Days of Old Spell Effects

There are a number of effects that a magician can cast, called Spell Effects. A magician can cast a spell effect only if he has purchased it as a Spellweaving skill. Each of them comes as a pair, so any magician who can cast Create can also cast Destroy.
==Spellweaving Listing==
*Detect/Conceal
*Create/Destroy
*Expand/Contract
*Project/Repel
*Shape/Alter
*Enhance/Detract
*Collect/Disperse
*Transmute/Imbue
*Impose/Depose
*Summon/Banish
*Reverse/Advance
*Inflict/Protect
*Weaken/Strengthen
*Analyze/Confuse
*Seal/Unseal
*Resist/Permit
*Curse/Bless
*Invoke/Evoke
*Commune/Confound
==Spellweaving Rules==
Basic Spellweaving Point Cost: Each listing has a definite spell point cost listed. However, there are some basic spell point costs the GM can use if the spell effect the mage has in mind has an effect that differs from how the spell normally is used. It costs one point for every foot of range. It costs one point for every foot of area or one point for every square foot of an object that needs to be effected. When creating something or effecting a target, the spell point cost is one point for a square inch, two points for a quarter of a foot, three points for a half a foot, four points for three quarters of a foot, or five points for a foot, and then one additional point for every additional foot beyond that. For affecting creatures, it could be one point for a very tiny creature, two points for a quarter-sized creature, three points for a half-sized creature, four points for a three-quarter-sized creature, five points for a full-sized creature, and one additional point for every additional size of the creature. In terms of duration, it is normally one point for every minute or round of duration. 
Spellweaving Ranks: The number of ranks a mage has in a spell type indicates how many spell points they can immediately throw into a spell effect. For example, a mage with 3 ranks in Expand/Contract can automatically put 3 spell points into an Expand Fire spell without having to raise those three points. If the mage is only planning on putting 2 points into his Expand spell, the extra point is lost… he cannot use it as a free point for another part of the spell.
Use of Spell Points to Enhance Spell Effects: The mage may put spell points in attributes such as Duration, Range, Area of Effect, etc. The amount of spell points required for these can be found in the appropriate listings later in this section. A mage may also choose to put spell points into the spell in order to intensify the roll result. For every twenty spell points cast into a spell, the caster may gain a +1 rank shift to the result of the spell’s casting.
Spell Types Combined with Spheres of Magic: Note that some spell effects wouldn’t seem outright to be able to do anything worthwhile, or anything at all. How would “Collect Love” work, or “Banish The Future?” Some spells may just not be able to be combined with certain Spheres of Magic. However, creative players and GM’s can come up with some amazing spells. For example, you could Collect the Love of all the party members for a comrade who has suffered a serious psychic injury, and bringing all of that energy together may be able to heal him of his mental wounds. Banishing the Future could indicate creating a Fate which is destined NOT to happen. The GM would, in this case, have to be certain that the spell energy being raised for that was sufficient, as that would be a fairly powerful spell.Also, there are several ways to do many different things with magic. In order to put out a fire, you could Destroy Fire, Contract the fire into nothing, Conceal the fire (although it would still exist, technically), Repel or Disperse the fire from its point of origin, Alter or Detract the fire’s temperature until it goes out, Transmute the fire into water, Reverse or Advance the fire so it either reverses in time to before it was burning or advances to after it burns out, Inflict water on the fire or Create Water around the fire, Weaken the fire or Strengthen the wind blowing on the fire, or even curse the fire to go out. There are a great number of ways to do anything using any spell effect, and the limitation is both your imagination and whether or not the GM feels the effect is fair based on the amount of energy you put into it. That leads us to:
The Rule of Equivalent Exchange: The GM must keep his eyes open for players attempting to use loopholes to create powerful spell effects for next to nothing. For example, a mage may choose to cast Contract Fauna to reduce the number of enemies during combat. This, of course, is not something that would be simple, and the GM may inform the mage that in order to do this he would have to raise enough spell points to reduce each and every individual in size, down to nothing. This will put a damper on the mage trying to break the system.
Spellcaster Intent: The mage casting a spell will tell the GM that he desires to cast a particular spell effect on a particular sphere of magic: for example, “Create Fire.” He then will tell the GM his intention. He could then, for example, say “I’m going to start building up a fireball to throw at my opponents.”The GM will, once the effect has been rolled for, be able to tell the mage what effect the spell had based on his intention and the result of his roll. In the Days of Old world, magic is a force which is deeply linked with the caster, and therefore, the very nature of magic is understanding the will of the magician. The GM should always try to keep the spell’s result based around themage’s intention, and if he feels that the spell is not something that would be likely given the conditions and the number of spell points put into it, he should still have the spell try to do what it was intended for and fizzle (or have some other interesting way of failing) rather than having something completely unexpected happen that the mage did not intend.
Along these same lines, magic forces know the will of the caster. Therefore, if the mage decides to build a wall of fire around his party to protect them from attack, the fire will not harm the party even if it touches them, because the will of the caster was not to harm his party. However, if the mage throws an exploding fireball and one of his party members was in the blast radius, that party member will inevitably suffer injury, because the will of the caster was to do harm.
As a GM, you will have to learn how to deal with even the most outrageous spell effects, and be able to handle any result that is rolled.
Category:Days of Old
Category:Magic