Advanced Casting Techniques

The following page features all methods of spellcrafting that you unlock in later years, including when, how and their usages. For information on the basics of Merlin, the spellcasting bot, return to Spell Casting & Learning.

## **Enchanting**

**Unlocks:** Fifth Year Charms Class.
**Combat:** Cannot be used in combat.

Enchanting is an advanced, artisan process. It requires an in-depth knowledge of the spell you’re intending to enchant into an object. When Enchanting, you create proper magical items.

* Enchanting follows the same rules and restrictions of the spell being used.
* To Enchant a spell into an object, the individual spell must be mastered.
* Enchanted objects are considered of high value within The Wizarding World and creation of specialist Enchanted careers can be a career in its own right. Many other artistic jobs also use Enchanting to a degree.

### **What Can Be Enchanted?**

* Any Charm except for Dark Spells can theoretically be Enchanted into an object. Dark Spells are a more advanced process that is not taught in class and requires an app on an individual basis each time you wish to make a ‘Cursed Object’. These will likely cost tokens on top of the dark spell’s mastery.
* Almost all Transfiguration spells can be enchanted. Dark Transfiguration spells follow the same rules as Dark Charms. The ‘general transfigs’ **cannot** be used in Enchanting, this includes:
	+ Mutatifors
	+ Vera Verto
	+ Permutatio
	+ Erigo
	+ Integoficio
	+ Antegoficio
	+ Sublimatio
	+ Desublimatio
* Non-spells in Phineas such as fly, apparate, Occlude or block cannot be used in Enchanting.
* Exceptions to the 'any Charm' rule will be tagged with **Cannot be Enchanted.** in it's description.

### **Creation**

* When enchanting using a Transfiguration spell, you must have a clear and singular visualised object or creature in mind that is possible to produce with the spell during the Enchanting process. When used, the item always transforms itself or its target into the object or creature that was visualised during the initial Enchanting process. Through the placement of repeated enchantments on the same item, you can, however, produce an object that transforms into multiple variants of the same thing, e.g three different designs of handbag.
* Enchanting is a lengthy, difficult process that requires maintained focus. It can take upwards of several in character hours to enchant a spell onto an object. Whilst still getting used to the process this will take longer. It will, however, become easier and slightly shorter with practise. More advanced spells will take longer than simple ones, too. Advanced spells (20DC+) may take several weeks, accounting for breaks, and the most complex spells of all (25DC+), as well as the most ambitious uses of simpler spells (such as creating an object that can enlarge itself to truly immense sizes), can takes many months of concerted work to produce unless their descriptions state otherwise.
* Multiple spells can be Enchanted onto a single object, but each one must be done individually, one at a time.
* Enchanting is a complicated, artisan/craftsperson type field of magic. Familiarity with specific mundane fields such as woodcrafting, painting or tailoring will help in the process of Enchanting in their relevant fields. As such, it is heavily recommended to seek out specialist characters to roleplay purchasing items from where possible.

### **Activation**

* Unless otherwise specified by a specific spell, enchanted objects can only be activated in one of two ways: by physical touch from a living and intelligent creature, or by wand at range. Once you learn wandless magic, you may activate at a distance without a wand, but will still require eye contact with the item. Specific physical components of an item, such as buttons, cranks or levers can be made the activator in place of general physical contact.
* In all instances you must be thinking about activating the object to make it happen - as a result you cannot accidentally activate an Enchanted item, nor can an item be weaponised on contact - this rule can only be broken when making a Cursed Object instead.
* When used in a situation that would typically require a roll, Enchanted items instead use the DC of the spell effect being used. E.g. a shield hat Enchanted with Protego will always be considered a **15**. Using Enchanted items in combat still requires a action/reaction, as per standard combat rules.

### **Disabling and Disenchanting**

* Enchanted objects cannot be undone with general Counter-Spells, such as Finite Incantatem or Revelio. They can, however, be temporarily disabled with direct opposite Counter-Spells of equal level. E.g a door Enchanted with Furo Veto could still be unlocked by Aberto, but could not be unlocked by Alohomora. This is **not** roll based, any successful cast of Aberto - without spamming - would unlock a Furo Veto Enchanted door. However, the Enchantment would remain, reactivating once the door was closed again.
* Disenchanting an object is as complicated as the initial Enchanting process. It requires a similarly lengthy amount of time as well as mastery of the spell you’re removing from the object. If the object has multiple enchantments, they must be done one by one.
* Over a long period of time or after excessive use Enchantments will begin to fade, needing to be 'repaired' by going through the Enchanting process again. This process follows all the same rules as typical Enchanting, such as requiring mastery of the spells involved, as well as knowledge of the item itself. Regular maintenance and touch ups will decrease the need for more time consuming repairs.

### **Additional Token Costs**

* If you want to Enchant an object of size equal to or greater than a small flat, then it may cost a token somewhere between Apprentice - Master depending on the specifics of the spell and object in question. This reflects the unusual difficulty of Enchanting on such a scale. The limit takes into account size-manipulation spells - it would be impossible to circumvent by enchanting a smaller object capable of growing in size past those limits.

