Magick

Magick was real, very real to the medieval mind and was viewed as demonic. In C&S we view Magick as the ability of someone who has studied ancient texts and learned to access the Universe and coerce Spirit to bend the will of the universe to their desires, rather than petition higher powers as in Religion. By mastering Arcane Lore the use of Magick may become more proficient through study, research and experimentation.

In Chivalry & Sorcery role-playing, Magick Users gain experience predominately through the actual practice of Magick. Magick is not a cleaver to smash the opposition out of the way. It is a pursuit for its own sake, often carried out away from the hustle an bustle of the world in a secure, peaceful sanctum in which a magus will not be disturbed by the mundane world around him.

It is often pursued for its own sake, not for what the Magus can ‘do’ with it. Magick is unpredictable as the Magus attempts to coerce the spirit around him and depend upon the Will of the Magick User and his attunement to the Universe. Success is measured in the magnitude of the desired effect.

The ability to practice Magick includes some innate talent and the Intelligence to understand the relationship between himself and the Universe around. His apprenticeship only serves to refine that knowledge and attunement. The many paths open to Magick show the varied ways in which someone with the Knowledge can coerce the Universe for given effects, whether that is in the form of commands or illusions. Each pathway has a different form of training in how to use that knowledge and direct that affinity into productive paths.

There are certain places in the universe where a Magus may find special attunments. These may be crossroads, or where ancient markers have been placed like megaliths. Certain times of the day also offer opportune moments, especially for rituals. If at such a place the Magus (or even a Priest) will gain benefits.

At the Full or New Moon add a further 10% bonus to TSC. At the Winter or Summer Solstice at the dawning of the sun a Priest will receive a further +5% bonus to Faith TSC and 10% if a Druid. Nature Priests and Druids can benefit from both Mage and Priest bonuses.

Practising Magick

To practise Magick, a Magus must select a particular Mode of Magick as detailed in Chapter – Skills. This determines his chosen vocation amongst the workers of magick. The Method of Magick the Magus learns determines his ability to work the spells of that chosen method. If he wishes to work charms he must have knowledge of the Command Method of Magick.

The immediate indicator of how powerful a Magus is his Personal Magick Factor (PMF). His PMF shows at any given point in his development as a Magus, how strong he is compared to others in the manipulation of Magick.

To calculate the Personal Magick Factor (PMF) of a Magus, add together the following:

1. The Mage’s PSF% in his selected Mode of Magick, plus

2. His Aspect Bonus. This is +10 for Well and Poor Aspected Mages and +10 for Neutral Aspected Priest-Mages.

The PMF determines the Mage’s Magick Level (ML). This affects his ability to enchant materials and learn and cast spells. Table – Magick Levels shows the Magick Level (ML) gained for the various levels of PMF.

Applying The Laws Of Magick

Law of Resistance

Advanced knowledge of the Law of Resistance gives an improved understanding of the way magick is resisted by the innate spiritual forces of the universe. This enables the user to improve their own Magickal resistance or to penetrate their target’s Magickal Resistance (MR) by +/-10%. This costs 1 FP per spell or Magickal effect.

Law of Personalities

This law gives instinctive understanding of the personalities in all things, both living and inanimate. Providing the Mage has the opportunity to ‘commune’ with the target (that is have a conversation with a person, talk to rocks or plants etc.), the Mage gains a bonus of +10% to his Targeting TSC% when targeting that object or person in the future. The communion needs to last for at least 10 minutes.

Law of Reciprocity

This enables the magus to reduce the Fatigue cost of casting spells he has fully learnt by –1 FP, effectively getting a better deal from the Magickal spirits. The Fatigue cost of a spell cannot be reduced to below half the normal cost through the Laws of Magick.

Law of Harmony

This enables the Magus to re-roll the Crit Die when suffering a Critical Failure when casting a spell. If the Crit Die is a 7 or greater the roll is considered a normal failure.

Law of Polarity

The advanced knowledge of the Law of Polarity allows the magus to exploit those things that are in opposition to enhance their magick. This allows an opposite to be used as a sympathetic object giving double the bonus normally given for the Laws of Sympathetic Magick. For example having water could be used in sympathy to create fire.

