Magic is the manipulation and harnessing of a form of energy that permeates the world of Mystara. People that cast magic are, in effect, shaping a glyph of energy, formed through a combination of physical jestures, spoken sounds and occasionally physical components.

The Arete trait reflects the character's ability to manipulate that energy. The rating of the Arete trait is highest level spell that any mage can cast.

Casting

To cast a spell, a mage needs to have learnt the spell in question. Spells aquired through the Spells Background are assumed to have been learnt already, but any new spell must be learnt. This process may take between one day and a month depending on the power of the spell.

If a mage knows a spell, they may cast it at any time. The casting begins at the normal initiative time, and comes off at their initiative time minus the level of the spell.

For example, Tom is a mage with an Arete of 3, an Int of 3, and a Spellcasting knowledge of 2. He gets into a combat.

Tom rolls his Wits + Alertness. He rolls 4 successes, and thus goes on a 4. He decides to cast a Web spell, which will come off on 2. The roll to cast the spell is made in the instant the spell would come off.

A mage can only learn spells of a level up to or equal with their Arete rating. This reflects their intuitive understanding of the world around them and their connection with it.

Actually casting a spell requires a Intelligence + Spellcasting roll. The difficulty of the spell is based on the level of the spell, and the mage's Arete ability. The difficulty is 7 + the level of the spell - the Arete rating, to a minimum difficulty of 3 (see below). Other circumstances, such as armour and other magical effects can raise or lower this difficulty.

Using the above example, Tom rolls his Int (3) + Spellcasting (2), a total of 5 dice. The difficulty for a Web spell is 7 + 2 (Web) - 3 (Arete) + 1 (Tom is wearing leather armor). Tom rolls his five dice and rolls 2 5 7 9 10, thus gaining 3 successes.

In addition, if the spellcaster is damaged (takes health levels) whilst casting, the difficulty is raised by 1 for each health level taken, in addition to any dice pool penalty. If the difficulty of a spell goes to above 10, the mage loses control of their spell.

A sucessful casting costs the character of one temporary willpower as an effect of imposing their will on the world, unless the difficulty of the spell would have been under 3.

For example, Benny is a powerful mage, with an Arete of 6, Int of 4 and Spellcasting of 4, and he wishes to cast a Floating Disk spell. The roll would normally be 8 dice (Int + Spellcasting) vs diff 2. The roll is made against difficulty 3, and Benny does not lose any temporary willpower (assuming the roll is sucessful).

If the casting roll is unsuccessful, the mage loses one temporary willpower, plus one for every 1 rolled on the roll. If the roll is botched, then the mage loses 1 temporary Willpower for every dice rolled. If the character drops below 0 Willpower, they take the excess loss in aggravated wounds. A botched spell can have other effects, like an uncontrolled release of the spell's energy, or almost anything random.

For example, Tom, who has used his Willpower excessively during the day, has a temporary Willpower of 2. He tries to cast a fireball, rolls his Int + Spellcasting, but unfortunately rolls 1 1 2 5 5. This means he has botched. Thus Tom should lose six points of temporary Willpower - but he only has 2 points left. So Tom drops to 0 willpower and takes 4 aggravated wounds. If the GM was feeling particularily sadistic, the spell might have been formed before Tom botched, but not released, and now it explodes with Tom as the centre.

Regaining Willpower

One temporary Willpower may be regained after a good night's rest. Meditation may also regain willpower. The player rolls Wits + Meditation against a difficulty of 7. Each roll is made at the end of an hour of meditation. Sucess returns that many points of temporary Willpower. A failure usually indicates that the character was unable to attain the proper state of mind. A botch may cause the character to lose another temporary willpower, or be unable to meditate for a day, or both.

1st Level

Charm Person
Range: 30'
Duration: [Succ] days.
Resist: Willpower
Effect: This spell allows the caster to override another's will for the duration of the spell. They will not perform acts which are fundamentally against their nature, or anything obviously self-destructive, but almost any suggestion made by the caster will seem reasonable and self-evidentally beneficial to both the victim and their new found friend.

Detect Magic
Range: [Succ]*10 feet
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: Once cast, this spell allows the caster to sense any and all magic within the spell range. The more successes rolled, the more accurately the caster can determine the exact strength of the magic. ie: With one success, the caster would not be able to determine between a potion of cure light wounds and an artifact - both would simply register as 'magic'. This spell does not give any indication of the type of magic that might be sensed.

Floating Disk
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 day
Resist: None
Effect: This spell creates a disk of [Succ] strength, approximately 2 foot in radius. It can be used as a beast of burden, and will stay within 6 feet of the caster.

Hold Portal
Range: Touch
Duration: Permanent until broken
Resist: None
Effect: This spell adds [Succ] worth of strength to a door or other portal that it is cast upon. In effect, each success raises the minimum strength needed to break the door down. Once the necessary successes to break the door are achieved, the spell is broken.

