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Sample Magician: Doran Murfon
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Magicians (mah-JISH-uns) or Mages (MAY-jez) or Magi (mah-GHI) are practitioners
of Magecraft and are a very flexible, adaptable, and powerful sort of Arcane Spellcasters.
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Focus
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Magicians are excellent complements to
most adventuring groups, adding an impressive array of functionality
to a party's capabilities.
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Compared to other professions Magicians emphasize the practical
application of power and a concentration on functionality
over tailored specifics. Magicians rely entirely on their
mastery of Magic, lacking a tradition of Magic Items. On the
other hand, Magicians start off very capable compared to most other types of Spellcasters
and are typically a little more "durable" than Magic Users of other disciplines
tend to be.
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A player can expect their Magician to start off strong. Magicians
tend to be more tool-box oriented rather than concentrating on raw power, but don't
have a graded Spell Level System and thus lack the weak "Low Level Spells"
of other Magic Systems; Magecraft Spells tend to start at around 55 Active Points
and go up from there and with little to no need for redundancy.
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Means to Power
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Magicians learn to cast Spells, often requiring incantations, gestures, intense
concentration, extra time, or tiring exertion to do so. Magicians go through various
levels of understanding and capability as they advance. As they gain experience,
their ability to manipulate the metaphysical Laws of Magic broadens,
and the mental endurance required to focus their will increases.
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Essentially, as they progress their ability to cast more Spells and
cast them more often improves (assuming Experience Points are spent accordingly),
which makes them more formidable Spellcasters.
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SPELL SKILLS
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Spell Skills are a Magicians primary abilities, and the true determiner of how powerful
and capable an individual Magician is.
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Magicians work Magic via Spell Skills as described in the
Magecraft System document. Each Magician must know a minimum of five (5)
Spell Skills with a minimum cost of 25 total Character Points, but aside from these
basic requirements each Magician has the potential to be unique from every other.
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There is no requirements or restrictions on the sort of Spell Skills a Magician
must have, but from a purely practical stand point a Magician should have one each
of the following sort of Spell Skills at a minimum:
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- A serviceable and broadly useful Attack
- A solid basic Defense
- A useful and reliable form of Mobility
- A flexible and adaptable Utility effect such as Invisibility or Images or Desolid
- A reliable and effective form of Counter Magic
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A Magician with one each of the above sorts of Spell Skills can be considered to
"have their bases covered", and can be very effective in a wide variety
of situations. Once they have a strong basis in the essentials, a Magician can branch
out and take additional Spell Skills that give them more focused, nuanced, and situational
abilities.
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SPELL SKILLS AND MASTER MAGICIAN STATUS
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What exactly indicates "Master" Magician status might vary from setting
to setting, or even from region to region within the same setting, and Magecraft
is difficult to measure in terms of simple points to begin with.
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However, as a rule of thumb a character that has at least 750 Active Points in the
Power Constructs they have Spell Skills for, have at least seven (7) Spell Skills,
and have an average Spell Skill of at least 15- before penalties can be considered
to solidly be a "Master" Magician, and Magicians approaching this threshold
could probably pass as Masters in most circumstances unless very hard pressed.
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ENDURANCE RESERVES
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Mages may use a Magic Endurance Reserve unless the GM's prefers otherwise, but must
define all of their Power Constructs as using the Magic Endurance Reserve if they
have one; they can't have some that run off of personal END and others that run
off of the END Reserve.
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The standard "May Use Either Personal END or END Reserve" +1/4 Advantage
may be used in this case on individual Power Constructs where desired unless forbidden
by the GM.
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A Magecraft Endurance Reserve is often called a "Mana Pool".
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ENDURANCE RESERVE POINTS
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There is a loose limit on how many Character Points a Magician can spend on their
Endurance Reserve and Recovery, as indicated by the following formula:
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Scaling Capacity Point Cap = Total Character Points / 5
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Thus a Magician with 250 total Character Points could spend up to 50 Character Points
on their Endurance Reserve, split between the Reserve and the Recovery as they wish
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ARMOR AND PERSONAL DEFENSE
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As noted in the Magecraft System Magicians can
wear Armor but suffer Spellcasting penalties for doing so. However, most Magicians
are better off just having a Spell Skill with which to see to their defense.
