PenDragon Pass Sorcery

Note: These rules are not complete, and not heavily tested. They're based in part on a RQ4 draft, where Sorcery was divided into Low (available to most people) and High (available to specialists) magic.

Learning and Using Spells

An adventurer may know as many different sorcery spells as his Memorize skill. If he knows that many and wishes to learn a new spell, he must first forget one; the player erases the spell from his sheet.

Spells are learned from an adept. A sorcery spell can be learned as part of winter learning. An adventurer can learn a Low Magic spell by using a one-point skill increase. Learning a High Magic spell takes two points.

To cast a sorcery spell, the adventurer makes an opposed roll of his Sorcery skill versus the number of magic points of the spell. If the adventurer fails to win the resolution, the spell is not cast. If he fumbles, he expends all the magic points of the spell and the spell is not cast. If he wins, he expends the magic points of the spell, and the spell is cast. If he criticals, he expends only one magic point. He may earn a check for Sorcery regardless of whether or not the spell overcomes the target.

Example: Manakor tries to cast Spell Resistance 4 on himself. His Sorcery skill is 8. He rolls a 20 for his skill, a fumble. He marks off 4 magic point and tries again. This time he rolls an 8, and a 3 for the spell. He wins the resolution, and marks off only one magic point since he criticalled. He’s now protected by Spell Resistance.

If the spell has to overcome the resistance of the target, the caster must win an opposed roll of his POW versus the target’s.

Sorcery Skills

Sorcerers with skill in Duration, Intensity, Multispell, or Range can manipulate sorcery spells. The sorcerer’s skill in each spell limits the amount of manipulation he can perform to half its value. In addition, the total number of points in a spell cannot exceed the caster’s Sorcery skill.

Typically, Duration, Multispell, and Range are only taught to apprentice sorcerers.

These skills never increase through experience.

Duration The normal duration of a sorcery spell is 10 minutes. This skill increases the duration of a spell’s effects. Each additional magic point spent using this skill doubles the duration of the spell. A sorcerer can’t use more magic points on Duration than half his skill value.

Intensity All sorcery spells have an automatic intensity of one. Sorcerers can increase the intensity of a sorcery spell with this skill. Each magic point added to the cost of the spell can increase the intensity of the spell by one. See the spell descriptions for the effects of intensifying a particular spell. A sorcerer can’t use more magic points on Intensity than half his skill value.

Range This skill manipulates the range of a spell. The basic range for sorcery spells is 10 metres. Each additional magic point added to the cost of a spell doubles range. A sorcerer can’t use more magic points on Range than half his skill value.

Example: Manakor has the skills Duration 4, Intensity 10, Range 5, and Sorcery 10. He could cast an Intensity 5 Hinder spell, giving it a Duration of 2 (40 minutes) at a range of 3 (80 metres). This spell would cost 10 magic points to cast. If he increases his Duration skill, he could cast a Duration 3 spell, but would have to reduce one of the other manipulations, since he is limited by his Sorcery skill to a total of 10 points per spell.

Info Plaza David Dunham Page Magic