isles-of-maga/magic.md

Magic

Magic (both divine and arcane) comes from a person's internal "life energy," so, in principle, anybody can cast magic. However, arcane magic is a difficult talent to acquire, and the arts are very controlled by the Mages Guild. Therefore, most people will not have even seen a magic user in their life unless there is a local Mages Guild. A great deal of effort is taken by magic users to keep magic out of the hands of the public and kept the domain of specially trained magicians who can handle its power. In fact, it is illegal for non-members of the Mages Guild to cast arcane spells.

Most spell casters, both divine and arcane, are women. In ancient times spell casters were almost exclusively women, and many famous magicians in history were women. Historically, men who used magic had a reputation for being effeminate. That has not been true for a long time and as a result the divide is much smaller today, such that the ratio is about 3 to 1. In more traditional societies like Orcish tribes, spell casters are still almost exclusively women.

Divine magic is not regulated at all, unlike arcane magic, and your local neighborhood priest probably knows a healing spell or two. The Mages Guild holds no responsibility for the magic of Clerics.

Magic is not "prepared" as in the default BFRPG rules, and is much closer to the way the Sorcerer supplement works (i.e. mana points). However, feel free to use the default magic system or liberal casting as an abstraction for the purpose of keeping balance. Furthermore a spellbook is technically unnecessary for a Magic-User, although it may be useful to carry a grimoire for knowledge the Magic-User cannot remember.

Read Magic is not a separate spell for Magic-Users, and instead they can simply understand spellbooks or scrolls by looking at them. Magical texts are typically just mundane items written in Dragonish, which Magic-Users are assumed to have knowledge of. Likewise, Read Languages works perfectly well on scrolls and spellbooks.

Raise Dead and Reincarnate still work as per the BFRPG rules, however doing so may raise the anger of Pastorum, who expected a new ghost to serve him. Therefore, bringing people back to life is uncommon and taboo in Maga, but still possible if they died recently and not of old age.

Necrosmithing is the same as what other settings refer to as "necromancy", which in Maga only refers to divination using the dead. Animate Dead for use as mindless minions such as zombies or skeletons is considered necrosmithing in Maga, which is outlawed. Note that Magic-Users and Clerics are still able to do so, but not in the open. Clerics who are known necrosmiths will no longer be welcome in the Church of Gora and Magic-Users who are known necrosmiths will lose their membership in the Mages Guild. The Silver Sword (a subfaction in the Church of Gora) actively hunts down and kills necrosmiths.

Some spells are tweaked to make more sense in the setting:

• Detect Evil becomes Detect Demonic: The spell is only useful for detecting the presence of demons and demonic powers; it has nothing to do with evil intentions. The reverse is Detect Anti-Demonic. The exact same principle applies to Protection from Evil becoming Protection from Demonic (reverse Protection from Anti-Demonic), and Dispel Evil becoming Dispel Demonic. Undead creatures are considered demonic, largely because of the close association of necrosmithing and Pestium in Maga.

• Commune does not contact a patron deity; instead it contacts a particular Demon Lord, or at least a servant demon if the Lord is not available. The Demon Lord does not need to be the patron of that cleric. The Demon Lord must be willing to talk to the Cleric for the spell to work, however.

• Conjure Elemental summons one of Primarium's demons (Elementals of Cold, Fire, or Lightning) to fight for you. Normally these are Primarium's servants, but when you summon one it is under your control. There are other spells that conjure demon servants but are not listed here.

Anti-Demonic

Anti-Demonic magic is imbued with the power to cause great harm to demons. It is not divine per se; it is a physical force, no different from magical fire or the magic that powers mechanical constructs. It is possible for certain Anti-Demonic spells to harm non-demons, but still cause much greater harm to demons. Interestingly, silver weapons have a natural Anti-Demonic aura which is detectable by Detect Anti-Demonic. Clerics of Gora, through their faith, give off a faint Anti-Demonic aura unintentionally. It is not strong enough to cause harm to demons but it is enough to detect using Detect Anti-Demonic. Likewise, Clerics of Demon Lords, through their faith, give off a faint Demonic aura unintentionally. Clerics without a deity give no such aura.

