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Battle magic can only be cast during a tactical battle. These spells have battle effects like inflicting damage, granting increased protection, reducing fatigue, or some similar effect which only makes sense in the context of the battle mechanics. Battle magic can be scripted into a mage’s list of battle actions using Set battle orders. If a battle spell requires gems, that mage must have those gems in his inventory before the battle begins.
Some battle spells affect the whole battlefield and are termed battle enchantments. Some of these last the length of the battle. A battle enchantment is dispelled if its caster dies.
When a mage attempts to cast a spell the game goes through a workflow to determine whether the spell is cast.
When a spell is being cast the current level of the mage determines whether the spell can be cast at all. The current level of the mage is the basic path level of the mage plus any kind of path-boosting effects currently affecting the mage. The path level of a mage can be boosted in a number of ways:
Note that a mage can never boost paths outside their basic paths. A 1 mage cannot equip Earth Boots to gain 1.
If the mage has gems in their inventory or blood slaves in their vicinity these can be used to fuel their spellcasting. In combat, gems may do one of three things:
Rule of Paths
A mage may never spend more gems in one turn than his current level in the relevant path.
Rule of One
A mage can use exactly one gem to boost the corresponding path one level.
Rule of Stash
A mage can only use gems from their own inventory.
Rule of Blood
A mage can use any friendly blood slave within 8 squares.
Current level is the mage's basic path level + path boosts from items, path boosting spells and being in a communion
Example: Consider the Alteration 5 spell Maws of the Earth, which requires an 3 caster and 1.
Mages can only use gems from their own inventory. However, blood slaves are special in that any blood mage within 8 squares of a blood slave can use that slave to fuel their magic.
The casting time detailed as a percentage of a round in the description of a spell is divided into two steps: the first half is spent by the mage preparing to cast the spell, the second half is spent recovering from the casting. The spell itself resolves somewhere in the middle, the Casting Point, at approximately half the casting time of the spell.
Of note is the fact that a spell does not resolve exactly at half its casting time. Instead, some randomness is involved: a spell will resolves at half its casting time plus or minus up to 15% of a round, linearly distributed 1) This can be mechanically important, such as in the interaction between Storm and Summon Storm Power.
Casting point:
Casting time / 2
+/- up to 15% of a round
Example: Let us assume we set up one mage to cast Storm with his first script slot, and a group of A2 mages to cast Summon Storm Power then Thunder Strike. We get the following result:
Some mages are innate spellcaster (X). These monsters do not require any preparation time for their spells. They also completely ignore casting times. Instead they cast up to X spells per round.
A mage with spell singer adds a flat 50% to cast time for all spells.
During the preparation time mentioned in the previous section, the caster can be interrupted by taking damage.
The chance of being interrupted when taking damage while casting a spell is expressed as a percentage of your full hit points caused by the damage, plus 25%. Thus, a strike that inflicted half of a spellcaster’s full hit points in damage would have a 75% chance of interrupting the spell being cast.
Interrupt chance:
( Damage / Max HP )% + 25%
/ 2 if Combat Caster or Mindless
A mage with Innate Spellcaster cannot be interrupted by damage.
A mage with Combat Caster or Mindless is half as likely to be interrupted by damage.
When a spell has been succesfully cast the spell's effect is resolved. Spells have different characteristics that influence this stage. The method for resolving battle magic is very similar to that for missile weapons. Mages have a precision attribute just like archers do. Spells have a Precision rating, also, that is added to the mage's precision when the spell is cast.
Spell range is measured in squares. Diagonals have a cost of 1.5 tiles.
Just like attacking in combat, casting spells in battle incurs fatigue. Each spell has a listed fatigue cost which a caster incurs when casting that spell. For each skill level in the required path that the mage exceeds the minimum, he incurs 1 / (1 + (mage skill – minimum skill) of the listed spell fatigue. In other words, having an extra skill level means the mage suffers only ½ fatigue, two extra skill levels means he suffers only 1/3 as much, three extra is ¼, and so forth.
Spell casters also incur fatigue equal to their base Encumbrance value + 2x Encumbrance value of any armor worn for each spell cast. This is not subject to reduction by skill bonuses. It is harder to make magical gestures in heavy armor.
Fatigue is very important for spell casters. It is often the limiting factor in combat, and higher-skill mages thus have an advantage in that they incur less fatigue. Spells that reduce fatigue, like Reinvigoration, Summon Earthpower and Relief, can be very useful as well.
Spell fatigue:
Spell fatigue cost / (1 + mage's path level - minimum path level required)
+ Base Encumbrance
+ 2 x Armor Encumbrance value
+ Scales modifiers