Spells are created on-the-fly in this magic system. You describe what kind of magical effect you want to produce and roll the dice.
The spells that your character is able to produce are defined by his knowledge in the various paths of magic. A path is a collection of effects or a type of magic. Characters can only cause magical effects covered by one of the paths they know.
Note that magic is an art guided by intention. Paths represent a goal or purpose of spells, not ways of achieving them. Harm or healing can be achieved in many different ways, but by their intention a ball of fire and a magical arrow are the same (harm) and so are a healing prayer and a witching brew (healing).
Magic being guided by intention means that spells cannot be abused by crafty interpretation. A healing spell can not be used to harm someone, say by "healing" the mouth shut. And a movement spell cannot be used to close a wound.
When the fitting path for an effect is not obvious, intention can provide an answer. A blinding light could be an illusion if the intention is a visual effect, or it could be protection if the intention is to make it more difficult for enemies to hit with their arrows.
Learning Magic Paths is cheaper than ability details. It also starts at 1 point for the 1st path, but then the cost rises to 2, 3, 4, etc. - see the table in Advancement for the full list.
Anyone with at least one dot of magical can cast minor spells of small effect, such as a small light, a tiny fire just enough to light a candle or torch, a quick "is this thing magical?" detection and similar small, everyday spells. For someone who has bought magical but not spent any points on magic paths, these are the only spells available.
Knowing this path gives the magic user access to Downtime Activities > Enchant.
Spells that cause harm to others, be it through elemental damage like fireballs or ice shards; or through direct damage such as boiling someone's blood or breaking their bones.
Damage from these spells can be resisted and protected against with armour and shields, just like any other damage.
Harmful magic can be used against living things as well as a means to damage or destroy objects, obstacles and other non-living targets.
| Effect | Harm |
|---|---|
| Limited | lesser harm |
| Standard | moderate harm |
| Great | severe harm |
| Extreme | instant death |
When the spell targets multiple targets, harm for each target is reduced by one level.
A spell with great effect would cause severe harm to one target, or moderate harm to several targets.
Magic that restores health, cures wounds, counters diseases and poisons.
Healing magic at most restores someone to perfect health. It does not enhance the body or grant additional abilities.
A patient can receive multiple healing spells in a row, even from the same healer.
| Effect | Heal |
|---|---|
| Limited | Magical first aid. Stop a bleeding, lessen the pain, take this placebo and see me in the morning. |
| Standard | Heal one box of lesser harm. |
| Great | Heal one box of moderate harm. |
| Extreme | Heal one box of severe harm. |
If the target has no harm of the level healed, it heals twice as many boxes of the next lower harm instead.
A healing spell with extreme effect on a target that suffered not severe harm will heal 2 boxes of moderate harm. If the target also has no moderate harm, it will heal up to four boxes of lesser harm.
Create items, people, creatures that aren't real.
The eyes see them, the ears hear them, but there is nothing actually there. They are insubstantial and cannot actually cause any physical effects. An illusionary coin has no weight, an illusionary door can be walked through, an illusionary bucket holds no water.
Note: Illusions fool the senses, not the mind. Even when they are known to be illusions, they are still visible, etc.
| Effect | Illusions |
|---|---|
| Limited | A small item or animal, not very convincing, any inspection will reveal it to be an illusion. |
| Standard | A person, animal up to horse size, or an inanimate object up to a small shack in size. Not easily spotted as illusionary (requires a sucess on a mental roll) |
| Great | A small group of people or animals, several inanimate objects up to a small hut in size. Very convincing, will only be seen as an illusion on a critical on a mental roll |
| Extreme | A large group of people or animals, a large house or pile of inanimate objects. Perfect in every detail, will only be discovered as an illusion by touch or if things pass straight through it and a successful mental roll is made. (if the mental roll fails with 1-3, the witness will rationalise away what they just saw.) |
Magic to move minds, both subtle and overt. Influence magic can create fear or make people trust you, in the extreme it turns people into puppets.
| Effect | Influence |
|---|---|
| Limited | Sway someone slightly, give a nudge. Such as pushing someone who is already angry over the edge. Can improve position on a social roll. |
| Standard | Convincing someone as if you had given a really good argument, or cause moderate emotions such as fear, anger or calm. You can't control how they react to it. Can give +1 die to a social roll. |
| Great | Make someone change their mind suddenly, or be overcome by a strong emotion of your choice. Can't make people act against their basic interest or strong loyalties. |
| Extreme | Mind control. Make someone do almost anything you want, unless it would cause obvious major harm to themselves or their closest loved ones. |
From telekinesis to flying, this path covers all magic that involves movement of things or people as a whole, without changing them.
| Effect | Move |
|---|---|
| Limited | Simple movement of a small item over a short distance. Fetching your ale from the counter or pressing a lever that requires little effort. |
| Standard | Carrying, pushing or jumping the way an ordinary person could do with their own muscles in one action. |
| Great | Lifting something that would require several men for a short moment, limited flight for one person for one scene. |
| Extreme | Lifting several tons of weight, pushing a sail boat, flying like a bird for up to an hour. |
Spells of perception or divination allow the caster to see, hear or otherwise sense things normally not available to his senses. This can be spells to see and hear at a distance or through walls, but also spells to see the invisible or to use senses not given to humans.
