Sources of Magic
Magic is organized into four sources: Arcane, Draconic, Eldritch, and Wild. Each of these magic sources is further subdivided into categories that arbitrate and govern the type of spell. To cast a spell, you must have proficiency in the tier of the corresponding source. You gain access to higher tier spells by unlocking abilities tied to each source of magic.
Arcane
Arcane magic focuses on manipulation of the latent energy present in all things. Tapping into this essence, Arcane spells have a wide variety of effects that damage, control, and befuddle foes. Representing the most academic source, spells of Arcane magic are divided into Schools. Schools of Arcane magic include:
- Cryomancy: Energy is slowed, drawing cold from nothingness and stopping movement in a discreet area. Cryomancy spells tend to deal Ice or Water damage and are effective at controlling foes.
- Ethomancy: Raw kinetic energy is made manifest. Energy can be made solid to form fields of force, accelerated to impact and rend, and dispersed to blow back one’s enemies. As raw force, Ethomancy spells deal Ether damage.
- Phantomancy: Manipulate the energy of the mind to bend wills and trick those under your power. Phantomancy magic includes mental assaults, phantom images and sounds, control over emotion, and altering of perception. These spells rarely deal damage, but those that do tend to deal Ether damage that attacks the mind directly.
- Pyromancy: The basest form of energy manipulation, these spells excite the latent energy in matter, exciting it to create flame and heat. These spells focus on dealing heavy damage and inflicting burns with Fire and Acid damage.
Draconic
Draconic magic calls on the Dragongods to create powerful supportive, healing, and offensive effects by altering reality and performing miracles. However, not all those who practice this form of divinity pray to the same Dragons. Religious experts have taken to categorizing Draconic spells into Tenets. The Tenets of Draconic magic include:
- Conviction: Through faith in the gods, all things become possible. Conviction spells change reality and bolster the caster and their allies through times of strife. Just as practitioners of the light have conviction in good, great evil holds conviction in their own masters.
- Evocation: Powerful clerics can evoke light or darkness to smite foes with great power or debilitate their enemies with hindering spells wrought from their own worship. These spells can usher forth a wide variety of effects to deal Fire, Air, Lightning, Holy, or Shadow damage.
- Restoration: Miracles are capable of stitching flesh and mending wounds in mere seconds. Divine healing taxes the body and soul, trading temporary exhaustion for renewed vigor.
Eldritch
Eldritch magic is often mistakenly identified as evil, dark, or of ill intent. In truth, it’s the magic of time, space, and the interaction between particles. Many Eldritch spells interact with gravity or change the molecular composition of baser elements like carbon. As it’s often seen as taboo, Eldritch magic is divided into Stigmas by those who care for nomenclature. The Stigmas of Eldritch magic include:
- Chemology: Magic of this stigma alters the chemical composition of organic elements. These spells warp the body’s internal functions to create numerous effects. Senses can be overwhelmed with pain, loyalties can become dominated, and parts of the body can be twisted or turned to stone. Chemology spells tend to focus on dealing Shadow or Acid damage.
- Cosmology: These spells manipulate space, time, light, and gravity. One can block photons to create areas of lightlessness, fold space to create gates to other locations, warp time to speed or slow, or manipulate the weight of objects. Cosmology spells that deal damage tend to deal Shadow or Ether damage.
- Necrology: The magic of death. Necrotic energy is weaponized to blast foes or used to reanimate dead flesh. Spells of this nature deal Shadow damage.
Wild
Wild magic is the most difficult to restrain and control. It can be utilized to create, nourish, and change, but more than that, the base elements of existence are harnessed to destroy. Wilderness rarely allows itself to become subject to the whims of its wielder. Spells of Wild magic are divided into Mantras by those who devote study toward them. These Mantras are:
- Animalism: Channeling the power of change, these spells enhance allies with animalistic qualities, turn the body into a fierce weapon, or conjure feral beasts. Spells of this type rarely deal damage on their own, but those that do tend to deal physical damage with objects and natural methods.
- Cultivism: The magic of growth and living force. Utilize plant matter to heal wounds, rapidly grow or animate plants and fungus to overwhelm foes. Plant-based spells tend to deal Acid damage.
- Elementalism: Nature’s fury is manifest in unyielding flame, electricity, and cold. These spells destroy foes with the unmitigated power of nature, but this magic tends to be inherently uncontrollable. Spells of this nature can deal a wide variety of elemental damage types, including Fire, Water, Air, Lightning, and Ice damage.
