MobWizardry - Mobs using Magics!

MobWizardry attaches Iron's Spellbooks spellcasting AI to existing mobs — fully config-driven. No new mobs are added: any vanilla or modded mob becomes a spellcaster when it carries a configured tag.

• Target: Minecraft Forge 1.20.1 (47.4.10)

How it works

1. Each preset in config/mobwizardry/presets.json defines:
   • the entity tag that activates it (requiredTag)
   • the wizard type (wizardType: ranged or close), movement speed and cast cadence
   • equipment, attribute overrides and a full mana pool
   • attack / defense / movement / support / escape spell kits
2. When a mob joins the world carrying the required tag, MobWizardry:
   • equips the configured gear and sets attributes/mana,
   • attaches a real Iron's Spellbooks WizardAttackGoal (wrapped behind a live tag check),
   • lets the mob cast its kit under the appropriate conditions.
3. Adding or removing the tag at runtime enables/disables the AI immediately — no restart needed.

Installation

1. Make sure the required mods are installed on the server:

   Required:

   • Forge 1.20.1 (47.4.10)
   • Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks 1.20.1-3.16.2
   • Iron's Spellbooks' own required libraries (installed automatically with it): geckolib, curios, playeranimator, irons_lib

2. Drop mobwizardry-1.20.1-1.0.2.jar into the server's mods/ folder (the same folder all your other mods live in):

   <server>\mods\mobwizardry-1.20.1-1.0.2.jar
   

3. Start the server. On first launch the mod writes a default config.

This mod is server-side logic; clients do not need it installed.

Optional but supported addons

The following spell addons are not required, but when installed their spells can be used in presets — just reference their spell IDs in the config. If an addon is missing, its spells are skipped automatically (logged and removed at load), no crash. Each addon's own extra dependencies are the player's responsibility.

Addon	Tested version	Notes
T.O Magic 'n Extras	6.3.0	spells, weapons, bosses (its addons also work)
BielGG's Spells Addon	1.3-hotfix	also fixes T.O / Cataclysm compatibility
Cataclysm: Spellbooks	1.2.9
GTBC's Geomancy Plus	2.0.0	needs Mowzie's Mobs + GTBC's SpellLib
Hazen 'N Stuff	1.1.2 (watered-down-edition)
Ice and Fire: Spellbooks	2.3.2	needs Ice and Fire: Dragons
Legendary Spellbooks	0.3.2-hotfix	needs Legendary Monsters
Magic From The East	1.0.0b
Somake Spells	1.0.8
Wind's Spellbooks	1.0.3
Apprentice's Codex	0.9.6

Configuration

File: config/mobwizardry/presets.json

Beginner's guide to the settings

Think of the config as a list of "wizard job applications". Each block is one preset — a set of instructions for turning a creature into a wizard. You can have as many presets as you want; each one has a different tag so it never interferes with the others.

Here is a plain-English explanation of every setting:

• requiredTag — the magic word that turns the creature on. A mob only gets its wizard AI while it carries this tag (you apply the tag with the commands below). Each preset needs a unique tag. The mob type is chosen at summon time — the preset itself is not limited to any creature type.

• wizardType — how the wizard fights. ranged (default) keeps distance and casts from afar; close charges in, casts point-blank, keeps a ~5-block standoff, and buffs while engaging. See below.

• team — optional team name. Mobs carrying presets with the same team name can never target, retaliate against, or hurt each other (even through spell splash). Leave it out or empty for a mob with no team. Example: give undead mobs "team": "undead" and human mobs "team": "human" so undead never fight undead and humans never fight humans, while the two groups still fight each other.

• faction — optional (enemy or friendly, default enemy). enemy wizards act like hostile mobs (a Wizard NPC hunts players, villagers and iron golems). friendly wizards never attack players or villagers, but they hunt hostile mobs and enemy-faction wizards (like a guard), fight back when hurt, and still cast spells. Best used with the Wizard NPC below.

