TOMAGOMB Magic

The Basics
What makes a character a caster?

A character is some sort of spellcaster by possessing either the L.S. or Piety stat, or in rare cases a base number of CPD (in this latter case, any check requiring a L.S. or Piety check assumes you to have a score of 10). More than that, the character must also know spells (so a fighter wearing a mage's robe doesn't count). All such characters have a caster level equal to their level in the class their casting stat is associated with; in rare instances (such as with the AA Latent Talent), the character's caster level may be independent of any given class and is equal to their total character level.

What separates the true casters from the hybrid casters?

If this is true, what makes a priest a better caster than a paladin, or a necromancer better than a shadowknight? The reasons are many. First, the "hybrid" caster classes (paladins, shadowknights, piety-option rangers, L.S.- or piety-option monks, and bards) get far fewer spells than the true caster classes (magi/sorcerers/wizards and priests/druids/shamans/clerics). This increased spell selection allows the caster classes to stay ahead of the hybrid classes for selection and raw power. Second, the hybrid classes get fewer spells to choose from, which again limits their selection and raw power. Third, these hybrid classes have to balance their spellcasting ability against having the stat Martial Discipline, and subsequently have fewer stat points to go around. Fourth, when hybrid classes do focus on spellcasting, they are sacrificing certain other aspects their class is often expected to do, such as tanking, damage output, etc., to pursue their spells.

Hybrid casters get one huge bonus, though. They are allowed to wear armor that breaks the SCP rules. Monks can't, of course, without sacrificing their class abilities due to restrictive armor, but casting is optional for monks anyhow. With armor less restricted, these classes can feel free to do their thing and still have a trick or two up their scaled or plated sleeve.

Do I get anything else for being a caster?

All casters of any kind get the following special abilities (as mentioned at the beginning of the Class section):

Cantrip (at will) - This is a very minor spell effect which the character can do at will. In general, this should NOT be things such as: modifying a game statistic, be it HP, AC, dodge, a stat, a skill, etc. Some examples of acceptable cantrips have been: ability to make eyes suddenly flash brightly with golden light; an aura of chill wind and almost imperceptible withering of nearby minor plantlife; the ability to encourage minor plant growth (minor regrowth or speeded growth for a few days, but nothing too immediate); a "mage thumb" (was a character's familiar who gained spellcasting, didn't have opposable thumbs, so gained a magical, invisible one); the ability to make your sword extra shiny (For Alanthi!); or the most powerful example ever given out, the ability to light a candle-sized flame by flicking your thumb. In general, this has more to do with style than anything else.

Aether Overdraw - When the character doesn't have enough CPD left, or has no CPD left, they may choose to lose half of their max. HP, rounded up to gain 1 last CPD as a free action. This may cause bleeding out of the pores and orifices, temporary dehydration, fatigue, etc. to explain the HP loss. It represents the character forcing their body's own essence to power one last spell for the day when circumstances are dire. Use this sparingly.

Now how do I cast these spells?

Most spells are cast by taking one of the two main actions of your turn, moving your arms and hands and even sometimes feet (if a pure caster class) and saying a few words, usually in runic (applies to all casters), and the spell goes off as described. This means that, if you don't move or attack or do anything else time consuming, you can cast two spells per round. If you somehow get extra main actions, you can cast extra spells as well unless noted otherwise. If the spell states it is a free action to cast, it takes no time to cast and doesn't count against the normal limits. Read these spells carefully, because they will also often have a clause that prevents them from being cast multiple times in a turn. If not, then have as much fun and blow as many casts per day as you like! Note also that some spells, especially rituals, have a longer casting time required to work their effect.

Each spell will tell you what you need to do beyond these basics. The CPD cost is, obviously, how many CPD you spend to create the spell effect. The target will tell you what the spell can affect. The range, if anything more than a self-only spell, shows how far the spell can reach (such as touch, or 30 ft.). The duration, if any, shows how long the spell will last after being cast. The area, if any, shows the effective area the spell will cover with its effect. Some spells may have a level requirement, which is the minimum caster level you must hit in order to cast the spell, and a few spells have a "number that can be maintained," which is how many multiple instances of the spell you can have going simultaneously. This is most often used on permanent duration creature summoning spells, such as Summon Bramblewalker and Skeletal Warriors, to keep armies from growing out of control.

