Magic System for Midgard

Mana

Midgard characters have two new figured characteristics: Mana (MAN) and Mana Recovery (MRC). Base MAN is EGO x 2; 2 points of MAN cost 1 character point. Base MRC is (EGO / 3) + (INT / 3); 1 point of MRC costs 1 character point. The normal maxima are 50 for MAN and 20 for MRC.

Mana recovers like an Endurance Reserve: only on segment 12 of each turn, whether the character is conscious or not. A character's MRC is actually the maximum mana he can recover each turn; all places in Midgard have a local MRC value, which is the maximum mana any character can recover in that area in a turn. When there are multiple characters at less than full mana in the immediate vicinity, the local MRC is divided equally between them, with the remainder going one point each to the mages with the highest MRC; if a character's MRC is less than his "share", the leftover MRC goes to the others.

When mages battle each other (especially is duels), they sometimes try to wrest control of the local MRC away from their opponent. As a half-phase action, a mage can make a Manipulation Magic skill roll; if successful, he increases the mana he recovers that turn by 1 for every 2 points he made the roll by. This still cannot exceed his own MRC, but he can rob his opponent of some of the mana they would have shared equally. His opponent can then do the same thing (and can abort his next phase if he has no more this turn), making it a skill vs. skill contest; whoever wins gets 1 extra mana for every 2 points he won by. Because of the chaos of combat, most mages save this tactic for when the're only fighting other mages unless truly desperate for mana. In actual mage duels, it's standard practice.

Finally, life energy can be spent as mana: 1 BODY can replace 4 MAN. The mage can spend this himself, or another Gifted person can donate it. The only way to get it from non-Gifted is by wounding them, and they must still consent to it; that is, unless the mage kills them. Life force can be stolen with a Transfer spell (BODY to MAN).

Creating Mage Characters

Talents

The basic prerequisite for using magic is the ability to sense it. Thus, you must buy Detect Magic as a 5-point talent; this makes you one of the Gifted. Most Gifted start with just the basic Detect, but with some basic instruction (or intuition) you can learn to "see" magic, thus making the Detect simulate the Sight sense group (this is often called "magesight", or just "the sight"); this costs no points, and is purely a roleplay thing. While uncommon, some magical traditions teach their members to simulate a different sense group, such as the Grarrek shamans who learn to "smell" magic. As mages become more experienced, they often improve their magic sense: as they buy more modifiers for it, they can use it independently of their physical eyes. When deprived of sight (or any other sense the Detect simulates), mages can still use Detect Magic with whatever features they've bought for it specifically. (Battle-mages find Targeting extremely useful!)

Detect Magic as described above only detects "normal" magic. Order and Chaos magic can be detected by most mages, but with significant penalties to PER, and sense modifiers like Discriminatory, Tracking or Targeting don't work on them. For +5 points (upgrading the basic Detect to the 10 point "all forms of magic") you can perceive these energies at no penalty; this also allows you to learn how to use them. For 3 points instead of 5, you can only detect magic that uses a particular Magic skill; this also limits you to learning only that one Magic skill, as well as spells based on it. However, it can be upgraded later.

Skills

There are three basic skills for magic: Creation Magic, Destruction Magic, and Manipulation Magic; all three are intellect skills, and require Detect Magic to learn (as described above). Another useful skill is Analyze Magic: in addition to its normal uses, it may be used as the required skill roll for some divination spells and is needed to cast unfamiliar spells from a book. Inventor (Spell Research) is used for creating new spells and for improvised spellcasting (below). Finally, making magic items requires the Enchanting skill (similar to Armor/Weaponsmithing).

Using Primal magic requires the 10 point Detect Magic and either the Chaos Magic or Order Magic skill, depending on which you want to use.

Perks

The one Perk every mage should have is Grimoire: his collection of spells. The point cost is similar to a vehicle or base: it costs 1 character point per 5 points of real cost for all its powers (the spells), with the same limit based on the character's point total. And no, you cannot double your number of grimoires for +5 points.

When making a mage character in HERO Designer, it may be convenient to design the grimoire as a base, buying spells as if they were its powers. Another method is the buy a multipower large enough for your biggest spell, with a custom adder to reduce the real cost to zero. Then, buy all your spells as flexible slots within the multipower.

Disadvantages

Designing Spells

Power Modifiers

Spells require a minimum amount of standard limitations based on their active points, as shown by the table. For higher active point spells, just continue the pattern: every four steps, the range between each step increases by 5.