• skin — optional skin name for the Wizard NPC (a file in the skins folder, e.g. "skin": "alex"). Leave it out to get a random skin per spawned NPC.

• speed — how fast the mob moves while casting. 1.0 is normal walking speed; bigger = faster.

• castInterval — the minimum number of ticks between cast attempts (20 ticks = 1 second). Smaller = casts more often.

• movementDistanceOffset — how much earlier the wizard uses its movement spell (the teleport/dash spells like blood_step) to jump closer to its target. Measured in blocks; it is subtracted from the spell's range. Default 5.0.

  • Example with spells that reach 20 blocks: old behavior = the wizard only jumps when the target is 20+ blocks away; with 5.0 it jumps when the target is 15+ blocks away (5 blocks sooner).
  • A bigger number = the wizard repositions sooner (the target can't get as far away before the wizard jumps). 0 = the old "wait until out of range" behavior.
  • It only moves the trigger point — it does not change how far the teleport spell itself jumps.
  • Negative numbers are ignored (treated as 0), and the trigger never drops below 2 blocks, so the wizard won't teleport when the target is right next to it.
  • Want exact distances instead? Set movementStartDistance / movementFarDistance — those override the offset when both are set.

• movementStartDistance / movementFarDistance — optional exact distances (in blocks) that replace the two derived movement triggers. They control when the wizard casts its movement spell (teleport/dash, e.g. blood_step) to jump closer to a target that is too far. The difference:

  • movementFarDistance is the hard threshold. When the target is farther than this, the wizard strongly wants the movement spell (the desire jumps high, scaling up the farther the target is) — "the target is definitely out of comfortable range, close the gap now".
  • movementStartDistance is the soft threshold. When the target is between movementStartDistance and movementFarDistance, the desire ramps up gradually (from none at start to strong at far) — "the target is getting far, starting to consider repositioning".
  • A target closer than movementStartDistance produces no distance-driven movement desire (the wizard attacks/strafes instead).
  • When both are 0 (default), they are derived from the spell range: movementStartDistance = 0.75 × (range − movementDistanceOffset) and movementFarDistance = (range − movementDistanceOffset).
  • Worked example (spells reach 20 blocks, movementDistanceOffset: 5 → derived start ≈ 11, far = 15): target at 8 blocks → no movement desire; at 13 blocks → ramping desire; at 16 blocks → strong desire, the wizard casts blood_step to jump closer.
  • Set them explicitly to take full control (e.g. "movementStartDistance": 15.0, "movementFarDistance": 20.0).

• movementTooCloseDistance — how close (in blocks) the target must be before the wizard uses its movement spell to back away / reposition instead of standing point-blank. Default 5.0 (also the close-wizard standoff). Set 0 to disable the too-close repositioning.

• retaliationChance — when a wizard that is already fighting gets hit by someone else (a player, another wizard, a hostile mob), the chance (0–1) that it switches to that attacker instead of staying on its current target. Default 0.4 (40%). An idle wizard with no target always retaliates (100%).

• equipment — what gear the mob wears. A slot name maps to an item ID; the mob puts the item on and it never drops. All six equipment slots are supported:

  • mainhand — the weapon/staff hand (e.g. irons_spellbooks:blood_staff)
  • offhand — the other hand (e.g. a shield)
  • head / helmet — e.g. minecraft:diamond_helmet
  • chest / chestplate — e.g. minecraft:diamond_chestplate
  • legs / leggings — e.g. minecraft:diamond_leggings
  • feet / boots — e.g. minecraft:diamond_boots

  Example — a fully-geared wizard:

  "equipment": {
    "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff",
    "offhand": "minecraft:shield",
    "head": "minecraft:diamond_helmet",
    "chest": "minecraft:diamond_chestplate",
    "legs": "minecraft:diamond_leggings",
    "feet": "minecraft:diamond_boots"
  }

  (Slot synonyms: hand/main_hand = mainhand, off_hand = offhand, chestplate = chest, leggings = legs, helmet = head, boots = feet.)

