Ward

Rank	Earth Sphere 3; Water Sphere 3; Water Spirit 3; Earth Spirit 3
Range	5 yards x Rank
Area	1 Target
Duration	1 Hour
Casting	Verbal, Somatic
Cast Action	Standard
Mana Cost	2
Effect	Creates an invisible skin-tight magical barrier that absorbs Rank points of incoming lethal or non-lethal damage. Ward is factored after an attack is successful. These points are absorbed before health and do not count for purposes of "On damage" effects such as bleeds or poisons. Hitting a Ward will still trigger "On hit" effects such as Fire Armor however. When a ward has expended all of its protective points it disappears in a bright flash. For mortal damage, only the points which are not prevented by the ward are doubled. Example: Quiv casts a Fireball spell at a Lich with a 4 point Ward and rolls 5 successes. The Ward soaks the first 4 successes, and the Lich (as undead suffer mortal damage from fire) takes double damage from the remaining point for a total of 2.