The Arcane
Most skills need no further explanation; but that is before delving into the study of the arcane. Whether you have a natural talent or have invested time (& XP) into your magical studies, there are some things you need to know when spellcasting, spell-crafting, and what happens when a spell goes wrong.
Spellcasting
A spell has two main components, a RANGE and an EFFECT.
SUCCESS: The spell’s EFFECT is successfully cast the spell’s specified RANGE.
SNAG:
Choose one:
-Arcane Amnesia: You put too much energy into this incantation and lose your memory of the spell. You can’t cast this spell again until you have the time and space to meditate on the arcane.
-Side Effect: Suffer a random consequence on the Magic Side Effects Table.
FAILURE:
The spell does not cast, and you experience Arcane Burn.
Magic Side Effects
|
Number |
Effect |
Description |
|
1 |
Light |
After the spell is cast, you glow a color of the AL’s choice for 1 hour. |
|
2 |
Unintended Healing |
The target gets healed for 1d4 damage. |
|
3 |
Arcane Burn |
You try to cast the spell but it hurts to release the energy. You take 1d4 damage that ignores ARMOR (If this isn't a side effect, it affects the target and not the caster). |
|
4 |
Misdirection |
Current spell being cast (or the next spell if this isn't a side effect) hits the closest target to the caster. |
|
5 |
2nd target |
The next closest unaffected living/animated target is hit as well. |
|
6 |
Complex |
Add another side effect. Roll a 1d6 for each side effect accrued. |
Spellcrafting
You have the ability to create spells by writing formulas with Spell Components. Each spell formula must have at least 1 RANGE component and 1 EFFECT component. Spellcrafting is NORMAL and the difficulty to craft depends on the components used. You can write 1 spell a week, and the ATTRIBUTE for crafting will be CLEVER.
Components
Choosing what effects go into a spell not only determines what your magic ultimately does but how difficult it is. Add the cost of your component to the DIFFICULTY of spellcrafting.
Range Table
| Cost | Range | Description |
| 1 | Touch | Anything you can touch. |
| 2 | Thrown | A moderate range. About as far as the average person can throw an apple. |
| 3 | Sight | As long as you can see the target, you can cast the spell on the target. |
| 4 | Remote | If you are familiar with the space, it had not changed significantly, and nothing is in the way, you can cast a spell at that location. |
When using an EFFECT from a MAGICAL skill, the cost is equal to the Tier of the skill (e.g; Tier 1 = -1, Tier 2 = -2, Tier 3 = -3, etc).
SUCCESS:
Your formula is successful! Write down the Name, RANGE, & EFFECT of the spell in your grimoire. You can now cast it using the spellcasting rules!
SNAG:
You are able write the spell but there are some kinks that need to be worked out. Your new spell has the intended effect but you got something wrong. Choose 1 mistake.
Quirky: It has an unintended side-effect. Roll on the side effects table and add the result you get to the EFFECT of your new spell.
Reduced: It’s range is reduced by 1 (Remote > Sight > Thrown > Touch). If the range was touch, it can’t be reduced (and you can’t choose this as a consequence).
Wild: Your magic is potent but wild. No matter how you roll, you will add an arcane side-effect to the spell’s casting.
FAILURE:
How to make an Arcane Ward (An example of Spellcrafting)
To craft an “Arcane Ward” or magical warding spell, you’ll need a few things.
To have spent 5 XP to extract an EFFECT from a SKILL. In this case, we want “Puny Wizard!”, which is a Tier 4 SKILL.
To select a RANGE. We’ll choose Touch. Since the effect from “Puny Wizard!” doesn’t come from a SUCCESS condition, it will be a passive effect that lasts only 1 hour. So if we’re smart, we can apply the ward before it’s needed to ourselves or other allies.
The Spellcasting Difficulty is: NORMAL (+0) - Range Cost - Effect Cost = DD
So for our ward, it is NORMAL - Touch (1) - Tier 4 (4) = -5So we roll using our CLEVER ATTRIBUTE, which is SIMPLE (+4), and get a 12 (8+4). This is a SNAG, so we decide to make our ward Quirky.
We rolled on the Magic Side Effects table and got a 2. We’ll now add “does +1d4 healing” to our spell’s effect.
So now we have a “Healing Arcane Ward” with a RANGE of Touch and an EFFECT of healing 1d4 health at casting, as well as reducing magical damage by 1d6 for 1 hour.