• attributes — the mob's magic stats. Examples: irons_spellbooks:max_mana (mana pool size), irons_spellbooks:mana_regen (mana per second), irons_spellbooks:spell_power (spell damage multiplier). You can also override vanilla attributes — they use the minecraft:generic.* namespace, e.g. minecraft:generic.max_health for max health, minecraft:generic.armor, minecraft:generic.attack_damage, minecraft:generic.movement_speed. After applying the overrides the mob refills to full health, so a boosted max_health spawns it at full HP. Example: "attributes": { "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 100, "minecraft:generic.max_health": 40 } gives a 40-HP wizard.

• spells — its spell kit, split into five categories (see below). Each spell is written as { "id": "mod:spell_id", "level": 1 }. A support spell may also set "emergency": true — see the support category.

Spell categories:

• attack — cast in combat against the target.
• defense — cast only while the caster is actually being attacked (recently hurt). Tip: any spell works here — put irons_spellbooks:shield for a classic barrier, or put an offensive spell like irons_spellbooks:fireball to make the caster retaliate when it gets hit.
• movement — cast when the target is far away / out of spell range to close the gap (e.g. irons_spellbooks:blood_step, irons_spellbooks:teleport).
• support — self-aid spells, cast when the caster is hurt or below half health. Good options: irons_spellbooks:heal, irons_spellbooks:greater_heal (health), irons_spellbooks:fortify (armor), irons_spellbooks:charge (speed), irons_spellbooks:heartstop. Note: there is no "mana regen" spell in Iron's Spells 'n Spellbooks — mana recovery is the irons_spellbooks:mana_regen attribute, so give a support caster that attribute as well. Balance: support casts are chance-gated (up to ~55% per cast attempt, scaling with missing health) and cooldown-limited (at most once every 7 seconds), so a dying caster can't heal-spam itself to immortality. Smart healing: mark a support spell "emergency": true (e.g. on heal/greater_heal) and, when the caster drops below 30% health, support casts will always pick one of those emergency heals instead of randomly wasting the cast on a buff like fortify.
• escape — repositioning spells cast only when the caster is critically low (below 30% health) and has recently been attacked, to retreat from danger (e.g. irons_spellbooks:teleport). Escape shares a 100-tick survival cooldown with emergency heals: after an escape, a heal can't land inside the same window, and a critical heal likewise blocks a follow-up escape — so the two can't chain together. It is chance-gated (~35% per eligible cast attempt) so a wizard doesn't teleport-spam, and it is checked before the weighted category pick, so it always wins over attack/movement while its conditions hold.

Wizard types

The wizardType field chooses how the wizard fights:

• ranged (default) — keeps distance and casts from afar. Uses the escape kit to retreat when critically low and recently attacked (shares a 100-tick survival cooldown with emergency heals). This is the classic behavior.
• close — charges in and stays engaged. It always advances toward the target while circling (never backs away), casts its attack kit point-blank, keeps a ~5-block standoff, and casts its support buffs (fortify, charge, attack damage) while engaging even at full health. It ignores the escape kit — it doubles down instead of running. Buffs stay chance-gated and cooldown-limited, so a close wizard can't spam them.

Example close preset:

{
  "wizard_close": {
    "requiredTag": "wizard_close",
    "wizardType": "close",
    "speed": 1.2,
    "castInterval": 50,
    "equipment": {
      "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 80
    },
    "spells": {
      "attack": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:magic_missile", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "support": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:heal", "level": 1, "emergency": true },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:fortify", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "escape": []
    }
  }
}

Mana explained

Mobs don't spend mana to cast. MobWizardry casts with Iron's Spellbooks' CastSource.MOB, which bypasses mana costs and cooldowns entirely — a wizard can keep casting regardless of its mana bar, and there is no mana config field for presets (it was removed).

