Dueling is a decent way to learn spells, though the problem is you're not guaranteed to win!
When playing a Spellcaster in The Sims 4 Realm of Magic, you will gradually pick up new spells. Let's learn all about spells in Realm of Magic, how to learn them and the mechanics behind failure and magical charge.
Spells are learned in a variety of ways and will appear in your Sim's Spellbook once he or she knows how to use them. Head to the motives/needs panel, pick the perk panel then Open Spellbook or - more conveniently - click your Sim > Magic Menu > then hit Open Spellbook to see everything your Sim knows. Spell rank matters a bit, because of failure rates. I mention this because in general, it's easy to tell the rank of a spell from the spellbook - they're listed by the rank of the spell with more difficult spells appearing later on the list for each school.
The Spellbook helps you keep track of how many spells and potion recipes you've learned out of the 39 total available.
There are a total 24 spells in the Game Pack, across 3 schools of magic. Practical has nine spells, Mischief seven, and Untamed magic features eight. Learning new spells is possible in a variety of ways.
Tomes can be bought at Caster's Alley, a small section of town to your right when facing the Magic HQ in the Magic Realm. These are restocked randomly each day, with rarer books naturally being harder to find. It's possible to buy tomes that are higher rank than your Spellcaster.
Tomes can be found in the Magic HQ's libraries. Select a bookshelf and pick, "Search for Tomes" to have your Sim go on a hunt. This is an unreliable way to pick up spells, because Familiars can also be found - however that may be of interest to you. Again, you can find tomes that are too high for your caster.
Practicing Magic is an extremely reliable way to pick up new spells, but it would seem your Spellcaster can only pick up those available for their level. Dueling can teach you spells above your level.
Practice Magic is one of the more reliable ways to pick up spells, so long as there are still some to be discovered in a magic school that is appropriate for your level. If you see a message like, "X has learned all the spells available", you should move on and seek to gain experience before trying again. Practice is broken up by the 3 schools, which is fantastic because it allows you to focus on learning what's missing from that particlar school.
Ask to Learn from one of the three Sages at the Magic HQ. They have the floating symbols over their heads, with one Sage for each school. I don't know that they always teach from their appropriate school, but I do know you need to build relationship with them for them to teach you spells. See "Ultimate Spells" section below for a little more info on this.
Duel for Knowledge is another decent option, though not as good as practice. It may provide a little more WitchXP. If you win the duel, you get a spell... but because you need to win, it's not a reliable way to pick up new magic. However it's smart to duel for knowledge every time you do, in case you're pursuing the Spellcraft and Sorcery Aspiration and on the correct rank. Duels won before that rank are not counted.
New spell notifications appear in the usual area, and give you a handy link to the spellbook where you can view them. If you hit rank 5, be sure to suck up to the Sages to learn their ultimate spells!
There are three spells that require mid-range friendship with the Sages and master Spellcaster in order to learn. All others can be picked up at random via practicing, dueling, and from tomes. Once you hit max rank in Spellcaster, head to a sage and ask them to teach you the ultimate spell for Mischief, Practical, or Untamed magic based on their school. I don't think they will share it via dueling, but let me know if I'm wrong.
When you hover your mouse over the Magical Charge meter in the needs/motives panel, you'll see that it mentions magical potency when you have built up charge. Charge is created by doing magical activities, and in particular casting spells. What does this extra power bring you? Not much. It's one of the weakest discoveries I've made in investigating Realm of Magic.
In general, spells that are emotion based will get a duration boost if you have charge, and that's about all. Most other spells function normally. It seems to be a huge missed opportunity to create variables in spell effects. However, it is what it is. Because of this there's little reason to build up caster charge. Higher charge = increased failure rates and failures = curses. For more information on charge, see my Spellcasters guide's charge section.
