Magical Skills

Magic is hard to master, and characters who delve deeply into it will find little time for other pursuits. Neophyte mages must learn each new spell separately. Even after a character knows a spell, he cannot automatically cast it. The novice must still memorize formulas from a spellbook each day, like any other mage. Zero-level characters can memorize no more than one fiist-level spell or four cantrips for one day. “Insight” lets characters cast one spell as if they were 12th level, but the character will not receive a 12th level mage’s full selection of spells. However, insight does allow a character to cast spells of up to sixth level in power.

It costs one AP point per spell learned and used more than once.

Few beginners own their own spellbooks, so apprentices borrow their master’s tome each day. This means that zero- level characters must justify each spell they want to their teacher, but it also gives them a great variety of spells from which to choose. The DM may decide exactly which spells a wizard owns, and which ones students are allowed to use. Zero-level characters are subject to normal intelligence limits to learning spells, which are described in the Players Handbook. As those tables indicate, no one can learn magic without an intelligence of at least nine.

Novices never completely understand any spells but cantrips. When zero-level characters try to use higher-level magic, the player must roll ld20. If the result is higher than the character’s intelligence, the spell either backfires or fails to work. Harmful spells might injure the caster, and all others produce nothing but clouds of blue smoke. DMs should also feel free to improvise amusing or horrifying results for spell failure.

The armor and weapons of war distract a magician’s psychic powers, so even neophyte mages usually shun them. Characters cannot cast spells in armor. If a character uses weapons forbidden to mages within 24 hours of casting a spell, the intelligence check for spell failure is penalized by + 3. Most teachers of magic forbid weapons and armor completely, and if they catch their students using such items, they may withhold teaching or impose punishments, all while warning the culprit about famous magical disasters.

Certain spells are absolutely required for a zero-level mage to progress beyond borrowing bits of magic from a patron. Read magic is essential to all magic-user work, and a mage’s trade is far easier if he or she knows identify detect magic and erase. Most teachers of magic require their students to learn these spells and urge pupils to record them in their first spellbooks.

Many zero-level characters, especially those who hope to become true magic-users, will eventually want their own spellbooks, but even if the PC can find enough money, spellbooks cannot be purchased easily. They must be crafted by bookbinders skilled in the art and stocked with spells by a magician. In a world without printing presses, only a few scribes understand bookbinding, and they cluster near universities or at the courts of particularly learned kings. Even after a PC owns a book, most teachers of magic refuse to give their spell formulas permanently to anyone but a fellow mage, so zero-level characters will probably need to adventure to obtain copies of spells. Then, the character must find a sympathetic mage to help inscribe the book.

A zero-level mage rolls on the Learning Table to discover if he has properly memorized any given spell. When he wants to use this spell he rolls ld20 and compares the result to his intelligence score to determine if it works. If it doesn’t work he doesn’t lose the spell-he can try again in the next round. He can keep this memorized spell until he has finally used it up.