The irons_spellbooks:max_mana and irons_spellbooks:mana_regen attributes are still accepted under attributes — they control the mana pool size and regeneration for anything that does read mana, but they never gate casting.

Example config (two presets)

This is exactly the default config the mod writes on first launch — copy it and change the values to taste.

{
  "wizard": {
    "requiredTag": "wizard",
    "wizardType": "ranged",
    "speed": 1.15,
    "castInterval": 60,
    "castIntervalMax": 0,
    "movementStartDistance": 0,
    "movementFarDistance": 0,
    "equipment": {
      "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff",
      "head": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_helmet",
      "chest": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_chestplate",
      "legs": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_leggings",
      "feet": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_boots"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 100,
      "irons_spellbooks:mana_regen": 3,
      "irons_spellbooks:spell_power": 1.5
    },
    "spells": {
      "attack": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:magic_missile", "level": 1 },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:fireball", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "defense": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:shield", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "movement": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:blood_step", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "support": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:heal", "level": 1, "emergency": true }
      ],
      "escape": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:teleport", "level": 1 }
      ]
    }
  },
  "wizard_lite": {
    "requiredTag": "wizard_lite",
    "wizardType": "ranged",
    "speed": 1.1,
    "castInterval": 80,
    "castIntervalMax": 0,
    "movementStartDistance": 0,
    "movementFarDistance": 0,
    "equipment": {
      "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff",
      "head": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_helmet",
      "chest": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_chestplate",
      "legs": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_leggings",
      "feet": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_boots"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 60,
      "irons_spellbooks:mana_regen": 2,
      "irons_spellbooks:spell_power": 1.0
    },
    "spells": {
      "attack": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:magic_arrow", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "defense": [],
      "movement": [],
      "support": [],
      "escape": []
    }
  },
  "wizard_range": {
    "requiredTag": "wizard_range",
    "wizardType": "ranged",
    "speed": 1.15,
    "castInterval": 60,
    "castIntervalMax": 100,
    "movementStartDistance": 15.0,
    "movementFarDistance": 20.0,
    "equipment": {
      "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff",
      "head": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_helmet",
      "chest": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_chestplate",
      "legs": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_leggings",
      "feet": "irons_spellbooks:wandering_magician_boots"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 100,
      "irons_spellbooks:mana_regen": 3,
      "irons_spellbooks:spell_power": 1.5
    },
    "spells": {
      "attack": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:magic_missile", "level": 1 },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:fireball", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "defense": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:shield", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "movement": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:blood_step", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "support": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:heal", "level": 1, "emergency": true }
      ],
      "escape": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:teleport", "level": 1 }
      ]
    }
  },
  "wizard_close": {
    "requiredTag": "wizard_close",
    "wizardType": "close",
    "speed": 1.2,
    "castInterval": 50,
    "castIntervalMax": 0,
    "movementStartDistance": 0,
    "movementFarDistance": 0,
    "equipment": {
      "mainhand": "irons_spellbooks:blood_staff",
      "head": "minecraft:iron_helmet",
      "chest": "minecraft:iron_chestplate",
      "legs": "minecraft:iron_leggings",
      "feet": "minecraft:iron_boots"
    },
    "attributes": {
      "irons_spellbooks:max_mana": 80,
      "irons_spellbooks:mana_regen": 3,
      "irons_spellbooks:spell_power": 1.5
    },
    "spells": {
      "attack": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:magic_missile", "level": 1 },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:fireball", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "defense": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:shield", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "movement": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:blood_step", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "support": [
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:heal", "level": 1, "emergency": true },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:fortify", "level": 1 },
        { "id": "irons_spellbooks:charge", "level": 1 }
      ],
      "escape": []
    }
  }
}

Using spells from addon mods

Any installed addon's spells can be used just like Iron's Spellbooks spells — the mod looks them up in the same shared spell list at load time. For example, if you have T.O Magic 'n Extras installed:

"spells": {
  "attack": [
    { "id": "traveloptics:halberd_horizon", "level": 1 }
  ]
}

If the addon isn't installed, that spell is logged as "not found in Iron's Spellbooks registry - removed" and simply skipped — no crash, no error screen.