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The following Arcane Aegis effect is a fairly typical ability of this nature:
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Arcane Aegis: FF (9 PD/9 ED), Hardened
(+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2), Invisible to Hearing,
and Sight Groups (+3/4) (54 Active Points); Gestures (Requires both
hands; -1/2), Extra Time (Full Phase, Only to Activate, Delayed Phase, -1/2), Side
Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Costs AP/10 In
END When Cast; -1/2), Incantations (-1/4), Concentration (1/2 DCV; -1/4)
(uses END Reserve); Real Cost: 18
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Penalty: -2 to Spell Skill roll
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ARCANE AEGIS 13- (11- w/ Real Cost Penalty)
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Real Cost: 7 points
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MAGESIGHT
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Many Magicians take the Mage Sight Talent as described in Fantasy HERO for 5th Edition
at least at the five (5) point level, or some equivalent ability to make it easier
for them to sense and interact with Magic. However this isn't required; it is simply
a convenience.
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LONGEVITY
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Magicians may take Life Support (Longevity) at up to the ~400 year level, unless
the GM prefers to disallow this.
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DISTINCTIVE FEATURE
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Working with Magic marks Magicians in subtle ways, and they have a recognizable
aura that is detectable by those with appropriate senses. Magicians should take
the following Disadvantage.
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DF: Mage (Not Concealable; Always Noticed and
Causes Major Reaction; Detectable Only By Unusual Senses; Not Distinctive In Some
Cultures)
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Disadvantage Value: -5 points
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Learning New Spells
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For a Magician to learn a new Spell Skill they must first have enough
character points to pay for the Spell Skill, must have a source to learn it from
(a mentor or spellbook or other representation of the Spell Skill), and must conduct
a period of uninterrupted Research and Experimentation (R&E) equal to one (1)
Day of game time per 10 Active Points in the Power Construct the Spell Skill represents.
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Eight hours per game day devoted to study can generally be assumed
to be sufficiently "uninterrupted" to qualify for this requirement at
the GM's discretion.
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At the end of this period of time the Magician makes a single INT
Roll at -1 per 10 Real Cost of the Power Construct the Spell Skill represents.
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If this INT Roll is successful, the Magician pays the Character Points
for the Spell Skill and the ability is added to their Character Sheet. If the INT
roll is failed the Magician does not learn the Spell Skill and does not spend the
Character Points for it. The Magician can try to learn the Spell Skill again, but
must start from the beginning.
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A Magician may take twice as long in R&E to learn a Spell Skill,
with each doubling of time resulting in a cumulative +1 bonus to the eventual INT
roll. Any Skill Levels with INT based Skills, All Skill, and Overall Levels are
also usable in conjunction with this INT roll.
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Example: Vaelen wishes to learn a Magecraft Spell called Mages
Eye he has found in a Grimoire which has 70 Active Points and a Real Cost of 35.
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Vaelen has an INT of 15, an INT roll of 12- and two Overall Levels
for a modified 14- INT roll. To learn this Spell Vaelen must spend a minimum of
seven days in Research & Experimentation (AP/10 in Days), at the end of which
he must make a 14- INT roll at a -3 Penalty for a modified 11- INT roll.
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Deciding to improve his chances Vaelen studies for four weeks of
game time for a +2 bonus to the roll (for two doublings of the time increment).
At the end of the four weeks Vaelen will need to make a 13- INT roll (INT 12-, +2
OLs, -3 from RC/10 Penalty, +2 Extra Time Bonus = 13- Roll).
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If Vaelen succeeds at this INT roll he must pay for the Spell Skill,
which for 70 Active Points would require a 14- Spell Skill roll at a minimum
which would cost 9 Character Points. If Vaelen had more points to spend, then he
could learn the Spell Skill with a higher roll to improve his ability to cast it
reliably.
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Improving Known Spells
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A Magician may improve an existing Spell Skill roll simply by paying
2 character points for an additional +1 with the Skill Roll. This simply increases
the reliability of the Spell Skill and has no affect on the corresponding Power
Construct represented by the Spell Skill.
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However, if the Magician wants to refactor the underlying Power Construct
represented by the Spell Skill to take advantage of the higher Active Points limit
available they must spend a period of Research & Experimentation (R&E) equal
to a total of one (1) day per 5 Active Points being added to the Power Construct.
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At the end of the required period of R&E the Magician makes an
INT roll at a -1 penalty per 10 Active Points being added to the Power Construct,
rounded in the Character's favor as normal.
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A Magician may take twice as long in R&E to modify the Power
Construct, with each doubling of time resulting in a cumulative +1 bonus to the
eventual INT roll. Any Skill Levels with INT based Skills, All Skill, and Overall
Levels are usable in conjunction with this INT Roll.
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Example: Vaelen has the Spell Skill Jolting Arc 12-;
the underlying Power Construct uses the full 60 Active Points available to it from
the 12- Spell Skill roll.
