Retro
Magic Spells:
Spells originally had a system of being divided into levels like FF1, but nobody understood it so this is my lameass attempt at rectifying that. All of the spell categories are divided into pages that will hopefully make them easier to understand.
What this means, unfortunately, is borrowing heavily from the ill-fated Heroes of Nefaihr to make a magic system that allows a good amount of customization. Last time that meant that people could twink the game really easily, so this is a dumbed-down version. I think it'll be okay.
One note that doesn't seem to fit anywhere is that any spell that does damage or carries an effect may be made any elemental. Damaging spells will have their power doubled before the enemy's magic resistance factors in if they are vulnerable to it, or halved if they're strong against it. You can also use non-elemental magical attacks, but you'll never find anyone vulnerable to that, so elemental spells are encouraged. You can make physical magic attacks if you like, which will factor in an enemy's absorb rather than resist -- this will generally result in lower damage, but it could be useful in some situations.
The costs that you derive by making your spell with the following tables are for learning the spell, and gaining your first use of it. Additional "charges" of a spell may be gained for 3/4 of the original price, rounded up (or if the spell costs 3 CP or less, the charges cost one less than the original spell). Example spells follow at the bottom of this page, for those who are confused by this system.
Offensive Magic:
Effect | CP cost | Maximum stack | Notes |
Base damage +5 | 1 | 10 | - |
Base damage +25 | 4 | 10 | - |
Base damage +10 vs specific enemy type | 1 | 10 | ie. dragons, golems, undead, humans... |
Base damage +30 vs specific enemy type | 4 | 10 | ie. dragons, golems, undead, humans... |
Add Intellect stat to damage | 2 | 1 | - |
Add half of Intellect stat to damage | 1 | 1 | - |
Add current Level to damage | 2 | 1 | - |
Add half of current Level to damage | 1 | 1 | - |
Reduce evade by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Reduce hit by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Reduce intelligence by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Reduce attack by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Reduce absorb by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Reduce speed by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Add half of Intellect stat to decrease | 5 | 1 | - |
Add current Level to decrease | 3 | 1 | - |
Add half of current Level to decrease | 1 | 1 | - |
Cause mild status (power +5) | 2 | 24 | Power affects success |
Cause serious status (power +5) | 3 | 18 | Power affects success |
Cause deadly status (power +5) | 4 | 12 | Power affects success |
Add Intellect stat to power | 2 | 1 | Power affects success |
Add half of Intellect stat to power | 1 | 1 | Power affects success |
Add current Level to power | 2 | 1 | Power affects success |
Add half of current Level to power | 1 | 1 | Power affects success |
Single target | x1 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Area target | x1.5 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Field target | x1.6 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
All target | x2 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Bypass the "maximum stack" by +1 | 8 | - | For creating very high-powered spells |
Defensive Magic:
Effect | CP cost | Maximum stack | Notes |
Base recovery +8 | 1 | 8 | - |
Base recovery +25 | 5 | 8 | - |
Add Intellect stat to recovery | 2 | 1 | - |
Add half of Intellect stat to recovery | 1 | 1 | - |
Add current Level to recovery | 2 | 1 | - |
Add half of current Level to recovery | 1 | 1 | - |
Increase Evade by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Increase Hit % by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Increase Intelligence by 10 | 4 | 10 | - |
Increase Attack by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Increase Absorb by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Increase Speed by 5 | 4 | 10 | - |
Add half of Intellect stat to increase | 8 | 1 | - |
Add current Level to increase | 5 | 1 | - |
Add half of current Level to increase | 2 | 1 | - |
Cure mild status (per specific status) | 3 | 4 | Poison, sleep, and/or blind |
Cure serious status (as above) | 10 | 4 | Paralyze, confuse, sick or toxic |
Cure deadly status (as above) | 20 | 4 | Petrift, dead, insane or charm |
Cure reduced statistics | 4 | 1 | - |
Self target | x0.8 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Single target | x1 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Area target | x1.5 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Field target | x1.6 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
All target | x2 | 1 | Pick one targetting option |
Bypass the "maximum stack" by +1 | 8 | - | For creating very high-powered spells |
Example Spells:
Some examples of standard level 1 spells:
A very basic elemental attack spell:
Base damage +5, base damage +5, and add half intellect to damage, single target
This results in a spell that has a base damage of 10+half your intellect, which can do damage up to 20+half your intellect. When making a spell you can also select and element, so a spell may do double this damage.
