Category:Magic: Difference between revisions

Magic is a process of changing the world through willworking and manipulation of mana. It is the primary special ability system for the majority of Guilds in DragonRealms; every guild but Barbarians, Thieves and (currently) Traders has some spells they teach their members in order to accomplish their goals.

Magic Skills

For magical guilds, most of the abilities in the Supernatural skillset will be trained through (and required for) spellcasting. Individual spells train and require different skills depending on their effect:

• The Augmentation skill governs spells that improve your skills, capabilities or characteristics.
• The Warding skill governs spells that create magical defenses or barriers.
• The Debilitation skill governs spells that reduce the skills, capabilities or characteristics of your enemies. These are often contested spells.
• The Targeted Magic skill governs spells that cause direct harm to your foes.
• The Utility skill governs spells that have generally useful effects not falling into another category.

Some spells may fall into multiple categories, in which case they train both skills and contest the lower skill.

In addition, the Primary Magic skill acts as a mastery skill for all five fields of magic, providing a bonus when it is higher than the skill being used, and the Attunement skill governs your ability to sense and harness mana and thus your capacity to power spells.

Spells that use a mana type other than your attuned mana are especially difficult to cast (see Magical Theory) and use the Sorcery skill as a mastery skill instead of Primary Magic. In addition, there is a cap on effective skill relative to Sorcery skill, making it hard to cast any sorcery if your skill is low regardless of your other skills. (This cap is also in place for Primary Magic, but high enough that it rarely comes into play.)

Spell difficulties fall into one of four categories: introductory spells, which can be cast immediately with a new character; basic spells, which require about 10 ranks; advanced spells, which require around 100 ranks; and esoteric spells, which may require 200 or more ranks to cast. Introductory spells act as basic spells for out-of-guild casting.

Learning Spells

Most spells are learned directly from your Guildmaster. Each spell has certain prerequisites, such as knowing other spells already or having attained a specific circle; they also cost a certain number of spell slots based on how much the spell does. Generally, buffing a specific skill or attribute is worth one slot, as well as modifications such as affecting multiple targets. Being cyclic tends to reduce the cost of a spell by one slot, since its use is limited; most other penalties do not affect a spell's cost. Spell slots are gained as you circle at different rates depending on your Magic skillset placement. Barbarians also gain ability slots at the same rate, despite not being a spell using guild.

Slot Progression

*These occur at the multiples of 2 and 3 rather than the number of circles since the previous spell slot was earned, so spell slots at the transition from 2 to 3 occur sooner than might be expected.

Casting Spells

Casting a spell is at least a two-step process. First you must PREPARE the spell, specifying an amount of mana you intend to power it with. Note that you will not actually harness any mana at this point, and you may add more mana later by harnessing it; see below. Each spell has a minimum amount of mana below which it will not form successfully and a maximum amount above which additional mana cannot be added; your prepare amount must fall between these two levels. If your skill is too low to cast a spell using even the minimum amount of mana, you will be unable to prepare the spell. Preparing the spell pattern completely takes a certain amount of time depending on the spell; however, you may short-circuit these preparations by casting early, if you wish.

Once your preparations are complete (or you wish to cast early), simply CAST the spell, specifying your targets as you do so. At this point you will actually harness the specified amount of mana and create the specified effect. In addition, any other sources of mana (see below) may contribute to the spell pattern, up to the maximum amount. The effectiveness of a spell depends on the amount of mana used to power it; in turn, your ability to channel mana into a spell is determined by your relevant magic skills and the amount of time spent preparing it. If you attempt to use too much mana, or cast too quickly for the amount of mana being used, you will backfire, and the spell will fail.

Your spellcasting skill can be penalized by a variety of factors. Injuries (especially nerve damage) are a major factor, as well as whether you are in combat while trying to cast (though see Battle, below). In certain cases, you may also gain a bonus from the use of an appropriate foci.

Alternate Mana Sources

In addition to the base amount of mana used when preparing a spell, you will automatically attempt to add other available mana when casting. The two most common sources of additional mana are harnessing and cambrinth. Both harnessing mana using HARNESS and charging cambrinth using CHARGE are more efficient in terms of attunement than straight casting; thus, when casting very expensive spells, it may be wise to prepare at a smaller level than you intend to cast at and make up the difference with harnessing or cambrinth. Be careful, however, as this additional mana can push you over the level at which you can cast without backfiring.

Spell Types

Battle

Spells marked Battle are designed for use in battle; they have a reduced preparation time and correspondingly shorter durations. You also do not suffer a skill penalty for casting them during combat. They tend to require less mana to be effective.

Targeted

Targeted spells are the epitome of battle magic; they require no preparation at all! Instead, you must target them at a specific foe using the TARGET command. Your accuracy when casting a targeted spell is determined by your time spent targeting and your Targeted Magic skill; Primary Magic does not act as a mastery for this purpose.

Ritual

Ritual spells are the antithesis of battle spells -- they require enormous amounts of mana and take a long time to prepare. Ritual spell are intended to be cast using ritual foci, which effectively reduce the amount of mana required by a significant fraction; without one, they may not be usable or practical to cast.

Cyclic

Cyclic spells are more complex creations that require constant upkeep to stay active. After casting a cyclic spell, it will periodically pulse, requiring mana equal to the original preparation cost from your held mana or cambrinth (or, with the Raw Channeling feat, directly from your attunement). If the mana is not available, it will collapse and cease effect. Thus, using a cyclic spell requires you to keep mana harnessed or available at all times. You may only have one cyclic spell active at a time.

Contested

Spells that affect an enemy in non-violent ways are generally contested spells, matching the spell power and the caster's stats against the target's stats. The specific stats checked depend on the spell type:

Asterisks indicate non-magical attack types.

Metaspells

Some spells have an effect when learned rather than when cast; often these are spells that modify other spells, or that are cast in some unique way. See Metaspells for more information.

Training

Casting any spell gives you experience in Primary Magic, the relevant field of magic, and Attunement. The experience gained depends on the difficulty of the spell and the amount of mana used. Fewer but larger spellcasts are more efficient in terms of experience than smaller but more frequent spellcasts; thus, the best way to train magic is to cast at the highest mana you can manage, including using harnessed mana or cambrinth. Cyclics are also very useful for training purposes.

The Debilitation and Targeted Magic skills are trained differently because of their aggressive nature. Instead of gaining experience per spellcast, you gain experience by using relevant spells on enemies, depending on the difficulty of the contest and your level of success. Even missing against difficult enough targets will reward some experience. Thus these skills should be trained like any other combat skill.

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External Links

• DR Website:Magic