Magic

From Lunos

Magic is really a very simple concept. It’s technically more simple than ordinary daily life, but that’s a concept that’s difficult to understand. The core concept is that everything everywhere is simply a construct. The only things that are real are the free wills, or souls. But souls exist in a realm with nothing else, no space, to time, no language. It’s more boring than a human mind can possibly comprehend. Reality as we know it is simply a framework that limits souls, so that things are actually happening. Normally, souls can only interact with the world through the amazingly complex device known as a brain. But once you realize that the world is just made up of rules, you can start to push those rules a little bit. That’s what magic is. Instead of picking up a rock with your hands, you think “all I’m actually doing is expending energy to cause movement, let’s see if we can’t do that more directly” and presto, telekinesis is born. You look at the love of you life and think “I want to express a feeling that goes beyond words” and suddenly it does go beyond words, and telepathy happens.

It’s not just simple thought, though. You have to believe, utterly and truly, that what you’re doing is possible. That kind of belief doesn’t happen normally unless you know that it can happen. Otherwise there’s that nagging instinctive bit of yourself that says “there’s a perfectly logical reason for this” and you don’t believe you’ve actually done anything magical. That’s the bit of yourself where true belief lies. And because you don’t quite believe, it isn’t true. Very, very rarely, someone will have a strong enough soul break through that doubt and actually discover magic. Savara was one of those souls. Because magic pervades the Rift by now, people develop magic instinctively, because they already know it’s perfectly ordinary.

There is a danger to the power of magic, however. Magic is built on breaking rules, and the more you break the rules the more difficult it is to remember that they exist. When a mage gets too powerful, they simply can’t hold onto reality enough to continue existing. This process is called “ascension” and it is the ultimate fate of most powerful mages.

Mechanics: Your character has a Magic score, which represents your ability to overcome your personal disbelief. Each level of Magic provides you with four points of magic, which are spent to power various effects. Magic points return at a rate of one per half-hour and also sometimes when you do something particularly impressive. Use of magic is divided up into ten paths, each of which allows you access more powers. The cost of a particular effect is based on your mastery of the associated path: effects of the level of the path you have cost 3 points, effects one level lower cost 2 points, effects two levels lower cost 1 point, and effects three or four levels lower are free.

Types of Spells:

Activated (A) spells take effect when used and have some immediate effect.

Continuous (C) spells have long term effects that require to commit their cost over a long period of time. The cost is paid when the spell is activated, and those points of magic cannot be regained as long as wish to keep the effect going. Continuous spells may be suppressed and reactivated at will (without requiring you to use an action to activate them) so long as the magic points stay committed.

Permanent (P) spells are essentially continuous spells with no cost. You can suppress or reactivate them at will, and they cannot be dispelled.

Ritual (R) spells are activated spells that require more time to cast. The cost is paid when you start casting the spell. If you cast a ritual while in combat rounds, you are considered to be using both of your actions each round to cast it. You may use one action instead, but then the spell takes twice as long to cast and to take effect. If you do not devote an action to the spell, it ends without any effect.

Other terminology:

Concentration applies to certain continuous spells and means that you must devote an action to the spell in any round you wish it to have an effect. You may not suppress these spells, once you quit concentrating they end and must be re-cast if you want them to start up again.

Boost is shorthand for a type of continuous spell that gives you a bonus to a particular ability. The minimum level of a boost is the level of the path that gives you the spell, otherwise +1 is a level one spell, +2 level three, +3 level five. Boosts to the Weapon, Archery, or Thrown skill allow you to create a weapon of any listed size (Bows produce magical ammunition, thrown weapons return to you or reappear in your hand)

Bolt is the term for a basic magical attack. Bolts are activated spells with a level determined the same way as boosts. A bolt uses your Perception + Projectile as an attack roll, adding its rating as normal. Base damage is equal to your Path score + weapons rating. A bolt has a range increment of 20 meters

Sphere of Influence is the area around your body that you are magically in tune with. This sphere is centered on your head and extends 25 meters + 5 meters per dot of Magic you have. Any spell that has an effect outside of your sphere of influence has a minimum cost of 1 point. Even if a spell allows you to exist without a body, there is still a point in space that represents where you locate yourself, and your sphere of influence extends from this point.

