Mana techniques

Mana techniques are methods of altering your spellcasting. It is an arbitrary term as there are numerous techniques and the only similarity is that they alter the method of spell casting. Some mana techniques are developed upon developing affinities (healing) and others need to be learned and developed. Mana techniques can be highly detrimental if an incompatible technique is developed and it may cripple future spellcrafting.

Mana techniques are actual physical alterations to the aetherbody, ones that can be passed down to children sometimes. (Though mana technique inheritance is seriously weird.) Those alterations, however, are difficult to pass along a warlock pact even when you want to, let alone when you design the pact to prevent it. - John Bierce on the Mage Errant subreddit

### Will Imbuing

Will imbuing is a mana technique that allows a mage to add far more willpower into a type of magic than normal. The technique means that a mage will have far greater control with that type of magic meaning they require less effort to use it. Warlocks are the only type of mage with no affinities and will imbuing naturally occurring. Warlock's will imbuing usually applies to battle magic, binding or banishments.

### High Density Mana Channelling

High density mana channelling is not frequently used as spells can not be used away from the body because they become uncontrollable but are extremely strong. Improves effectiveness of mana layering and formless casting. Involves high density mana flowing around the body to be released for uncontrolled attacks.

### Mind's Eye Exercising

By using massive spellforms it exercises your mind’s eye to make it larger, which, lets you hold even larger spellforms in your mind’s eye, or even more individual ones.

### Mana Layering

Mana layering involves making mana revolve in extremely tight flows all around your body. It reduces your ability to cast spells at a distance while you’re doing so.

### Mana Efficiency

Mana efficiency techniques help reduce mana costs for spells, often the techniques are tricks that simply reduce power of spells but the techniques that work often rely on focusing the mind's eye or by using complex spellforms.

### Mana Turbulence Reduction

Spellforms fall apart if they become too unstable and this technique helps keep spellforms stable. This works best on continuous spells as they need to remain active for long period of time.

### Mana Type Mixing

Mana type mixing does not work effectively with spellforms due to the unique properties of each affinity. Spellforms that can handle multiple types of mana often produce much weaker effects, due to their inefficiency. Mixing mana types with spellforms usually causes explosions or mana leaking. Mages who do mix types have to specially construct their spellforms for the mana mixture in question because every mixture has different properties. Some mages that use multiple mana types in a spell without mixing them by creating a pair of overlapping but non-intersecting spellforms.

### Narrowing/Expanding Affinity Focus

Affinities are more powerful the more focused they are but lose versatility as they lose materials they can effect. This mana technique seems to replicate this effect by altering a mages mana reservoir.

### Excessive Mana Flooding

A terrible technique with no notable uses. This technique would result in excess mana flooding spells like a weakened form of siege magic but most spells accept variable amounts of mana and this technique just forces more mana. It would also break cantrips as they can only handle small amounts of mana.

### Formless Casting

Formless casting is casting spells without spellforms. Formless casting is faster, more powerful, but the spells often go chaotically wrong, especially once the spells are more than a few feet away from the caster.

### Up-Close Control

Natural healing affinities usually have a mana technique that prevents the mage using magic at a distance in exchange for a greater control up-close. This does not negatively impact healers who have it easier but it would prevent non healers using their magic away from their body potentially crippling them.

### Siege Magic

Siege magic is a process in which a mage alters a mana reservoir by using all of their mana in a single spell. Continuously doing this eventually twists a mana reservoir so that they can only cast a single spell from that mana reservoir until it refills. However, this is counterbalanced as that single spell is immensely strong.