Spellcasting

Magic is a permanent fixture of the world, and those who can manipulate this magic are spell casters.

This provides rules for casting spells. Different classes may have other distinctive ways of learning and casting spells, but this cover all the basic rules that must be followed when casting spells.

What are spells?

A spell is a specific magical effect tied to the art of spellcasting. There are three primary ways to learn and cast spells: Arcane magic, Divine magic, and Primal magic. The end result is generally the same, but how each of these goes about getting there may be a little different.

Arcane Magic

Arcane magic is the lifeblood of the cosmos. It is thought and intent brought to life through the will and mind of spellcasters. It is the natural form of the Astral Sea, and like the ocean that the sea is compared to, it has powerful and uncontrollable flow and ebbs within. It is the most volatile magic, the most destructive, and the most varied. Casters that tap into this magic are able to use it to reshape reality to a small degree.

Divine Magic

Divine magic is the chaotic natural magic of the universe brought into order and form that is compatible with life. It is shaped and formed from the will of the gods who have been tasked with creating, guiding, and preserving life. Because of this, divine magic is designed to support life and protect mortals. It is the only magic that can heal physical wounds.

Primal Magic

Primal magic is the chaotic magic of the astral sea turned into the lifeblood of the planet. It retains the chaotic nature of arcane magic, but it is easier able to be absorbed by dwellers of the material plane. It can strengthen and boost the body in much the same way that it provides power to the world itself.

Spell Circles

Each spell is grouped into circles based on its power. In essence, a spellcaster would be the center of the circle and as they grow in magical power the circle of influence in the magic world increases. Cantrips, or 0-circle spells are the simplest magic, while 9th-circle spells have the ability to reshape the world.

As you gain levels in your class, you gain access to more powerful spell circles, as listed in your class description.

Known and Prepared Spells

Before you can cast a spell, you must have the knowledge to cast it. Each of the three main spellcasting methods learns spells in different ways.

Spellcasting Resources

Regardless of how many spells you know or have access to, you can only cast a limited number of spells at a time before you tax your resources. Depending on your source of magic you have different resources to spend to cast these spells. In addition to these resources, each spell will also have an Action Point cost associated with it.

Thresholds

Depending on your affinity towards your divine source, you may suffer more or less wrath. This might be because your body just can’t take the strain of channeling all that divine power, or your god has only allotted you so much magic at a time, and going over is seen as taking advantage of your god’s benevolence. This is also subject to the Narrator as your god might see the need to spend the extra threshold as worthwhile. The minimum is you suffer 1d6 damage per circle of the spell cast to your vitality with each dice doing 1 point to your HP. For example, if you incur wrath after casting a 3rd circle spell, you would take 3d6 from your Vitality and lose 3 health. Your Narrator might instead decide that pain is not enough and might take away your spell casting for 1-2 rounds per spell circle cast in combat, or 1-2 hours per circle spell cast out of combat.

Primal

Primal spellcasters use their Vitality as a casting resource. Your Vitality is determined by your combat class. Once you run out of Vitality you are unable to cast spells in addition to having your health more vulnerable.

Higher Circle Spells

Spells of the 6th-circle and higher are more taxing. You may cast one 6th, one 7th, one 8th, and one 9th circle spell per long rest.

Casting a Spell at a Higher Circle

You can cast a spell at a higher power by expending the resource of a spell of a circle above it. Some spells have additional effects and damage when cast with more power. This is sometimes known as upcasting. You must be able to cast spells of a higher circle or the available spell slots to do this. A second-level mage cannot cast spells of the third circle, even if they have the mana, spell slots, or threshold to do so. Casting the spell at a higher circle costs 1 extra Action Point and 2 extra spellcasting resources per circle unless the spell description says otherwise.

Cantrips

A cantrip is a spell that can be cast at will, without using a spell resource and without needing to be prepared in advance. These spells are simple to execute and are generally part of who you are as a character. A cantrip’s spell circle is 0.

Casting a Spell

When a character casts any spell, the same basic rules are followed, regardless of the character’s class or the spell’s effects.

Each spell description begins with a block of information, including the spell’s name, circle, action point cost, range, components, and duration. The rest of a spell entry describes the spell’s effect.

Casting in Armor

Because of the mental focus and precise gestures required for spellcasting, you must be at least trained with the armor you are wearing to cast a spell. You are otherwise too distracted and physically hampered by your armor for spellcasting.

