Spells: Difference between revisions
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: Some spell descriptions refer to attacking. All offensive combat actions, even those that don't damage opponents, are considered attacks. Attempts to channel energy count as attacks if it would harm any creatures in the area. All spells that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Spells that summon monsters or other allies are not attacks because the spells themselves don't harm anyone. This distinction is important for keeping or losing that fancy Invisibility spell effect. | : Some spell descriptions refer to attacking. All offensive combat actions, even those that don't damage opponents, are considered attacks. Attempts to channel energy count as attacks if it would harm any creatures in the area. All spells that opponents resist with saving throws, that deal damage, or that otherwise harm or hamper subjects are attacks. Spells that summon monsters or other allies are not attacks because the spells themselves don't harm anyone. This distinction is important for keeping or losing that fancy Invisibility spell effect. | ||
: <h5>Bringing Back the Dead</h5> | : <h5>Bringing Back the Dead</h5> | ||
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====Enchantment==== | ====Enchantment==== | ||
:Enchantment spells affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior. | :Enchantment spells work with the purest expressions of mana, affecting the world in ways that are subtle, or esoteric, or sometimes both. many enchantments affect the minds of others, influencing or controlling their behavior. Other enchantments infuse power into the fabric of the world, making the mundane behave in strange and powerful ways. Enchantments almost always work through other objects, whether those objects are inanimate or creatures. To an enchanter, a creature is just a different sort of thing, to be infused with their power and then used to their ends. | ||
====Evocation==== | ====Evocation==== | ||
:Evocation spells manipulate magical energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, an evocation draws upon magic to create something out of nothing. Many of these spells produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage. | :Evocation spells manipulate magical energy or tap an unseen source of power to produce a desired end. In effect, an evocation draws upon magic to create something out of nothing. In this way, evocations are quite different from enchantments, and can be seen as both more potent, and weaker. Many of these spells can produce spectacular effects, and evocation spells can deal large amounts of damage. | ||
====Illusion==== | ====Illusion==== | ||
lower illusion damage by 1 damage circle (in exchange for the flexibility of damage types). Saves for half, just like other spells. If save, perhaps damage type defaults to fictive (energy, uncommon) damage. | lower illusion damage by 1 damage circle (in exchange for the flexibility of damage types). Saves for half, just like other spells. If save, perhaps damage type defaults to fictive (energy, uncommon) damage. | ||
:Illusion spells deceive the senses or minds of others. They cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened. | :Illusion spells change the rules of cause and effect with magical power. Illusions can change the load on a wagon, for example, by shunting the effect of weight from the wagon to the ground. Most famously, illusions can deceive the senses or minds of others. They cause people to see things that are not there, not see things that are there, hear phantom noises, or remember things that never happened. | ||
:'''''(Subschools)''''' | :'''''(Subschools)''''' | ||
::*'''Figment:''' A figment spell creates a false sensation. Those who perceive the figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. It is not a personalized mental impression. Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can. If intelligible speech is possible, it must be in a language | ::*'''Figment:''' A figment spell creates a false sensation that exists 'out in the world'. Those who perceive the figment perceive the same thing, not their own slightly different versions of the figment. It is not a personalized mental impression. Figments cannot make something seem to be something else. A figment that includes audible effects cannot duplicate intelligible speech unless the spell description specifically says it can. If intelligible speech is possible, it must be in a language the caster can speak. Likewise, you cannot make a visual copy of something unless you know what it looks like (or copy another sense exactly unless you have experienced it). | ||
::A successful saving throw against an illusion reveals it to be false, but a figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline. | ::*'''Shadow:''' A shadow spell creates something that is partially real. The suspension of cause and effect is strong enough that damage can appear 'from nowhere', abstract things like weight and color and texture can be actually changed, moved, reduced, and otherwise manipulated. Such illusions can have real effects, which is how illusions can act on the world, rather than the mind. Damage dealt by a shadow illusion is real. | ||
=====Clarifications: Saving Throws and Illusions (Disbelief)===== | |||
::Creatures encountering an illusion usually do not receive saving throws to recognize it as illusory until they study it carefully or interact with it in some fashion. This is exactly similar to making a perception check versus an invisible creature. IE, unless the creature involved is actively spending actions to carefully and deliberately examine the illusory effect, it is undetectable as an illusion. If a player wishes to make such an active perception check, this muct be announced. Players who want to always be making perception checks certainly can, but this QUICKLY become a tiresome process for everybody involved. Referees are encouraged to allow or disallow such behavior as they wish, with an emphasis on 'disallow'. Illusions fool you. That's what they do. | |||
::A successful saving throw against an illusion reveals it to be false, but a figment or phantasm remains as a translucent outline. Shadows remain as real as ever, with subtle 'wrongnesses' that make them obviously unreal, but potent anyway. | |||
::A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. | ::A failed saving throw indicates that a character fails to notice something is amiss. A character faced with absolute (such as watching an ally walk through an illusionary wall) needs no saving throw, they disbelieve automatically. If any viewer successfully disbelieves an illusion and communicates this fact to others verbally, without making convincing proof, then each such viewer gains a saving throw with a +4 circumstance bonus. | ||
====Necromancy==== | ====Necromancy==== | ||
:Necromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force. Spells involving [[Undead Traits|undead]] creatures make up a large part of this school. | :Necromancy spells manipulate the power of death, unlife, and the life force. Spells involving [[Undead Traits|undead]] creatures make up a large part of this school. Necromancy also is how the arcane magics manipulate the soul and sometimes aura, able to place a semblance of the spark of life an dead tissue. There are cases where even completely inanimate tissues that were never alive may be stirred to a terrible semblance of life, but such things are often abominable in their conception and execution. | ||
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====Transmutation==== | ====Transmutation==== | ||