The coolest part, of course, is the effect, where it describes just exactly what the spell does.

Anything else I should know?

For your convenience, this is copied from the Tomagomb Spells page with minor additions.

Upkeep Duration

"A duration of Upkeep means that the spell is permanent so long as you choose not to gain back the CPD you spent on it after resting. If you choose to gain the CPD back when you awaken, the spell immediately ends at that time."

Cross Class Spells

"While these are in the process of being grouped by casting class, note that spells marked with an asterisk (*) can cross over to another class spell list, so long as the reasoning for doing so is flavorful."

Ritual Spells

"All ritual spells can be cast by any character with CPD. Divine casters might risk their deity's wrath by performing a ritual out of line with their faith and/or faction, but otherwise rituals transcend class barriers in regard to spell list, as this primal magic formed the basis of most other magic. Ritual magic is also, however, rare, difficult to get ahold of, and often called into question by those who witness the ceremony and misinterpret (or sometimes correctly interpret!) what the character is doing."

Advanced Rules
Feel free to skip past this section if you're hankering to read about the various magic schools. The advanced section goes into spell creation theory and various odds and ends.

Multiclass Casters

Sometimes a character will belong to more than one spellcasting class. In that case, keep track of all caster levels separately for purposes of spellcasting (i.e., 6 levels of cleric, 10 levels of sorcerer). If the character ends up possessing both L.S. and Piety, just add the CPD together and use them as one mass pool that you can cast from. Your training in one class helps in your access of the aether to any other class, but not your finesse in doing so (your caster level will still be limited by multiclassing). In any case: always keep track of your classes separately, but add any modifiers to CPD into a single, large CPD pool.

Pump Spells

These spells are fairly self-explanatory, but what sometimes might bring confusion are spells that can be pumped on multiple fronts. CPD X spells are generally straightforward enough; but what if adding an extra CPD extends the duration a certain amount, or adds an extra target to the effect, or widens out the area? Really, any part of a spell can be pumped if it's written into the spell's effect, so just keep track of what's being pumped where when casting such a spell. You can even jot notes on a scratch sheet of paper or notepad in Windows. What may not be immediately obvious or necessary to know is that the spell's entire cost changes for any area of pumping casts, whether that be in the normal price or pumping for extended duration, which would affect spells like Neophyte's Counterspell. Also, when a spell is being reduced in price by various effects, it doesn't just reduce the "base" cost, it can extend into pump costs as well. For instance: a caster who reduces all costs by 1/2 of a CPD and Aether spells by 1 CPD that casts Aether Burn for 2 CPD will only have it cost 1/2 CPD. Nifty, eh?

Summoning Spells

Spells that bring creatures into being have those creatures act immediately on your initiative the round they are summoned, unless noted otherwise. Also, a note on the difference between "Duration: Permanent" with "Number that can be maintained" and "Duration: Upkeep." Clearly, the first type of spell is the one that gives you better long-term investment, freeing up your CPD and still providing an army. The second type of spell is easier to balance (and too many of the first type become unbalanced by their very nature), and might give better immediate "bang for your buck." You can have both types though, in which case it always pays to summon all the permanent duration ones that you can first, then start summoning the upkeep critters, probably leaving yourself enough CPD to play around with in case something goes wrong.

Optional Rule: Free Spells

Normally, the spell rules require a minimum of 1/2 of a CPD be spent no matter how many effects are reducing the price of the spell. With this optional rule, you may instead have any spell that is being reduced by twice the full cost of casting it to be a free spell; for instance, a dark elf mage (reduce shadow spells by 1/2 of a CPD) who has the Great Spirit AA (reduce all spells' cost by 1/2 of a CPD) would be reducing shadow spells by 1 CPD, and subsequently any shadow spell that only cost 1/2 CPD would be completely free to cast at any time.

At first blush, this optional rule might sound like a great idea, but the trouble comes in with healing spells. HP totals are one of the major balancing factors of the game, and the ability to heal to full given a few minutes between battles is extremely powerful. If you have a high level group that likes non-stop action you might OK it anyway, but this optional rule is an easy one to break, so be cautious.

