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The art of Magic

Magic Types

There are 2 types of magic, elemental and god given. Although these types may produce similar results they are in no other way related. The power for all spells comes from the planes in the heavens, different planes provide different powers

Before we can discuss the powers and types of magic we first need to get a grounding of how the multiverse is made up.

The planes of existence

Planes of existence

Thus we can see that the prime material plane where the characters dwell is actually part of the elemental planes. These planes comprise the four basic elements at the periphary surrounding the demi-material planes of dust, smoke, shadow and dozens of others which in turn surrounds the prime material plane. Following the logic it can be seen that the prime material plane is in fact simply a mish mash of all the elemental planes put together. No one elemental plane dominates the prime material, creatures which inhabit the other planes often find it relatively easy to slip betweeen the boundaries in to the adjacent planes.

The planes of heaven and hell exist in another dimension to the elemental planes which is why the priestly and elemental magic do not co-exist. In the diagram power for a character can only flow vertically or horizantally between the planes but not both.

Surrounding the planes are the ethereal and astral planes. The ethereal covers the elemental planes and the astral passes between the heaven and hell planes. Creatures wishing to pass between planes must travers either the ethereal or astral planes.

Priests

Priests cast their spells by invoking the will of their god or other extra-planar creature as is their whim. Priests are able to cast their spells as long as they are not cut off from their god. their power comes from the planes of heaven and hell which can be reached with equal ease from any of the material planes. The problems come only when the priest is further removed from their gods plane than normal. The further down into the abyss a priest travels the less the power of the gods from the upper planes and the greater the power of the gods from the lower planes.

Elemental

Elemental magic belongs to wizards and the creatures of the elemental and demi-elemental planes, including those that choose to reside on the prime material plane. This includes creatures such as dragons, mephits...

These can perform their powers anywhere on the elemental planes. They employ their powers by direct manipulation of the elemental forces and channelling the forces from their home plane. Wizards have more problem than priests when travelling towards heaven or hell as their powers are designed to work within the elemental planes and not pass the boundaries in the vertical direction. Rather than preventing the mage casting the more powerful magics however (as happens to priests) it reduces the level of spell available to him.

Daily use

Casting

Spell casting creatures cast spells by using up power points (PP). Any spell a character knows may be cast provided the requisite power points are available. The higher the level of the spell the greater the number of power points required.
Spell / Prayer
Level		 Power
points
1 1
2 2
3 3
4 5
5 7
6 9
7 11
8 14
9 17

Each spell/proyer has a difficulty factor associated with it which must be reached before the spell will work as planned. The base difficulty is

10 + spell/prayer level

However rolls lower than the skill level only mean that the spell was not as effective as expected, the fireball will be cooler or the charm easier to throw off

The spell difficulty is rolled against the highest power level of the spell using the skills in the normal way.

Wizard

Intelligence + casting ability + 2d8

Priest

Willpower + Faith + 2d8

If it has two levels such as Elemental and Force then the one in which the caster has the lowest power over that required is used.

Each spell has a default attribute which will be affected by the roll, normally damage, area or saving throw. The difference between the difficulty and skill rolled is checked against the appropriate table to determine the effect.

If any spell is bodged a wild surge may result. See wild surges.

Saving throw

Against spells or prayers the saving throw is

12

Spell casting in combat

Spell casting is difficult at the best of times, requiring intense concentration to phrase the words and complete the somatics correctly. These problems are bad enough when standing still in silence on a solid floor: attempting to perform spells in combat where the din of battle pounds your ears, the horse your sitting on refuses to stay still and the next spear is likely to be directed at you is almost impossible. Fortunately heroes take these things in their stride (you are a hero aren't you)

If in direct melee it is impossible to cast a spell that takes more than 2 segments to perform. Longer than this and that spear will have an intimate knowledge of your entrails.

