This section is about spells, techniques, skills, and their effects.
The most fundamental actions a monster may make in battle is the use of a technique. Over its lifetime, a monster has the chance to learn many of these. Using them wisely is the key to a familiar's success.

What are techniques?
What are spells?
What is a practice rating?
How do I increase a spell's practice rating?
What are skills?
How do I teach my familiar spells/techs/skills?
What do the effects of a technique mean?
What are spell levels?
What is a Critical Strike?

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What are techniques? Techniques, or techs for short, are the basic actions a monster can take during a fight. They contain one or more effects that are ranked on four different spell levels (SL).
A tech's overall level is equal to the combined total of its effects' spell levels. This determines where on a creature's grid the tech may be placed.
What are spells? Spells are stronger versions of techniques. A monster may only learn up to three of these, however. There are two things that seperate a spell from a normal technique. Spells have a practice rating. In addition to this, spells can gain spell levels or completely change its effects as a monster grows.
What is a practice rating? Every spell has a practice rating that ranges from zero to one hundred percent. When a monster first learns a spell, it starts at zero.
If a spell is not at one hundred percent training, it will function as a spell of a lower level than it actually is. The exact amount lower is equal to one minus the practice rating. That is, a spell without any practice will function as a spell of one level lower, and a spell with twenty-five percent training will act as one three-quarters of a level lower.
The disadvantage for an unmastered spell is divided among all effects of a spell, not seperately applied in whole to each one. For example, if a spell with fifty-percent training had one effect, it would effectively be one-half of a level lower, but if that spell had two effects, each effect would be one quarter of a level lower.
How do I increase a spell's practice rating? You can train up your familiar's spells by using them during battle. You can only train up all of your spells by so much every level. The percentage increase with every use depends on your monster and where in the grid the spell was slotted.
If the used spell was slotted in the Power Bar, the percentage increase depends on your familiar's Strength and Defense.
If the used spell was slotted in the Magic Bar, the percentage increase depends on your familiar's Arcane and Virtue.
If the used spell was slotted in the Special Bar, the percentage increase depends on your familiar's Strike and Agility.
Although Speed contributes to no percentage increase of spells, it does contribute in that it allows your familiar to use spells more often, thus allowing them to be practiced.
What are skills? Skills represent non-battle aspects of a monster. They cannot be broken down into the simple battle effects like spells and techs can. A monster may learn up to three of them, but many species will not even be able to learn that many.
Skills can be slotted to a creature's grid, but they cannot be used directly. They must be triggered, or are simply always in effect. To find out how an individual skill works, read about them.
How do I tech my familiar spells/techs/skills? To teach a familiar spells, techs, or skills, log into your account. On the creature's page within the log-in, you will see a sub-table that contains a tab Learn Spells & Techs. Clicking it will take you to a long list of techs.
First will be Spells, then Techs, and finally Skills. Each will be listed with its level and its effects. If it is grayed, you cannot learn it. If it is highlighted, you have already learned it. If it has a button next to it, you can learn it.
When a monster starts out, it can learn four techs. Every two levels, it can learn another (meaning that you get another technique to learn at level two). Every five wins, your monster gets yet another tech.
Just because a technique does not seem powerful does not mean that you should not learn it. Your monster will use weaker techs much more than powerful techs. Pick your SL 1 and 2 techs very carefully, and you will end up using them most of all, even when your familiar is a very high level. In fact, if you try not to learn then, you will be forced to. As your monster grows, it may be forced to learn SL 2 and SL 3 techniques as well to ensure that it will be able to set a valid grid. Make sure you learn a selection that can be fill the Power, Magic, and Special bars of every Energy Level.
What do the effects of a technique mean?

• Attack deals damage to the opponent that increases with the user's Strength but decreases with the target's Defense.
• Cast inflicts damage on the foe that increases with the user's Arcane and target's Virtue but decreases with the target's Arcane.
• Banish inflicts damage on the foe that increases with the user's Virtue and target's Arcane but decreases with the target's Virtue.
• Heal recovers the target's Life in an amount that increases with the user's Virtue.
• A statistic Increase will raise one of the seven stats in Battling Dragons. Each SL corresponds to a two-point increase. No statistic may be increased beyond ten points of the character's base value. The higher the user's Arcane is, the longer the alteration will last.
• A statistic Decrease obviously lowers one of the seven stats. Each SL corresponds to a two-point decrease. No statistic may be lowered beyond ten points of the character's base value. The higher the user's Arcane is, the longer the alteration will last; the higher the target's Virtue is, the shorter the alteration will last.
• Cure attempts to rid of all negative status effects on the target -- degeneration and stat decreases. The chance of successfully removing an effect increases with the user's Virtue and decreases with the Arcane of the one who inflicted the condition. If a condition is not removed, its severity will be lessened by an amount equal to the curation's spell level.
• Dispel attempts to rid of all positive status effects on the target -- this largely means stat increases. The chance of successfully removing an effect increases with the user's Arcane and decreases with the Arcane of the one who caused the condition. If the condition is not removed, its severity will be lessened by an amount equal to the dispel's spell level.
• Degeneration causes the target's life to steadily fall over a period of time, typically four times per spell level in turns. If the target resists the degeneration, life will decrease for only half of the normal time. The chance of resistance increases with the target's Virtue and Defense and decreases with the user's Arcane.
  If multiple degenerations are applied on the same monster, the length of time for which it loses life will increase, not the damage received every turn.
  For every accumulated ten spell levels worth of degeneration on a monster, the rate at which the degeneration runs its course as well as the damage caused by it doubles.

What are spell levels? Spell Levels (SL) relate how strong a technique or an individual effect of a technique is. A spell or technique's spell level is equal to the sum of all its effects' SLs.
There are four different spell levels. Instead of being described with a raw number, they are usually given some descriptive text.

• SL 1 - Weak, Minor, Small
• SL 2 - Moderate, Medium
• SL 3 - Major, Strong, Powerful, Severe
• SL 4 - Ultimate

Techs can range from SL1 to SL3. Spells vary from SL2 to SL4.
What is a Critical Strike? Critical Strikes exist to be the opposite of missing. Only techs that can miss, that is, damaging techs (those with either the Attack, Cast, or Banish effect), can achieve a Critical Strike. It inflicts about twice the damage the action would have normally done. The target's Agility decreases the chance for critical damage and tech-user's Strike increases the chance for and life taken by critical damage.