Paths:

Arcane is the path of understanding the ways in which magic itself operates.

1 P Share – you may now provide the benefits of any continuous spells you know to others. To establish an effect the target mush be within your sphere of influence, but afterwards the range is unlimited. Both you and the target must commit one point of magic towards maintaining the effect. The additional point (if any) may be provided by either of you. If either of you remove this point of magic, the effect ends.

2 C Magesight – you perceive any magical effects within your sphere of influence, provided their location is perceivable to you by normal means. You also see any active casting of spells as it happens. You cannot pierce an illusion or detect Scry with this spell unless you can also perceive the caster.

You may also boost Physics

3 A Counter – you prevent effects of any activated spell of a level lower than the level of this spell (you may raise the level of this spell. Countering a fifth level spell requires Arcane 5 and costs four points, but still counts as a fifth level spell.) You must have Magesight activated and perceive the caster in order to do this. If the caster is within your sphere of influence you prevent its effects entirely and can also counter that casting of continuous effects (but not the reactivation of effects already committed). If the caster is outside your sphere of influence you only counter the effects that are within you sphere of influence.

4 A Dispel – an improved version of Counter, dispel allows you to disrupt a ritual spell or dismiss a committed effect already in place. Level four and five effects cost more as described in Counter, and you must still perceive the spell through Magesight

5 P Transcend – you become as close to ascension as is possible without actually ceasing to exist. Your highly developed understanding provides you with 5 additional points of magic that may only be spent on committed spells. The chosen spells become permanent effects. If you later raise a path and an affected spell becomes cheaper, you gain the extra point back, but otherwise you may not change the distribution of these points. A spell that would normally cost you no points still uses up one of these points to become permanent.

Artifice represents your ability to manipulate raw matter and create objects capable of producing magical effects.

1 P Build – you are now capable of creating magical items. The maximum level of spell you may duplicate is equal to your path rating.

You may boost Physics, Chemistry, Engineering, or Craft, but you still need tools to avoid the -2 penalty on Craft

2 A Bond – you cause two objects to become attached to each other. If rebuilding something that was broken apart, this spell restores it as good as new, otherwise the bond has an equivalent body score of you path rating.

3 R Rune – over the course of one minute per spell level, you inscribe a rune on any surface that will release a single activated spell when triggered. The spell can be any that you know or it can be supplied by another person. The cost of the spell must be paid separately. Triggering events must happen within 2 meters of the rune and must be described in no more than a few sentences. After completion, a rune becomes a committed effect, automatically ending when triggered. Runes can be countered when triggered.

4 P Sanctum – you have developed enough of an ability to infuse magic into objects that you may create a permanent home for yourself. See the Sanctum page for more information.

5 R Remake – you have achieved the pinnacle of creation and may now reorganize molecules themselves. This process takes 10 minutes per cubic foot of material you are manipulating. You may turn anything into anything else at the atomic level, although you may not create living material and the material must remain fairly still for the entire process. If you are not changing one substance into another but simply rearranging existing molecules (such as creating a statue from an already existing block of marble) the time is reduced to 1 minute per cubic foot. Complex work requires and appropriate Engineering + Craft or Science roll.

Currents is your ability to affect matter

1 A Breeze – you create a small breeze or current in the direction you want, lasting for one minute. The force of this effect is the equivalent of Body 1. You may boost Thrown, Archery, Flight, and Swim

2 C Density – you are able to adjust the density of your own body, becoming soft and fluid or hard and sturdy at a whim. You may adjust your weight to anywhere between half and double your usual, and larger creatures are treated as two size categories smaller for the purposes of gaining automatic Body successes against you. You are also immune to damage from atmospheric pressure.

You may boost Agility, Athletics, Physics, and Body (applies as armor)

3 A Burst – you concentrate the force of wind or water into a concussive blast. A cylinder of pressure shoots out from a point you choose within your sphere of influence. Make a bolt attack, but it affects everyone in a cylinder with a four meter radius extending as far as you wish, up to 20 meters times your path rating. The wave stops if it hits a solid object that you do not destroy with the attack

You may make bolt attacks that deal bruising damage

4 C Quake – you create an earthquake. Waves of turbulence roll through the air (or water, if you’re underwater) at the same time. Everything within 100 meters takes 5 bruising damage per round, reduced by Body + Armor. This is a concentration effect, and you do not take damage.

