Casting Rules

Casting is the art of weaving various effects into existence, this being either through the use of Innate Abilities or Spells. Spells can be further broken down into three categories, Arcane, Divine and Psychic. On the other hand Innate Abilities are one's inherent power.

## Innate Abilities

Innate Abilities are powers possessed by a character or creature due to genetic inheritance, it being a trait of their race or some other factor that enables them to naturally develop this power. Innate Abilities function the same as spells. However, unlike spells casting some Innate Abilities incur no costs to cast, though some it may be limited in the number of times it can be cast within a given period of time, such as once per day.

Innate Abilities are always casted using the caster’s Character Level as its Caster Level (HD in the case of monsters), and at the highest level of spell the user can cast. If the user of an Innate Ability has no casting class, a spell-level cannot be added to its DC.

## Spellcasting

The art of spellcasting is something practiced by those called Mages. Mages draw upon energy from different sources and mold it into spells.

Arcane Mages create special talismans and imbue them with magical properties in a series of complex rituals. For simple spells, the ritual to create these talismans can be as short as a couple minutes to an hour. The stronger the spell, the more time is required to infuse a talisman with the energy needed to cast it. When this is done, the mage can use the energy in their talisman to manifest a spell. However, in-order or utilize the energy inside their talisman, an arcane mage expends a lot of mental effort to ensure the energy is molded into their desired spell and doesn’t simply explode or go out of control. As such, an arcane mage is limited in the number of spells it can cast each day, as trying to exceed this limit would cause the mage’s mind to rapidly deteriorate, turning them into a vegetable. Arcane mages also create seals which along with their talismans are used to spells. This requires the use of their arms to draw, so crippling them would prevent an arcane mage from casting spells.

Divine Mages used to be people who prided themself on being gifted their powers from the Gods. These mages were granted power based on the depth of their faith and could cast it at will, with no limit on its use. With the disappearance of the Gods, these mages also lost their gifted power. The original divine mages were lost to time, as modern divine mages began drawing their power from other celestial beings, with some employing the use of lower realm entities to grant them power once more. This would result in offshoots of this branch of magecraft, creating those known as witches and warlocks. Some have suspected other entities that are the result of curses were also born of this. Regardless, divine mages were never the same. Their spells became limited in its use each day, as the lesser celestial entities their power is drawn from are themself limited in power, unlike the Old Gods.

Psychics are the rarest of the magecraft paths. Psychics are not created, they are born. A psychic possesses immense power to bend reality with sheer willpower. Their mind is their greatest weapon.

## Countering Innate Abilities and Spells

Countering is an action that can only be taken if the user possesses Counterspell Feats, otherwise all attempts to do so fail. Counterspell Feats enable the character to respond to spells with other spells. This can be to teleport out of harm's way in the simplest of cases or destroying another’s spell with one of your own. For the latter, this requires a Caster Level check to be made Caster Level + D20 (Attacking Spell) vs Caster Level + 11 (Targeted Spell). In certain cases such as overcoming a spell with another of similar nature, such as ‘undoing’ a compulsion with another compulsion, this would also require a Caster Level check to be made. If uncertain about whether an attempt to counterspell requires a Caster Level check, ask the GM.

## Spell Damage

In this Rp, the ability scores and overall stats of characters are much greater than those in the traditional D20 system. To mitigate the issue of spells dealing underwhelming damage, all spells deal damage equal to what is stated on the spell's description multiplied by the 1/4 of the character's Caster Level. Therefore, if a character with 30 Caster Level casts a spell stated to deal 6d5 points of Fire Damage per Caster Level (Max 5), it deals 6d5 (Damage Die) \* 5 (Caster Level Based Multiplier) \* 7.5 (1/4 Character's Caster Level).