Symbolic Magic
Symbolic Magic
The various methods used to cast pre-defined spells on Elakore, each of these methods is termed a ‘Path’ (although hedge wizardry is often termed the lack of one) each path has it’s strength and weaknesses depending on it’s style of magic and where it originates. All paths have access to the same spells, however the learning and techniques for one path to another are completely different, such that a Rune Mage finding a spell book from a Ritual Mage would not be able to learn the spells of that path and visa versa.
The primary rules are the same for all Paths Though: The mechanics work the same as all skill use, a percentile die is rolled any roll under the total of (base skill)+(the spell skill)+(CTL)is a success any roll above is a failure.
The Base skill for most mages is Symbolic Magic which is modified by the Learned skill for the spell the character is casting. So for instance if the spell was Cleadora’s Sunstone and the character had a total skill level between the two of 65, then that would mean that the character successfully casts that spell 65% of the time.
Symbolic magic spells however have one more factor involved: the Order or Power (OP) of that spell. In terms of mechanics there are no real differences to casting spells of differing OPs a OP1 spell with a 65% and an OP15 spell with the same 65% are both cast successfully 65% of the time: on a roll of percentile dice under 65. However if the character hasn’t studied the OP15 spell as much as they should have then they are what is termed Over Extended on that spell. If a caster is Overextended on a spell and FAILS their success roll for that spell it is always considered a Blunder. The Blunder at minimum means that the caster must spend 3X the mana cost for the spell (or mana and lifeforce as the case may be) beyond that the GM can either role-play out the consequences of the Blunder or roll on the Terrible Terrible Table of Terrible Things.
All attempts at casting cost the full amount of mana associated with a given spell, regardless of success or failure.
Effectiveness is determined if the spell casting was successful all spells have an effectiveness of 1D10+4+PWR and a Finesse of 35. This follows standard rules in determining the total effectiveness of a given spell, a 1d10+4+PWR is rolled for success, for every 35 points under the target that is rolled an additional 1d10+4 is added to the effectiveness of the spell.
Spending effectiveness is however slightly different than most skills, spells have three or four areas that can have effectiveness divided amongst them these are: Casting Time, Duration, Range/Area, and often Damage/Power.
Casting time is the number of actions required to cast a spell and has a base equal to the OP of the spell in actions.
Duration is how long the spell will last and varies from spell to spell, it is often commiserate with OP and Mana cost (so that a low OP spell with a very long duration may cost as much mana as a high OP spell with a very low duration)
Range and Area are related to one another and again varry from spell to spell. The relation is fairly simple, a spell will have a listed a range and area of effect, often times this can be adjusted for instance, a range of 10’ with an area of effect of 5 cubic feet would mean that the total value usable for both is 15, a reduction of range to 5 would increase the area to 10 and so on
Damage/Power indicate how much resistance (of a given type) the spell can overcome. So a spell that has a description indicating that it puts creatures to sleep (a mental effect,) 80 Power would mean that the target’s Willpower would be reduced by 80 points (or a number of targets up to 80 points) and if this was enough to overcome the Willpower of the target then it would fall to sleep. If it was not a successive casting of the same spell could reduce the willpower further. Damage/Power is typically the most closely tied to the effectiveness of the spell.
In spells that use Damage/Power all effectiveness starts out as part of this total, however you can lower the Damage/Power and apply all or a portion of the Effectiveness to the other three areas of the spell, reducing the casting time, Increasing the Range (or area) or Increasing the Duration of a spell by one unit (feet or actions) per point of effectiveness spent. Care must be taken though as it is possible to make the spell ineffectual.
Learning New Spells
The Path skills determine how easy it is for your character to learn a new spell. You use this skill every time you want to pick up a new Spell Skill. The Op*10 of the spell that you wish to learn is the target resistance for learning the spell. So for instance if you wish to learn an OP 8 spell the Resistance of that spell to being learned is 80 and you would need to overcome this by generating effectiveness of your path skill. In most cases you can make one attempt per day and the total value stacks. So if the Resistance of the spell was 80 and on day 1 you got 20 effectiveness you would have 60 remaining and could continue learning the spell on the following day. Day 2 you get 10 effectiveness would leave you with 50 remaining and you could continue on the following day. Until you learned the skill (you would spend skill points at a 2 for 1 ratio at the completion of learning to determine the level at which you learned the spell.) The path has other effects that we will look into shortly as well.