5 R Storm – you cause the weather to get better or worse. See the Weather section of the Statistics page for more information. You may change the weather up to five levels. The casting time is five minutes per level, with each level of change also taking five minutes. The change begins after the first five minutes, and persists for one hour after you are done with the ritual, before returning to normal at the same rate (you may prolong the ritual to keep the storm going longer). If you also posses the Energy path at at least three, you may change the temperature up or down by up to one level per dot in Energy.

Energy allows you to manipulate heat and cold, as well as lightning. All damage dealt by this path is energy damage, which is recorded and healed as if it was wounding but is not reduced by any effects that only reduce wounding damage.

1 A Produce – you create a small flame or spark, or cause an object of no larger than one cubic meter to drop 50 degrees in temperature.

You may boost Brawl

You may make bolt attacks that deal energy damage

2 C Manifest – you create a more lasting energy effect anywhere within your sphere of influence. This effect does not harm you. Creating a fire effect causes anyone who passes through it to take 3 points of energy damage per 10 centimeters passed through. Creating an ice effect creates a barrier with an effective Body score of 2 + 1 per 10 centimeters. You create one cubic meter per point in this path, shaped however you want.

You may boost Archery, Weapon, Body (applies as armor)

3 A Burst – you cause a spherical burst of energy centered anywhere within your sphere of influence. The burst is a sphere with a radius equal to you path rating times 5 in meters (you may create a smaller burst if desired). Make a bolt attack against everyone in the area. The burst does not affect anything behind objects that you fail to destroy.

4 C Immunity – you become completely immune to the effects of high or low temperatures, including energy damage. This effect does not extend to any of your possessions.

5 A Disintegrate/Petrify – this spell’s name changes depending on whether you are adding energy to the target or removing energy. Both versions require a successful bolt attack to hit. Disintegrate overwhelms a target with energy, reducing it to ash by dealing 15 points of damage. Do not add extra attack successes to this damage, and it is only reduced by the target’s Body and Armor. Petrify freezes the target permanently. Only Genesis, Dispel, or another application of this power can reverse the effect. The target is not conscious while frozen.

Illusion allows you to create insubstantial effects that deceive the senses. When you create an illusion, roll Intelligence + Stealth. Anyone perceiving the illusion rolls Awareness + Intelligence. If they get more successes than you, the notice that something is not quite right, although they can only positively identify that it is an illusion with Magesight. If you have no points in a perception sub-skill, you may not create illusions that affect that sense. Opponents with at least two points in a Perception sub-skill that the illusion does not affect (assuming it should) receive an automatic success on the roll to notice something wrong, as do characters using a Sense spell of level 4 or 5 that you do not have access to. People who physically interact with an illusion automatically know something is wrong with it. All illusion spells are committed effects, requiring concentration if they move or otherwise change. Each spell incorporates the effects of lower level effects, so a level two spell can create both a sound and an image. An illusion may be no larger than 10 meters per spell level in any direction, with similar limits on sound and smell. If you are attempting to mimic a specific individual, you must also make Wits + Performance rolls as required.

1 Image – you create a contiguous, three-dimensional, static image. If the illusion is of something that should move, opponents get three automatic successes to notice something wrong.

You may boost Stealth and Performance

2 Sound – you create a simple sound, such as a single tone or the sound of grass rustling.

3 Scent – you mimic a scent.

You may boost Diplomacy, Socialize, and Animals

4 Symphony – you create any sound.

You may boost Music (except for Dance, no equipment required)

5 Mirage – you create a moving image

You may boost Agility for the purpose of defense rolls

Life is the path of manipulating living tissue

1 A Heal – you heal one point of bruising damage on anyone within your sphere of influence (including yourself). As a level two effect, you heal wounding damage, and you heal trauma damage as a level three effect.

You may boost Biology and Medicine.

2 A Growth – you cause a plant within your sphere of influence to experience the effects of one month of growth over the course of the next minute.