### **Enchanting Specific Spells**

* Some Charms are so advanced that Enchanting is the only way to perform them. These spells are all tagged with the **Is Enchanting.** attribute. Currently, this includes:
	+ Protos Akolouthos, Protean Charm. Unlocks Fifth Year Charms Class.
	+ Capacious, Extension Charm. Unlocks GradA.
	+ Capacious Extremis, Undetectable Extension Charm. Unlocks Post Grad 4 aka Adult.
* These follow all of the above rules, with the exception of requiring mastery. Instead, you can enchant effects based on the number of spell points you’ve invested. See the spell descriptions for more details on the specifics.

### **Enchanted Object Trading Rules**

* When giving an Enchanted item to another player, whether that be as a gift or an in character purchase, you must follow these rules.
* You cannot trade Enchanted items that include a spell above the person your trading to's year, unless they pay an appropriate token cost for the item.

* When trading an item that includes a spell of DC 21+ the person receiving the item must always pay the token cost for the item. The application expectations for these trades are incredibly brief.
* To operate an item with a Dark Enchantment, you must have successfully applied for at least one Dark spell previously or apply be able to operate Dark magic items (one apprentice token), following the same rules as Dark magic app.
* If both players involved in a trade have all of the Enchanted item's spells mastered, it may be traded for free regardless of DC. Additional costs such as Dark Enchantments or Enchantments of extreme size are excluded from this clause.

## **Group Casting**

**Unlocks:** Fourth Year Defense Against the Dark Arts Class.
**Combat:** Cannot be used in combat.

Group casting is the act of multiple wix banding together to empower a spell.

1. To group cast at least one participant needs to have the spell in question mastered. The others participating in the cast need to be at least proficient in the spell.
2. The person who has the spell mastered (or the person designated to focus the spell if multiple people have mastered it) rolls the spell as normal.
3. Once the spell has been rolled add the participants learns and year mod to the dice roll.
4. This sets the final rolled result for the spell.

## **Imbuing**

**Unlocks:** Fifth Year Ancient Runes Class.
**Combat:** Cannot be used in combat

Imbuing is the process of ritualistically altering an object so it can interact with logographic magic. An innovation created in the cultural exchange of Germanic and Roman wix during the last days of the Roman empire, imbuing allowed wand-wielding wix to work with the more ritualistic, and otherwise inaccessable, logographic magics of the Germanic tribes. While there has been much advancement in logograph-adjacent wand magic since its invention, none of these have overcome the need for ritual alteration - and thus, the practice of the imbuement ritual carries on into the present day. In the model, any spell with the "imbuement" tag is a wand-based spell used to guide this imbuing ritual. This process is taught in fifth year runes class. Imbuing rituals are divided into two categories with limited but significant differences between them.

### **Primitive Imbuement**

Primitive Imbuement was the earliest method of imbuement devised, and thus also faced some serious limitations in its capabilities. As a result, primitive imbuement rituals, when guided by most spells, can allow a plant or material to interface with runic magic, but are not strong enough to also hold the magic. As such, Primitive Imbuements can only create objects usable in channeling, where a separate runestone provides the magical energy and intent. What it lacks in strength, however, primitive imbuement makes up for in versatility - on their own, if concentrated on, certain spells are capable of temporarily creating a primitive imbuement.

There is one major exception to this: when partimus is used to guide a primitive imbuement, it allows an object to hold runic energy while not being altered by it. This process results in an uncontrollable surge of excess energy that destroys materials other than small stones, which are stained dark gray or black in the process. These are known as "runestones."

### **Artificing Imbuement**

The 'Artificing' Imbuement is so-called because it allowed for the creation of all manner of innately magical objects through runic magic, a process that bears the same name. An object that has been prepared by an Artificing Imbuement directly holds the runic magic it alters. As a result of the need to provide this capability, Artificing Imbuement spells require a closer connection to the objects they are used on. Imbuement Rituals guided by Artificing spells must be directly tailored to both the object they are used to prepare as well as the intended end product. This personalization means that objects must already have the runes applied to them prior to undergoing an imbuing ritual. This also has implications for the spells themselves, which are designed to work on particular kinds of materials or objects.

### **The Ritual**

The ritualistic and individualistic nature of runes means that it's impossible to create a "one-size fits all" description for an imbuement ritual. The one aspect that all imbuement rituals have in common is the Guiding Spell, which must be cast repeatedly and constantly throughout the entire duration of the ritual. Imbuement ritual length also tends to scale alongside the complexity of the ritual. Primitive Imbuement rituals may be as short as 45 minutes, while particularly complicated rituals may take as long as a day. The only significant difference between the two is an external factor - while Primitve Imbuements require only the power of the caster to work and can incorporate external factors as secondary aspects of the ritual, Artificing Imbuements require there to be at least one external factor as a primary factor. An external factor is defined as anything outside of the actions of the spellcaster, such as an object, a geographical feature, or an astronological event.

