Magic 101

Okay, other than the cry of “We're screwed!”, what does the new system mean to magicians (faux or otherwise). Well, magic is quite different in the C&S rulebook as opposed to the HERO system Miranda used to use. Under HERO magic was a series of rules with each spell bought using individual points. Now finding, or researching, those spells is matter of role-playing, so that aspect won't change. However, there are plenty of other changes.

First off, magic in C&S3 is divided into a mode and a method. The mode is the type of spell, while the method is how you cast that spell. This works similar to the method I used to describe magic on Miranda, since their are many different ways to cast the same spell — it all depends on how the magician learned it. Therefore, we shall look at each item as an individual.

The method of magic is how your character goes about casting spells. Some require deep concentration, while others use symbols, their voice, or even extra-planar creatures. This would be similar to the common set of limitations I required each magician to have that defined how they learned to use magic. However, the HERO system was more flexible in these limitations — as the C&S3 book only comes with a few preset magician types.

Still, I think that is someone is not happy with a preset type I can whip up a new custom method that better reflects their “style” of magic. Just don't expect my styles to be some uber-style, instead it will take the standard magic and limit it in some ways and expand it in others. This will maintain balance, since if the magic was all-powerful everyone would be using it.

Each method of magic has a list of the various modes they may cast and at what rank a rank in the mode really represents. As an example from my world are Spell Mages. By using the exact same incantations, gestures, herbs, potions, and environmental conditions they are able to replicate the same exact spell. This gives them almost full access to ever mode of magic, but all spells are more difficult to learn. Therefore, a Rank 3 Fire spell must be learned as a Rank 5 spell by a Spell Mage. However this is not a linear progression a Rank 6 spells must be learned at Rank 10 rates. When all of their spells are taken into account, the typical Spell Mage will spend years more of their time learning the same spells as a more specialized magician.

The mode of the magic is a representation of the spell itself. An example would be a common fireball, which has a Mode of Elemental Fire. This means that several different Methods of magic can cast the same mode of magic “ making variations between different magicians quite vast. A spells of a single special effect will be found in the same mode, unlike the spell colleges from the Fantasy HERO books you will not find most modes duplicating spells so that the only difference is your special effect.

Each spell in a single mode will have the typical stats given: rank, range, defense, description, etc. Out of these rank is the only one that is not easily understood. Each spell has a rank, which indicates how difficult it is to cast. These ranks range from 1 (Innermost Circle) to 10 (Outermost circle). The higher the number the longer it takes to fully memorize the spell, and the more difficult it is to cast only a partially understood spell.