Furthermore, Clerics of Gora cannot wield Demonic artifacts and Clerics of Demon Lords cannot wield Anti-Demonic artifacts. Note that it is possible to touch the artifact without being harmed, but it cannot be equipped for its effect.

Undead creatures are considered demonic, and are harmed by Anti-Demonic magic.

Bone Golems and Flesh Golems are both considered undead creature. They can be turned as Vampires and Ghosts, respectively (8 and 9 hit dice creatures).

New Spells

Maga has spells unique to the setting.

Summon Bound Weapon

Cleric, 1

A Cleric can bind a weapon to his or her soul without cost, provided some time has been spent bonding with the weapon. The binding never expires, and the binding may be dismissed by the Cleric at any time. The binding can be broken by casting Dispel Magic. This spell summons the weapon to the Cleric's hand instantly through teleportation.

Ghost Blade

Magic-User, 1

Duration: 1 round/level

The Magic-User equips a blade of magic from their hand. This weapon may be of various sizes, as long as that weapon can be equipped by the caster. The damage changes based on the length of the blade.

• Dagger-length: 1d4 damage
• Shortsword-length: 1d6 damage
• Longsword-length: 1d8 damage
• Two-Handed sword-length: 1d10 damage (must be held in both hands)

The weapon itself has no weight. If the Magic-User lets go of the weapon, it disappears. The weapon can also be destroyed by Dispel Magic. At the end of the duration, the weapon vanishes. The weapon is magical, and can do damage to ghosts.

Soul Trap

Magic-User, 2

The soul of the target creature is trapped in a gem in the caster's inventory upon death. More powerful souls require larger gems to contain them, which is measured by number of hit dice. These gems are required for enchanting items and constructs, which are powered by the gem. Only the souls of animals can be captured with this spell, not the souls of intelligent creatures like Humans. An advanced spell is required to trap the souls of the sentient races. The gem used must be rather high quality, but does not need to be perfect. Quartz is often used. High quality quartz gems can often be sold at the local Mages Guild.

• Hit dice, volume gem required, name of soul
• 4 and below, 10 cm^3, "Tiny Soul"
• 5 to 6, 20 cm^3, "Small Soul"
• 7 to 8, 30 cm^3, "Medium Soul"
• 9 to 10, 40 cm^3, "Large Soul"
• 10 and above, 50 cm^3, "Huge Soul"

Sentient races have their own soul size, which is a step above Huge called "Complex Soul" but cannot be trapped with this spell.

Instead of noting the volume of a gem, it may make more sense to make a note saying "Quartz Gem (Medium)" indicating what size soul it can contain.

Failed magical research that attempts to enchant an item has a chance of destroying a good gem being used to enchant the item. Roll 1d6. If the result is 1, the gem is destroyed along with the soul contained. Otherwise, you may recover the gem without harm. If your enchanting research succeeds and you produce the item, the gem is consumed (being attached to the item for its magical power).

Psykers

Just as Clerics access divine magic through faith, and Magic-Users access arcane magic through esoterica, there is a third kind of spell caster called a Psyker that can use psionic magic through willpower. For this reason, they use the Charisma ability to measure their force of personality as their primary ability. There are no "sorcerers" as a separate class in Maga, but Psykers are conceptually close to the sorcerer.

Psykers are very uncommon, thus there is no legal regulation of psionic magic. For these people, casting spells is an innate gift allowing them to transform the world around them at will.

There is no separation of psionics from other forms of magic, and their resource is still the "life-energy" that is the resource of Clerics and Magic-Users. Likewise, casting "detect magic" will work just as well on psionic magic as other kinds of magic.

Enchanting

Enchanting permanently adds magical effects to mundane items, or can create self-moving constructs. The process of enchanting requires a gem containing a soul, and the size of the soul contained will impact how powerful the enchantment may be.

• Size of soul, maximum points of effect
• Tiny, 1
• Small, 2
• Medium, 3
• Large, 4
• Huge, 5
• Complex, 6