Magic
From Peragro Tempus Wiki
| Combat · Economy · Housing · Character (Skills, Abilities, Progression, & Inventory) · Politics · Death · War · Magic | ||
| Communication | ||
Contents |
Use
- The Maxim of Persistence: “Perfection is eternal.” The closer to perfection an object or action is, the more persistence it possesses.
- The Verity of Power: “Action begets action.” Repetition increases power, though there is a reduction in the power increase with each repetition. (root curve)
- Law of Dichotomy: “Power or persistence.” Each repetition of an act engenders resistance, reducing its perfection. (exponential curve)
- The Rule of Three: “Thrice performed, once fulfilled.” The intersection of the curves from Law of Dichotomy and the Verity of Power are at 3.
A spellcasting character has ranks in one or more schools of magic. These schools have their own associations which determine what sorts of spells use them. To cast a spell, the character selects it from their casting menu, fills in any required variables and tells it to activate.
The computer then expends any material components from the character's inventory/person, and begins any necessary casting timer. At the end of this timer it checks the Sapience x Skill for each school involved with a bonus or penalty depending on the spell and another penalty determined by the character's distance from the Portal associated with that school. Failing to achieve a success on one or more skill checks restarts the casting timer.
If all material components are present (and spent), the timer is not interrupted, when the skill checks succeed the spell takes effect.
Some spell effects are defended against or have their own checks, but that is handled by the effect itself.
Skills
Enchantment
"I was born upon the anvil and my crib was a quieted forge. When your children are given rattles ours are given hammers. Our children play at craft. I am no warmage, to answer your call to arms. But give me ten days, and the arms and armor of your men, and you will sweep aside their soldiers and spells like a lantern sweeps aside the shadow."
Sometimes known as Craftsmages or Artificers, Enchanters focus on modification and alteration. They are especially concentrated on changes to items and physical objects. These transmutations even extend to the alchemical changes of material, though even spells are sometimes altered with their magic. The drawback for enchanters is that theirs is generally a magic of preperation and craft, with less flexibility in combat or other emergencies. Further, for all its strength in bolstering materials and magic it is (generally) not good at modifications to individuals.
Enchantment is tied to the Kvalis portal, meaning that the farther a mage is from that portal the larger a penalty they have to all Enchantment checks.
Bases & Modifications
- Animate object
- Extend duration
- Modify item statistic (durability, quality, hardness, base damage, weight, heft, bulk...)
- Enchant item.
Sorcery
"The Earth itself is my father, the flame my brother. Our mother is the eternal ocean, and the capricious wind is my sister. When I go to war, my family comes. With armor of stone and blades of flame, our fletchers are sylphs of the air, and our warriors shall flow over you like the raging sea... We come to claim this land, and we will win."
The primary focus of sorcery is war, it's bases are generally focused on dealing damage and shielding yourself. This skill also covers uses of the 4 prime elements (Earth, Fire, Air, Water). In fact, sorcery is an elemental and dichotomic magic. Any use of sorcery must include one of the elements, which is both a boon and a hinderance. When the first level of this skill is gained the sorcerer must choose one of the four elements to which they are bound. Any Sorcery check which uses their bound element recieves a bonus, though any spell which is bound to the opposed element recieves a (larger) penalty. Similarly, spells which include opposed elements also recieve a substantial penalty.
Sorcery is tied to the Oro portal, meaning that the farther a mage is from that portal the larger a penalty they have to all Sorcery checks.
Bases & Modifications
- Magic elemental attack
- Magic armor
- Levitate/Fly (air)
- Lightning (air/fire)
- Acid (water/fire)
- Water breathing (water/air)
- Weather control (air/water/fire)
Necromancy
"Beginnings and endings, dawn and dusk. People see opposites, dichotomies. Alpha and omega. How quickly mortals forget in the rush of life that what we are, what we experience, and what we live is that which comes in between. Those who are most capable are those who have found balance. Savagery and creativity, life and death. You have come to me, and I offer you a choice; will this be a beginning, an ending, or a waypoint upon your journy?"
