Magic (Foundation Lands Supplement)

Intuitively magic is the manipulation of reality beyond what is materially possible. Spellcasting allow mortals to heal deadly wounds, summon powerful allies and conquer other sentient minds, however to understand its importance in the Foundation Lands it is important to understand its inner workings and different traditions.

Magic is the name given to the effects created in the material planes through the channeling of energy from the ether dimension by a sentient mind. This definition contains the three key components of magic, energy brought from an external dimension, a sentient mind and a desired effect.

Principles of magic

• The only connection between the magic energy source and reality is sentience
• No magical energy can flow into the material world without a sentient mind to conduct it
• The power of a caster is directly related to the amount of energy he or she can channel

Channeling Magic Energies (Spending a Spell Slot)

There is one level of simple magic manipulation and nine discrete levels of magic channeling common to all types of casting:

• The magic manipulation is commonly referred to as the “cantrips” level, or level zero, and is not considered to be true source magic, since the manipulation of reality uses the caster’s own physical energy.
• From the first level to the ninth, the sentient mind has to channel energy from the magic source. The higher the level the deeper the mind has to wander in the source.
• This channeling is dangerous and harmful so casters train their minds to access energies from each of level safely.
• When one of the prepared channeling is spent, the caster has to access deeper levels of conscience to prepare his or her mind again, normally this is done by sleeping or deep rest.
• A channeling performed without preparation is always harmful and many times deadly to the caster.
• The energy has to be further manipulated to create a magical effect. A mind has to be prepared to channel the energy as soon as this energy is acquired.

Casting a Spell

After the energy is channeled the caster holds the power to bring the effect to fruition, the next step being realizing the spell. Different traditions use different ways of realizing spells and these methods determine what type of effect can be produced.

• An unprepared channeling is dangerous. If the energy is not immediately spent or dissipated it finds a way to liberate itself. A caster that is not ready to cast a spell takes a 1d6 per level of the spell of force damage. This effect only happens for people who are not trained to cast spells as trained casters learn to dissipate the energy harmlessly. In the development of magic many people have died to discover how to do so.

The main traditions are listed below.

Intelligence Based

Wizard - Cognitive manipulation: the understanding of the source energy and how it and mundane energies work in conjunction allows for the studying and preparation of the largest variety of effects. Its capacity of healing sentient bodies is limited or non existent.

Wisdom Based

Cleric, Druid, Ranger - Connection: the understanding of how to manipulate the energies is acquired intuitively and comes from the connection to something external to the sentient being, be it nature, a divine being or an abstract ideal. The source of this understanding is the other sentient beings who share this belief wherever they may exist. This is the main source of healing magic. Clerics use devotion to connect themselves while Druids and Rangers use the natures’ perceived essence to do it. Paladin - Conviction: similar to the connection but uses one’s own conviction to enable to connect him or her to the source of understanding.

Charisma Based

Sorcerer, Bard - Internal manipulation: The energy is felt through one’s own body and can be manipulated in similar way that cognitive manipulation allows, however the variety of effects one can produce is more limited. This type includes casters that use physical expression to facilitate the casting. Warlock - Granted knowledge: Some sentient beings can allow other to tap their magical understanding to cast spells. Different from the cognitive understanding, this sharing is done tacitly, requiring confidence and self understanding to be effective.

Attempting Higher Levels Spells

While most casters try to cast spells only when having spell slots available, it is possible to attempt to cast above one's training level, this however is very dangerous.

A caster that wants to try to cast a higher level spell than he or she has slots for can try it following these steps:

• Select the desired spell from a class which you can cast spells.
• Select a spell from the same class as the desired spell you can cast. This spell has to be cast at its lowest level.
• The caster must succeed in an ability check of DC 8 in his or her spellcasting ability score. For each level of difference between the spent slot and the required spell slot the DC is increased by four.
• If the caster succeeds, the spell takes effect, however channeling energies without proper preparation is a very harmful process. The caster takes 1d6 force damage per level of the cast spell. This damage reduces the caster maximum hit points being recovered at a rater of 1d6 per long rest. A greater restoration can accelerate the recovery at the same rate of one day. A caster reduced to 0 hp through this damage dies immediately.
• If the caster fails he takes the maximum damage from this roll and the DM decides what are the spell’s effects. In addition, the caster gets one point of exhaustion for each level of difference between the spent slot and the cast spell.
• Spells above sixth level cause double damage.

To mitigate the risks, two forms of casting have been historically used, the second of them forbidden in most civilized places:

Multiple Casters Attempting a Spell Together

Multiple casters can attempt to cast a higher level spell together. To do so takes at least an ten minutes of preparation per level of the spell cast. All helpers must have the attempted spell in their class spell list.

• The main caster attempts to cast the spell as if alone.
• Each of helpers makes an ability check of the same DC as the main caster and spends a spell slot. Each success decreases the DC for the main caster by one.
• The main caster makes his or her ability check with the modified DC, the consequences for success and failure are the same described above, however each spell slot spent by the helpers prevents damage equal to their level, possibly reducing the damage to 0.

Using Sacrifices

Another way to prevent damage to the caster is to perform a myriad of sacrificial rituals (each with their own particularity, at the DMs discretion) using the very mind of the sacrificed sentient being to help in the channeling.

Converting Spells Slots

Spell slots can be converted into other spell slots, but this is a harmful mental process and some energy is always lost .

To create spell slots a caster must sacrifice spells slots to meet the cost of the new slots created, any remainder points are lost.

Spell Slot	Sacrificing Points	Creation Cost
1st	1	2
2nd	2	3
3rd	3	5
4th	4	6
5th	5	7
6th	6	9
7th	7	10
8th	8	11
9th	9	13

• Creating slots of sixth level or higher incur in one level of exhaustion
• Creating a ninth level spell incurs in two levels of exhaustion

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