Important Notes About Rank - If you somehow learn a spell above your level (through any means other than tomes, pretty much), you should be aware of this. Casting a spell above your caster's rank means you will have lower chances of success. When you surpass the required level, you'll get lower and lower failure rates. What this means is that without considering other bonuses, it's not possible to improve success much on 5th rank spells (you can't go past it) but you can substantially increase the rate of success for rank 1-3 spells and slightly improve success for rank 4. Each of the magical schools has a perk that will further reduce failure rates for all spells.
It is indeed possible to Cheat to learn spells, among other things.
"A Practical Spellcaster studies all things helpful and useful. Life is much easier with a bit of magic!"
| Picture | Spell | Cast Rank | Game Description | Spell Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Repairio | Neophyte | Fix a broken object, or make crafted objects higher quality. | Being charged and having a successful cast with this spell, it's possible to bump the quality of the targeted object to maximum! Works on many craftable items, including potions. |
 | Scruberoo | Neophyte | Make something (or someone) squeaky clean. | Cleans dirty plumbing (for example) as well as Sims. Doesn't work great on Sims with the uncleansable stench curse. A nice thing about this, it cleans up clothes for Sims who have been scorched. While its main use is to max hygiene, you can fix that nasty black soot appearance Sims get with this spell. |
 | Delicioso | Acolyte | Create a tasty meal out of thin air. | Yes, you can make meals with this, but evidently can also make food fresh if it has been spoiled. What's more, it can bump the dish up to Outstanding quality! |
 | Floralorial | Acolyte | Keep your plants healthy and bug free. | This one mostly does what it says - it fully waters, weeds, and removes insects from plants that are unhealthy. |
 | Transportalate | Adept | Move instantly to another location, regardless of distance. | Via clicking your Sim, you can opt to always use Transportalate as a method of transport. They'll only walk short distances. It's really cool, given they will teleport to the toilet then back to the kitchen (an example) if your home is big enough. |
 | Copypasto | Adept | Turn one small object into many. | With a successful (charged/master) cast this spell will not just make you one copy of the object, but 2! On public lots it seems it may put the copy in your inventory. |
 | Herbio | Master | Create a fully grown plant in even the most fallow of soils. | Cast this on the ground. It summons the new plants (valerian, mandrake) as well as a bunch of others like Death Flowers. It's a great spell, because you can get magnificent plants from a charged cast (success) and can then graft onto those and never worry about evolving plants. |
 | Homewardial | Master | Return to the Magic Realm | Just another way to get back to the Magic Realm. Relatively useless given the GlimmerStone but it gives you an option if you somehow lose it. |
 | Rite of Ascension | Virtuoso | Bestow the gift of magic to another Sim. | Has a one day cooldown. Can save a family member from picking up motes for a Sage? |
"A Mischief Spellcaster loves nothing more than tormenting others with magical pranks. Why take everything so seriously?"
| Picture | Spell | Cast Rank | Game Description | Spell Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Despairio | Neophyte | Fill a Sim's mind with feelings of intense sadness. | Gives a +10 Sad moodlet to the target for 120 mins. On backfire, it'll make you sad! If your Sim is charged and successflly casts this, the duration will be bumped up to 4 hours. |
 | Deliriate | Neophyte | Reach into a Sim's head and scramble their thoughts. | Daze a Sim for 2 hours, 4 if charged. The target will wander around aimlessly. On backfire, it makes your Sim wander. |
 | Furio | Acolyte | Convince two Sims to argue and fight with one another. | Has a 30-minute duration. Makes two Sims fight one another for a time. They will take a hit to relationship with one another, as if they had really fought. |
 | Infatuate | Acolyte | Convince two Sims to get romantic with each other. | The two Sims will bet a +10 flirty mood, and will automatically make out. The buff is called, "Cupid's Touch" and lasts 30 mins. Interestingly, casting this on Sims while charged will give the two lovebirds a larger ++ LTR_Romance gain. |
 | Burgliate | Adept | Acquire something that doesn't belong to you. | This will actually satisfy a Kleptomaniac's urge to swipe something. It looks like you get some money along with the object if you do this while charged and succeed. |
 | Morphiate | Master | Transform a hapless Sim into an inanimate object. | So, an interesting thing about Morphing Sims. The charged version does 4 hours vs the regular version's 2 hours. They change into a variety of objects, from a dead fish to gnomes. The cool bit about this is their needs are frozen for the duration.. so if you had a Sim ready to do something in a few hours, you could use this to keep them 'ready' and not waste any energy waiting around. |
 | Strangeify | Virtuoso | Make a Sim appear repulsive to everyone around them. | Thisi s like the repulsive curse which turns a Sim green and makes other Sims vomit at the sight of the victim. It works 3 hours normally, but will stick around for 5 hours if your Sim is charged. |
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"An Untamed Spellcaster dedicates themselves to only the most powerful and uncontrollable spells. Magic is a force to be controlled!"