- Mysticism: The magic of spirits and shamanic power, mystic spells allow communication with the natural world in a way that many are incapable of understanding. Contact spirits for aid, harm a foe’s essence, and steal souls. Mysticism spells tend to deal Ether damage to assault the soul.
Learning Spells
To learn a spell, it’s a rather simple process — you must acquire a spell tome that teaches the mechanics of casting the spell and then spend time perfecting the process. The time required is different depending on the tier of the spell, and certain spells are rarer than others. Eschewing a tome, one might also be able to seek out a master to teach them a spell. In such a case, the time required represents study through verbal and practical instruction rather than reading and practicing with a tome.
Some tomes may be impossible to acquire by mercantile means and must be scoured through the world or attained from master wizards and devouts. Spells that cannot be purchased are marked as Rare Spell in their entry.
Once learned, not all secrets of a spell may be available to the caster immediately. Spells grow in power with their spellcaster, and as such, certain Boost Effects may require a higher tier of magic than knowledge of the spell itself does. These powerful effects will become unlocked automatically as the caster increases in magical prowess.
With dedicated daily practice, a spell can be mastered in an amount of time according to the following table:
- Tier 1 spell: 1 day of practice.
- Tier 2 spell: 3 days of practice.
- Tier 3 spell: 10 days of practice.
- Tier 4 spell: 40 days of practice.
- Tier 5 spell: 160 days of practice.
When one begins practicing the spell, an Intelligence roll can be made with a Target value of 6. On a success, the spell will be learned in half the required time. Also of note, it is not possible to practice multiple spells at a time. Interrupting the process to practice a different spell delays the mastering of any other spells as one’s focus cannot be split in such a way.
The value of any spell tomes available for purchase can be highly subjective depending on the merchant in question, the relative use and rarity of the spell, and any number of other factors. However, average prices are based on spell tier and listed as follows:
- Tier 1 spell value: 20g
- Tier 2 spell value: 100g
- Tier 3 spell value: 500g
- Tier 4 spell value: 2000g
- Tier 5 spell value: priceless
Casting Spells
To cast a spell, perform the following steps in order:
- Use the Magic action and choose a spell that your character has mastered. Your Mana value must be equal to or greater than the Mana value of the spell.
- Spend the required Stamina to charge the spell. If the spell costs more Stamina than you have available, you’ll need to charge the spell across multiple rounds until you’re able to afford it. You cannot spend Stamina on other actions until the spell charging is complete.
- When the spell charging completes, the spell is cast.
Mana
Mana is an abstract concept in this game that roughly indicates the power level of a spellcaster. While spell tiers indicate the relative complexity of a given spell, spell Mana values indicate how much raw energy is required to usher it forth. Spellcasters gain Mana through many sources including Class levels, magical imbuements on equipment, and certain abilities.
All spells have a Mana value in their text entry. If the spellcaster has Mana equal to or greater than the Mana value of the spell, the spell can be cast. Boost effects (see below) can increase a spell’s Mana value.
One important note of consideration is that Mana is not a resource and it cannot be spent. It’s simply a value that determines the maximum power of any given spell you can cast. There are effects in the game that can temporarily increase or reduce your Mana, which affects the spells that can be cast and the Boost effects that can be applied to them.
Charging Spells
While charging a spell, the caster is considered to be in a vulnerable state. In addition to being unable to spend Stamina to react to attacks and avoid area effects, the spell charging is interrupted if the caster is wounded, fails to concentrate, or becomes targeted by other effects that interrupt spell charging. Any Stamina already spent charging the spell at the time of its interruption is lost. After the spell’s charge time is completed and the spell is cast, the effects of the spell happen immediately.
Only one spell can be cast at a time — if you’re already charging a spell, you can’t begin charging another one.
Channeling Spells
Sometimes this includes a channeling effect. A channeled spell continues to have an effect over time as listed in the spell’s entry, but you are considered to still be charging the spell while channeling it. While channeling a spell, you must spend the required channeling cost in Stamina, and when you do the channel effect immediately happens. However, unlike typical spell charging, you can spend Stamina on other actions while channeling. You must channel a spell each round to maintain the channeling effect — the spell ends if you fail to channel it on your turn.