First off, Requires a Skill Roll must be taken for all spells, and the penalty to the roll cannot be reduced below -1 per 20 active points. The other standard limitations are Concentration, Extra Time, Gestures, and Incantations.

There are also some common limitations: these can partially replace standard limitations. Common limitations count as standard limitations of half value, but at least half the required value must be actual standard limitations. The real cost of the spell's power is still figured using the actual value of all limitations. The common limitations are Focus, Increased END, Ritual, Side Effects, and Window of Opportunity.

If a spell has variable limitations taken in place of required limitations, it can only be used for standard and common limitations. The limitation value applied to the power's cost doesn't matter, but the arrangement of limitations at any one time must follow the above rules.

Some advantages are restricted: this means spells that use them must include an equal value of standard limitations, or double the value in common limitations. This does not increase the amount of standard limitations that can't be replaced. The restricted advantages are Autofire, Delayed Endurance Cost, Delayed Effect, Difficult to Dispel, Megascale, Reduced Endurance, Time Delay, Trigger, and Variable Special Effect.

Some advantages are outright forbidden, and may not be taken for any spell. The forbidden advantages are Costs END Only to Activate, Megascale above the +½ level, and Reduced Endurance (0 END).

Advantages

Megascale: As mentioned above, Megascale cannot exceed the +½ level (1 hex = 10 km). Also, it cannot be taken on attack powers, with the following exceptions: Darkness, Dispel, Entangle, Flash, Images, Mental Illusions, Mind Control, and Suppress (when not used on a Characteristic).

Delayed Endurance Cost (FH p?): The +½ level of this advantage (once per minute) is the highest level available for spells. This combined with Reduced Endurance (½ END) is the lowest possible mana cost for a spell.

Limitations

Naked Advantages

There are two uses for naked advantages: spells to enhance a mundane ability, or spells to enhance other spells (sometimes called metaspells). A naked advantage is built as any other spell: once you've found its active points, take required limitations based on that value plus any for restricted advantages. Naked advantage spells for mundane abilities often add no time to using the ability: a spell to make an attack Armor Piercing, for example, is usually cast during the attack, taking no additional time. The additional END cost with the advantage is spent as MAN instead. Metaspells work the same way, modifying the spell as it is cast, although the metaspell and the spell it's used with have their own separate skill rolls.

Naked advantage spells are usually instant, but can be made Continuous and/or Uncontrolled (see Duration, below). Such spells can be used with any applicable abilities or spells while they last, but take a half-phase to cast (or longer, with Extra Time) before they can be used to enhance anything.

Power Frameworks and Compound Powers

Some complex spells may be built as power frameworks. Multipowers are typical for a single spell with more than one application, like a Weapon of Flame spell that can be shaped into different melee weapons or shields. Elemental controls may be appropriate for spells with separate simultaneous effects, like an Immolation spell that grants an Energy Blast with Damage Shield and Damage Reduction with Only vs. Fire; if the powers in the EC are meant to be used simultaneously but doing so would take multiple actions, all powers but one may be bought with the advantage Trigger with a condition of "when the first power is activated". Variable power pools are not allowed as spells (with the exception of improvised spells, below). The GM should be very careful with spells built as frameworks to make sure they aren't abusive. Each slot in a multipower must have the minimum standard limitations for its active points; in general, each slot should have the same standard and common limitations. For an elemental control, total the active points of all slots (not counting the EC discount) to determine the required limitations; like with a  multipower, the slots should usually have the same standard and common limitations unless a slot is Triggered by another's use. As always, limitations that apply to all slots (like Requires a Skill Roll and any other standard or common limitations in common) can be taken on the framework itself.

Spells can also be bought as compound powers: multiple powers that are Linked to each other and used simultaneously (for extremely complex spells, a slot in a framework can even be a compound power). In such cases, the active points for all component powers are totalled to determine the required standard limitations. The exception is when the Link is one-way: when the first power can be used without the second but not vice versa. In this case, the first power bases its standard limitations on its own active points, but the second must base them on its own plus those of the first power. Partially limited powers, like those built with multiple "tiers" of effect, are built the same way.

Mana and Endurance

All spells must cost END (or MAN, to be more precise), both to activate and to maintain. No spell may be bought with Reduced Endurance (0 END), and powers that normally don't cost END must take the limitation Costs Endurance. With the appropriate advantages a power's END cost can be made very low, especially with Delayed Endurance Cost, but it must still cost at least a little END.