3 C Sustenance – you magically provide you body with food, water, and air.

4 P Perfection – you ‘reformat’ the structure of your body, optimizing all of the cells. The effects of Sustenance become permanent, you heal twice as fast, and you become immune to trauma damage (this does not reduce damage, but does keep it from converting to trauma damage). Your body is now made entirely of a single type of perfected organic cell. If you have the Shape path, you may remain in alternate forms indefinitely without taking damage.

5 R Genesis – you create a living organism

Mind allows you to establish mental links and manipulate minds. All mental communication is done through concepts, and is thus not dependent on language.

1 A Converse – you establish a brief mental link with a willing target. The target must either be within your sphere of influence or be someone that you have previously used this spell on. The target knows that you are attempting contact, and can accept or decline. A declining target can express either that now is not a good time or that they do not wish contact. If the target accepts, you both take a single action exchanging information as if you were involved in a five-minute conversation (you use an action on the spell regardless of the response). You may pay the cost for this spell multiple times at once, targeting multiple people. In such a case, everyone who accepts the contact is involved in the same ‘conversation’. This spell may affect people outside your sphere of influence without an increased cost.

2 C Telepathy – you may communicate mentally with anyone you are aware of within your sphere of influence. Everyone that you wish within range hears your words as if you were speaking to them.

3 C Mindlink – you establish a mental link with a willing target, as with Converse. As long as the Mindlink remains committed, you and the target are aware of everything the other is thinking and feeling. This effect causes extreme intimacy, and is thus not generally used except by those who are already quite close.

4 A Enhance – you send an infusion of magical energy into your mind, causing one of the following effects: Allow you to perfectly memorize a single scent, image, or up to 30 seconds of audio; provide you with the benefits of two hours sleep; reduce by a factor of ten the time it takes you to perform a purely mental activity.

You may boost Intelligence, Willpower, Reflexes, and Awareness

5 A Influence – by altering the signals in a person’s brain, you affect their mind. All people with at least one point of magic and all wild animals are largely immune, and can only be affected by triggering a reflexive reaction, such as “duck” or “look behind you” taking no more than a single action. Celestial beings and worshipers are also immune to this spell for unknown reasons. Against domesticated animals and extras, however, you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Sense allows you to increase your sensory capabilities.

1 C Intensify – by amplifying sounds or magnifying images, you double the range of your senses. This applies to scent by doubling long afterwards you can detect a scent.

You may boost Perception and Awareness

2 C Scry – you center all of your perceptions except for touch on a single point, which you may then move up to 10 feet per action. You may act as normal, but suffer a -4 penalty on all physical actions, reduced to -2 if you are observing yourself. If you suppress this spell, it starts out centered on you when you re-activate it. When you have Sense at level four or higher, you maintain your personal perceptions and no longer suffer a penalty. As a level four effect, you may project this sense as well, taking a penalty again but perceiving from two separate locations, each of which must be moved separately. If you have the Mindlink power, you may reposition your senses to the person you are linked with.

3 C Timesense – you pick up on minute details, showing you what happened up to 20 minutes in the past or up to five seconds into the future. When looking into the future, you cannot predict the actions of beings with souls, and they register as blurs. You receive four bonus successes on all Reflex rolls, but this is of limited usefulness because this spell is a concentration effect.

You may boost Reflexes

4 C Advanced – you extend your senses even further, achieving effects such as night-vision, echolocation, heat vision, etc. Each effect must be activated separately.

5 C Allsense – Your senses increase to perfection. You have a perfect awareness of everything within your sphere of influence, down to the atomic level. You must still make Awareness rolls to notice things, but any dice from Perception are treated as automatic successes. This sense also transcends specific types of senses, allowing you to disregard any sub-skill penalties.

Shape(shift) allows you to change your physical form. You may activate multiple Shape spells (including boosts) with the same action.

