Spellcasting

Mana

Mana represent a spellcaster's 'energy' and the taxing nature of casting spells over a long period. When they run out of these, they cannot cast any more spells. Classes and some equipment grant additional Mana. Anyone with access to Mana can cast spells. Mana is a d6.

[Mana] is equal to the number of Mana invested in the spell.

[Sum] is a number equal to the sum of rolled Mana.

Spellcasting

To cast a spell, you must roll the invested Mana (d6).

For each 6 you land on, you can choose to roll an additional Mana, even beyond your skills or gear. The total rolled Mana can never exceed 4.

Play out the effects of the chosen spell.

For every 1-3 rolled you reduce the number of Mana they have available by 1. If holding a Focus, the range is reduced to 1-2.

After roughly 8 hours rest (Respite), the Mana a Character has refreshes to its maximum.

Arcane Feedback

The main danger of Spellcasting comes in the form of Arcane Feedback. Essentially, this is the risk of a powerful spell doing damage to its spellcaster.

When rolling Mana, note all duplicate values. This indicates something has gone very wrong. The sum of the dice that show duplicate values are dealt as damage in the form of Arcane Feedback.

For instance, rolling 1-3-3 means taking 6 damage (due to the pair of 3s) and reducing available Mana by 1 (due to the 1).

If damage taken is larger than 6, it has the Blast property, affecting anyone Close. Arcane Feedback occurs after a spell has taken effect.

A Cleric using a Power never has risk of Arcane Feedback.

Types Spells

1. Sculpt Energy to cast damaging spells in a wide variety of variations
2. Tricks are spells that hinder but do not damage opponents
3. Counterspell is a form of defense against magic
4. Practical Magic are all other magic effects: those affecting the environment and allies

Sculpt Energy

Anyone with Mana can cast a bolt of arcane energy. This energy can be sculpted to the spellcaster's will. The amount of modification depends on the number of Mana rolled.

To see if the spell hits its target, the spellcaster must test their Class's Spell Attribute at DR12. If they pass, the spell hits their target. On a 1, they expend a Mana. On a 20, Arcane Feedback is ignored and the spell damage is doubled.

It costs 1 Mana to cast a basic Arcane Bolt, as seen in the table below. For each extra Mana rolled, the caster can pick one property to enhance.

Players are encouraged to be creative in their energy-sculpting; Players can simply describe what they would like to happen with their spell, and the GM can indicate how many Mana that might take. The general rule of thumb is that Mana can be used to add a damage die or interesting effect at a 1:1 rate.

Tricks

Tricks never deal damage, are always single Actions, and have a maximum range of Near. Tricks can be used to stun, shove, disarm, trip, etc.

When performing a Trick:

• The magic user describes the desired effect
• The GM will decide on a fitting Test for the target depending on the desired effect

Just like with Sculpt Energy, Mana can be used to enhance Tricks. Casting a Trick at all costs 1 Mana, which can be enhanced with:

• Difficulty : For each Mana, increase the DR of the Test by 2 (default is DR12).
• Targets : For each Mana, the Trick affects 1 additional foe Near the main target.

Quick Example

The Mage tries to make an enemy orc stumble and invests 2 Mana to cast a Trick. She rolls a 3 and a 5. 1 Mana is used to cast the Trick, and 1 Mana is used to decrease the difficulty. The Orc must succeed on a DR12 Test, but due to the Mana invested, the DR is increased by 2 to DR14 for this Test. So, the Orc must succeed at a CON test with a DR14 to successfully avoid the Trick.

Counterspell

Anyone with Mana at their disposal can, at the moment an enemy spell is cast, attempt a Counterspell

This option is not available if the caster is already focusing on a spell themselves. A Counterspell simply means investing and rolling an available number of Mana, following the same rules for casting. If the total roll is equal to or higher than the total roll of the enemy spell, the two cancel each other out in a bright display of energy and light. If the roll is lower than the enemy spell, the counterspell fails and the enemy spell takes effect as normal.

Practical Magic

Any magic that doesn’t do direct damage (Sculpt Energy) or indirect harm (Tricks) can be improvised free-form by simply determining the Mana value.

• 1 Mana: A small, personal effect. Could be achieved with tools instead of magic (lighting a torch, growing vines as a rope).
• 2 Mana: An interpersonal or room-sized effect. Barely beyond the possibility of tools (a small wall of force, breathing underwater, camouflage, sending telepathic messages).
• 3 Mana: Large, “impossible” effects. Makes a mockery of the normal laws of nature (animating the dead or inanimate objects, teleportation, polymorphing).
• 4 Mana: Mythical, highly dangerous alterations to reality itself.

Practical Magic is designed to be very free-form. However, the list of Practical Magic Words can serve as inspiration for what kinds of spells are possible.

Arcane Equipment

Some items can grant Mana. In addition to simply granting additional power, items can be used to can negate Mana. This negation can be used on Arcane Feedback or an enemy spell.

When using Equipment Mana to counter an enemy's spell, the wielder declares the number of dice they intend to negate after they know how many dice are rolled, but before they know the outcome.

After using Mana from a piece of Equipment, mark a use.

The Mana consumed first when casting a spell are those given by equipment.

Example Arcane Equipment: Enchanted Oaken Staff (+1 Mana)

Finding Spells

Some magical effects have been mapped, investigated, and codified into something that can be written and reused. These Spells can be found in the following forms:

Spellbooks: Written instructions for casting a specific spell. These require a Mana investment that is defined as part of the book.

Scrolls: Much more fragile instructions for casting a spell. These require no Mana investment but are destroyed upon use.

Relics: Items with magic infused into them. They can be used to harness specific magic effects.

Many of these spell effects can be found here

The Power of Magic

A spellcaster with 4 Mana can use their Sculpt Energy to deal 4d6 damage, no questions asked. How is this fair?. It isn’t. A 4 Mana spellcaster is a magical nuke. This also makes them primary targets.

4 Mana has considerable risk of Arcane Feedback. 2 Mana has a chance of 16%, 3 Mana has a chance of 44%, 4 Mana has a chance of 72%!