Some spells may grant an ability that costs normal END to use, not mana. One example is a spell that give the target claws on his hands (HKA, Usable by Others): casting the spell and keeping it active (see Duration, below) costs mana as normal, but the target of the spell uses his own END to attack as if wielding a weapon. Another example would be a spell that improves an existing movement mode, like running or leaping: since it's improving the target's natural physical ability, he spends his own END to use it. For spells like this, you should use the advantage Power Can Draw END From Character or END Reserve. The spell still costs 1 mana per target's phase to maintain (or other time increment, if Bought with Delayed Endurance Cost) whether it's used or not.

Duration

Constant spells must be used immediately upon casting and end as soon as you stop using it, unless you spend 1 mana each phase to keep it "on". The advantage Delayed Endurance Cost lets you spend 1 mana to maintain the spell for a whole turn (or longer, depending on the level).

Spells cannot be persistent, and powers that are normally persistent must take the limitation Costs Endurance. The way to build spell effects that remain regardless of what happens you you is with Uncontrolled. Constant powers with variable effect levels (like Force Field) are set at a particular level when cast, and stay at that level until the invested mana runs out. Casting an Uncontrolled spell again at the same target lets you add more mana and change the effect level.

An instant power can be bought Uncontrolled without Continuous: this allows it to be used multiple times until the invested mana runs out. Like a constant spell, it must be used or have 1 mana spent to maintain it each phase; Delayed Endurance Cost lets the maintenance point last longer.

Improvising Spells

A mage can buy the ability to improvise spells as a variable power pool in his grimoire. Unless you buy No Skill Roll Required on the control cost, the skill to change powers is Inventor (Spell Research). A limited class of powers can be taken, but not "Only Magic" or the like (that is assumed by the VPP being part of a grimoire); "Only Fire Spells" or "Only Creation Spells" are acceptable. Since all spells must have Requires a Skill Roll, you can apply -¼ worth of it to the control cost; if you use more, every spell from the pool must have at least that value, even if their active points would not require that much in standard limitations. You cannot take Variable Limitations on the control cost for flexible standard limitations on spells; it would require your improvised spells to be more flexible, which isn't really a limitation.

Casting Spells

Modifiers to Skill

A mage can take more time than is strictly required to cast a spell. Like any skill roll, each step down the time chart provides a +1 bonus to skill. A mage can also attempt to "fast-cast" a spell by taking less time; he can only move the time required one step up the time chart, and as with normal skill rolls it imposes a -3 penalty to skill. For fast-casting purposes, consider half-phase to be one step above full phase, and zero-phase one step above half-phase.

If a mage is casting a spell while still maintaining others, dividing his attention between them can be difficult. The active point penalty to a spell's skill roll also applies to the roll to cast any other spell while maintaining it. Two spells with a -0 penalty inflict a -1 to skill while maintained. This does not include Uncontrolled spells, since they are running without benefit of the mage's attention.

Ritual tools and materials, when not strictly needed for a spell, can provide a "good equipment" bonus to the skill roll. Simple ritual trappings appropriate to the mage's tradition can provide a +1, while expensive and well-crafted supplies may grant up to +3. If the spell requires any expendable foci or "foci of opportunity", exceptional quality foci may provide the above bonus but inferior substitutes (if they work at all) may impose a "poor equipment" penalty up to -3. The "poor equipment" penalty can also apply when a normal focus has been lost and the mage is using an inferior replacement.

If you are struck by an attack during casting (either during a long casting time, or because an opponent held or aborted an action to attack you while casting a half- or full-phase spell), the distraction may cause the spell to fail. You must make another skill roll with the same modifiers, and an additional -1 for every 2 BODY you lost to the attack. If the roll succeeds, the spell continues; in not, it fails immediately.

Casting From a Book

Spells can be found written in books, scrolls, stone tablets, or whatever. If the spell is written for his own tradition (or one sufficiently similar), a mage can attempt to cast it from the written description. First he has to study it, spending as much time as it normally takes to cast the spell and making an Analyze Magic roll. The normal modifiers for taking more or less time for a skill roll apply, and unlike casting a spell the time can be shortened by more than one step (but cannot take less than a half-phase). If the roll succeeds, he may attempt to cast the spell as if it was in his grimoire, although he must have the written spell with him and be able to see it. He can cast it multiple times, but if he does anything except casting the spell, he loses his focus and must reexamine it. Reexamining a spell requires another Analyze Magic roll but takes less time (one step up the time chart), and the margin of success on the previous roll provides a bonus to the new one like a complimentary skill. Once the spell has been successfully cast, the mage can spent the time and experience to add it to his grimoire.

