short question on soul vortex

[tinkthank]

Never cast this spell, but see a lot of people swear by it. But how does it work?
The descrip reads:
"Area of Effect: Caster"
"... Anyone near the caster will have his life force drained..."
How near?
And am I correct in assuming it also affects friendly units?
And also assuming it does not affect lifeless units?
Is it an area-effect Life Drain, and if so, how large is the area of effect?
Does one script a mage to cast it 5x and then hope the AI will continue to do so?
Thanks much

[Yossar]

It Lasts the whole battle so you only cast it once. Affects the area right next to the caster but only occurs in a few random spots near him. So it works better if you are completely surrounded. Not sure if damage is the same as drain life but it works similarly.

[Norfleet]

Originally posted by tinkthank:
How near?

A small radius around the caster, usually one or two squares, although the squares at the periphery are somewhat random and inconsistent.

And am I correct in assuming it also affects friendly units?

Soul Vortex is indiscriminate. It can be thus useful to surround a mage intended to spam spells with "feeder" militia that you got from a free event, set on "Guard Commander", so that their life will be leeched and reinvigorate the mage.

And maybe they'll die, so you can finally be rid of them.

And also assuming it does not affect lifeless units?

Neither lifeless nor undead units are affected. This is slightly different from the "Drain Life" spell and lifedrain attacks, which affect all targets, and return life and fatigue to the attacker if the attackee is not lifeless: Being undead does not specifically help: Lifedrain WILL work on undead that are not lifeless.

Does one script a mage to cast it 5x and then hope the AI will continue to do so?

It's a buff and damage shield. It only needs to be cast once. If you script it more than once, subsequent attempts will be ignored.

[Taqwus]

It's also the effect of Bone Armor, I believe.
If you want a more fun Version, and don't mind needing strong death AND strong astral AND gems, try Soul Drain. It's like Soul Vortex except it tries to drain randomly across the entire battlefield every turn.