In cases where the second edition Spell Law differs from the first, the second is taken as correct.
Spells use the modifiers listed in the table towards the end, depending on the realm(s). Note that all elemental attack spells use the same modifiers. If a spell caster attempts to cast a spell beyond the normal framework, perhaps faster than normal, without using his hands or even just while injuried, he must make an extraordinary spell failure roll.
Even when hasted a spell caster may only cast one spell a round (but he can prepare spells faster). There are only two exceptions to this:
If a spell is cast by an item, another may be cast by the user. Note that the item must be intelligent, otherwise the user is merely using the item to help her cast a spell, so cannot cast a second one.
A spell caster can cast an instantaneous spell after casting another spell. This allows him to respond to a melee attack (for example) which would happen later in the round. The spell caster is in effect borrowing from the next round, so cannot cast any spells at all in the next round.
A character can attempt to parry a spell, but can take no other action in that round. This is done by channeling the magical power. Roll, add the characters channeling skill, take off the casters level, take off 20 if the spell is not of the parriers realm.
| Result | Effect |
| 201+ | Spell can be directed at another target |
| 151 200 | Spell channelled safely; target gains all PP from spell up to personal maximum |
| 101 150 | Spell channelled harmlessly away |
| 1 100 | Channeling failed, spell affects target normally |
| 0 or less | Channeling failed, spell affects target normally who also suffers a C stun critical. |
Using this skill a character can regain PP faster. Roll for each hour of mediation.
| Result | Effect |
| 251+ | Benefit as per 5 hours sleep |
| 201 250 | Benefit as per 4 hours sleep |
| 151 200 | Benefit as per 3 hours sleep |
| 101 150 | Benefit as per 2 hours sleep |
| 26 100 | Benefit as per normal 1 hour sleep |
| 1 25 | No benefit |
| -49 0 | -20 to all actions, -100 to meditation for 1 day |
| -99 -50 | -30 to all actions, -100 to meditation for 3 days |
| -100 or less | -40 to all actions, -100 to meditation for 7 days |
Using spell mastery a character can modify the effects of a spell in some way. There are a number of different spell mastery skills, each of which must be developed separately. Some examples are listed.
| Spell mastery | Effect |
| Dimensions | Allows the dimensions of any wall spell to be modified when the spell is cast, no increase in volume, must be cuboid. |
| Shape wall | Allows the shape of a wall of fire, cold, air or water to be slowly altered once formed. |
| Move wall | Let the caster slowly move a wall of fire, cold, air or water. |
| Summons | Allow any summoning spell to be controlled to determine more accurately what appears. |
| Acrobatics | Lets the caster perform complicated maneuvers while flying. |
| Teleport | Allows the caster/target to reappear in a certain orientation. |
| Rope | Allows caster to make attacks with an Enchanted rope spell (successful maneuver implies a +0 grapple attack). |
| Fluorish | Allows caster to add a limited cosmetic effect to a spell, such as a vague dragon form in a fireball, a face on a wall. |
| Duration | Causes the spell just cast to last as though the caster was of higher level (roll: 0 or less spell fails; 26 to 100 as normal; 101-110 1 level higher; 111-130 2 levels; 131-160 3 levels; 161-200 4 levels; 201+ 5 levels). |
| Portation | Increases the limit on mass that spells like levitation and leaving can handle (normally 150% of caster's mass). |
| Mental spell | Allows the caster to cast a spell without gestures or incantations. |
| Illusions | A number of skills are available that relate to illusions. |
| Illusions (effects) | Allows caster to create better illusions of special spell effects, fire, explosions and so on (see section on illusions). |
| Control | A spell caster can normally control a number of levels of beings (undead and demons principly) equal to his will divided by ten plus his level. Each rank in spell mastery, control increases thisd number by 1. |
| Result | Effect |
| 101+ | Spell cast in modified form |
| 26 100 | Spell cast normally |
| 1 25 | Spell fumbled, roll as normal |
| 0 or less | Spell fumbled, roll as normal, but add 50 to result. |
Using this skill, a wizard or priest can attempt to cast a spell without words or gestures. However, the chances of fumbling are pretty high. Make a roll, add the skill and subtract the spell level.