Rune Magic
One of the oldest forms of Magic (the oldest according to the elves) Rune mages draw magical symbols in the air and surfaces around them to create powerful spell effects. The Runes must be completed before the spell will cast though. This requires at the very least that the arms of the caster be completely free to move. For more complex spells the legs may also be required. The runes themselves glow brightly and are visible to anyone who can see the mage and will illuminate a fair amount of distance around the mage making them a good source of light during the casting time, but also a target for any hostile creatures.
Rune Mages cast spells with an additional +4D of effectiveness.
Rune Mages require 1.5 times as long to cast a spell
Rune Mages must expend 1.5 times the base mana cost for spells
Rune Mages gain an additional 1.5 times to duration of their spells
Rune magic is most closely aligned with spells which effect the Mind of the targets (illusion, charm, sleep and the like) and gain a +10% modifier to casting spells of these types. Rune magic is least effective when dealing with Time based Magic (divination and the like) and incurs a –30% modifier to casting spells of this type.
Ritual Magic
Ritual Magic was discovered by the sages of the Seven Kingdoms and like many things they have uncovered involves a lot of aspects they don’t fully understand and as such to the minds of many other mages involves unnecessary actions to a high degree. The power of the Ritual is that it allows for a lot of power to be gathered and used outside of the caster reducing mana costs and increasing effectiveness and even allowing for multiple casters to add to the overall effectiveness. However the nature of rituals means that casters must have full mobility, access to special components and tools as well as the ability to speak coherently.
Ritual Mages cast spells with and additional +6D of effectiveness and each additional mage in a ritual circle (up to a maximum of the OP of the given spell so 2 mages for op2 spells 20 mages for op20 spells and so on) grants an additional +1D
Ritual Mages require 3 times as long to cast a spell (with an additional 1 times the length for each mage involved so for two mages 4x for 5 mages 8x etc.)
Ritual Mages may reduce the mana cost of all spells by 20% (with the total cost evenly distributed to all mages participating in the rituals)
Ritual Mages gain 1.5 times the duration of their spells, the overall duration can be sustained beyond the normal duration by expending the mana cost of the spell, this may be done once per mage in the ritual (so that if 20 mages are casting a spell this may be done 20 times, resulting in each mage expending the full mana cost of the spell)
Ritual magic is closely aligned with spells of sound and gains +10% success on spells of this type. Ritual Magic is least effective with spells involving light (fire spells, and the like) and suffers a –30% penalty on spells of that kind.
War Magic
War Magic is a quick and dirty form of magic where the mage simply learns mental triggers to cast spells. This was discovered in the Great Human Empire and has found a successful home on a number of battlefields. Casting spells requires concentration and full use of the mental faculties, anything that impairs the mind of the caster will make casting impossible (alcohol, spells of confusion etc.) What is gained in speed and simplicity however is sacrificed in terms of raw power, and duration but also reduces the overall cost of mana to the caster.
War mages gain no bonus to effectiveness of their spells
War mages require half the casting time to cast a spell (to the extent that they can cast two one action spells per action in an action cycle)
War mages reduce the mana cost for spells by half
War mages reduce the duration of spells by half
War magic is closely aligned with Light spells (invisibility, beams, fire spells and the like) and gains a +30% chance of casting spells of those types. War magic is lease capable for sound spells and receives a –10% chance of casting those types of spells.
Fetish Magic
Fetish Mages are sort of the odd man out when it comes to spell casting. They create items which hold spells for an indeterminate amount of time and then release them at some point. This allows the mage to effectively carry pre-cast spells around with them giving them full confidence that at the very least the spell will work as advertised when they need it most. However since the sum total of knowledge on how to create and empower fetishes lies with the dragons creating any items requires a ‘deal’ with a dragon. Using a fetish requires little in the way of knowledge and can actually be cast by almost anyone, but the mana cost of the spell the fetish uses is drained from the mage at the time that the spell is invoked. Which can result in the death of the mage if too many fetishes call upon mana at the same time or too close to each other. As a result fetish mages tend to be very tight with the items they create.