Beyond this, there is no unifying guide. The guiding spell can be cast normally, wandlessly, or nonverbally; the intensity and speed of the incantation can be similarly modulated. A ritual can include movements such as geometric pacing, or seek to stay as still as possible. Some may be aligned with a particular celestial movement, others with significant calendar dates, or be entirely indifferent to any notion of time. The details are up to you to decide.

### **Unlocking and costs**

Imbuing unlocks for students once it has been covered in fifth year Ancient Runes. The availability of "imbued" or "prepared" materials varies depending on the kind of Imbuement ritual used. The lack of power required for primitive imbuement rituals means that objects and materials that have been prepared with a primitive imbuement - often shorthanded to "prepared materials" - are easy to find in specialty stores. As such, while students cannot apply primitive imbuements themselves until fifth year, prepared materials can be acquired in-character for no token cost. Similarly, while students must unlock partimus to make their own runestones, the use of primitive imbuement means that they are widely available for purchase in specialty shops.

The complexity, power, and personalization needed for Artificing-style imbuements means that they must be created by the artificer and are not available through any other means. Imbuing costs nothing, but item creation itself may have token costs associated with it.

### Limitations:

Imbuing an object alters how that object interacts with magic in order to enable interaction with logographic magic. As such, an object or material that has been prepared by an imbuement ritual cannot be enchanted. In the same vein, an imbuement ritual will fail to take hold on any object or material that has been enchanted. Similarly, all imbuements cannot be finited.

Objects and materials prepared with Primitive Imbuements will have their preparation slowly fade over time. This process occurs over years and may result in the dampening of channeling effects.

The versatility and long-lasting nature of Primitive Imbuement further means that an imbued object is not tethered to a particular runestone - any runestone, provided the limitations of the initial cast are met and with the caveat that a runestone has only one intent - can be mixed and matched with any primitively prepared material or object. Primitively Imbued objects or materials, when not actively channeling, do not have any special resistances beyond their immunity to finite incantatum.

Objects and materials prepared with Artificing Imbuements will only have their preparation fade when they are not attached to an activated runic sequence. This process occurs over years and may impede the ability to reactivate a runic sequence. If an object or material prepared with Artificing Imbuements has not had its runic sequence provided with intent, it does not have any special resistances beyond its immunity to finite incantatum. If a material prepared with Artificing Imbuements has a dormant runic sequence then it is immune to vanishment, bewitchment, and transfiguration.

## **Non-Verbal**

**Unlocks:** Sixth Year Charms Class.
**Early Unlock:** 1 Journeyman Token with an Apprentice Token refunded to you if you take your time mastering it across Year 4 and 5 (study theory in 4th year, practical begins in 5th), or 1 Journeyman Token outright if studied and learned in Year 5. More information here.
**Combat:** Unlocks in GradA, or seventh year with early access. Allows you to cast with the V modifier instead of the C modifier.

The ability to cast spells whilst eschewing incantations. Aids stealth and is useful in combat, but requires an experienced and powerful wizard to use successfully and reliably.

### **Recommended Learning Guideline**

* Start with more basic non-combat Charms, Lumos, etc. Ones your character knows personally (modifiers, ic history!) should be easier. Base the ease on DC and year - the lower the simpler.
* Recommended roughly a term to get to grips with being able to cast reliably.
* Some wands are better for non-verbal - others less so. Feel free to investigate yours to figure out how you want to RP that!
* If looking to cast mechanically, it's recommend starting with **!cast INCANTATION vc -4** Then reduce the negative modifier by 1 each OOC week. Remove the C modifier at the end of a term (4 weeks OOC). V must always be used for non-verbal.

## **Wandless**

**Unlocks:** Can be researched and learnt independently for free in seventh year.
**Early Unlock:** If studied independently over fifth year, can be used in sixth year for a Journeyman Token. More information here.
**Combat:** You can cast spells without a wand, even in combat. However, you must still use the W modifier, as well as the V or C modifier depending on whether it's being cast verbally. Can be researched and learnt independently for free in seventh year.

The ability to cast spells without a wand. Aids stealth and allows for casting even when disarmed, but requires an experienced and powerful wizard to use successfully and reliably.

## **Warding**

**Unlocks:** Fifth Year Defense Against the Dark Arts Class.
**Combat:** Cannot be used in combat.

A ward is a spell that is anchored in a location and a few wards are multipurpose. Spells such as Protego Totalum and onwards from the Protego line still double as shields in combat. To cast a spell as a ward it needs to be anchored in a location in at least three places. The easiest way of doing this is walking around the location chanting the incantation locking the area down.

* A ward requires full concentration to maintain unless the spell is mastered.
* Wards are not combat applicable.
* Wards can be group cast.
* Ward Applicable spells will be tagged as **Wardable**. in their spell descriptions.