Spells in Dark Souls III are items that unleash various magical effects when cast. They can be bought, sold, and found throughout the world, much like other, regular items. Spells come in three varieties: Sorceries, Miracles and Pyromancies.
Attuning Spells
All spells need to be attuned (i.e. equipped) at a Bonfire, before they can be used in combat. Attuning a spell requires free Attunement Slots, which can be unlocked by raising the Attunement attribute when leveling up.
Casting Spells
Casting a spell requires an appropriate Catalyst, as well as sufficient Focus Points, Intelligence and Faith.
Casting and Movement
Certain spells can be cast whilst moving. These are:
[*] Unique animation while walking including sprinting and rolling attacks.
Casting speed is improved by Dexterity (caps at 50) and some equipment may help boost this. These are:
- Witchtree Branch - Staff that has maximum casting speed.
- Saint-tree Bellvine - Chime that has maximum casting speed.
- Sage Ring - Grants +30/+35/+40 pseudo-Dexterity to improve casting speed.
- Carthus Milkring - Grants +3 Dexterity.
- Hunter's Ring - Grants +5 Dexterity.
Spell Scaling
Details of Catalysts may be required. How spellbuff works (not spell types) and what is only affected by spellbuff i.e. weapon buffs.
These are the rules of spell damage scaling for spell types:
- Sorceries scale with Intelligence.
- Miracles scale with Faith.
- Pyromancies scale with both Intelligence and Faith.
- Dark spells such as dark sorceries (e.g. Affinity) and dark miracles (e.g. Dorhys' Gnawing) scale with both Intelligence and Faith. Good catalysts for casting dark spells are the Izalith Staff, Caitha's Chime, Crystal Chime and Sunless Talisman as they gain Spellbuff from Intelligence and Faith. Steady Chant and Chant from the Depths battle arts also provide a bonus to Dark damage for sorcery spells.
It's notable that Crystal Chime allows Sorceries and Miracles to scale with both Intelligence and Faith. However physical damage miracles (e.g. Emit Force) do not scale from Intelligence.
Using battle art abilities like Steady Chant, Chant from the Depths and Awakening will benefit spells casted from another catalyst. e.g. Steady chant from the Sage's Crystal Staff and then casting spells with a Crystal Chime will increase the damage of Crystal Soul Spear.