Law of Personal Reality

An extensive understanding of the Law of Personal Reality is of particular importance to both illusionary and transcendental magicks. This in depth understanding of the mage’s own personal reality and how it interacts with the personal reality of others gives a bonus of +10% to his TSC% in Illusion and Transcendental magicks.

Law of Paradoxes

Using very complex sub-Laws of Personal Reality it is possible to make a spell work in a particular personal reality whilst it will only have a incidental effect in all others. To do this the magus must expend double the Fatigue and suffer a penalty of –50% to his TSC% to their relevant methods of magick, but not to targeting rolls. The magus must also make a separate targeting roll for each personal reality he wants to affect. The affect will only manifest in those personal realities the magus successfully targets. For example you cast a spell to become invisible but you only want one guard to be unable to see you, so you only target the guard’s personal reality. You will be able to walk past the guard without him seeing you whilst to all others you are in plain sight.

Spells that have a definite physical effect such as the Basic Magick - Fire spell Fireball, create such a wide disparity in personal realities that the targeted realities can become ‘detached’ from those that are unaffected. If you had killed the guard in his own personal reality he would have died only in his own personal reality, but in everyone else’s personal reality he would still be on guard and very much alive. In these instances a casting roll versus his Method of Magick is required.

Law of Contrariness

The magus can to a certain extent bypass some perversity that is preventing them from using magick. Under circumstances where the magus has overused magick to the point of invoking perversity (i.e. where the magus cannot cast spells) minor magicks can still be used but only those with a MR of equal to or less than a quarter of the magus’s ML (rounded down). This ability should be used sparingly as its overuse can lead to this ability also failing.

Law of Spells

The sorcerer learns to make ‘on the fly’ trade-offs in spells. At the cost of 1 FP the sorcerer can reduce the effect of a spell in one area by 1 ML and increase it in another. For example, a sorcerer could reduce the damage of a ranged attack by 1 ML’s worth of damage to increase the range to that of an equivalent sorcerer of the next ML.

Law of Objects

The magus has a better understanding of the way in which objects resist magick and so can more efficiently enchant objects. The magus can subtract his ML from the number of days it takes to enchant materials down to a maximum of half the normal time.

Law of Association

The magus has a better understanding of the way in which a spell resists magick and so can more efficiently learn spells. The magus can subtract his ML from the number of days it takes to learn a spell down to a maximum of half the normal time.

Law of Contact

The magus makes better use of touch range spells adding a bonus of +10% to his Targeting TSC% in these types of magick. The magus also gains a bonus of +5% to his Targeting TSC% to any items he has previously touched.

Law of Possession

This area of expertise gives a bonus of +5% to his TSC% to Command magicks, both to the method and to targeting. If used to directly take control of a person rather than just to give commands this bonus is doubled to +10% to his TSC%. As a side benefit the magus also gains a +10 to his MR against Command magick and possession.

Law of Sympathetic Magick

The magus makes better use of sympathetic magick. When applying this law he gains double the normal bonuses for sympathetic magick up to a maximum of +10% to his TSC% over the normal bonus.

Law of Names

Advanced knowledge of the Law of Names enables the magus to distil a person’s true name into a complex sigil that provides a strong association with that person. This gives a bonus when targeting that person. Correctly inscribing the sigil requires a Law of Magick skill roll and gives a bonus of +2% x Crit Die to the Mage’s Targeting TSC%.

Law of Invocation

Advanced invocation may be used to call a spirit to partially possess the magus in order to obtain skills for a temporary period. The magus must choose the spirit’s PSF% in any skill and the spirit will have the named skill at its base DF, this costs 1 FP for each DF of the skill. However, there is a slight catch. Every time a spirit is called it may not wish to leave the Magus, therefore make a percentage roll against the spirit’s PSF%. On a roll equal to or less than the spirit’s PSF%, the spirit wishes to stay leading to the mage making an actively resisted Willpower check. If the spirit wins (i.e. the Willpower roll is failed) it will remain for some time, generally a period of 1D10 days though the exact details are left to the Gamemaster’s discretion.