Light
Range: Touch
Duration: Scene / [Succ] hours.
Resist: Willpower
Effect: This spell creates a sphere [Succ] * 10 feet in radius of reading light. This spell can be cast directly on a creature - if they fail their Willpower roll, they are blind for the duration. This spell can be reversed to form the Dark spell, which has the opposite effect.

Magic Missile
Range: 60'
Duration: Instantaneous
Resist: Stamina
Effect: Upon casting this spell, a glowing arrow appears next to the caster and shoots out to hit its victim, causing [Succ]+2 health levels of non-aggravated damage that may be soaked normally. The caster must make a perception and alertness roll at difficulty of 4 to hit the victim, who may try and dodge (base difficulty of 8).

Protection from Evil
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: Once this spell is cast, any rolls made to attempt to hurt the caster directly become [Succ] more difficult. eg: Tom casts this spell and gets 2 sucesses. Uglur the goblin tries to hit him with a short sword. Normally the difficulty to hit would be 5, but because of the Protection spell, it is now a 7. Uglur gets one sucess nonetheless, and rolls for damage - normally diff 6, but again, because of the spell, it is a diff 8 roll.

In addition, Enchanted creatures (charmed, undead, constructs) cannot directly attack the caster - they are simply incapable of using any form of melee against the caster. They can, however, use missile weapons and spells.

Read Languages
Range: Caster only.
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: This spell adds [Succ] worth of points to the caster's linguistic ability for the duration of the spell that may be dedicated to any one language of the caster's choice.

Shield
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: This spell gives one extra soak dice to the caster per sucess on the spellcasting roll.

Ventriloquism
Range: [Succ] * 10
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: A sucessful cast of the Ventriloquism spell allows the caster to throw their voice up to [Succ]*10 feet away.

2nd Level

Continual Light
Range: 120'
Duration: Permanent
Resist: Willpower
Effect: This spell creates a sphere of light up to [Succ] * 10 feet across. The light is clear but not as strong as sunlight. If the caster casts it upon a specific creature, it may make a Willpower roll to resist being blinded until the spell is removed. This spell may be reversed to cast Continual Dark.

Detect Evil
Range: [Succ]*10 feet.
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: Arcane
Effect: Allows the caster to sense any and all hostiles within the spell range. No physical manifestations occur - the caster is merely aware of creatures and other beings that wish him harm.

Detect Invisible
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: This spell allows the caster to try and penetrate an invisibility effect. For each success upon the Spellcasting roll, a success is removed from the invisibility effect from the caster's point of view. ie: If Bill cast invisibility on himself, and achieved 2 successes, and then Tom cast Detect Invisible and rolled three successes, Tom would be able to see Bill, although to anyone else, Bill would still be invisible.

ESP
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: Willpower (special)
Effect: This spell allows the caster to 'read' the victims mind. However, the victim may make a Perception + Empathy roll at the difficulty of the caster's permanent Willpower to sense that something is up. If they do notice something is happening, they may make a Willpower roll to cancel out the caster's successes. In combat, this spell makes the caster harder to hit (+2 difficulty) by the person whom the spell is affecting.

Invisibility
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: Willpower
Effect: This spell makes the caster or the person the spell is cast on to become invisible, to a lesser or greater degree. With one success, anyone who would be able to sense the character normally may make a perception + awareness roll at difficulty 7 to sense them. With two successes upon the Spellcasting roll, the player is invisible unless they make sudden or loud movement. With three of more successes, the person that the spell is cast on is completely invisible unless they do something extreme (ie combat).

Knock
Range: Touch
Duration: Instantaneous
Resist: None
Effect: This spell removes normal and magical locks and wards. It requires one success to open a normal lock, two successes to remove a bar. If a door has multiple locks, one success per lock is required to open the portal. When cast on a door that has had Hold Portal or Wizard Lock cast on it, the Knock spell cancels [Succ] number of successes from those spells. If they are reduced to below 1 success, the Hold Portal or Wizard Lock spells are dispelled.

Levitate
Range: Touch
Duration: [Succ] hours
Resist: Willpower
Effect: This spell nullifies gravity for the creature it is cast upon. Either the caster (or if a willing target, the recipient) may cause the recipient to rise up or sink down at will (roll Wits of the controlling person to judge speed), or simply hover without concentrating. If the victim is unwilling, they may make a Willpower roll to resist having this spell cast upon them as per usual.

Locate Object
Range: Caster only
Duration: 6 turns.
Resist: None
Effect: This spell allows the caster to find one normal object within [Succ]*60 feet. The caster must know what the object looks like (possibly a Perception roll to visualise it precisely), and it may not be a unique object.

