Basic Spell Casting

The player indicates to the GM that his character wishes to begin casting a particular spell skill at a stated target. The GM will determine a reasonable Difficulty to assign to the task. The spell skill descriptions indicate a nominal value, some adjustment may be necessary to account for various factors in the scene at the time of casting. The GM will also mark on the event multiplexor (or other timekeeping device) the expected time of affect of the spell (see below for a general table describing typical spell timing). Upon completion, the player will roll a number of eight sided die equal to the difficulty of the skill test and record the appropriate reduction in fatigue levels indicated for the casting. If the total of all die rolled equals or is less than the effective Magic (or Miracle) Attribute, the casting is deemed a success and the GM describes the result. Additional die rolls may be necessary to determine the affect the casting has on other members/components of the scene.

Spell Casting Pool

Any additional training in a particular spell skill adds one point per training level achieved, after the first, to the Spell Casting Pool.

Each Method used (except Essence) adds one point per training level to the spell casting pool. Each Method also has some spell types with a natural affinity, these are identified in the Methods descriptions. Depending upon the Method/Spell type combination a +1 or +2 is allotted. These affinities are summarized below:

	Method
Spell Type	Enchant	Word	Prayer	Cabal	Square	Thaum
Miracles		+1	+2*	X	X	X
Coercive	+2	+1	+1	X	+2	+2
Therapeutic			+1	+1	X	X
Traumatic				+1	+2
Physical				+1		X
Illusions						+2
X = Not allowed			*=Christian Prayer only otherwise X

The equation for Spell Casting Pool is therefore:

Pool = Method Skill level + Affinity Bonus + (Spell Skill level - 1)

The Spell Casting Pool may be used to improve the quality of the casting in up to three ways. Allocate points in amounts not to exceed the total pool to one or more of the following:

1. Fatigue Cost Reduction Spell Casting Pool points may be spent to reduce the fatigue cost of spell casting by one point per point expended. One fatigue point must be expended per spell cast, regardless of the amount of training points available. Reduce fatigue costs after any modification. (i.e. when the Word method is being utilized to cast a spell with a single utterance, the fatigue points expenditure requirements are first multiplied by five and subsequently reduced by training points).
2. Attribute Enhancement Spell Casting Pool points may be used to increase the effective level of a test attribute for the purposes of that test. The target attribute is increased depending on the method of casting. Magic is used for most tests, Miracle is used for most tests utilizing the Prayer method and for all Miracle Spell types, some spells (such as the Therapeutic spell types) must target against a specific attribute of the recipient.
3. Casting Time Reduction Spell Casting Pool points may be spent to reduce the casting time of "normally" cast spells by one second per point expended. Spells cast through Cabal and Magic Square and the single utterance capability of Power Word methods may not have their casting times reduced in this manner.

Example
Good Friar Tibal, a young initiate with a few years in the Order, has made sufficient progress with his studies to have acquired Prayer Method (3). Having spent time honing his skills with a band of not-so-capable adventurers, he’s particularly adept at Heal Serious Wounds, having achieved one level of advanced skill in the technique, Heal Serious(2). To achieve the Prayer in gaming terms, the player calculates Spell Casting Pool as Method (3 + 2 affinity) + Advanced Skill (Skill level 2 - 1) resulting in a Spell Casting Pool of 6. The character in question is sporting 12 points of damage. Tibal will attempt to heal all 12 points by expending an additional Fatigue Point. He chooses to offset the extra Fatigue cost by using one of his Pool points. Knowing that his companions are not of particularly righteous Faith, he chooses to apply 5 points to enhance the recipient’s Miracle attribute for purposes of this Prayer. To accomplish the needed healing the player will have to roll well to succeed with a Difficult(D4) test against the recipients Miracle of 12 plus the 5 Pool points he allocated for a target number of 17. Tibal will spend 2 Fatigue Points in the attempt.

Range/Volume/Damage

The existing descriptions for Physical Magic Spells allow for the varying capabilities of experienced magicians by applying damage and volume multipliers. Duration and range factors are also important - and apply to many spell castings in addition to Physical Magic. The following table relates the castors base Magic Proficiency (without any "pool" additions but including any experience earned improvements) to these factors.

		Volume			Range
Magic	Damage	Missile	Material	Duration	[Magic]
0-4	X1	1	1	20 secs.	X1
5-7	X1	1	2	40 secs.	X1
8-10	X2	1	3	40 secs.	X1
11-13	X2	2	4	1 min.	X2
14-16	X2	2	5	1 min. 20 secs.	X2
17-19	X3	2	6	1 min. 20 secs.	X2
20-24	X3	3	7	1 min. 20 secs.	X2
25-29	X3	3	8	1 min. 20 secs.	X3
30-34	X4	3	9	1 min. 40 secs.	X3
35-39	X4	4	10	2 min.	X3
40-44	X5	4	12	2 min. 20 secs.	X4
45-49	X5	4	15	2 min. 40 secs.	X4
50+	X6	5	20	3 min.	X5

Damage X is a multiplier to the damage levels indicated in the magical targeting matrix above. Where the matrix indicates a die roll for damage, roll this number of dice. Where the damage is a fixed value simply multiply it by the indicated number.

Volume indicates the number of basic volumes manipulated. The Missile values should be used for the Detach and Remove manipulations and the Material values for Create manipulations.

Duration is indicated in minutes and seconds. A single Detach manipulation may be targeted at enemies as many times as is possible within the spell duration. All Detach attacks have effectively two combat blows per combat turn.

Range is expressed as a multiplier. The actual range (in feet) is calculated by multiplying the castors Magic Proficiency (ignoring any "pool" additions) by this factor. In many cases this value will be further modified by the specifics of the material/manipulation interaction.

Time and Spell Casting

• Essence Method (no method) cast spells have a casting time of 1 second regardless of difficulty.
• Prayer Method (Christian) requires 10 seconds regardless of difficulty to be effective.
• Prayer Method (Pagan), Enchantment, Word and Thaumaturgy have to be magically in tune, properly coded and accurately rendered in order to appease, coerce or manipulate etheric forces. The required contortions are in proportion to the difficulty of the casting. For each level of difficulty such spells require 10 seconds of activity.
• Cabal and Mystic Square are documented below as 1 minute per difficulty level to draw or physically write a spell, with some significant modifiers for "leave behind" spell triggers. Hastily created "air symbols" are cast at 10 seconds per die of difficulty.
• Therapeutic spells require the physical manipulation of the recipient’s body commensurate with the amount and type of damage sustained. For each point of (regular) damage repaired 10 seconds of casting time is required. For critical type damage, 10 seconds per point of damage is required.

Casting		Time to Cast
Essence Method:		1 second
Prayer (Christian):		10 seconds.
Cast Magic:		10 sec per difficulty die
Therapeutic Spells:		10 sec per point of regular damage 20 sec per point of critical damage
Written Magic:		1 min per difficulty die
Ritual Method:		2x Casting Time
"Leave Behind" magics:
	Thought Activation	0 seconds
	Touch or Pass	1 seconds
	Key Phrase or Word	2 seconds
	(Keyed Categorically)	+3 seconds
	(Keyed Specifically)	+4 seconds

Leave Behind refers to spells activated by some triggering action out of direct control of the castor. Runes, wands and other magical artifacts generally utilize these timings. Artifacts with an active intelligence or casting learned spells with the Essence Method or even some Incantations would use the timing listed for that Method or spell.

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