1 C Alter – you make simple changes to your form, still remaining basically humanoid. Mimicking a specific individual requires you to make a roll as described under Illusion. This spell is activated at varying levels depending on which additional effects you wish to incorporate. All levels beyond the first allow whatever shape you want. Wings are a level three effect and allow you to fly at twice your land speed, requiring Agility + Flight rolls for complex maneuvers. You may only fly if you have the Hover or Density (light) powers on, or are at least size -2. If you have the Genesis power, you may secrete poison as a level two effect. A tail or flippers that reverse your swimming and land speeds is a level two effect. The same is true of increasing your climb speed to your land speed. Claws or other effects that allow you to deal wounding damage are level three effects. Gills, allowing you to breathe underwater but suffocate in air are a level two effect. More advanced abilities, such as a spider’s silk-spinning, are level four effects. Remaining in a form with distinctly non-human musculature, skeleton, or internal organs causes one point of trauma damage each hour after the first.

You may boost Body, Agility, Awareness, and Athletics

2 P Limbs – when you activate Alter as a level two effect, you may add up to one limb (or similar body port, such as a prehensile tail). Each additional level allows an additional limb. (you may have as many appendages as you want, but this spell determines the number that you can effectively control.)

3 P Size – When you activate Alter as a level three effect, you may increase or decrease your size by one level. Each additional level allows you to change one additional size category. If you have the Telekinesis power, a decrease in size has no negative effect on your strength.

4 P Incorporate – when you activate Alter, you gain an additional number of magic points equal to what you spent on Alter. These points must be immediately used towards activating a Boost or one of the following abilities: Hover, Intensify, Advanced, Density. The effect activates along with Alter.

5 P Freeform – as long as you have a level five Alter committed, you may change your form at will.

Space covers manipulation of the location of objects.

1 C Telekinesis – you free yourself from dependence on your physical body to manipulate objects. You may manifest any physical action at any place within your sphere of influence. The force that you exert manifests as a faint glow, a distant crackling sound, and a slight singed odor. These senses intensify in relation to the magnitude of effect you are producing. Telekinesis is activated at any level from one to five, with the level chosen being the maximum Body or Dexterity you can exert, up to a limit of your own score. Boosts are applied after the level is determined.

You may boost Body (strength only), Dexterity, and Craft

2 C Shield – your telekinetic control improves to the point where you can manifest a static barrier. The level of Shield you activate is the effective Body score of the shield and is multiplied by five to determine the number of 2 square meter sections you create. The shield is considered to be two sizes smaller than you, plus your path rating. You may freely pass through your own shield, but allowing any other material through requires an action spent in concentration. You may also activate Telekinesis at the same time as Illusion, if you have it, to provide physical form to your illusions.

You may boost Body (armor) with no penalties for heavy armor. This armor also automatically reduces all damage by an additional point.

3 C Hover – you free yourself from gravity and fly. You move 10 meters times your path rating per action. If you do not have Currents and at least 2, this speed is reduced by half when underwater. If you have the Energy path at 3 or higher, you may generate fire from your feet to double your speed, but you must make Agility + Flight rolls to maneuver.

4 C Portal – you create a portal linking two places. The portal has a radius of up to 5 meters, although it does not have to be perfectly circular. One end must be within your sphere of influence, the other end can be any location you are familiar with. Portals are surrounded by a one-inch radius tube of ‘unfocused material’ that is whatever existed in that space previously, but scrambled. If a portal is formed on solid matter, this process deals one point of damage to the matter, which is healed when the portal closes. Disrupting this ring causes the portal to close. Any damage dealt to the ring is reduced by two and then applied to whatever is going though the portal. If damage makes it through the ring and there is no solid matter left to damage, the ring is disrupted and the portal closes. If you quit committing magic to the portal while solid matter is going through, the portal remains open until it is clear. If the portal remains open longer than one minute, it begins to pulse. Each pulse deals one point of wounding damage to whatever is going through. The interval between pulses is half of the time since the last pulse. When a pulse is happening every round, double the damage each round. At any point during this time, you or someone else with the Portal spell may re-commit to the portal to keep it open.

5 C Projection – you enter into a trance and project your sphere of influence to any place you are familiar with. You may move it at a rate of 10 meters per action. You cannot perceive anything without the Scry power, but the center of your perception moves at the increased rate of your sphere of influence. Persons with Magesight see you as a ball of energy about 1 foot in diameter, and can make attacks against you normally, but otherwise you are invisible. Your sense of touch remains tied to your physical body, but that is all. If you have Sense 4, and can maintain two different Scry powers, you may choose to divide your sphere of influence between them, ending up with two spheres of half the normal size.