| Result | Effect |
| 101+ | Spell cast okay |
| 76 100 | No effect (PP not lost) |
| 26 75 | Extraordinary spell failure, roll and add twice spell level |
| 1 25 | Extraordinary spell failure, roll and add five times spell level |
| 0 or less | Extraordinary spell failure, roll and add ten times spell level |
| Mentalism | Essence | Arcane | Elemental | Channeling | Ess-Chan | Men-Chan | |
| Range | See below | See below | See below | See tables | See below | See below | See below |
| Target: | |||||||
| Cover | Up to -20 | Up to -20 | Up to -20 | Up to -60 | Up to -20 | Up to -20 | Up to 20 |
| Static | +10 | +10 | +10 | +30 | +10 | +10 | +10 |
| Quickness | -[QU mod] | ||||||
| Caster: | |||||||
| Skill bonus | Base spell | Base spell | Base spell | Directed spell | Base spell | Base spell | Base spell |
| Using weapon hand | +[AG mod] | ||||||
| Extraordinary spell failure: | |||||||
| Injury* | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] | -[Penalty] |
| Leather armour | 20 | 15 | |||||
| Metal armour | 40 | 40 | 25 | 35 | 20 | ||
| Metal items >5 lb | 20 | 20 | |||||
| Metal items > 25 lb | 35 | 35 | 20 | 30 | 15 | ||
| Using off hand | 15 | 25 | 10 | ||||
| Using no hands | 50 | 70 | 50 | 30 | 40 | 15 | |
| No vocals | 30 | 45 | 30 | 30 | 20 | ||
| No holy symbol | 30 | 20 | 20 | ||||
| Applicable to all realms: | |||||||
| Casting one round early |
25 | ||||||
| Casting two rounds early |
50 | ||||||
| Higher level spell | 15+5x[spell level] - 5x[caster's level] | ||||||
*Healing spells with range 'self' or spells that are instant do not suffer penalties associated with injuries.
| Touching | +30 |
| up to 10' | +10 |
| 11' to 50' | 0 |
| 51' to 100' | -1 |
| 101' to 300' | -20 |
| over 300' | -30 |
| Roll | Mentalism | Essence | Elemental | Arcane | Channeling |
| 0 or less | Spell goes off as normal.* | ||||
| 01-10 | Spell goes off as normal,* but caster stunned next round. | Spell goes off as normal,* but caster suffers 10 hits. | Spell goes off as normal,* but caster stunned next round. | Spell goes off as normal,* but caster suffers 15 hits. | Spell goes off as normal.* |
| 11-25 | Spell delayed one round,* caster at 90 that round (as per normal spell casting). | ||||
| 26-50 | Spell effect lost, but not PP | ||||
| 51-75 | Any roll over 50, the spell fails and the PP are lost. Other effects are noted. | ||||
| 76-90 | Roll 'A' depression critical | Roll 'A' physical alteration critical | Roll appropriate 'A' critical | Roll 'A' disruption critical | Roll 'A' shock critical |
| 91-125 | Roll 'B' depression critical | Roll 'B' physical alteration critical | Roll appropriate 'B' critical. | Roll 'B' disruption critical | Roll 'B' shock critical |
| 126-200 | Roll 'C' depression critical. Develops phobia towards this single spell (at -30 if he considers doing so for 1 hour). | Roll 'C' physical alteration critical. All plant life in 25' withers and dies. | Roll appropriate 'C' critical. Caster physically ages 5 years. | Roll 'C' disruption critical | Roll 'C' shock critical. Caster must pray for 2 hours before casting next channeling spell. |
| 201-300 | Roll 'D' depression critical. Develops phobia towards this spell list (at 40 if he considers doing so for 4 hours). | Roll 'D' physical alteration critical. All plant life and small beasts (less than 12") in 100' wither and die. | Roll appropriate 'D' critical. Caster physically ages 10 years. | Roll 'D' disruption critical | Roll 'D' shock critical. Caster must pray for 6 hours before casting next channeling spell. |
| 301+ | Roll 'E' depression critical. Develops phobia towards spell casting (at 50 if he considers doing so for 24 hours). | Roll 'E' physical alteration critical. All plant and non-sentient life in 250' withers and dies. | Roll appropriate 'E' critical. Caster physically ages 25 years. | Roll 'E' disruption critical | Roll 'E' shock critical. Caster must spend 7 days in penitence before casting next channeling spell. |
NOTE: Any roll over 50, the spell fails and the PP are lost. Other effects
are noted above.
