[Graeme Dice]

Originally posted by Arryn:
There's another, related, problem with "Cast spells" orders. If the AI would refrain from casting spells at all if no *useful* spells were within range (useful being defined as harming the enemy or helping friendlies that have not already been helped by an earlier casting of the spell under consideration), then that's one solution.

The AI already does this. Put some level two priests on the battlefield with blessing, blessing, cast spells, and no other undead or sacred units. You'll find that they cast blessing on themselves once, then tend to switch to stay behind troops, since they have no other useful spells. All the other paths of magic have at least a spell such as flying shards, so those mages will use it.

I have never seen the AI cast a spell on friendlies that already had the spell cast on them, other than the previously mentioned air shield on a level 10 air blessing.