If this skill is overused it may lead to the Law of Perversity causing a particularly nasty spirit being called.

Law of Evocation

A detailed knowledge of the Law of Evocation will assist all ritual spells used to summon any type of spirit into the magus’s presence. This doubles any bonuses for any other laws such as knowing the spirit’s name (Law of Names) having touched the spirit (Law of Contact) etc.

Note: Spirits called to possess the magus does not count.

Law of Words of Power

Advanced knowledge of the Law of Words of Power enables the magus to take ‘short-cuts’ when casting spells. The magus may take a penalty of –5% to his TSC% to their relevant modes of magick to reduce 1 AP from the cost of casting their spell by using a word of power to replace some of the more complex portions of the spell. Alternative the magus can expend 2 FP to cut the time by 1 AP by using a word of power to gather energies instead of a slower formula to gather power from external sources. In times of need the magus can do both but at the cost of 4 FP and –10% to his TSC%.

Law of Energy Control

The knowledge of energy control can reduce the amount of Fatigue lost when casting powerful spells due to being able to create a more efficient conduit to the spirit world. For every 5 FP a spell costs to cast, this Law allows the magus to reduce this by 1 FP. The Fatigue cost of a spell cannot be reduced to below half the normal cost through the Laws of Magick.

Law of Enchanted Objects

Enhanced knowledge of the ritual of enchantment allows the magus to reduce the Fatigue cost of the enchantment ritual by 1 FP. The Fatigue cost of a spell cannot be reduced to below half the normal cost through the Laws of Magick.

Law of Quantity

The magus learns how to enchant materials of the same type more efficiently, note that the same type goes deeper than just being the same material, if enchanting herbs then the herbs should be from the same field, body parts from the same creature etc. The magus can enchant 50% more material than normal.

Law of Personal Attunement

When a magus creates an item he can choose exactly who can or cannot use the item instead of making the item personal or public. The magus must have either the people present or an object with a contagious or sympathetic link to each person who will use the item whilst the item is being finished.

Law of Causation

Advanced knowledge of the Law of Causation enables the magus to study a spell already fully learnt further than normal. Each bonus gained takes the same amount of time as it took to fully learn the spell and can give one of the following bonuses. All of which apply just to the spell, which has been studied: -1 AP cost, -1 FP, +10% to his TSC% to the Method of Magick, +10% to Targeting, or +1 to the Crit Die. These bonuses may be chosen once each for each spell, though you may choose multiple different bonuses for each spell. The Fatigue cost of a spell cannot be reduced to below half the normal cost through the Laws of Magick.

Law of the Focus

The magus can connect to his focus over a short distance. However, he can release only those spells stored in his focus and can place no further spells into his focus until he can normally operate it. The mage’s TSC% when using ranged spells is at half TSC% when targeting. The Fatigue cost for activating triggers is five times the normal cost if the magus is normally required to touch the focus due to the inefficient means of operation. People and objects in contact with the focus count as been at touch range and other ranges are measured from the focus. The maximum range of the conduit is ten yards x ML of the mage.

Law of Discharge and Recharge

The magus can create items that can draw power from spirits from around the area of the artefact. All items the magus chooses to create in this way must contain one extra material enchanted to MR 0 and such items gain an extra charge per day.

Learning Spells & Enchanting Materials

Common Spells

Every Mage has access to two spells, which can be considered to be core skills attached to each Mode of Magick. These spells are intrinsic to each Mode and prove the basis for the cornerstones of the Mage’s powers.

Enchant Materials

Resistance: ............MR 2

Fatigue Cost: .........3 FP

Casting Time: .........Ritual (30 minutes)

Range: ...................1 foot per ML

Duration: ................Permanent

The spell Enchant Materials is a ritual that lasts 30 minutes regardless of the quantity of material being enchanted. This spell enables a Mage to reduce the magick resistance of materials. The spell must be cast on the materials to be enchanted for a number of days as indicated in the Table – Enchant Materials – Days Taken and can only be cast upon a particular material once within any 24 hour period. Once fully enchanted materials are in such a physical state, that they can become repositories for Magickal energy. The amount of material that can be enchanted by a mage is 1/2 lbs x ML, therefore a Mage with ML 6 could enchant 3 lbs of material.

