Wisdom is not necessary for Magic use, since Magic is not learnt, it is simply available to some of the population. A character may be a complete dunce, but have very powerful Magic. This is one of the reasons Magic users are sometimes feared. An idiot with powerful Magic is like a child with a loaded gun! Magic CAN be refined by studying, but it does not increase the level of Magical powers a character possesses, it simply allows the user to control HOW they use it.
Three types of Spell are available to Magic users. Assist, Offensive, and Defensive spells. Assist spells are usually just once cast spells which improve a character's attributes, such as strength or agility doubling. Offensive spells are used primarily as weapons, or when a character's own skills and attributes cannot match up to a task in hand. Defensive spells are just the opposite, used as rudimentary shields or nullification Magic.
Spell creation is very simple, but chaining them together to create Megaspells is what real Magic users excel at! Throwing a fireball at an enemy is quite a feat to perform, and as such would require a number of spells chained together to do so.
The character would first need to summon the fire. Secondly, he would need to form it into a ball, and thirdly he would need to be able to launch it. Although extremely powerful, chaining three spells together is quite risky since all three spells would have to succeed. A less risky Megaspell to cast would be to summon a wall of fire, which would only need two casts. First, to summon the fire, then to stretch it into a wall of flame. Although not as direct and powerful as a fireball, it would certainly make an enemy think twice before running through it!
Megaspells can be chained as many times as desired, but the more chains a spell has, the riskier is becomes to try to cast it.
Each spell has a factor to it, and may only perform one action at a time. Single spells are simple, but can be used to good effect. One example is to double a character's strength when fighting a large enemy, or attempting to break down a heavy door. This spell only requires one roll, since it only affects one attribute. Increasing a character's strength AND his agility might be necessary if he's attempting to run a gauntlet through some swinging blades to reach a precious gem. This would be classed as a Megaspell and would need two rolls to try to cast it.
Each spell requires a roll of 10 to cast, and each subsequent roll in a Megaspell need an extra 10. A three stage Megaspell requires three D10+D10x10 rolls. The first must be 10 or higher; the second must be 20 or higher, and the third must be 30 or higher. If any rolls fail, the spell botches.
A Magic user's limit on chaining Megaspells is linked to their Magic attribute (See System for more details.) For each 10 Points a Magic user has, they can chain a spell. A Magic user with 50 Points can chain a 5 Level Megaspell, whereas a user with 20 Points can only chain a 2 Level. Uneven Points and rounded DOWN to the nearest figure, so a user with 49 points can cast a 4 Level Megaspell.
The beauty of Megaspells is the amount of damage they can do. Single spells are fine for simple things like doubling strength and casting fire to light kindling, but the raw power lies in multi-casting. Look at the fireball example again: The final roll needs 30 and above to succeed. This is the amount of damage the fireball would cause should it be a successful cast. Damage deflection and possible evasion can be applied, but 30 points is still a LOT of damage! The wall of fire, which requires 2 rolls, would only cause 20 points of damage if an enemy chose to try to run through it. If the player wishes to add another spell and gives the fireball homing powers to chase an enemy, then a fourth roll would be added to the Megaspell. The roll would need 40 or above to succeed, which would give 40 points of damage. A fifth roll would give 50 points of damage and so on. The enemy can then attempt to evade or use damage deflection with armour etc.
©2007-2008 Tom Parker