Rules of Mages

The homebrew rules of magic

All you need to know about how magic works in Eternium on a gameplay level.

whats stats are used, what can you do and how much of it.

Most of it is open for you to explore and to learn, I do NOT want to tell you what you can and can not do.

This world is written and conceptualized for creative people, come up with what you want to do and I will figure out the rules behind the screen.
All the articles, characters and concepts I describe on this webpage are here as inspiration and to give you a picture of what is possible and to hopefully give you a feeling for the world your characters live in.

The rules of mages

Everything a new mage needs to know in order to not obliterate him or her self nor anyone not intended to be affected.

With the knowledge of this document, you will be able to create, destroy, awaken or change the world you live in.

Influence what you desire and defend yourself against those who wish you and your loved one's harm.

Character Concept

All the concepts you are familiar with do no longer exist.

This means that there are no longer wizards, sorcerers, bards clerics or warlocks.

There are simply mages.

Mages control their affinities and the pull on the world around them to control and shape the matter attached to their affinities in order to cast spells and achieve the influence they wish for.
That means you simply come up with a concept of a character with our having to worry about what class best fits that concept.

Have the base idea of what you want your character to be, like name and race as well as a basic idea of what you want them to be capable of before we go into character creation together.

Stats

All mages use Intelligence as their main casting stat.


It determines how much mana you can hold and how hard your mana is to be defeated by the enemy, aka the saving throw against your magic. Picking Affinities

This step is suuuper important and yet something you really don't have to worry about for now. We will pick affinities together during character creation based on your concepts.§

Major and minor Affinities

Every mage picks one major affinity and roles for two minor affinities.

Depending on your concept either the picking or rolling can happen first.

You can use concepts and mana to affect both your minor and major affinities.

Using a minor affinity takes a lot more control for mages, this means an up to double mana cost for using minor affinities compared to major affinities.

You can not use affinities you do not have available to you.

A water major, and darkness/celestial minor, mage is unable to throw a fireball.

But a water ball that transforms into shadow and ice spikes at impact literally raining death around it... that is a different story.

Mana

Instead of using spell slots we will be using mana.

Mana is a finite resource you expend every time you use your affinities to do anything.

The cost of mana is directly linked to how much control you have over said affinity, major or minor, and how much power is needed to achieve your desired effect.

You will regenerate 1d6+Intelligence every long rest

You can spend one hour "cultivating" to regenerate your intelligence modifier worth of mana.

You, and your character need to learn together how much certain actions cost in mana.

During character creation, you will learn the needed mana for a few abilities unique to you.

If you use an ability to high powered for your character and the amount of mana you hold, the spell will drain your health in order to sustain the spell.

If you run out of both mana and health while casting you will fall unconscious.

How long you will be unconscious depends on the draw you put on your body.

For every 5 mana points over your available health, you will be unconscious for one day.

And every day of unconsciousness from mana draw adds one point of exhaustion to you when you wake up.