Notes on Spellcasting

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Saibankan
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Notes on Spellcasting

Post by Saibankan » Wed Jul 21, 2021 6:02 am

(Liberated from Kuni Yasu's secret library, with gm notes in parenthesis.)

Offerings: Use of a physical offering can allow the reroll of up to 3 dice with blank results.
(You can offer up one of the appropriate materials when you cast a spell of the appropriate element. Not necessary to spell cast, but you get the above benefit if you do.)

Channeling: Delays results and allows you to carry over dice results.
-After Step 5: Choose Kept Dice, may choose to channel any number of those kept dice instead of resolving the check.
-next turn, may use those kept dice to replace dice that would otherwise be rolled...rolling the remainder and proceeding as normal
-In conflict-channel as often as desired.
-Outside of conflict, may only channel once and it doubles the time it takes.
-May hold channeled dice while performing other non-Invocation actions. If performing an Invocation of the same Element, the channeled dice are lost.
-If Dazed, Silenced, or Unconscious, reserved dice are lost.

(Spells are normally cast in 1 round, pass or fail. However, by channeling you can take more rounds to cast the spell, which gives you a chance to build up the successes you need to pass, though it does run risks of someone ruining it and the risk of backlash below)

Backlash:
3 or more strife on kept dice creates spiritual backlash.
-receive 3 fatigue
-cannot use invocations of that element again for the scene
Air: GM chooses up to two additional characters in range who become targets
Fire: The technique targets each character in range. At GM's discretion the terrain at range 0-2 catches ablaze, becoming Dangerous
Earth: The terrain at range0-3 gains Imbalanced (Earth) for a number of days equal to the shugenja's strife
Water: The terrain at range 0-1 turns to muck and becomes Entangling

(Be careful when spellcasting. 3 or more strife kept on a spellcasting roll triggers backlash detailed above)

Prepared Invocations:
May only have one.
Anyone holding it can unleash it via listed acivation
Preparing one is a downtime activity. The check depends on the skill used and ingredients. Uses the ring and TN of the invocation.
Wards: Prepared invocation on paper that may be affixed to an object. Requires 1 bu of parchment. Write a condition on the ward that will unleash it.

(This lets you store a spell in say a paper ward to automatically trigger either by you or someone else you give it to. Regardless of whether you have it or give it away, only one created by you can be in existence at one time)

Importune:
Once per scene
Requires an offering of sufficient value
Increase the TN of the importuned Invocation by 1 plus 1 for each school rank by which the prerequisite exceeds the character's current school rank.
May Channel, but only once.

(This is how you cast spells you don't actually know, though it's harder and absolutely requires an offering of the appropriate element)

Appropriate offerings:
Air: Incense, feathers, flowers
Earth: Salt, soil or stones from sacred places, seeds
Water: Coins, shells, precious materials, seaweed, sake
Fire: Kindling, paper, ash, small flammable objects
Fortunes: Texts, food, origami, works of art
Ancestors: Food, incense, sake and other libations

(This is the stuff you can offer to the kami when an offering is needed)
Non-Human * Gamemaster * Headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy * Mastermind

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