Validation on load

At server start (and on /mobwizardry reload) every entry is validated against the real registries:

• unknown spell IDs, item IDs or attribute IDs are logged and removed,
• spell levels are clamped to the spell's max level,
• a warning is logged when a spell's intrinsic cooldown exceeds castInterval.

Invalid presets fail loudly in the log instead of silently doing nothing.

The Wizard NPC (2.0.0)

A new entity, mobwizardry:wizard, that looks like a player and uses the same preset system:

• Spawning — the intended way is /mobwizardry summon <preset> mobwizardry:wizard. A vanilla /summon mobwizardry:wizard also works and automatically applies the default wizard preset (ranged, enemy faction). There's also a spawn egg in the MobWizardry creative tab.
• Skins — the NPC renders with a player-shaped model. Skin files are 64x64 PNGs placed in assets/mobwizardry/textures/entity/wizard/skins/ (shipped with the mod or a server-installed resource pack). Each spawned NPC picks a random skin; a preset's "skin": "name" field forces a specific one. Missing files fall back to the vanilla Steve texture.
• Faction — the preset's faction field decides behavior:
  • enemy — hunts players, villagers and iron golems like a hostile mob.
  • friendly — never attacks on its own; it only fights back when hurt (and still casts).
• Teams — same-team NPCs can never hurt/target each other, so you can build friendly and enemy groups that coexist.

Admin commands

Requires permission level 2. (help and list are available to everyone.)

Command	Description
/mobwizardry help	Shows this list of commands with a short explanation for each.
/mobwizardry summon <preset> <mobType> [pos]	Spawns a mob of <mobType> with the preset applied (tag, equipment, attributes, wizard AI) immediately. The mob type is not restricted by the preset.
/mobwizardry wizardify <preset> [radius] [pos]	Turns every mob within radius (1–64, default 16) of you (or of pos) into wizards — tag, equipment, attributes and wizard AI. Non-mob entities in range are skipped and reported.
/mobwizardry unwizardify <preset> [radius] [pos]	Removes the tag from all wizards in range — their AI deactivates on the next tick.
/mobwizardry reload	Re-reads and re-validates presets.json without restarting.
/mobwizardry list [page]	Lists loaded presets in a readable, colored format — 5 per page, with clickable previous/next arrows.

Examples

/mobwizardry help
/mobwizardry summon wizard minecraft:zombie
/mobwizardry summon wizard minecraft:zombie 100 64 100
/mobwizardry wizardify wizard 10
/mobwizardry wizardify wizard 20 100 64 100
/mobwizardry unwizardify wizard 10
/mobwizardry reload
/mobwizardry list
/mobwizardry list 2

Testing your preset in-game

1. Start the server with the mod installed.
2. Run /mobwizardry list — confirm your preset shows up (if not, check the log for validation errors).
3. Spawn one: /mobwizardry summon <preset> minecraft:zombie
4. Observe the mob:
   • attack spells cast while it has a target in range,
   • defense spells cast while it is being attacked,
   • movement spells cast when the target is far / out of range,
   • support spells cast when it is hurt or below half health (or, for close wizards, while engaging),
   • escape spells cast when it is critically low and recently attacked (ranged only),
   • a close wizard advances, casts point-blank, keeps a ~5-block standoff, and never retreats,
   • cooldowns match the spell's own configured values.
5. Tweak presets.json and run /mobwizardry reload — no server restart needed. Code changes (if any) require rebuilding the jar and restarting.

Notes

• CastSource.MOB in Iron's Spellbooks does not consume mana or enforce its player cooldown system, so the goal's castInterval is the effective cast cadence; per-spell cooldowns are still respected as the source of truth.
• The wizard and wizard_lite presets in the default config are examples — copy them and change requiredTag and spell IDs to taste.