Casting Reaction Spells
Occasionally, you can cast a spell as a reaction. The rules for casting a spell as a reaction don’t change — you simply begin charging the spell in response to another unit’s action when it isn’t your turn. Often, these spells are balanced such that their effects will occur immediately. This isn’t always the case, however. Be prepared to charge a spell for multiple rounds even if it’s activated as a reaction, and make sure to pay attention to the spell’s Stamina cost.
Spell Materials
In addition to character resources required to cast spells, some particularly powerful spells may require either a Focus or Components to cast as listed in the spell’s entry. Components are consumed when the spell is complete, whereas a Focus remains after. Examples of spell components might be an eyelash, a bat wing, a cut diamond, or the blood of the spell’s target. A focus might include an expensive chalice, a crystal orb, or the severed hand of a minor deity.
Magic Fatigue
Using magic is a wondrous feat and a powerful skill to be mastered, but even the most legendary mages of yore understand just how taxing it can be on one’s body, mind, and soul. Reflecting this, attempting to cast powerful spells will cause a temporary period in which you cannot cast additional spells. While under the effects of Magic Fatigue, you cannot charge or cast spells of Tier 2 or higher.
When you successfully cast a spell of Tier 2 or higher, you gain this Magic Fatigue status. If the spell cast was of Tier 2 or 3, this fatigue quickly fades at the beginning of your next turn. Tier 4 spells incur this fatigue for a bit longer, and the most powerful spells for longer still. A list of Magic Fatigue durations when casting spells of a given tier are as follows:
- Tier 2 spell: Until the beginning of your next turn.
- Tier 3 spell: Until the beginning of your next turn.
- Tier 4 spell: One minute (ten rounds).
- Tier 5 spell: One hour (ten rounds).
Tier 1 spells neither cause Magic Fatigue nor are limited by it — You may cast tier 1 spells indefinitely even if you’re under the Magic Fatigue status, as these spells are intentionally designed to be as simple as possible.
Status Effects Related to Spells
There are also several status effects that interact with spellcasting.
- Magic Fatigue, as listed above, temporarily prevents the casting of spells above Tier 1 until you recover.
- Silence disables your ability to cast spells if they can’t be cast silently
- Deafen doubles the Stamina cost to charge spells, as you must take more time to carefully speak the required incantations and concentrate to ensure that the spell is cast correctly.
- Severed Magic and Anti Magic both disable your ability to cast spells entirely, albeit in different ways. Severed Magic temporarily reduces your Mana to 0 while Anti Magic disables magic in an area entirely, including that from magical items.
Boosting Spells
Nearly all spells have Boost effects that increase their potential. These Boost effects allow you to shape, mold, and customize individual spell casts into powerful amalgamations to fit unique situations and increase their efficacy.
To Boost a spell, pick and choose Boost effects from the spell’s text entry to add to the spell. Each Boost effect has an added requirement or cost associated with it. Most Boost effects increase the Mana value of the spell — your Mana must be sufficient to cast the spell including the new Mana value for it with all Boost effects included. Other Boost effects might incur an additional Stamina cost to increase the charge time of the spell, and in the case of Blood magic spells, you may incur an additional wound or temporarily reduce your Health as part of the cost.
Some Boost effects require a higher tier of magic than is required to learn the spell itself. As long as you have access to the tier of magic listed for the Boost effect, you automatically understand the process required to make use of that particular effect. Casting a spell at this higher tier will incur the usual Magic Fatigue penalty.
Many spells have a multitude of available Boost effects to choose from. You can use as many Boost effects as you like when casting a spell so long as you meet the requirements, however note that unless specified, an individual Boost effect may only be applied to a spell once per casting.
Spell Scrolls
A spell scroll is a portable copy of a spell that contains all the magic required to cast the effect. Any Components or Focuses used in casting the spell are eschewed as part of using the scroll. To cast a spell from a spell scroll scroll, use the Item action, spending the required 1 Stamina. The spell imbued into the scroll takes effect immediately.
Creating a spell scroll requires the crafter to have the spell mastered and the required skills within the Enchanting profession unlocked. Scrolls are created using vellum of increasing quality depending on the tier of the spell it can store.
Spell scrolls have widely varying values based on many factors, but in general they cost about one-fourth as much as a tome of the same spell.
- Tier 1 scroll value: 5g
- Tier 2 scroll value: 25g
- Tier 3 scroll value: 125g
- Tier 4 scroll value: 500g
- Tier 5 scroll value: Priceless
The cost for crafting a scroll is listed under the rules for the Enchanting profession.
Spell lists can be found below: