Magecraft

Magecraft is one of the most flamboyant of disciplines specializing in blasts of fire and lightning, teleportation, flight, and a variety of defensive spells. Mages can both heal and harm with their magic, it is the least restrictive type of magic and most flexible. Mages are men and women who have tapped into the elemental power of the magical weave of the planet. These elemental forces are known as Spheres.

When selecting the Magecraft Template as the first template, players may select a Magecraft Sphere at rank 2. The Mage also selects one rank 2 spell and two rank 1 spells within that sphere. Additional ranks of that Sphere and additional Spheres may be purchased at 5xp per rank. Each Sphere rank purchased grants 1 spell within the Sphere rank purchased, plus one spell at a lower rank at least 2 ranks lower.

Example: Quiveztil has Prime 3, and purchases Prime 4. He is granted his choice of a Prime rank 4 spell as well as his choice of a Prime rank 1 or Prime rank 2 spell.

Spheres

Mage Spheres are thematic embodiments of lines of magical energy called Ley Lines. These lines are ever present in the world of Lorithandar, from an intricate lattice within a growing leaf to a currents in the ocean or air. Mages learn to manipulate these lines to produce effects, and have formalized many manipulative processes into spells. These spells can use one or more lines to varying degrees, and the Mage's rank in a Sphere signifies their level of control over lines associated with that Sphere, and places limits on what spells they are able to cast.

A Mage's selection of Spheres is core to what type of Mage that they are. A Mage's very first Sphere becomes their Specialization Sphere, and it controls the degree of difficulty of mastering other Spheres. Once that Specialization is chosen, no other Sphere may be increased to a rank higher than that specialized Sphere.

A Mage becomes primarily defined by their Sphere of specialization, but retains a variety of ways to diversify themselves from other Mages of the same specialization.

Spells

Spells are the formalized manipulation patterns of the ley lines of the world, there is a wide range of pattern complexity. The easiest spells to master are spells which use ley lines from only one Sphere, such as Fireball. These spells tend to be blunt instruments, and are often destructive in nature, as a raw discharge of a ley line’s power lacks finesse and has only basic levels of control over the manifestation of that power. Mage battles inevitably become blasts of raw energy, being simple to learn, cheap to cast, and devastating in their effect.

Spells that use ley lines from more than one Sphere are progressively more difficult to learn and more costly to cast, but the scope of ways to combine lines from multiple Spheres is the source of the Mage’s versatility, producing a huge range of effects that are precisely controlled, allowing them to generally be able to always have a useful spell at their fingertips.

Access to Spells

Each Magecraft spell has one or more Spheres that are required in order to be able to cast it, and each required Sphere has a minimum rank. The rank of the spell is set by the Primary Sphere assigned to each spell.

For example: A wall of molten lava might require 4 Fire and 2 Earth. These are the minimum ranks that the Mage must have in order to cast it. It has a Primary Sphere of Fire, so it is a Rank 4 spell.

Learning new Spells

Mages start play with 1 Rank 2 spell, and 2 Rank 1 spells. These spells must be selected from the list of spells that the Mage has access to according to their Sphere ranks. Players can spend 2 XP per rank to learn a new spell. For example, learning Lava Wall, a rank 4 spell, costs 8xp.

Casting Multi-Sphere Spells

When a multi-Sphere spell is cast, the following rules apply for the casting roll:

If the spell has two or more spheres, the Mage’s spell rolls and spell effects are made with the sphere rank that is the most advantageous to the Mage. The mana cost of the spell is increased by 1 for each additional Sphere used by the spell beyond the first.

Magecraft Spheres

Prime

Main Article: Prime Sphere

The prime sphere consists of raw magical energy. Deals with mana, hallows, arcane bindings, item creation, auras, force effects, counterspelling, time Prime ley lines are woven through the fabric of space and time, ignoring mundane material.

Fire

Main Article: Fire Sphere

Elemental Energy. Fire, heat, destruction, ashes Elemental Fire ley line are in streamers, flowing with currents of heat, flaring around sources of fire.

Earth

Main Article: Earth Sphere

Elemental Energy. Dirt, stone, ore, metal, earthquakes, structures, material enhancement Elemental Earth ley lines are in dense nets, holding fast within the substance of the world

Life

Main Article: Life Sphere

Life Energy. Healing, growth, creation, rejuvenation, body Life ley lines are in intricate lattices, woven through every living being

Water

Main Article: Water Sphere

Elemental Energy. Water, cold, ice, winter storms, currents, oceans, rivers Elemental Water ley lines are vague pools of clustered motes with invisible strands connecting them all

Air

Main Article: Air Sphere

Elemental Energy. Wind, summer storms, travel, communication, weightlessness Elemental Air ley lines are immense flows curling and curving through the air

Mind

Main Article: Mind Sphere

Mental Energy. Telepathy, illusions, memory and thoughts, emotions, mental influence, languages. Mental ley lines are woven through the minds of intelligence beings, connecting one mind to another by tenuous strands.