Mirror Image
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: Upon casting this spell, [Succ] extra images of the caster, indistinguishable from the caster (including shadows) are created. The images ape the caster's every movement, including speech. The images appear either side of the caster, in a row, seperated by up to two arm's length apart (if each image stretched its arm, they could touch fingertips). The mage may determine where the images appear - all to his right, half and half, etc. If any image is sucessfully struck by a blow, it is dispelled.

Phantasmal Force
Range: 60'
Duration: [Succ] days or until broken.
Resist: None
Effect: This spell allows the caster to create illusions of any type, including sight, sound and touch. However, these images are not solid, and can be broken by passing through them. The images will fool anyone with less or equal perception than the caster gets successes on the Spellcasting roll. Anyone with greater perception than successes can make a Perception + Awareness roll to cancel effective successes for themselves only.

Web
Range: [Succ] * 10
Duration: 1 day
Resist: Dex + Dodge
Effect: This spell creates a sticky web, which is flung out from the caster to either its target or to the maximum range. The web has an effective Strength pool equal to the number of successes the caster rolls, and trapped creatures require that many success to escape from its hold, or double that to break through the Web.

3rd Level Spells

Clairvoyance
Range: [Succ] * 30'
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: Willpower
Effect: Upon casting this spell, the caster can effectively see through another being's eyes, if that being is within the range. Those with an Awareness of 3 or greater can make a Willpower roll to resist being used in such a way.

Dispel Magic
Range: 100'
Duration: Instant.
Resist: None
Effect: This spell cancels [Succ] worth of other people's spells. Any spell affected by the Dispel Magic has the successes removed permanently canceled. Thus any spell reduced to zero successes is permanently destroyed, while other spells may be reduced below a critical number of successes and also suddenly fail and be destroyed.

Fireball
Range: [Succ] * 40
Duration: Instant.
Resist: Stamina
Effect: Upon casting this spell, a compressed ball of flame and heat leaps out from the caster towards the target selected, and then explodes for [Succ] * 3 health levels to all within a 30' radius.

Fly
Range: Touch
Duration: [Succ] hours of flight
Resist: None
Effect: The recipient of this spell can fly at their equivalent Wits speed while concentrating, or simply float without concentration, for up to [Succ] hours.

Haste
Range: 240
Duration: 1 scene / 1 hour.
Effect: This spell allows the caster to designate up to [Succ] creatures as the recipients. These creatures are accelerated such that they move at double speed for the duration of the spell. In combat, they may attack twice wiht no penalty, or split their actions as normal, except that they gain two actions for every 'step'. eg: Tom hastes himself and enters combat. He can act twice in a turn at his full dice pool, or he can opt to act four times, and take a single dice penalty on the first two actions, and two dice penalty on the the next two actions.

Hold Person
Range: 180
Duration: [Succ] rounds
Resist: Willpower
Effect: The caster may choose up to 4 creatures to be paralysed. The base difficulty for this spell is 5, +1 for each creature it is cast upon at once. The vicims may resist with a Willpower roll. This spell can be reversed to become Free Person, which removes any form of paralysis from a creature.

Infravision
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 day
Resist: None
Effect: The recipient of this spell gains the ability to sense heat and cold in the form of infra vision. Their effective perception whilst using this ability is equivalent to number of successes the caster achieved on the casting roll.

Invisibility 10' radius
Range: [Succ] * 10
Duration: Permanent until broken or dispelled
Resist: None
Effect: This spell has the same effect as the invisibility spell, but can affect any creature the caster desires within 10' of the targeted area (often the caster themself). Any creature that moves more than 10' from the target of the spell is no longer invisible, and moving back into the area of the spell does not restore the spell effect.

Alternatively, this spell may be cast on one entire object, rendering it invisible.

Lightning Bolt
Range: [Succ] * 30'
Duration: Instant.
Resist: Stamina
Effect: A bolt of lightning leaps out from the caster to the targeted location, as long as it is within the spell range, doing [Succ] * 3 health levels of damage to any creature within the effect. It doesn't bounce.

Protection from Evil 10'
Range: Caster only
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: This spell works in much the same manner as Protection from Evil, but it may affect any friendly creature the caster designates that is within 10' of the caster when the spell is cast. Moving more than 10' from the caster nullifies the effect, and it is not restored by once again moving closer to the caster.

Protection from Normal Missiles
Range: 30'
Duration: 1 scene
Resist: None
Effect: The recipient of this spell has their difficulty to be hit by normal missiles increased by [Succ]. eg: If Tom had was out in the open, he normally would be hit by arrows on a difficulty of 6. After casting this spell and achieving 3 successes, that difficulty is raised to 9.

Water Breathing
Range: 30
Duration: 1 day
Resist: None
Effect: Upon casting this spell upon its recipients, they are able to breathe water as if it were air. This spell works equally well for salt and fresh water, and has been known to work for brackish swamp water. Up to [Succ] creatures may be affected by each spell.