"life and death are but opposite sides of the same coin. As one is eclipsed the other ascends. We walk the middle road, the road of balance, where neither side is eclipsed. We are the coin that lands on edge, standing in the space between shadows at the edge of life and death- we work with the living and dead as craftsman work with steel and bone."
Necromancy focuses on the dualities. Life and death, light and dark, reason and emotion. It is a magic of unity and dichotomy. The central theme, however, is that it is nearly always a magic which deals with things that are or have been alive. Whether manipulating thoughts and emotions or spirits and bodies, a Necromancer manipulates the biological and spiritual the way an Enchanter crafts materials.
Necromancy is tied to the Vaaloria portal, meaning that the farther a mage is from that portal the larger a penalty they have to all Necromancy checks.
Bases & Modifications
- Resurection
- Animate dead
- Healing
- Modify ability
- Magic damage
- Charm
- Fear
- Confusion
Wizardry
"Yes, five days and they will arrive. By foot. Pay what I ask and they arrive in 10 minutes. Attack me or mine, and in 10 minutes I will be making this offer to those at your destination."
Called Wanderers, Wayfinders, and Merchant's friends to their face, when they aren't around Wizards are more commonly called travel agents or shippers among those who use their services. Wizardry is a Magic of travel and space, though some murmer it also touches on the nature of time.
One of the strengths of Wizardry is that it is tied to whatever portal is closest at the moment. Meaning that even though the farther a mage is from a portal the larger a penalty they have to all Wizardry checks, they still remain relatively powerful regardless of where they are.
Bases & Modifications
- Recall
- Summon
- Autoteleport
- Exoteleport
- Movement
- Banish
- Modify range
- Scrying
- (meta-magic)
Learning Magic
Improvement as a mage requires improving the skill or skills to which the character's magic is tied and learning or creating new spells. Creating new spells is covered below, but is predicated on the character learning magical Bases. The easiest way to learn new Bases is to learn a spell which uses one or more bases that the character does not already know. When the character learns their first rank in a Magic skill they must be taught a spell of that school known by that instructor (characters who start with a rank or ranks in such a skill recieve their choice of spells from a list available to starting characters).
Each spell is treated as a Specialization of the associated skill. Unlike normal skills these specializations may be trained directly by a character who posesses the Teacher skill and that spell. Also, unlike normal skills and specializations, a spell can revert to a 0 rating and be forgotten. It is for this reason that many characters will scribe copies of spells, so that even if they are rarely used the character does not loose access to the spell and, more importantly, any bases the spell uses.
Material Components
- Axiom of Invariance: “The circle must be complete.” Energy and matter cannot be created or destroyed.
- Law of Ubiquity: “Flame permeates all.” All matter is energy, apparent destruction of one must create the other.
- The Doctrine of Signatures: “The attributes without mirror the power within.”
- The Principle of Sympathy: “Like produces like.”
- The Principle of Contagion: “Once together, always together.”
Material components are items which are used to make spells easier, and thus more powerful or longer lasting. Components may or may not be consumed by the process of casting. Though consumed components provide energy and thus have significantly more of an effect than components that can be reused.
| Material | Enchantment | Sorcery | Necromancy | Wizardry |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Metal | bonus to some bases | bonus to Earth penalty to Air | ||
| Rock | bonus to some bases | bonus to Earth penalty to Air | ||
| Gemstone | bonus to some bases | bonus to Earth and Fire penalty to Air and Water | ||
| Leaf | - | - | Bonus to some bases | |
| Root | - | - | Bonus to some bases | |
| Wood | - | - | Bonus to some bases | |
| Bone | - | - | Bonus to some bases | |
| Leather | - | - | Bonus to some bases | |
| Feather | - | Bonus to Air penalty to Earth | Bonus to some bases | |
| Lizard | - | Bonus to fire penalty to water | bonus to some bases | |
| Serpent | - | Bonus to fire penalty to water | bonus to some bases | |
| Fish | Bonus to water penalty to fire | bonus to some bases | ||
| Mammal | - | - | bonus to some bases | |
| Avian | - | Bonus to air penalty to earth | bonus to some bases | |
| Rodent | - | - | bonus to some bases | |
| Humanoid | - | - | Bonus | |
| Liquid | Bonus to some bases | Bonus to Water Penalty to Fire | ||
| Gas | Bonus to some bases | Bonus to Air Penalty to Earth |
Designing New Spells
To design a new spell the character opens the New Spell dialog.
