Mana

Mana

Mana is the enigmatic source of all power in the cosmos, and the mana pool illustrates a character’s capacity to tap into this power source. All Wielders tap into this ubiquitous power source, though they all do it in different ways. Regardless of how they tap into it, they must tame the raw power, converting it into a usable energy source. The topics of wielding and mana are covered more in depth elsewhere, however, using mana is both mentally and physically taxing, and this pool illustrates just how mentally drained a character is from wielding their powers.

Not all people interact with mana the same way, but all wielders possess a personal reserve of power which they use to fuel their abilities. Most wielders do not get beyond the point of using just their own personal reservoir, however, those that dedicate time to honing their abilities can increase the amount of mana they can contain. Some bonuses increase the amount of mana you receive per purchase.

Many skills and special abilities are fueled by the use of mana. Mana can be safely used until a character’s mana pool is empty. As long as the character has mana in their pool, there are no ill effects from casting as much or as often as they have the action points to do so. However, when a creature’s mana becomes empty or negative, they are considered strained. While strained, a character attempting to use a spell or ability that costs mana has a greatly increased chance for the spell or ability to fail. For spontaneous wielders, this failure chance is in addition to their normal failure chance. Regardless of the success or failure, it consumes the same amount of mana, which must be converted from the characters own personal energy, draining their health and stamina until it consumes them completely. A character that finds themselves drained in this way may suffer death of become a Phain. (See Rules for specifics on the Drained condition.)

While strained, each point of of mana below 0 takes twice as long to recover. Potions and other means of magical recovery can not replenish mana while a character is strained, as the damage is more than simply being out of mana.