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◀ Rulebooks

Ver. 1.3.1

Spellcraft

Spellcraft is an area of advanced magic. While the vast majority of magic users in the New Era cast spells based on pre-written texts from modern and ancient times, practitioners of Spellcraft use their subconscious thought to alter the world around them to their will. When this is done in a repeatable way, the result is an entirely new spell.

Practicing Spellcraft requires both a great intellect and mastery of the form of magic that the new spell uses. It is considered the most difficult branch of magic to learn. Newly crafted spells rarely if ever work perfectly as the creator intended on the first attempt. It may take weeks or even months to master a new spell, depending on its compexity, and even longer to teach it to others.

Spellcraft Skill

Spellcraft is an extra skill that is unlocked at level 5 for the Scholar and level 8 for the Researcher. It uses for its modifier both your Intelligence and Caster Level. Once unlocked, it can be increased in any way your other skills can.

Creating Spells

A character with the Spellcraft skill can attempt to create new spells or refine them during adventuring or as a resting activity.

First, the player must describe to the Game Master the effect of the spell they are trying to create. The Game Master will then decide the spell's mechanical properties, such as its form and school of magic, its base level, whether or not it can be amplified, and the amount of energy it consumes. The GM will then call for an Spellcraft skill check, the difficulty of which is equal to 10 plus the difficulty of casting a spell at the new spell's base level for the character attempting to inscribe it. (For example, if the new spell falls under the school of Pyromancy and has a base level of 4, and the inscriber's Elemental Magic skill level is also 3, then the difficulty of casting that spell would be 10, so the difficulty of the Spellcraft check is 20. See spellcasting. If the spell would be trivial (zero) for the author to cast, the difficulty to craft it is 10.) The GM may increase or decrease the difficulty as they see fit, depending on how complex the spell's effects are. Relevant knowledges may also be factored into the check.

On a successful attempt, the creator adds the new spell to their spell list. See below for more info on how to improve spells you create. New spells start out at refinement level 0 (Experimental) on a success, or refinement level 1 (Alpha) on a critical success. Derivative spells, which are based on existing spells with slight changes, start at refinement level 2 (Beta) on a success or refinement level 3 (Revised) on a critical success.

On a failed attempt, the inscriber must wait one day before attempting an Spellcraft check in the same form of magic again. The difficulty of attempting to inscribe the same spell is reduced by 1 for each previous unsuccessful attempt the inscriber has had.

Casting Crafted Spells

A spell you've created can be cast just like any other spell. However, since it hasn't been thoroughly tested, there's a risk of side effects or unintended effects happening when you first try a new spell. That risk is quite significant with a newly-crafted spell, but decreases as you refine the spell over time (see below.) Crafted spells must always be rolled to cast, even if a spell at that level would be trivial for you under normal circumstances.

Improving Crafted Spells

Spellcraft is not a fast or precise process. Newly-created spells are unpredictable and can be very dangerous, as they very rarely produce the exact effect the creator intended on the first try. Getting more consistent results out of a crafted spell takes lots of practice and refinement.

Whenever you cast a crafted spell, you take a penalty according to the table below. Side effects might be minor if you succeed or narrowly fail the spellcasting check, or wild magic on a poor result. Minor side effects are usually less consequential and are based on the spell's intended goal, and may even still accomplish that goal, just not in the way the caster intended. On the other hand, Wild magic consists of random effects that have little to do with the spell's goal and can be extremely powerful. The GM ultimately determines the exact side effects of crafted spells and may use one or both of the Spellcraft Side Effects tables, or choose their own side effects.

There are five stages of refinement for crafted spells:

• Experimental: A newly-crafted spell that hasn't been refined has uncertain and often unpredictable effects. They almost always cause some form of unpredictable magic to occur.
• Alpha: Spells that have been refined once are less likely to have serious side effects, but should still be treated with caution.
• Beta: Spells that have been refined twice usually accomplish their desired effect without incident, but can still cause side effects on a low roll.
• Revised: These spells have been refined three times and almost always work as expected, only containing a few minor kinks that appear on a very low roll.
• Perfected: Once a spell has been refined four times, it performs identically to the well-established spells of ancient times.

Spellcraft Rules

• The GM always decides the base level and energy cost of crafted spells. The GM also decides the new spell's school of magic, except in the case of derivative spells.
• The player decides a crafted spell's effects. However, the GM retains the right to make adjustments to the proposed effects where necessary to balance the spell and close loopholes.
• The GM retains the right to disallow any specific spell if they feel it would be impossible to balance or otherwise detrimental to the game.
• After a spell has been created, the GM retains the right to make changes to it if they determine, in their judgment, that the spell is too powerful or otherwise poses a problem.
• The "rule of cool" applies very heavily here, since the balancing of crafted spells largely depends on the GM's judgment, knowledge of the magic system, and good-faith creativity on players' parts. The spellcraft guidelines page provides GMs with general advice for balancing crafted spells.