The Lantern of the Laughless Saint — How to Cast Spells and Craft Magic

The Lantern of the Laughless Saint how to cast spells question has a short answer and a long tail. Spell crafting ships as a fully featured Early Access system in this Morrowind-inspired solo and co-op RPG, and casting itself is bound to the same hotbar you use for weapons: an official update added switching between an equipped weapon and a spell, plus number-key hotkeys. The long tail is that the developer has documented the shape of the system and the named effects, but not the full cost, scaling and control tables — so this page separates what is on the record from what is still to confirm.

How Spell Casting Works in Early Access

Spells sit on the same action bar as weapons rather than in a separate menu. The official Update 17 note lists R on keyboard and B on gamepad for switching between an equipped weapon and a spell, and PC number keys 1 to 8 as hotkeys, with a quick-options wheel for favourited weapons. The same note says the previous equip system remains available at the bottom of Gameplay settings. What that means in practice:

• You can keep a weapon and a spell both ready and swap between them mid-fight.
• Number keys 1 to 8 cover your hotbar, so the first eight slots are the ones worth arranging.
• The quick-options wheel selects favourited weapons, not the full equipped list.
• Tapping the switch control toggles sheathing, so you are not locked into a cast animation.
• Remapping is possible, so a patch-note default is not a guarantee about your own layout.

Three magic schools are named in the recorded material, and all three appear in character or shrine data rather than in a marketing one-liner:

Magic school	Where it is documented	What that tells you
Channeling	The Umbrite race starts with +5 Channeling	It is a trainable skill you can begin with
Psionics	The Calyx race starts with +15 Psionics	Higher starting values exist, so Psionics scales
Sorcery	The Al-Fijhan shrine blessing grants +10 to all three schools	All three schools share the same buff structure

Learning Spells: Races, Skill Points and Vendors

There are three documented routes to a bigger spell list, and they stack. First, race: the Ruggite starts with +100 Max Magic Power and a starting spell, the Calyx starts with +15 Psionics and the Night Eye spell, and the Umbrite starts with +5 Channeling. Second, levelling: the character guides report that you receive 5 Skill Points per level and can put them into any skill, including magic skills, and that skills also rise naturally through use. Third, buying or learning in the world, which is how the recorded Anchor spell reaches you.

• Night Eye, the Calyx starting spell, is described as letting you see shapes in complete darkness and in unlit caves where other races see nothing.
• Skill Points bypass the rising experience requirement of natural skill growth, so save them for magic skills you cannot practise safely.
• The Stone of Hau quest reward adds +1 magic regeneration for as long as it is carried in your inventory.
• A magic-focused build should expect real drawbacks: the Ruggite trades 30 Max Stamina and takes 50% weakness to fire in exchange for its power.

Documented Spell Effects and What Updates Changed

The official Update 11 baseline is the best record of what the spell system actually contains. It added Waterwalking, Feather and Burden to the official spell-effect record, and it fixed third-person targeting, regeneration behaviour, Slink cost, dropdown colours and Fire spellcrafting damage. The independent guide archive notes that exact magnitudes and full cost or scaling tables remain unpublished, which is why a specific damage number for any spell should be treated as unverified.

Effect or fix	Status in the official record
Waterwalking	Added as a recorded spell effect
Feather and Burden	Added as recorded spell effects
Fire spellcrafting damage	Corrected, with no published formula
Slink cost	Corrected, with no published value
Third-person targeting	Corrected
Regeneration behaviour	Corrected

Fortify effects are the other documented movement tool, and the community guide archive describes them as not tightly capped: extreme skill fortification is reported to produce movement fast enough to cross large parts of the map, and the game is described as relaxed about that rather than treating it as a bug. Treat that as a reported behaviour to confirm rather than a developer-stated feature.

Movement Magic: Anchor and Recall

The closest thing this game has to fast travel is a two-spell pair rather than a map-click network. Anchor sets a return point, and Recall sends you back to the anchor you set; the Anchor spell is reported to be sold by the apprentice jinn in the starting town. The practical advice attached to one long overland quest is explicit: buy Anchor before you leave, and set it at your destination once you arrive, so the hard journey is a one-time cost. You have to be taught magic before any of this works, which is why a spell-focused opening pays for itself in travel time.

What Is Not Documented Yet

There is no published list of every spell, no complete ingredient or recipe table for spell crafting, no verified cast-time or cooldown figures, and no developer confirmation of a maximum skill cap. Numbers quoted by third-party pages that do not trace back to an official Steam announcement should be marked to confirm. If you are deciding how to build around magic, the builds page covers the documented race bonuses, and the characters page explains each starting kit in detail.