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Some detail on the main magic systems in RuneQuest
Here is a step by step guide on how to cast magic in RuneQuest:
Prepared and Unprepared:
All spells in RuneQuest can broadly be defined as active and reactive. Some spells will be cast before you get into a fight and some during the scrap itself. It is quite common for players to nominate a spell that they classify as PREPARED - In other words, this is the usual reaction for that character e.g. a swordsman might always have Bladesharp (a spell that improves the character's chance to hit and does extra damage), while a healer might always have Heal ready to cast. These spells can be cast without any additional preparation. You can only have ONE spell prepared at any time.
If an adventurer gets into a situation where they want to use a spell that is UNPREPARED, there is a delay of 3 Strike Ranks added to the spell equation while the magic swings into action.
Resistance/Overcoming
All offensive spells, whatever form they take cast either by or at your character need to overcome the target to be successful. This is handled by a roll on the resistance table usually using caster's current Magic Points vs defender's current Magic Points.
Spirit Magic:
All spirit magic spells have a level - some are fixed, some are variable - for example, the spell Fireblade is a 4 point spell while the spell Heal is a variable level spell - you can cast up to whatever level of that spell you have learned. All spirit spells have a focus - a physical item that channels the magic - these could be anything but no focus, no spell. Spirit magic has a range of 50 metres and lasts 5 minutes (where duration applies).
The Process:
Each point in the spell you are casting costs 1 Magic Point and takes 1 Strike Rank. For example, your adventurer is badly wounded and wants to cast Heal 6. It will cost 6 Magic Points and take 6 Strike Ranks plus your character's DEX Strike Rank to cast this spell if he had nominated it as prepared. If it was not prepared an additional 3 Strike Ranks would be added to the equation.
The DEX strike rank reflects the character's relative speed to do something in combat. An average adventurer with average DEX would have a DEX SR of 3, so in the example above the equation would be: 6 for the spell, 3 for the DEX taking 9 Strike Ranks to cast the spell - nearly an entire melee round (10 Strike Ranks in a melee round). Spell casting can go over to the next combat round without additional penalty. In the above example, let's say our adventurer gets hurt on Strike Rank 5 in the first melee round and starts casting his prepared spell on Strike Rank 6 - his spell will activate 9 Strike Ranks later which would be Strike Rank 5 of the following melee round.
Chance to Cast:
All spirit magic has the adventurer's POW x 5 as a % chance to cast successfully
Divine Magic:
All Divine Magic spells are bought using permanent POW and until the character achieves Priest Or Rune Lord status in their cult is one use only. Spells are ranked by points, some of which are set and some of which are variable. For example, the spell Sever Spirit is a set 3 point spell and requires a sacrifice of 3 points of permanent POW to learn. Dismiss Magic is a variable point spell and requires a sacrifice of as many points of permanent POW as the adventurer wants the spell to have - the larger the spell, the more powerful it is - Dismiss Magic 5 gets rid of alot more magic than Dismiss Magic 1. There are also some Divine Spells like Heal Wound that cost a single point of permanent POW to learn but are powered by Magic Points.
The Process:
Divine spells happen instantaneously and can be cast from your adventurer's DEX strike rank onwards in the Melee Round. Going back to our wounded adventurer who has a DEX Strike Rank of 3, and got hurt on Strike Rank 5, he could cast his Heal Wound instantly on Strike Rank 6. Let's say though that he was wounded on Strike Rank 1, he wouldn't be able to cast his spell until Strike Rank 3.
Chance to Cast:
All divine magic has a 95 % chance to cast successfully. Divine magic has a range of 100 metres and lasts (where there is a duration element) 15 minutes.
Sorcery Magic:
Sorcery is the most complex magic in the game. It takes a little learning but has the potential to be the most powerful. It is also the prevalent magic of the Western Religions.
General Principles:
Sorcery harnesses world forces and is mostly variable in terms of magic point cost. Sorcery spells are learned like skills and manipulated using a variety of abilities:
Intensity - All sorcery spells have an Intensity (or spell level) of 1. A sorcerer can increase the intensity of the spell by rolling percentile dice equal to or below the chance of his intensity skill AND his spell skill. Let's take Johann the Wizard - he has the spell Damage Boosting and has been told to increase the damage that his Lord's sword does for an important duel. Johann's chance to cast Damage Boosting is 75% and his Intensity skill is 90%. He decides to boost his Lord's damage by 10 and needs to roll 75% or under for the spell and the increased intensity to take effect. He rolls 34 and his Lord is deliriously happy.
All sorcery users are usually taught Intensity. Further manipulations using the following skills are only available to some dependent on your religion.
Range - This increases the range of the spell - sorcery spells have an initial range of 10 metres but can be increased up to incredible distances.
