this list, since Torin already has the "Super" version of these abilities.
Constitution and Prayermaster may only be picked once each (if at all), in which case this will upgrade the appropriate ability to its "Super" version, giving 50% more benefit than the basic version. Note that neither of these is a very good pick - it's usually better to get entirely new abilities than upgrade existing ones.
The Blademaster ability is absolutely fantastic when picked for Torin. Blademaster will grant an increasing To Hit bonus, allowing Torin to get a better damage output from his already excellent Melee Attack - to the point where he will be able to deliver 33 points of Damage per attack - an absolutely massive damage output.
Agility is equally awesome: it will rapidly improve Torin's Defense, his only real weakness, easily making him extremely hard to kill. Remember that Torin is immune to almost all spells and almost all Ranged Attacks, so enemies will usually try to engage him in Melee combat - in which case extra Defense is a serious advantage for this already-heavily-armored Hero.
Next in order to usefulness is the Lucky ability. It provides a +10% To Hit bonus, a 
+10% To Block bonus, and a +1 Resistance bonus. Sadly it does not improve with level, but the To Block bonus cannot be ignored - it allows Torin to block more damage on average from any attack, and so is equivalent to a few extra Defense points. Again, since this ability does not improve with Experience, it is not too desirable, but is at least more useful than some of the other possible picks.
The Caster ability can be picked once or twice, despite the fact that Torin already possesses this ability by default. Each pick will upgrade the size of Torin's Mana pool by +2.5 per level. This is not much of a boost, considering that Torin already gets a whopping 15 per level by default, but can help him cast high-cost spells much earlier in his career - and be able to cast more spells per battle.
Note that one ability - Arcane Power - is absolutely useless for Torin. Despite being on his possible picks list, this ability will add absolutely nothing to Torin's ability, since he does not have a Ranged Attack. Getting one (or worse: two) picks of Arcane Power is a shame - but don't be mistaken: it does not make Torin any less powerful than he already is!
Finally, the Charmed ability should be mentioned, as it too is much less useful for this Hero than for others. It will boost Torin's Resistance score by +30 when he is in battle, rendering him immune to virtually all Curses and Special Attacks. The problem is that Torin already gets a massive Resistance boost from Prayermaster as he gains Experience, so Charmed is only useful when his level is still low. Also, remember that Torin is already immune to practically any spell thanks to Magic Immunity...
Other abilities not mentioned here are semi-useful. Again, even a bad Random Abilities selection does not reduce Torin's amazing usefulness.
Equipment[]
Torin the Chosen has the following item slots:
| Icon | Name | Items that fit here |
|---|---|---|
|
Sword Slot | Sword, Mace or Axe |
|
Shield Slot | Shield, Chainmail or Platemail |
|
Jewelry Slot | Any Jewelry |
This set-up contributes primarily to Melee combat. This is excellent for Torin, who is essentially a Melee-oriented unit.
Recommended Items[]
Since Torin is easily the best Hero you can acquire, it would be a good idea to equip him with the best Magical Items you've got. Practically any bonus he receives from these items will be useful. Torin has very few weaknesses that need augmentation - and these will likely be covered by a single good piece of armor. Overall, Defense, To Hit and Movement Allowance bonuses are all exceptionally useful.
Weapon[]
- With an already fast-growing Melee Attack strength, and very few weaknesses, Torin can benefit from virtually any bonuses on his weapon - and thus is best equipped with the strongest weapon in your arsenal.
- If Agility has been selected as one of Torin's Random Abilities, he will likely not need much of a Defense bonus, and can simply focus on increasing To Hit to maximize the damage from his already-impressive attack strength. In this case you may wish to take a Sword containing such bonuses, but a powerful Mace or Axe could be equally useful - the more powerful the better.
- Conversely, if Blademaster has been selected, Torin has little need for To Hit bonuses, and can instead take a Sword with high Defense, an Axe with high Attack Strength, and so forth.
- Mana ("Spell Casting Skill") bonuses are less important for this Hero, especially once he gains some Experience. At low levels it can help Torin cast more powerful spells than he normally could, or cast more spells per battle.
- You'll probably want to ignore Spell Save penalties. Torin is unlikely to use them - unless you possess many Curses and wish him to cast them often during combat.
Armor[]
- A good armor with heavy Defense bonuses is pretty much the only piece of equipment that's actually necessary for Torin, since direct-damage during Melee combat is pretty much his only "weakness". Boosting his Defense score by at least +5 can make him practically invulnerable.