Every spell is constructed from bases and modifiers.
- Each base is an effect the spell will have. It is associated with a school, which determines which skill is used and which distance penalty applies (schools are tied to portals- the farther from the portal the larger penalty). Multiple bases may mean multiple skill checks. Even if there is not an additional skill for the new base, it will impose a penalty on the appropriate skill check.
- Modifiers include changes to damage, duration, material components, casting times, etc. These change the bonuses and penalties of casting the spell. Some modifiers are inherant to a base (changes to damage are inherant to attack spells), while others are nearly bases of themselves (adding or adjusting a casting timer), and a few are even associated with schools (range or duration). Material components are some of the most complex modifiers. Used exclusively to reduce the casting penalty of a spell they can have wildly different significance depending on the other bases and modifiers used.
____________________________________________________ |================================================X===| | ======================== -------- -------- | | | 1 | | Save | | Load | | | ======================== -------- -------- | | =========== =========== =========== =========== | | | 2 | | |6 | |7 | |3 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----|----| |=========| |=========| |----|----| | | | | | |8 | |9 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----|----| =========== =========== |----|----| | | | | | |4 | | |5 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |----|----| |----|----| |---------| |----|----| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | =========== =========== =========== =========== | | -------- |======================| -------- | | |Cancel| |10 | |Check | | | -------- |======================| -------- | |____________________________________________________| 1 Spell Name. 2 Inventory of Bases and difficult increasing modifiers. 3 Inventory of difficulty reducing modifiers and materials. 4 Bases and difficult increasing modifiers included. 5 Difficulty reducing modifiers and materials included. 6 Enchantment check (Y/N) and bonus/penalty. 7 Necromancy check (Y/N) and bonus/penalty. 8 Sorcery check (Y/N) and bonus/penalty. 9 Wizardry check (Y/N) and bonus/penalty. 10 Actual spell effect(s).
Once the desired spell is built (or the closest the player can get) they press the check button. The system then begins running a check of each Skill * Sapience with the appropriate penalty (per the spell design). Each skill check made takes some time and consumes the listed material components for the spell. During this time the character may only use chat, press the check button again (which becomes Stop), or hit Save. As the checks continue, the percent by which each successful check is passed is recorded until the total % equals a set requirement. If the Stop button is pressed before the necessarry success is achieved the achieved success is recorded for the spell in case of later resumption.
Once each involved skill has been mastered in this manner the spell is completely researched and stored in the character's list of known spells.
Breaking Up Research
At any time the character may Save a spell they are designing. This records the currently active potential spell as a design that can be loaded for later work or modification. If such a file exists for a spell, successes towards researching the spell are recorded in this file.
The load button can bring up any known spell or known potential spell that has been saved.
These saved potnetial spells are linked to the character working with them. They are not capable of being shared with other players through external file exchanges.
A character may scribe such a saved potential spell, creating an Enchiridion; an in-character copy of their current status that can be accessed by others in-character. Using such texts multiple characters may work towards completing a spell. It is not entirely unthinkable that a single character who has specialized in a single school of magic and seeks a spell which requires all of the others would scribe four Enchiridions and send those copies to friends who have specialized in the other schools. Those others may complete the research in their school of the spell much more quickly allowing a completed text to be compiled from the parts.
Altering a Known Spell
Trivial changes to a spell (change name) require no new research.
Any change to a spell which does not alter bonuses or penalties applying to a particular school do not require that school to be checked again. This does not mean that changes which lead to the same bonus/penalty require no new research, the alterations must not include anything that applies to that school.
Changes to a spell for which this character performed the original research, which alter a school but maintain the same bases reduces the achieved successes by 10% plus 2x any difference in the bonus/penalty.
Changes to a spell for which someone else performed the original research, which alter a school but maintain the same bases reduces the achieved successes by 25% plus 5x any difference in the bonus/penalty.
Changes to a base removes all successes in that school.