Duration - Increases the length of a sorcery spell. This is a very common manipulation and most Knights have spells cast on them by their Priests/Wizards that last months. The standard duration of a sorcery spell is 10 minutes.
Multispell - Multispell allows the replication of the same spell - this is a great way to save Magic Points where multiple targets need the same spell.
Spell Limits
A sorcerer can cast spells up to the level of his FREE INT - this is a precious commodity for sorcerors. Free INT is calculated based on the number of spells a sorcerer knows that he keeps in his head rather than in an enchantment or binding. Each spell he knows reduces his Free INT by 1. Let's go back to Johann - Johann has an INT of 17 and has 3 spells in his mind - 17 minus 3 equals 14. This is the limit to which he can manipulate his spells.
The Process:
Each manipulation costs a point of Free INT and a magic point. Back to Johann and his Lord. This time, it is the night before a big battle and his Lord and his first Knight need the most powerful Damage Resistance possible on both of them to last a full day. Johann has a Free INT of 14 and needs to factor Duration and Multispell in to the equation. To last a full day he needs a duration of 7 and a multispell of 1 for the extra target. This makes a total of 8 leaving 6 points for intensity.
Again he must make 1 percentile roll below the lowest % of all the skills needed to cast this spell, in this case his Multispell skill which is 60%. He rolls 59% and succeeds in casting Damage Resistance 6 with a duration of 21 hours on both his Lord and the Lord's First Knight costing 14 Magic Points in total. Everyone is deliriously happy.
Magic Point Costs
Every point of spell and each level of manipulation costs 1 Magic Point
Chance to Cast:
Sorcery spells and manipulations are learned skills. Spells can be trained and researched and can be improved through experience. Manipulations can only be trained or researched.
Sorcery In Combat
Sorcery is mostly a preparative magic but can also be wielded in combat situations. In this case the same rules as per the other magics apply in terms of DEX Strike Rank, prepared/unprepared and spell casting time.
Let's get back to Johann on the field of battle. Johann is towards the back but sees that his Lord is hard pressed. He decides to use his deadly spell Venom to take care of one of the attackers. Venom does a point of damage to a ranged location for each point in the spell. He decides to use his full intensity of 14, his DEX Strike Rank is 2 and the spell is unprepared. The spell equation:
Venom 14
Round 1: SR 2 - Johann declares he is casting Venom 14 - because it is unprepared he suffers a 3 SR penalty so the actual spell won't begin casting until SR 5
Round 1: SR 5 - Venom 14 begins casting
Round 2: SR9 - 14 Ranks later (5 + 9) the spell activates and Johann's player rolls his spell chance of 70% - he rolls 25 and the spell works. Johann has used stored Magic Points to cast the spell (see below) so his current Magic Points are still 14.
The Knight he has targeted has a current Magic Point value of 14 as well so Johann needs to roll 50% or under on the resistance table to overcome. He rolls 01 and then rolls a location on a D20 - he rolls 20, the enemy's head. The Knight takes 14 points of poison damage to the location and dies at the end of the melee round (Strike Rank 10), his head suddenly full of poison that pours from his nose, ears and mouth. Johann is deliriously happy.
Spell Criticals In Sorcery
A spell critical in sorcery doesn't do anything special in terms of effect but it does mean the entire spell costs only 1 Magic Point to cast.
General Info on spells and magic points
Enchanting: There are various ways to enchant items and spells on to weapons, armour and even your character's skin. Magicians often enchant spells into bindings to save their Free INT. Many spirit spells are also held in bindings as are Rune Lord's divine spells.
Magic Stores: There are magic crystals in the game that store magic points, usually to a fixed value. Some of them are just MP stores and some are POW stores. Magic point crystals need refilling, whilst POW stores regenerate themselves as per the 1/24th per hour rule. All require a process called ‘attuning' to use. This requires a magic point for MP stores and a POW point for POW stores.
POW Gains
If you overcome someone or resist someone else's spell successfully you qualify for a POW gain. These occur once per game week or as the GM so decides and is usually undertaken at the same time as all other experience checks. If you qualify you take species maximum (Humans = 21) minus current POW timing the result by 5 for a percentile chance of increase.
Let's get Johann back - Johann used Venom and overcame his target qualifying for a POW gain. His POW is 17 and his species max is 21 - 21 minus 17 equals 4 - 4 x 5 = 20% - he rolls 19 and gets a POW gain. He is deliriously happy. His player can then choose to gain 1 POW or take a chance of getting 2 on a roll 1D3-1. The player decides to roll and rolls a 1 - - one minus one = 0. Johann is not deliriously happy anymore.
These are the basics - anything else we'll handle in game...
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