Note that Range, Targets, Area, Duration, etc. play a major role for perception spells.
| Effect | Perceive |
|---|---|
| Limited | One sense, as if the caster would use it normally (1) |
| Standard | All normal human senses, but from any point within the range of the spell, allowing looking through walls etc. |
| Great | Enhanced or non-human senses, such as infrared vision, the sense of smell of a dog, etc. |
| Extreme | Seeing ghosts and other invisible things and creatures or other unnatural senses. |
(1) while this seems useless at first - the caster could use use his actual senses - it can be handy in situations in which he is not able to use his actual senses, such as being blindfolded.
This path can also be used for divination and scrying - to see things in the past or future. However, such things will always be unclear and open to interpretation. Use the following table:
| Effect | Divination |
|---|---|
| Limited | The immediate past or future - what just happened or will happen in the next moment |
| Standard | The recent past, within a few hours, or the nearest future, the next scene |
| Great | Living memory, or the most likely outcome of the next hours |
| Extreme | The forgotten past, or predicting an outcome influenced by unknown factors |
Having a strong connection to a past event, such as an item that was involved, can increase the effect by +1.
Spells that provide protection from harm or other consequences. Similar to armour, these spells allow a character to resist harm or other consequences without cost to stress or a roll by marking of a box of the spell instead.
Protection spells are specific to particular consequences. They can protect from things like harm caused by physical attacks, harm caused by poison, against a specific path of magic such as harm or influence, etc. - but each spell will protect only against that type of consequences.
| Effect | Protect |
|---|---|
| Limited | one box of protection that only lowers the effect or harm level |
| Standard | one box of protection |
| Great | two boxes of protection |
| Extreme | three boxes of protection |
Summoning will call forth a magical creature such as a spirit, an elemental, a demon or an angel. These creatures will act under their own will but generally follow the orders of their summoner.
The table indicates the size of the creatures summoned at various effect levels and the damage they cause when sent into battle or ability to cause other types of consequences for whatever purpose they are used for.
| Effect | Summon |
|---|---|
| Limited | tiny - size of a rat, lesser consequences |
| Standard | small - size of a dog, moderate consequences |
| Great | large - size of a human, severe consequences |
| Extreme | giant - size of a troll, multiple severe consequences |
This is another path where effect is often traded, as a standard effect can be traded down to limited in order to enlarge the size/group and, for example, summon a swarm of rats. As a whole, the swarm would still cause moderate consequences.
Magic that changes something into something else. The most famous example of transformation magic is shape-shifting, other applications are growing or shrinking items or transforming one element into another, such as creating water from literally air.
There are two ways to use transformation magic.
Simple Transformation works for a limited time and targets will revert back to their original shape and material when the magic ends. Items transformed into other substances this way will retain their shape. Transformation cannot be used to destroy a wall by turning it into water - it will turn into a wall of water (which unlike a wall of stone can be walked/swam through).
Transmutation on the other hand is instantaneous and permanent in the way that harm or heal magic is. The change is done and then the laws of nature take over. A wall transmuted into water will splash to the ground and flow away.
For shape-shifting note that taking on the body of an animal does not automatically give a character the knowledge to use all its abilities. First-time shape-shifters have to learn to fly, for example, the way young birds do.
| Effect | Transformation | Transmutation |
|---|---|---|
| Limited | temporarily change the shape or feaures of an object, shape-shift one feature such as ears, legs, eyes, etc. | purify water or food from dirt, disease or poisons |
| Standard | change a pure element into another (turn air into water, earth into fire, etc.), shape-shift into a roughly humanoid creature. | change the texture or other feature of an item such as making it slippery or rough or making bland food taste great and nourishing. |
| Great | change an item into any substance, shape-shift into any natural creature | change the shape of an object (magical craftsmanship) |
| Extreme | change an item in any way desired, shape-shift into any creature desired | permanently(*) shape-shift someone |
(*) nature has a desire to return to its natural state, and no shape-shifting is truly permanent. There is always a condition or way to revert this magic, but it is permanent in the sense that it will not revert simply by the passage of time.