*Roll of 1-25, spell goes off as normal. Reroll for attack effectiveness.
Spell phobias can be over come by therapy, lasting between two and five months.
Consider these questions: Can a magic item be detected inside a chest (say with Detect essence)? Can a presence be detected behind a wooden door (with Presence)? Can a spell be cast through water or through a pane of glass? Can a spell be cast through a stone wall? What about a magic wall of cold or through a person? What about elemental spells? What about mirrors?
My feeling is that the answer to the first two is yes, otherwise they are not terribly useful (especially presence). Therefore we have to say that spells, in general, can pass through most media.
You cannot cast a spell though a medium that the spell can affect. A heat metal spell cannot be cast through metal, a charm kind spell cannot be cast through an intelligent being, and so on.
You must know where a target is to cast a spell at him. Usually this means that you have to see him, but intervening barriers may prevent this. One option is to use a spell (Presence or Stone sight for example) to determine the target's location. If you just guess, the GM must use his discretion to apply a bonus to the target's RR, or even decide the spell fails automatically (but you will not know either way).
Magic is not reflected. If the target is seen in a mirror, and you know about the mirror, you can guess his position, but spell casting may still suffer a -10 to -25 penalty. If you try to cast the spell at a reflection it will fail. Should there be someone else at the apparent position of the reflection the spell could affect him, but with a penalty of at least -10.
Elemental spells will almost affect anything they hit, so cannot pass through most media. Also, while base attack spells can be pin-pointed by range, an elemental spell is just pointed in the correct direction and blasted off; it stops at the first thing it hits. Some exceptional media:
Gases: A fundamental assumption is that all elemental attacks pass freely through air (or perhaps the range should be doubled if cast in a vacuum).
Firebolt, fireball, lightning bolt and shockbolt will all ignite an inflammable gas mixture as they pass through.
Liquids: While the attack can pass through the liquid, the GM should apply a penalty to the attack roll. This should be equal to the distance through the liquid in feet.
Firebolt, fireball, lightning bolt and shockbolt will all ignite an inflammable liquid if they pass through the surface and there is oxygen present. Indeed, casting over such a liquid has a high chance of igniting the vapour too.
Fire: All elemental attacks will pass through non-magical fire. Icebolt and cold ball may suffer a penalty of up to -20, depending on the size of the fire.
Solids: Elemental attacks will not pass through any solids; they will attack the solid instead.
Clouds: Clouds include any suspension of tiny liquid droplets or dust particles in air. While the attack can pass through the cloud, the GM should apply a penalty to the attack roll. This should be calculated from the distance through the cloud in feet multiplied by a factor for the cloud density (ranging from 0.1 to 1).
Firebolt, fireball, lightning bolt and shockbolt will all ignite a cloud of inflammable material (if oxygen is present) as they pass through.
Magically created barriers, etc: This applies to walls of elemental flux that are not solid, such as Wall of water, Wall of cold and Wall of fire. The elemental attack must make an RR (use the respective spell levels) to pass through. The elemental attack has a +20 bonus to the RR if passing though its own element, but -20 if passing through an oppose element.
Solid walls, for instance Wall of stone, will stop an elemental attack, and suffer the damage as a result.
Wall of air will not affect elemental attack spells, while wall of force will automatically stop all elemental attacks without itself suffering any effect.