The total material so enchanted, within the weight limits of the mage may be a collection of a variety of different materials, but they must all have the same MR at the start of the spell casting. A Mage is not restricted to how many times he casts this spell. So if he had several piles of materials he was enchanting, he could spend a morning enchanting all of these separate materials. The process is fixed in time, the Mage’s ML simply dictates how much material can be enchanted in one go.

A Mage can either work on materials constantly or leave them for a few days and return. The length of time that a magus can leave partially enchanted materials is 100 days minus the total number of days required to enchant the material, as shown in Table – Enchant Materials – Days Taken. i.e. if a mage of ML 3 enchanted a material of ML 1 it would take a total of 7 days. He could elect to enchant the material on seven consecutive days or he could leave gaps of days between castings if he so wished.

However, any material of MR 4+ would not be able to be left due to the number of days it takes to enchant the material down to MR 0.

In addition, if the work is left beyond the time limit allowed, there is a chance that the enchanted material returns to its natural state and MR. The chance of this happening is a cumulative 5% per ML per day lapsed. Basically, a Magus with a high ML can spend more time away but should know better than to leave work unfinished. A low ML mage can be excused somewhat as he is still learning the art and his impact on the infrastructure of the universe is still somewhat small.

The time to fully enchant materials in days is a cumulative process. Table – Days Taken to Enchant Materials shows the number of days taken to enchant an item down by one level, therefore a Mage of ML 4 who needs to enchant a material from MR 5 to MR 0 will take 26 + 21 + 16 + 10 + 5 = 78 days.

This can be easily progressed for materials with a MR above 10 and for mages with ML 10+. For mages with ML over 10, the minimum time for any MR is 2 days. For materials with MR 10+ the maximum period is 154 days, and the maximum MR a mage can enchant is ML 9+. The formula for calculating the number of days required is 26 x (MR / (ML+1)) (round down).

Transfer

Resistance: ............MR 3

Fatigue Cost: .........5 FP

Casting Time: .........Hex

Range: ...................Sight - 1 person or Item

Duration: ................Untill Triggered

This is a spell allowing a Magus the opportunity to transfer a spell stored in one container into another container, whether this container is an actual item or the mind of the Magus or another person. This is not a copy spell, the method and knowledge are 'transferred' to the other receptacle leaving the original container. If this is a book then the method for the spell is inscribed. It could then be researched and it's MR reduced and so learned. This type of tranfer is permanent.

If the receptacle is the mind of the magus or another person, then the spell and how to cast is transferred to the mind. Once cast however, all knowledge of the spell is gone, only a muddy remembrance of the magick remains. A mage can also transfer casting ability for a spell, from his mind into that of a non magic user. The originating mage forgets the spell until it is cast by the target of the transfer (using the originating mages PMF and targeting numbers). This can be used to steal spells from the minds of other wizards, to do so it requires the caster of Transfer to know the target wizard has Mastered that spell. Using this Common spell, spells can be moved into items that have not been prepared to receive spells.

Common Terms

MR: Magic resistance

PMF:To calculate the Personal Magick Factor (PMF) of a Magus, add together the following:

1. The Mage’s PSF% in his selected Mode of Magick, plus

2. His Aspect Bonus. This is +10 for Well and Poor Aspected Mages and +10 for Neutral Aspected Priest-Mages.

The PMF determines the Mage’s Magick Level (ML). This affects his ability to enchant materials and learn and cast spells. Table – Magick Levels shows the Magick Level (ML) gained for the various levels of PMF.

Cost: A Fatigue Point cost is typically associated with an Act of Faith and will be assessed against the person(s) named.

Crit Die Result: A certain result on the Spirit AR Crit Die is needed for Act of Faith to be successful or else there is an enhancement to the benefit received.