| Picture | Spell | Cast Rank | Game Description | Spell Effect |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Inferniate | Neophyte | Instantly incinerate your target with the power of fire. | This sets an object on fire, and can cause a good bit of damage if no one puts it out. Sims can be targeted as well, but the spell has a 60-min duration, which doesn't seem long enough to kill. Yes a Sim will be on fire for an hour and be just fine afterward. There may be 2 fires if a Sim is charged. |
 | ZipZap | Acolyte | Harness electrical energy and give something a jolt. | Cast this on a Sim and they'll get a 90-min +10 Dazed moodlet as well as a strong shock, much like handiness electronic repair failures. It may cause them to die if they attempted a repair and then failed. You can also use this on objects to break them, which could let you level up Handiness... as if you'll ever need it again. |
 | Necrocall | Acolyte | Summon the dead from their final resting place. | Cast this on a grave to summon the ghost. |
 | Chillio | Adept | Create a blast of cold air that freezes anyone it touches. | While a Sim is frozen, none of their needs will decay. Seasons players: this does have an impact on a Sim's body temperature, so I don't know but it might help to accelerate a death in winter. |
 | Minionize | Adept | Control another Sim's mind and bend them to your will. | This is an extremely powerful spell in terms of duration. The regular Minionize works for four hours, but a charged variant can take control of another Sim for eight hours. You can order them to do several things, like clean your home and and cook. |
 | Dedeathify | Master | Restore a ghost to their original physical form. | Using Necrocall, then succeeding in casting this will allow you to bring the dead back to life. A good way to get a caster who is immune to death from charge - set up the Spellcaster's death by making them die of Overcharge. Then use another Sim to bring back the ghost (or get them in your family). |
 | Decursify | Master | Free yourself from the effects of a magical curse. | This spell lets you pick which curse to remove. It has a 24 hour cooldown, but if cast while a Sim is in the charged state? That cooldown is slashed to only 8 hours. Not awful. |
 | Duplicato | Virtuoso | Create a perfect replica of yourself, for a time. | Clones come with their stats locked, so can do things without worry of needs. |
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Comments (4)
Can you get all spells on one sim?
Yes one sim can learn all the spells
So I used the potion of immortality, turned my sim into a ghost. Like the generational wizard he is he trained an apprentice so they could raise him from the dead. Use the dedeathify spell several times nothing happens. Anybody know if this is a glitch or as intended?
Sounds like a glitch as the spell works as expected for me. Are you using any mods maybe? Perhaps they are causing the issue. Unless the fact you use the Immortal potion then cheated the death has just really glitched this aspect of game play out...which wouldn't surprise me tbh.
When I click on the spellcaster perks icon, does not show the perks table. Neither the spellcaster book too.
Some simple things to try, save and quit then delete the localthumbacache.package file from your TheSims4 folder then reload your game.
You can also try to travel away from the home lot and back as traveling does a soft reset.
You can always open the spellcaster book by clicking on your sim>magic>open spellbook
It need more detailed description of backfired spells, it is completely missing in most cases :(
And what do you mean "A good way to get a caster who is immune to death from charge"? Getting immune is getting a trait that prevents "Tense" moodlets. Is spellcaster dies because of Overcharge, the ghost is not immune to overcharging in any way. And when resurrected, it looses the relevant trait just like any ghost.