- Do not ignore Movement Allowance bonuses. Torin will often be called for to scour the map and defeat Encounter zones all on his own - and the faster the better. Also, during combat, nothing beats a Hero who can reach the enemy line very quickly and will pretty much kill anything in his path...
- Resistance bonuses are rather useless - you can safely ignore them. Spells cannot directly target Torin, and his Resistance score will already be sky-high early in his career.
Jewelry[]
- As with the items described above, you'll usually want Torin's Jewelry piece to give him a better Defense score, but a good Armor piece will likely cover this on its own. Therefore, you can use the Jewelry piece to enhance Torin's Melee Attack even further, with To Hit or brute Attack Strength bonuses as you see fit.
- Virtually any bonus is useful here, and again Movement Allowance bonuses should not be ignored. Spell Save and Resistance bonuses are pretty much the only ones that aren't really beneficial to this Hero. Once again, it's usually best to just give Torin the strongest Jewelry you've got.
Acquisition[]
Torin the Chosen is unique among Heroes in that he does not randomly appear for hire, will not appear as a prisoner in Encounter zones, and cannot be summoned using either the Summon Hero or Summon Champion spells.
The only way to acquire Torin is through casting the Incarnation spell - a Rare Life spell that costs 500 to cast.
Once this spell is cast, a dialogue will appear, showing you Torin's statistics and allowing you to decide whether you wish to recruit him. Naturally, since you cast the spell intentionally, there really is no reason to refuse at this point. There's no penalty for refusing - other than wasting the Mana you spent for casting the spell. You can always do it again later.
If you agree to hire Torin, the game will prompt you to name him. You can choose any name, in which case he will be referred to as "<name> the Chosen" from that point onwards.
Once hired, Torin will appear at the current location of your Summoning Circle, with his full Movement Allowance available. He can move and/or attack immediately as necessary.
As long as Torin is in your employ, he will cost 12 per turn to maintain. Failure to pay this Upkeep Cost (due to lack of sufficient Mana) will result in Torin being dismissed from your service automatically. You will have to cast the Incarnation spell again (see below) to regain this Hero.
Resurrecting Torin[]
When Torin is destroyed or dismissed, he is not actually killed like other Heroes would be - he simply loses his physical form and returns to the divine realm from whence he came. Therefore, it is not possible to use the Resurrection spell to bring Torin back after he had died (as you'd do to bring back other dead Heroes). It is only necessary to re-summon Torin by simply casting the Incarnation spell again.
When Torin is reincarnated, you go through the same process described above as though you're summoning Torin for the first time. However, Torin retains virtually all of the stats he had previously - he'll have the same properties, the same abilities, and even the same Experience Level.
Re-summoning Torin does not restore the Magical Items he had in his possession when he died. It also does not restore any Unit Enchantments that were affecting him at that time.
Note that Torin may lose a certain amount of Experience when re-summoned. Upon reincarnation, the game gives him the minimum number of Experience Points required to retain the same Experience Level he had prior to death. For example, imagine that Torin has 32 Experience points upon his death. This gives him Experience Level 2 ("Myrmidon"), but is more than the required number of points for that level (20). Once Torin is reincarnated, he will have only 20 Experience Points - since that is the minimum required to maintain Level 2 ("Myrmidon").
Note: The same principles apply when Torin is simply dismissed from service rather than being killed off.
Alternate Names[]
Other wizards can also have a Chosen, but they are different characters (what happens to one has no effect on the others), and go by different names, as follows:
Chosen |
Player | Alternate Name |
|---|---|---|
| Human (0) | Torin | |
| Wizard 1 | Azrael | |
| Wizard 2 | Lawrence | |
| Wizard 3 | Purseus | |
| Wizard 4 | Heuron |
Known Bugs[]
It has been reported that Torin the Chosen (among a few other heroes) sometimes (or always?) does not receive the extra spells that he should have available.
There is a bug in the game code that prevents certain extra spells from being added to Heroes' repertoire, as the list above indicates they should.
As a result, all extra spells that have internal number bigger than 127, are dysfunctional. This concerns all 
Death and Life realm spells, apart from these life spells (Bless, Star Fires, Holy Weapon, Healing, Holy Armor). All other spells are fully functional.
If this bug occurs, Torin will only be able to cast spells that are already known and available to his employer. This reduces his effectiveness to some degree.