I'm confused why this just happened. I dont have cancellation, so I used dispel as it said it had a reduced chance to get rid of the negative effect. The dispel worked and removed the spell I had on me, but then said my knowledge was reduced and I check my skill list to find it is now 1% in this spell?

If dispel can be used on ones self to accomplish the effect why would I be punished for doing so?

How is a player who doesnt have experience with a spell casting class to know what can or cannot be cast on one's self without catastrophic effect. In this case a permanent loss of practices?

This happens to everyone once or twice. There's a lot of stuff in CF that adds richness and depth, and there's some stuff it's hard just to know up front without experiencing it.

The reality is, there isn't a single character out there that dies or deletes or auto-deletes without at least a few unused practices. This isn't catastrophic at all. It might feel that way if your character is low-level.

Also, there are things in game, like using the 'extra training' or extra practice edges, that are meant to enable you to deal with situations like that.

" there isn't a single character out there that dies or deletes or auto-deletes without at least a few unused practices"

Few of mine:

0 pracs:

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=31&topic_id=44551&mesg_id=44551&page=2

1 prac, some unpracticed skills:

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=31&topic_id=45114&mesg_id=45123&page=2

0 pracs, never maxed strength:

http://forums.carrionfields.com/dc/dcboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=31&topic_id=45114&mesg_id=45123&page=2

Yes, but you had ample edge points, even on the character with 2 roles in 199 hours, to pick extra practice or extra training.

If it's offensive, it goes down a chunk whenever you cast it on yourself. Yes, the reduction in skill is permanent.

To go to 1% you'd have had to cast it at least a few times.

>If it's offensive, it goes down a chunk whenever you cast it
>on yourself. Yes, the reduction in skill is permanent.
>
>To go to 1% you'd have had to cast it at least a few times.

I cast it several times and lost my concentration, I thought nothing of this I received no notice other than the usual message when this occurred.. Then it succeeded one time and I received the message, at which time I checked my practice % and my ability was 1%. If I would have received the message one time, I would have stopped and checked, not continued to drain away my practice.

This doesnt apply to other questionable beneficial spells like slow, is that correct? Why is dispel different and how is a player unfamiliar with this dynamic to know? The help file said it had a reduced chance to work, but didnt say don't use this on yourself.

Metabolic slowing is offensive except against trusting targets. Since you trust yourself it's not offensive when cast in that regard, anyone not trusting will attack you for casting it.

Dispel is always offensive and the helpfile says it's considered an attack. (I don't know where it says casting/communing attacks on yourself lowers %, but it's probably meant to eliminate people spamming on themself to master things.)
Cancellation is the non-offensive equivalent of dispel, but can only be cast/communed on trusting people.

I had that happen on an invoker I played, where I cast a spell at myself accidentally because I had a name similar to my target and lost skill %. I only noticed because I started learning it again after thinking I had perfected it to know I had lost the %.