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This effect is Vaelen's primary offensive Magic so as time goes on
he buys the Spell Skill up to 18- so that he can cast it reliably; however the underlying
construct is still only 60 Active Points even though it could potentially have up
to 90 Active Points.
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Eventually Vaelen has a week to spare in game and the player decides
to boost Vaelen's trusty Jolting Arc Power Construct to a full 90 Active Points.
The player and the GM refactor the Power Construct to be 90 Active Points and in
game after six days of study (one day per 5 AP being added; 30/5 = 6 days), Vaelen
makes an INT roll at a -3 penalty (AP being added /10 = -3).
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If the INT roll is successful the improved 90 AP version of the Power
Construct replaces the old 60 point version. Since Vaelen already has an 18- Skill
Roll with Jolting Arc he doesn't have to pay any additional Character Points for
this increase in effectiveness.
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Creating New Spells
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Magecraft is a very personalized Magic and almost all Magicians have
at least one "signature Spell" which they either created themselves or
highly modified from some more basic version in a fashion unique to themselves.
This is frequently a point of pride among Magicians, as it is time consuming and
difficult to make new Spell effects and shows a certain dedication to the artform
when accomplished.
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NEW SPELL CREATION
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There are two steps to follow when creating a new Spell:
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- Determine Intent of Spell
- Determine Power Construct of Spell
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1) DETERMINE INTENT OF SPELL
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First decide what the Spell is supposed to do, in general terms. Is the Spell supposed
to burn an opponent to death, allow people to fly around, summon forth a demon,
etc. This seems pretty obvious on the surface, but it is important to defined the
desired end effect.
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2) DETERMINE POWER CONSTRUCT OF SPELL
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Next design the Spell using the Power creation rules in the HERO System 5th Edition
Rulebook. Ensure that the designed effect of the Power Construct matches the intent
of the Spell, and check the Power Construct for compliance to the
Restrictions and Guidelines
affecting Magecraft Spell Design.
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RESEARCH & EXPERIMENTATION
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Once the new Power Construct has been defined and approved by the GM, in-game the
Magician must conduct a period of uninterrupted Research & Experimentation
(R&E) equal to one (1) Day of game time per 10 Active Points in the Power Construct.
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At the end of this period of time the Magician makes a single INT
roll at -1 per 10 Real Cost of the Power Construct.
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A Magician may take twice as long in R&E, with each doubling
of time resulting in a cumulative +1 bonus to the eventual INT roll. Any Skill Levels
with INT based Skills, All Skill, and Overall Levels are usable in conjunction with
this INT roll.
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If the INT roll is successful the Magician pays the Character Points
for the Spell Skill corresponding to the new Power Construct and add the ability
to their Character Sheet.
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If the INT roll is not successful the Magician does not spend any
Character Points and do not add the new Spell Skill to their Character Sheet. The
Magician can try to create the Power Construct again, but must repeat the period
of R&E and make another INT roll.
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A Magician must have appropriate materials for R&E, the precise details of which
are left to the GM's discretion. Some of these necessary materials may be quite
expensive or commonly accessible at the GM's discretion; this is the primary means
by which GM's can control the ease with which a Magician makes new Power Constructs
and is left intentionally vague.
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Example: Vaelen wants to create a Spell for himself called
Dimensional Transposition ( Teleportation 30" (60 Active Points); Extra Time
(Full Phase, Delayed Phase, -3/4), LOS Only (-1/2)) which he has heard of but has
been unable to find any documents on.
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It takes six days of R&E (60 AP/10 = 6 days) to puzzle out the
basics of the Power Construct and at the end of this period Vaelen must make an
INT roll at a -3 Penalty (27 Real Cost/10 = -3 penalty). If the INT roll is successful
then the corresponding Spell Skill is paid for and added to Vaelen's Character Sheet,
if not Vaelen must start over from the beginning if he still wants to develop the
Spell.
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INABILITY TO CREATE NEW SPELLS
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This option is in effect in my campaigns
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By default, any Magician can create their own Spells. If for some reason a particular
Magician cannot make their own Spells, they may take a Physical Limitation Disadvantage
indicating this drawback. This includes refactoring Power Constructs
for Spell Skills that the Magician already knows.
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Thus Magicians with this Limitation may only learn Spells as they
are and without variation. This is a very serious hindrance for this type
of Spellcaster and a player should think very carefully before taking it for their
Magician Character.
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Arcane Spell Sterility: Phys Lim: Cannot create new Spells (Infrequently,
Greatly Limiting; -10 points)
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