Action Points

Most spells require an Action Point cost, or AP, but some spells require more time to cast. The effect of the spell may happen as soon as you cast it, while other spells will happen at the beginning of your next turn. For example, if you cast the cantrip firebolt, then the effect happens as soon as you spend the Action Points. If you were to cast the spell fireball, you will still expend all the resources, mana, and action points, but the effect of the spell won’t happen until your next turn comes up in that round.

If the Action Point cost puts you in the negative, the spell will not resolve on this turn, even if it should have happened immediately. Rather, it will resolve on your next turn. Simply subtract the difference from your total Action Points for the next round. For example, if you have 5 Action Points left and cast a spell that requires 8 Action Points, then it takes until the next round to cast. Your Action Points total is 3 less for that round and the spell is cast at the beginning of your next turn.

Reactions

Some spells can be cast in reaction to something. These spells take a fraction of a second to bring about and are cast in response to some event. If a spell can be cast in reaction, the spell description tells you exactly when you can do so.

Longer Casting Times

Certain spells (including spells cast as rituals) require more time to cast: minutes or even hours. When you cast a spell with a casting time longer than a single action or reaction, you must spend time each turn casting the spell, and you must maintain your concentration while you do so (see “Concentration” below). If your concentration is broken, the spell fails, but you don’t expend a spell slot. If you want to try casting the spell again, you must start over.

Casting Non-Combat Spells in Combat

Sometime it is beneficial to cast a non-combat spell in combat. While this can be done there are a few restrictions to doing so. You need to be able to cast spells in combat from a combat class and the spellcasting resource you have must match the spell being cast. A Wizard, for example, cannot cast a spell gained from the Clergy job in combat. Each non-combat spell lists an Action Point cost and a spell resource cost. These costs are only for when they are used while in combat. You may notice that these spells are slightly less efficient to cast as a combat spell. This reflects the difficulty in adapting these spells to combat casting speeds.

Range

The target of a spell must be within the spell’s range. For a spell like magic missile, the target is a creature. For a spell like fireball, the target is the point in space where the ball of fire erupts.

Most spells have ranges expressed in hexes. Some spells can target only a creature (including you) that you touch. a very small number of spells, such as the shield spell, affect only you. These spells have a range of self.

Spells that create cones or lines of effect that originate from you also have a range of self, indicating that the origin point of the spell’s effect must be you (see “Areas of Effect”).

Once a spell is cast, its effects aren’t limited by its range, unless the spell’s description says otherwise.

Components

A spell’s components are the physical requirements you must meet in order to cast it. Each spell’s description indicates whether it requires verbal (V), gestures (G), or material (M) components. If you can’t provide one or more of a spell’s required components, you are unable to cast the spell.

Verbal (V)

Most spells require the chanting of mystic words. The words themselves aren’t the source of the spell’s power; rather, the particular combination of sounds, with specific pitch and resonance, sets the threads of magic in motion. Thus, a character who is gagged or in an area of silence, such as one created by the silence spell, can’t cast a spell with a verbal component.

Gestures (G)

Spellcasting gestures might include a simple throwing of your hand forward or an intricate set of gestures. If a spell requires a gesture, you must have free use of at least one hand to perform these gestures.

Material (M)

Casting some spells requires particular objects or a spellcasting focus. If a material other than a spell focus is indicated for a component, a character must have that specific component before he or she can cast the spell.

If a spell states that a material component is consumed by the spell, you must provide this component for each casting of the spell.

A spellcaster must have a hand free to access a spell’s material components—or to hold a spellcasting focus—but it can be the same hand that he or she uses to perform any gestures.

Duration

A spell’s duration is the length of time the spell persists. A duration can be expressed in rounds, minutes, hours, or even years. Some spells specify that their effects last until the spells are dispelled or destroyed.

Instantaneous

Many spells are instantaneous. The spell harms, heals, creates, or alters a creature or an object in a way that can’t be dispelled because its magic exists only for an instant.

Concentration

Some spells require you to maintain concentration in order to keep their magic active. If you lose concentration, such a spell ends.

If a spell must be maintained with concentration, that fact appears in its Duration entry, and the spell specifies how long you can concentrate on it. You can end concentration at any time (no action required).

Normal activity, such as moving and attacking, doesn’t interfere with concentration. The following factors can break concentration:

• Casting another spell that requires concentration. You lose concentration on a spell if you cast another spell that requires concentration. You can’t concentrate on two spells at once.