This spell costs 3 CP to learn, and 2 CP for each additional charge, meaning you could get 4 charges of this at level 1 for 9 CP. You could choose to make it fire elemental, and use it as a basic fire ball, or whatever is to your liking.
A basic healing spell:
Base recovery +8, add intellect to recovery, single target
This spell is a healing spell that does anywhere from 8 to 16 points of healing plus your intellect stat. If your intellect stat is high enough, this is far more effective than just layering 3 "base recovery +8" for the same amount of CP. The healing amount on that would be 24..48, but would never increase as your character becomes more powerful.
This spell costs 3 CP to learn, and 2 CP for each additional charge, meaning you could get 4 charges of this at level 1 for 9 CP.
A strong self-heal:
Base recovery +25, base recovery +25, base recovery +8, base recovery +8, self target
It's possible to make a very strong spell for healing oneself at a low CP cost. It will never become more powerful, but could be very useful early on for giving yourself a real second wind. This one would heal 66..132 hit points.
This spell costs 9 CP because it can only be used on oneself, and new charges can be bought for 7 CP.
An attack you can use forever:
Add half of intellect to damage, single target
You can make this any elemental, like any attack spell, and it will always have a damage equal to half of your intellect (of course, that doesn't subtract a target's magic defense). It will be very weak, but it can be used as much as you want.
This spell costs 1 CP to learn, and since charges cost 0 CP, they are assumed to be infinite. It might be worth doing for a character with high intellect. Spells with infinite charges may be referred to as "cantrips".
A weakening spell:
Add mild status (blind), add Intellect stat to power, reduce target's attack by 5, single target
This attack has a good chance to blind the target and also reduces its attack. It's a useful way to soften an attack. Note that this could be made into two spells with the same effects for the same cost, but if you make it this way you can cause both effects in the same turn.
This spell costs 7 CP to learn, and additional charges for 6 CP. Another note is that if you added a small effect to this spell to boost its cost to 8 CP, charges would remain at 6 CP. Boosting spells to multiples of 4 CP cost may be more worth doing if you want to make the most of your CP.
A multi-target attack spell:
Base damage +25, add half of Intellect stat to damage, all target
This attack will do damage of an element that you select when you make it of 25..50 plus your half of your Intellect minus their Resist, hitting all enemies. That's pretty good for a spell that you can make when creating your character.
This spell costs 10 CP to learn, and additional charges for 8 CP. That means you'll only get one charge at level 1, but later on this could be useful.
A spell to help the weak:
Add Intellect stat to recovery, increase absorb by 5, single target
If somebody was the victim of a beatdown, this is a healing spell that would also help prevent future beatdowns somewhat. The healing rate will grow to make this spell useful for a long time.
This spell costs 6 CP to learn, and additional charges for 5 CP.
Existing spells may be "upgraded". The only real requirement is having 2 or more charges of the spell. All attributes of the old spell must be retained, and the cost to make the new spell is equal to 3/4 of the original price (rounded up) plus that of the attributes you add on. If you change the targetting type, you must still pay for the old one. The parts you add must be added at double their normal CP cost, which means that for some spells, upgrading may not be worthwhile -- as such, it should only be considered by an advanced player and/or with GM assistance.
You keep both the old and new versions of the upgraded spell, with the old spell losing one charge and the new one starting with 1. If you only had one charge of the old spell, it becomes unavailable.
A final note is that there may be a ton of spells that don't fit neatly into these categories, such as teleportation and environmental effects. If you require such a spell, see the GM, and a CP cost can be assigned without a big fuss. Tons of these existed in Heroes of Nefaihr, but that unusual magic system left them unnecessarily complicated for something so seldom used.
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