Prayer casting in combat

Priests have a slightly easier time of it than wizards as they are using the power of their god not the arcane forces. Gods are less particular about the verbal and somatics components of prayers. If a priest screams in pain in the middle of calling for divine help the god may even be inclined to help more. If the prayer is stopped though it will certainly fail.

To determine the success of the prayer the priest must increase the difficulty by 1 for each 5 stamina points (or part of) or 1 wound point taken.

e.g.

If saying a 1st level prayer and the priest gets hit for 6 stamina they must roll a constitution save of

10+1 (base)+ 2 (6 SP) = 14

Casting whilst moving

Casting in difficult circumstances such as on a horse frequently disrupts spells. The chance of failure depends upon the movement in the ground (or mount). A dexterity skill roll must be made at the following difficulty + 1 for each segment of the spell. (Priests gain +1 on their rolls as the god is not as particular)
Situation Example Difficulty
Possible movement Stationary horse +2
Continuous slow movement Walking horse +6
Medium movement Trotting horse +8
Fast / unpredictable movement* Galloping / frightened horse +11
* A successful 'Hard' riding skill check will reduce the difficulty to 10

Rest & Recovery

Power points are recovered by sleep and rest. A full nights rest (8 hours) will recover all lost points. Shorter rest periods enable a character to recover only a percentage of a characters full capability as shown below.
Hours of
sleep		 Percentage
recovered
4 20%
6 50%
8 100%

After resting characters need to spend time reading their books or praying to their god.

Running out of power points

In dire circumstances a wizard or priest may need to use more power points than they have currently remaining. There are two methods in which this can be done

With each point lost there is a chance that wild surge occurs.

Altering spells / prayers

Spell damage

Priests

Wizards

Miscellaneous

Wild Surges (TBD)

Wild surges may ocurr when a mage attempts to use more power than they can safely control. Likely causes of one are :
Condition Surge modifier
Casting when out of Power points Number of PP
Using more Power points the the casters level allows Additional PP
Casting a scroll of a higher level than they can control. Difference in PP
Bodge  

When a wild surge is possible a difficulty must be rolled to control the power. The difficulty is the surge modifier.

PP difficulty modifier This is rolled against their base intelligence as other factors have been calculated in already. Thus if a caster with 3 intelligence and 2nd level force tries casting Part water a 6th level spell they must roll a difficulty of 7.

    6th level =     9 PP
    2nd level =     2 PP

    Base 9 - 2 = 7
When a wild surge occurs the mage loses control and the power flows out of them in an uncontrolled manner. They suffer various ill effects. See the Tome of Magic for the effect.

Dispelling magic

Each wizard can automatically dispel their own magic. In addition they have a natural chance of dispelling other mages spells. To dispel a spell a wizard must concentrate on the spell to be dispelled and employ 1 more power point than the original caster. If this involves more power than the wizard can normally use safely a wild surge may result. The difficulty is :

9 + spell level

Permanency of spells

Most spells that conjure or alter something (e.g. Wall of stone) are naturally permanent whilst those that require a force or energy input (e.g. Wall of Fire, Fly), where the target of the spell moves or the effect is instantaneous are not. Each spell is specified as non-permanent, can be made permanent or is permanent.

In order to make a spell permanent that is not naturally so, a continuous channel of power must be opened to the plane from which the magic flows.

The steps for creating a permenant spell are

  1. The spell is cast as normal (duration must be standard, other attributes may be modified)
  2. The power for this spell is permanently removed from the caster.
  3. A single point must also be permanently supplied from a magic staff.
The duration of the spell depends upon the success level
Succcess level Duration
0 1 year
1 10 years
2 100 years
3 1,000 years
4 10,000 years
For example

To create a permanent wall of fire

  1. Cast the wall of fire as a 4th level elemental spell
  2. Lose 5 PP permanently
  3. Lose 1 PP permanantly from the staff
  4. Determine success level

Obviously the caster must be capable of casting an elemental spell at 5th level. The casters' staff is acting as a focus for the spell.

Illusions

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