• Taking damage. Whenever you take damage while you are concentrating on a spell, you must make a Spirit (Will) defense roll to maintain your concentration. The target number is 10 or half the damage you take, whichever number is higher. If you take damage from multiple sources, such as an arrow and a dragon’s breath, you make a separate roll for each source of damage.

• Being incapacitated or killed. You lose concentration on a spell if you are incapacitated or if you die.

The Narrator might also decide that certain environmental phenomena, such as a wave crashing over you while you’re on a storm-tossed ship, require you to make a concentration roll to maintain concentration on a spell.

Targets

A typical spell requires you to pick one or more targets to be affected by the spell’s magic. A spell’s description tells you whether the spell targets creatures, objects, or a point of origin for an area of effect (described below).

Unless a spell has a perceptible effect, a creature might not know it was targeted by a spell at all. An effect like crackling lightning is obvious, but a more subtle effect, such as an attempt to read a creature’s thoughts, typically goes unnoticed, unless a spell says otherwise.

A Clear Path to the Target

To target something, you must have a clear path to it, so it can’t be behind full cover.

If you place an area of effect at a point that you can’t see and an obstruction, such as a wall, is between you and that point, the point of origin comes into being on the near side of that obstruction.

Targeting Yourself

If a spell targets a creature of your choice, you can choose yourself, unless the creature must be hostile or specifically a creature other than you. If you are in the area of effect of a spell you cast, you can target yourself.

Areas of Effect

Spells such as burning hands and cone of cold cover an area, allowing them to affect multiple creatures at once. A spell’s description specifies its area of effect, which typically has one of five different shapes: cone, cube, cylinder, line, or sphere. Every area of effect has a point of origin, a location from which the spell’s energy erupts. The rules for each shape specify how you position its point of origin. Typically, a point of origin is a point in space, but some spells have an area whose origin is a creature or an object.

A spell’s effect expands in straight lines from the point of origin. If no unblocked straight line extends from the point of origin to a location within the area of effect, that location isn’t included in the spell’s area. To block one of these imaginary lines, an obstruction must provide full cover.

Attack Rolls

Spells require you to make an attack roll to determine whether the spell effect hits the intended target, or how hard it is to resist the effects. Your attack bonus with a spell equals your spellcasting ability + your spellcasting skill.

Most spells that require attack rolls involve ranged attacks. Remember that you have disadvantage on a ranged attack rolls if you are within 5 feet of a hostile creature that can see you and can take actions.

Magic Defense

Some spells specify that a target can make a defense to avoid some or all of a spell’s effects. The spell specifies the defense that the target uses and what happens on a success or failure.

Combining Magical Effects

The effects of different spells add together while the durations of those spells overlap. The effects of the same spell cast multiple times don’t combine, however. Instead, the most potent effect—such as the highest bonus—from those castings applies while their durations overlap, or the most recent effect applies if the castings are equally potent and their durations overlap.

For example, if two priests cast bless on the same target, that character gains the spell’s benefit only once; he or she doesn’t get to roll two bonus dice.

Lines of Magic

The worlds of the multiverse are magical places. Everything is made of magic or power, every rock, stream, animal, plant, building, or person within. This is why many spells require specific materials to be able to be cast, the latent magic in them shapes the world around them

All magic has a source, though all of these sources can be traced to currents of power in the astral sea. The spells that tap into this source directly are commonly called arcane magic. These spells pull at these lines to change the world at a fundamental level, but because the magic is so raw, it is also the most destructive. The spells of the gods and those that use their power are called divine magic. The gods take the magic that floats in the astral sea and bestow it upon their devotees. This magic, more than any other magic is designed to be used by mortals. The spells of nature and the spirits are called primal magic. This magic is the chaotic magic of the astral sea tamed and tuned to the unique nature of the material plane.

As magic flows to the material plane from the astral sea, it creates lines of magic as they settle into the world and begin to change form. These are called ley lines and can boost the magic of any caster that is near it. Where they line cross are called nexus, and are powerful locations sought for by any spellcaster. Wizards like to build on these nexus to study them, the gods often have temples built on them, and spirits will inhabit these places, as long as mortals do not live there.

Some spells interact with these lines in unique ways. When characters use spells such as detect magic or identify, they see the order of these lines. A spell such as dispel magic soothes magic. Spells such as antimagic field rearrange these lines so that magic flows around, rather than through the area affected by the spell. There are places where the flow of magic is damaged, and here magic works in unpredictable ways—or not at all.