Most items that are created for clients are of very low power that leech mana from the fetish mage at a low background rate. Swords that give the user a better chance to hit their opponents, for example, might represent a simple op1 spell that is cast once a day by the item itself .
Upon the death of a given fetish mage any and all items they created become powerless. This means that items created by short lived creatures such as humans tend to be worth much less than those created by long lived creatures such as elves. The exception to this are items termed ‘dragon forged’ these items take part of the essence of a dragon to create and will function indefinitely. They are, however, exceedingly rare and immensely expensive.
A fetish mage casts the spell that the item will contain (expending mana) and then uses their create fetish skill to bind that spell to an item the effectiveness of the create fetish skill will determine the maximum effectiveness that can be held in the item, weather that effectiveness comes in the form of one or multiple spells.
Fetish mages gain no bonus to spell casting, nor suffer any penalties and use the Effectiveness, mana cost, casting time and duration as listed. Different item types have different capabilities in how spells may be stored and used and what order of power may be contained.
Scrolls: can contain any order of power from 1 to 30 the spell can be evoked only once, draining mana or lifeforce as needed from the mage.
Wands: can contain a single spell from op1 through op 15 spells can be evoked any number of times, and will drain mana and lifeforce from the mage.
Rods : can contain multiple spells from op 1 through op 30 spells in the item may be invoked any number of times draining mana and lifeforce as needed. Rods may hold spells only of one Realm at a time.
Staves: are the swiss army knives of the fetish mage toolkit. They can hold any number of spells from any number of Realms from any op which can be invoked on command any number of times. Mana and lifeforce are drained as needed.
Ward/Charm/Talisman: a low level item with a passive spell of no higher than op 3 that casts itself when worn or activated by a living being and recasts itself at the end of the spell’s duration. This happens continuously until the death of the fetish mage or the being that activated the item.
Amulet/Ring: a medium level item with an active spell of no higher than op 8 that is cast when a defined trigger is invoked and continues to cast itself upon the end of the spell duration until the trigger is re-invoked to shut the item off (presuming the fetish mage has enough mana/lifeforce to continue casting.)
Artifact: A high level item which can hold up to three passive or active spells of any op. Each spell in the item can be given a set of parameters to it’s activation such as a minimum time between activation or a certain being that it is keyed to in order to allow the fetish mage some form of control over when and how much of the mana from the artifact is drained from him
Armor/Weaponry: this is a specialized form of artifact, typical examples have one or two low level passive spells generally to improve the effectiveness of the item in it’s utilitarian purpose (a spell which sharpens the blade or increases it’s chances of hitting the opponent for instance.) More powerful items often combine the low level passive spell with a higher level spell that activates upon use of the item for its intended purpose or when a specific trigger is satisfied: secret word, specific opponent type, specific wielder etc. These items are typically very rare when not dragon forged as the mana cost in a given day are difficult to predict and tend to be in the hands of beings with little understanding of the implications of a fetish. Also very few beings are willing to trust to something that might give out if a mage halfway across the world were to just have a heart attack!
Constructs are items with the purpose of trapping and containing sentience in them. They have legal implications in most civilized nations but are often considered good places to store the most vile of villans or beings of such power that they cannot be truly killed but cannot be allowed to roam free.
Hedge Wizardry
Hedge wizards are for the most part self trained wizards and belong to no path. They have a special bond with an item that is what they consider the source of their power, be it a lucky charm or family heriloom. Having no bond with a given path means they have no penalties or bonuses to their spells however they learn new spells only through experimentation, and have a difficulty progressing past op 8 spells, taking a –20% chance to successfully learn a spell higher than that per op above. Should the Hedge Wizard ever lose or have their focus destroyed they will be incapable of casting any spells until they recover their focus item or form a bond with a new item (unlikely and a long process)