Upkeep

Keeping your magic skills in fighting form requires some work besides simply casting spells all the time. Each magical tradition has some upkeep activity that its members must perform on a regular basis. Decide how often a mage has to do this (a step on the time chart or something close is best); go three steps up on the time chart to find how long it takes. The actual activity can be anything. A priest of a moon goddess might have to perfrom a six-hour ceremony every month, while a Pythagorean sorcerer studies his spellbook for twenty minutes a day.

Failing to perform these tasks causes the mage's magical ability to degrade. There's always a short grace period, two step up the time chart from the required frequency of the task (so if it's daily, you can be up to an hour late without penalty). Once the grace period has passed, the mage suffers a penalty on all skill rolls to cast spells. Compare the time since his last upkeep to the time chart: 6 hours or less imposes a -1 penalty, and each step down from that is another -1. If he continues to neglect upkeep, the penalty continues to increase with each time chart step.

The mage can remove these penalties by resuming upkeep. Each time he performs proper upkeep, the accumulated penalty is reduced by the amount it started at with the first missed upkeep (for example, missing a weekly upkeep starts the penalty at -3, so each time it's performed reduces the total penalty by 3). In general, upkeep cannot be rushed, and trying to do it more frequently has little benefit. At the most, a mage can perform upkeep twice as often as normal; if so, each time reduces the penalty by half as much (rounded down).

Magic Items

Like spells, magic items are bought as perks with the same "5 to 1" cost and character point limit. Each magic item must be paid for individually; you can't double the number for +5 points. All of their powers must be fueled by mana, just like spells; they typically have their own MAN and MRC characteristics (not a reserve), bought up from a base of zero. If a mage can use the item's mana to cast his own spells, it's MAN must be bought Useable by Others; some items' primary function is to provide extra mana. Unlike spells, an item's powers do not need any standard limitations, not even Requires a Skill Roll. If any powers do require skill rolls, the appropriate skill is usually determined by the type of power as for spells; and, of course, one must be Gifted to have the skill and thus use the item. In some cases, a power may require a roll from a more mundane skill, like a cloak of super-sneakiness that provides Invisibility to the Hearing group but requires a Stealth roll. An item cannot use itself as a focus for its powers; any powers bought with the Focus limitation require some object is addition to the item itself (for example, a magic bow would need arrows, bought as an expendable focus of opportunity).

Most magic items have a mundane use: even if you can't use a magic sword's powers, you can still stick people with the pointy end. Even a wizard's staff can usually be used as a blunt instrument. To make things clear, an item's mundane abilities should be labeled as such on the sheet. The item's user spends his own END to use these abilities, rather than the item's MAN. They do not have to cost END, but powers that normally do should not be bought with Reduced Endurance unless there's a logical reason why a nonmagical version of the item could have it. If an item is capable of supplementing its user's END with its own MAN, it can be bought with Power Can Draw END From Character or END Reserve (an example is a massive sword that most would find too heavy to wield effectively, but can magically make itself lighter). Mundane abilities do not get to take limitations like Real Armor or Real Weapon; the effects of these limitations are assumed.

Bonding an Item

You do not have to spend character points for magic items you find during play. However, if you choose to do so, the item becomes bound to you: you have attuned yourself to it and can access its power more easily. Bonding doesn't require any spells or ceremonies, simply using the item over time, becoming familiar with it, and thinking of it as "yours". Bonding to an item also erases any previous bond; someone who bonded to an item that was then lost and bonded to another regains the lost points when he next gains experience. The chief benefit of bonding a magic item is that you can spend your own mana in addition to or in place of its own, allowing you to keep using it after its own pool has run dry. Furthermore, if your mana pool is full, you can still gather mana on segment 12 as if you were low and add the mana to the item's pool instead; you must be conscious in order to do this, otherwise the only benefit the item gains from your full mana pool is one less MRC score to share with.

Another benefit is that some powers may only be useable by the person bonded to the item. This is worth no advantage or limitation value, like personal or universal foci. The powers can't be used immediately by anyone who steals it from you, but your friends can't use them when you loan it to them either.

Intelligent Items

Some magic items possess intelligence. In such cases, the item's mind is built like a computer, either regular or AI; the cost for all its computer characteristics and abilities are added to that of its other powers to determine the total cost of the item. The item uses its own characteristics (treat its EGO as zero unless it's an AI) to figure base values for MAN and MRC. Each of an intelligent item's powers can be used by either the item or its user, not both; the choice must be made at the time of creation and cannot be changed. If both user and item can use a power, it must be bought Usable by Others.