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GM Notes on Spontaneous Casting (Vancian)
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| CASTING
MODEL |
| Practitioners of a Spontaneous Casting Magic
System use a series of layered Multipowers with Charges on the Reserve of
the Multipowers to accomplish an X per Day per Spell Level form of "Spontaneous
Casting". |
| Practitioners of a Spontaneous Casting Magic
System learn to cast
Magical Effects, usually called Spells, often making use of props such as
incantations, gestures, material components, etc. to assist them in the
use of their Magic. |
| Practitioners go through various
levels of understanding and capability as they advance; as they gain
experience their ability to manipulate the metaphysical Laws of Magic
increases, as does the mental endurance required to focus their will.
Essentially, as they progress their ability to cast
larger and more powerful Spells increases assuming they spend Experience
Points accordingly. |
| SPELL LEVEL TO ACTIVE POINTS |
| Each practitioner has a list of
Known Spells which are learned via the use of topical Magic School Skills as
described below.
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*0 |
1-15 |
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1 |
16-30 |
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2 |
31-45 |
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3 |
46-60 |
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4 |
61-75 |
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5 |
76-90 |
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6 |
91-105 |
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7 |
106-120 |
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8 |
121-135 |
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9 |
136-150 |
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| Spells are ranked by Spell
Level; some GMs may prefer to refer to this concept in
variant ways, such as Spell Circles, Spell Houses, or Spell
Ranks to avoid confusion stemming from the overloaded use of the
word "Level", or simply to add more flavor. Each Spell Level
starting at Spell Level 0 has 15 Active Points more than the
Spell Level before it.
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| Thus a Level 0
Spell is between 1-15 AP, 1st Level Spells are between 16-30 AP,
2nd Level Spells are between 31-45 AP and so on as indicated on
the adjoining table..
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| *Level 0 Spells are often called "cantrips". |
| KNOWN SPELLS LIST |
| Since this Magic System model is based on
Multipower Pools, the slots in a character's Multipower Pools effectively
serve as their "Known Spell List". |
| Each type of Magic System that uses the Spontaneous Casting
model will define a means to learn and or create new Spells to a character's
Known Spell List, and also any limits on how many or what kind of Spells are
valid for practitioners of that type of Magic. |
|
SPONTANEOUS CASTING MULTIPPOWER POOLS |
| 1-15 |
-0 |
| 16-30 |
-1/2 |
| 31-45 |
-1 |
| 46-60 |
-1 1/2 |
| 61-75 |
-2 |
| 76-90 |
-2 1/2 |
| 91-105 |
-3 |
| 106-120 |
-3 1/2 |
| 121-135 |
4 |
| 136-150 |
-4 1/2 |
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In this model, the player of a practitioner of a
Spontaneous Casting Magic System buys a separate Multipower Pool
(MP) for each "Spell Level" and applies Charges to the Reserve
equal to the number of times per Day they can cast Spells of that
Spell Level. |
| This would of course be prohibitively expensive
in terms of Character Points, but a custom Limitation is also
allowed to this model to bring it's cost into line with it's
functionality, helping to offset the cost of essentially
overlapping Multipower Pools as described in the accompanying
chart. |
| The MP's must be purchased in Spell Level order; they must
be progressed from Level 0 to Level 1 to Level 2 and so on, a
player may not just selectively buy Spell Level MPs. |
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| EXAMPLE: Rialta Foranvor is a
practitioner of a Spontaneous Casting Magic System and can cast up to 4th Level Spells, and thus has a total of
five Multipower Pools like so: |
| Spell Level 0: MP, 15-point reserve, (15 Active Points); 6 Charges (-3/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; -1/2); all slots Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4); Real Cost: 6 |
| Spell Level 1: MP, 30-point reserve, (30 Active Points); 6 Charges (-3/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; -1/2), Spontaneous Casting Discount (-1/2); all slots Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4); Real Cost: 10 |
| Spell Level 2: MP, 45-point reserve, (45 Active Points); Spontaneous Casting Discount (-1), 6 Charges (-3/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; -1/2); all slots Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4); Real Cost: 13 |
| Spell Level 3: MP, 60-point reserve, (60 Active Points); Spontaneous Casting Discount (-1 1/2), 6 Charges (-3/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; -1/2); all slots Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4); Real Cost: 15 |
| Spell Level 4: MP, 75-point reserve, (75 Active Points); Spontaneous Casting Discount (-2), 6 Charges (-3/4), Variable Limitations (requires -1 worth of Limitations; -1/2); all slots Extra Time (Delayed Phase, -1/4); Real Cost: 17 |
| MULTIPOWER SPELL SLOTS |
| Each type of Magic System that uses the
Spontaneous Costing model will define their own guidelines about what is
allowed in that system, but
the following guidelines are mandatory. |
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- All Spells Must Be on Charges
- Continuous Spells must terminate via
Anti-Magic
- All Spell Slots must be Ultra Slots
- No Spell may have an Endurance Cost
- No Spell may have an Activation
- No Spell can Require a Skill Roll to be cast
- A Spell may Require a Skill Roll to take
effect
- such as a Charm Spell requiring a Persuasion skill roll
to affect specific individuals
- such as Spell Resistance
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