Time: This is the time needed to perform an Act of Faith, Sacred Ritual or Special Power. Duration: The length of time the effects of the Acts of Faith, Scared Ritual or Special Power last.

FP: Fatigue Points

Fatigue is a measure of a character’s endurance and general level of energy. Fatigue is measured in Fatigue Points (FP).

Determining Basic Fatigue Points

To calculate a PC’s Fatigue Points choose the most favourable of:

• The sum of the character’s Constitution and Strength attributes, or

• That of the character’s Constitution and Discipline Recovering Fatigue Points

Fatigue is typically quickly used up in highly stressful situations, particularly during combat or in during Magickal practice. The Fatigue Recovery Rate (FRR) reflects how quickly they can recover personal energy levels and is dependent on Constitution. After 10 minutes of rest a character will regain an amount of Fatigue Points, as shown in Table - Fatigue Recovery Rates. This is the amount of Fatigue Points recovered in the first 10 minutes of rest following any activity. The PC is simply required to rest and do nothing to 'get their breath back'.

This resting period can be extended up to a maximum of 1 hour to recover additional Fatigue Points. After the first 10 minutes of rest the recovery rate drops to 1 FP per 10 minutes of additional rest for PCs with CON 15 or less and 2 FP per 10 minutes of additional rest for those with CON 16+. If a PC wishes to recover more, sleep is required. Recovering Fatigue Points at the sleeping rate has no maximum time period.

Total Success Chance (TSC%)

By this point the character will have all the numbers necessary to calculate his chance to succeed in a skill. The Total Success Chance (TSC%) is calculated as follows:

1. Basic Chance of Success (BCS%) as shown in Table – Difficulty Factors (either skilled or unskilled as appropriate plus

2. The character’s Personal Skill Factor (PSF%) in the skill; plus

3. Any modifiers effecting the character’s performance of the skill, these may relate to the circumstances in which the skill is being performed, etc.

It is conceivable that a character that is highly skilled with many levels in a particular skill may possess a TSC% above the Maximum Chance of Success (Max%) for a skill at that DF. Table – Difficulty Factors shows the minimum and maximum chances of success available for each Difficulty Factor.

In this instance the TSC% is equal to the Maximum Chance of Success (Max%) for the given skill. The reverse may also be true in that a character’s TSC% may be lower than the Minimum Chance of Success (Min%) for a given DF especially if he is unskilled. In this case the character’s TSC% is equal to the Minimum Chance of Success (Min%) for the skill.

However, any amounts above or below the maximum and minimum levels are not ignored, they provide either bonuses or penalties to the Crit Die result. For further details see the section Min% and Max% Success Chances later in this Chapter.

Making a Skills Check

A skills check is made to find out whether a character succeeds or fails with a particular skill at a given moment. The skill check is made up of two elements, the result of the Percentile Pair or 1D100 roll and the result of the Crit Die or 1D10 roll.

The Percentile Pair (1D100)

The Percentile Paid are a paid of ten-sided dice with one die having '0' after the number (this is the 10’s die) and the other being the units die.

If you do not have these specialised dice, roll two ten-sided dice of different colours, one designated a ten’s die and the other the one’s die.

The Crit Die (1D10)

The third ten-sided die should be a different colour from the percentage dice. This is the Crit Die and it should be rolled at the same time as the Percentile Pair.

It is used to indicate the magnitude of the skill check, the larger the result the greater the magnitude of the skill check whether it is a success or failure. The Crit Die result is compared to the appropriate table and the result noted.

A 10 (or higher) result is always a Critical whether it is a Success or Failure. Certain occasions give modifiers to the crit die to increase the chance of a critical result for example using a charging Lance. A critical result brings its own special penalties and bonuses.

Example:

A Well Aspected Magus with a PSF 78% in his Mode of Magick will have a PMF of 78 + 10 = 88. This equates to a ML of 11. If the Magus gained a further 11 levels in his Mode his PSF% would increase to 111 which along with his Aspect bonus equates to a PMF of 121, giving him an ML of 16. When his PMF reaches 128 his ML increases to 17.