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Realm of Magic, the new game pack for The Sims 4, brings spells and spellcasters to the game. It adds a new neighborhood, a new life state of spellcaster and (unsurprisingly) a magical realm, alongside all the usual clothing and furniture. Finally, after five years, Simmers can now live their magical dreams. But which path will you choose?

Taking a trip through the portal in Glimmerbrook will send you into a world of magic and mayhem. While some players may be content to use magic to make their lives easier or help others, there are many more of us who are already practicing our evil cackles as we ponder the important question; which branch of magic will cause the most chaos?

In an attempt to summon the answer to this vital query, I’ve created a spellcaster, learned all the spells, and set out on an epic quest to see how much chaos I can cause.

The Magical Branches

When you venture into the magical HQ you’ll meet three sages, each of whom represents a different branch of magic. The three branches are Mischief, Practical, and Untamed. Each school of magic has its own set of spells and its own focus.

Mischief magic focuses mostly on annoying others with pranks and jokes. It also includes spells that can mess with sims' emotions and even their appearance.

Practical magic lives up to its name. It includes spells that help make yours (and others) lives easier by taking care of some of those boring household tasks for you.

Finally, Untamed magic basically encompasses anything else and includes some more random spells with less commonality between them all.

While my initial assumption was that mischief magic would be the most chaotic, it turned out that nothing worked out quite how I expected it to.

Practical Magic

I must admit I didn’t expect much from the Practical magic branch and I was right. You can clean, make meals, fix things and transport yourself.

I went through the spells and started looking for something to cause chaos with but it just wasn’t as exciting as I’d hoped. The main issue is that spell casting is slow and you are limited by the overload mechanic.

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While I did manage to fill The Shrieking Llama with random plates of food, it didn’t cause any chaos. Most people just entirely ignored it and I must admit I was slightly offended. What was wrong with my randomly conjured plates of chicken and pasta?

The most amusing part was using the Copypasto spell on a plate of pasta, just for the immense puns involved.

Overall the chaos created by this was about 2 out of 10, just for the washing up.

Mischief Magic

Ah, mischief magic. I thought this would be the most chaotic and entertaining branch of magic to follow. It turned out that I was wrong, sort of. Many of the spells are fun but have limited scope for causing true chaos.

Burgliate is amusing, as it allows you to steal huge objects from a distance, but you cannot use it more than once before you hit a debuff. I hoped to go into a room on a public lot and clear it out into my inventory but sadly this isn’t possible, which stopped that idea in its tracks.

However, you can cause some chaos with the spells which manipulate sims' emotions. The most amusing is the Furio spell, which forces sims to fight each other. I managed to use it to encourage Judith Ward to fight in the art gallery, in front of the paparazzi. It doesn’t seem to have a cooldown either, so you are only limited by the spellcaster charge mechanic.

I also caused chaos in the library, when I turned everyone into inanimate objects using Morphiate. Serves them right for talking. However, they do turn back quite quickly which means you can only transform about 6-8 sims at once before the spell breaks in a chain reaction and you end up with a room full of confused townies.

Overall, this branch was enjoyable with a particular highlight being turning Mortimer Goth into a suit of armor and Eliza Pancakes into a cactus. The chaos score for this branch is around 7 out of 10. It would get more points if it wasn’t hindered by cooldowns.

Untamed Magic

Untamed is the correct word for this branch as the spells are truly insane. The most powerful one is the Dedeathify spell, which allows you to bring a sim back to life. If you pair up with another powerful spellcaster this will ensure that not even the overload mechanics can stop you.

The surrounding neighborhoods may wish you could be stopped, however, as this branch of magic is truly chaotic. You can set things on fire, freeze people who come to put the fires out, summon the dead, remove curses, and even copy yourself.

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Once again the only limit is the spellcaster overload mechanic. This branch was the most chaotic in terms of the effects on others, mostly due to the fires. It should be mentioned however that not everything can be set on fire, which is slightly disappointing.

Overall I’d rate this mechanic at a chaos score of around 9, mostly due to the fire and the general panic as well as the ability to cheat death with the help of a spellcasting friend. Everyone needs a partner in crime after all.

Combining Magic

The most powerful chaos can be achieved when you combine your magic spells together. Duplicate random items, set them on fire then chill the people who try and put them out. You can even command sims to fight, create and command a clone, or turn people into inanimate objects.

Spellcasting is great fun for those of us who love chaos. Just remember to keep an eye on your overload charges. Picking talents wisely can help minimize the risks of backfires and disasters so you’re less likely to end up dead or spend eight hours as a fruit bowl.

Happy spell casting!

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