Energetics in Combat
There will come a time when you will be required to show your energetic power when in the face of danger. To do this, you will need to understand how energetics (magic) is used during combat.
Magic Attacks
When attacking with magic, you need to know what your magic accuracy is in order to strike your opponents.
To determine your magic accuracy, add the total of the channeling skill being used plus and miscellaneous modifiers to the d10 roll. Any channeling skill can be used, but remember that channeling with untrained skills causes over channeling and energy surges.
Channeling skill + misc. = magic accuracy magic accuracy + d10 = magic attack
Knowing when a magic attack is needed depends on which spell you are channeling. The following are the different indicators when a magic attack is made:
If an ability uses a magic attack for its accuracy it costs two actions unless otherwise specif
For spells that have several targets indicated, check the description of the spell whether or not you make a magic attack.
Regardless, as to if the magic attack successfully hits or not, the cost of the spell is still spent.
Critical Strikes
Just like critical strikes for weapons, a magic attack’s critical strike range is ten. Magical critical strikes are applied based upon the damage type listed in the spell or by the specified critical effect. The damage type critical effect and the spells listed critical effect never stack, unless specified.
Magic Damage
The type of damage spells create are based on the energy of the spell. Besides the indicated damage dice, the spell specifies for damage, the energy of the spell has a connection to your statistics when channeled. This connection allows you to add additional damage to the spell when the spell states a statistic after the indicated damage dice.
Spell damage dice + statistic = total spell damage
(i.e. chrono energy bolt damage 1d8 + mental)
Keep in mind that not all spells have this extra damage from your statistics. Read over the spell before channeling it in order to understand its actual damage. For example, some spell damage is dealt via an area of effect which normally doesn’t have any statistic added to the damage. Each spell will indicate how much and of what kind of damage it deals.
Magical Defense
Spells are complex infusions of essence and energy. With that complexity comes different (and sometimes difficult) ways to avoid or defend against them. Each spell acts differently from each other, which makes defending against them equally different.
Magical defense is based on the type of spells you are being targeted with. It is common for spells to use an instinct as the defense. Such as resisting a psionic spell with your psyche instinct or a force spell with your guts or stamina instinct. However, other spells will require a standard armored or unarmored defense roll. Each spell will indicate whether the target(s) need to make a defense roll or an instinct roll.
Armored, dodge, or unarmored defense vs. magic attack
Spell Difficulty vs. Target’s Instinct
Typically, the magic attack is connected to the defense roll while the instinct check is connected to the channeler’s spell difficulty. This is an easy way to know what needs to be rolled. If the channeler is rolling to hit (magic attack) then it can be assumed that you will make a defense roll and not an instinct roll.
Defense/Armor from Spells
Some spells grant armor to the target of the spell, such as Ice Armor. While some of these types of spells give defense, like wearing actual armor, they are not affected by any of the armor penalties. They don’t hinder the channeler when channeling spells.
Spells that grant armor do not stack with other types of armor unless otherwise specified. Shields are an exception to this and can be used as additional defense. Read the spell’s description for any special rules the spell has.
