Mana

Mana represents a combination of magical and spiritual essence. Creatures with more mana can generally cast spells more frequently than those with less mana.

A creature's current mana (usually just called mana) can be any number from the creature's mana maximum down to 0. This number changes frequently as a creature expends mana to cast spells. Whenever a creature spends or expends mana, the amount spent is subtracted from its mana.

All spells of 1st level of greater require a caster to spend some of their mana to produce the desired magical effect. This means that regardless of how many spells are in a casters repertoire, they can only cast a limited number of spell before they inevitably expend their mana and must rest to recover it. Casting a spell requires expending an amount of mana equal to twice the spell's level. The amount of mana a caster has to spend to cast a spell is shown in the Mana Cost by Level table below.

Spells of 6th level and higher are particularly taxing exhausting to cast. Once you spend mana to cast a spell of 6th level or higher, you can't spend mana to cast another spell of the same level until you finish a long rest.

Each spellcasting class includes mana in it's Class Attributes showing their pool of spellcasting energy. A spellcaster spends mana to cast a spell of a given level. A creature can't reduce their mana to less than 0. If casting a spell would put a spellcaster's mana below 0, they can't cast that spell.

Mana Cost By Level

Spell Level	Mana Expended	Casting Limitations
1st	2	None
2nd	4	None
3rd	6	None
4th	8	None
5th	10	None
6th	12	Cannot be cast more than once per long rest
7th	14	Cannot be cast more than once per long rest
8th	16	Cannot be cast more than once per long rest
9th	18	Cannot be cast more than once per long rest

Some characters, NPCs, and monsters have special abilities that let them cast spells without using mana.