Optional Rule: Spellweaving

With this variant rule, a specialized caster can weave spells within a certain theme on the fly, albeit at a steep price. If the spellcaster knows 3 or more spells from one school of magic, you may allow them to weave spell effects from scratch on occasion. These unformulated spells as a rule generally cost 2 CPD more than you would normally price as being "fair" for the effect. This is because the spell is unhoned and raw, because the GM might make a mistake in balancing the cost, and to increase the value of knowing an actual spell instead of forming one randomly. The effect you create must still fall within the realm of your school, and the GM's word is final on what can and cannot be done. The GM has every right to raise or lower the cost of your random spells, even if it's the same effect that's been generated before. While this style of play is fun and free-spirited, it can sometimes unbalance things and become more trouble than it's worth. If it sounds like it might be fun though, give it a try.

Spell Creation 101

So you want to make a spell, eh? Good. Here's a few guidelines you can go by. Consider these the "safety net" guidelines that definitely aren't outside of accepted fare.

Costing - There are no spells that cost 1.5 CPD, or 7.5 CPD. If you figure your spell should cost two and a half casts per day, bump it up to three CPD until time and the GM say otherwise.

Slight Variation - The easiest way is by comparing your spell to a similar spell at the same cost with the same effect, if you're so fortunate. It should either equal or be less blatantly powerful than the comparison spell, and this is the GM's call.

Forging New Ground - OK, so you have to work on your own two feet. Here's a few suggestions.

Damage Spells - Assume your generic damage spell has a range of 60 ft., doesn't require an attack roll to hit, and takes one main action to cast. From this starting point, let's review some possible spells. A cost of 1/2 CPD won't get you much at this price: maybe you'd do 1d4 damage, +1 damage per 3 caster levels. Why so little? Compared to firebolt, which does a particular elemental damage and has to roll to hit, this generic nuke is guaranteed and crosses elemental resistance boundaries. This is a very safe bet to be a "fair" nuke... so much so that it's boring and nearly useless. If, however, you brought the range to Touch and required an attack roll and changed it to, say, Electricity damage, you could get 1d8 damage +1 per caster level. This nuke is actually exciting for the price, partly because it puts the caster at risk. He has to be at melee range (a scary place for magi) and he could miss the attack roll. When you're gambling like that, you can increase the spell's effect a bit.

Arcane casters (L.S. casters) nuke a bit better than divine casters (Piety casters) in general. This is to make up for a number of things, including the almost complete lack of healing spells and the worst HP, Dodge and Attack tables in the game. Mages also get a wider selection of spells in general, and when a spell seems truly "weird" in the most supremely arcane sense (Schism and Temporal Phasing would be decent examples), it falls to magi instead of clerics. To be fair, clerics gain certain special schools in greater number than magi, such as Healing, Animal, Plant, Divination and a few others. Clerics have great utility and defensive powers at their disposal to make up for their lack of spell volume and, to a lesser extent, selection. Getting back to damage spells, compare Lesser Ray of Scorn to Static Discharge. Other than the minor issue of less resistible Holy/Unholy damage, Static Discharge is flat-out more damage at 2d6 compared to 1d8, but just a bit more. That's the sort of difference we're looking for in arcane vs. divine.

At 2 CPD, Lesser Fireball is as good as it gets on the arcane side; in fact, it's probably above the spell curve a little. Model any other 2 CPD nuke a step down from that point. Force Crush at 2 CPD is near the top of the curve on divine spells, not for its basic damage but for its secondary flexibility. These are solid starting points to work from.

3 CPD nukes are slightly more powerful than 2 CPD nukes, but generally the thing to focus on is not cranking up the damage dice, but adding to the spell's flexibility, like Einnol's Icepicks or Immolate. Make the effect more interesting instead of blatantly powerful at this point.

4 CPD nukes are starting to garner even more interesting or potent effects, such as Icefall.

5 CPD nukes are where you start hitting the major effects and the big guns. You can craft spells that deal 1d6 / caster level to an area, or maybe 1d8 / caster level to a single target, especially if it requires an attack roll or it has a very short range.

6 CPD nukes and up are getting towards "the sky's the limit." Examples include Tidal Wave and Call to Judgment, though in the first case the spell may be overcosted by 1 CPD or so due to being from the versatile Water school, and in the second case you shouldn't make anything even vaguely approaching the power of Call to Judgment! Call to Judgment is the exception to the rule when it comes to divine nukes, being the biggest and the baddest available to clerics. That said, nukes in this range are hellacious and badass, and anything above this line is over the top (and shouldn't be extremely efficient... awesome, but inefficient).