Basic Divine Magic Rules in Scarterra | World Anvil

Basic Divine Magic Rules

Every spell is cast with an attribute + a related ability clearly stated by the description of the divine sphere.   The difficulty for most divine magic is difficulty 6 unless the spell description says otherwise. If you are using divine magic from a favored sphere, the difficulty is reduced by one.   Unless a spell description says otherwise, the mana cost is the level of the effect being used. One dot effects cost the caster one mana, five dot effects cost five mana.   Most casters can cast spells without verbal components if they choose. The difficulty of the casting goes up by +2 unless the caster has the Merit “Practiced Silent Caster” in which case the difficulty only goes up +1. These penalties stack with still casting or casting a spell without a holy symbol.   Casting a spell with somatic components requires the caster has a free hand. Most casters can cast spells without somatic components if they choose. The difficulty of the casting goes up by +2 unless the caster has the Merit “Practiced Still Caster) in which case the difficulty goes up +1. These penalties stack with silent casting or casting a spell without a holy symbol.   Casting a spell without brandishing a holy symbol (or having a highly visible holy symbol worn or tattooed on the caster) raises the difficulty by +1. This penalty stacks with penalties for silent or still casting.   There is no casting penalty for wearing armor.   Touch attacks use Dexterity + Brawl difficulty 4 if the target is surprised, unarmed and/or using a dagger or something similar. Against an alert opponent with a sword or something similar the difficulty of making a touch attack is 5. If you are trying a touch attack against someone with a pole weapon the difficulty increases to 6. Extra successes to hit add to damage. The attack can be dodged normally. Actively parrying a touch attack can backfire by exposing an arm to the touch attack. Thus, parry difficulties against magical touch attacks are +2 difficulty. Ranged magical attack rolls are at difficulty 6 and use Dexterity + Athletics, Dexterity + Archery, or Perception + Spellcraft, player’s choice. This is modified by cover and sight factors like mundane ranged attacks. Extra successes to hit add to damage.   Area of effect attacks effectively never miss but cannot get extra damage for good to-hit rolls. Targets can partially or completely dodge area of effect rolls. Each Dodge success nullifies one level of damage. Dodges against area of effect spells require an action just like dodging a non-magical attack.   Mana pools and regaining Mana   Your maximum Mana pool is pool is your (Willpower + the sum of all your divine magic spheres) x 3.   One dot effects normally cost one mana point. Two dot effects cost two mana points, and so on and so forth.   Casters can regain mana once per day by mediating (Wits + Enigmas) or praying (Charisma + Theology) normally at difficulty 6. The caster gets 5 mana points per success rolled. This takes about an hour and requires the caster to be relatively well rested and at peace. This can only be done once per day. A failure on the roll still gets the caster five mana points. A botch gets the caster nothing, but at least nothing explodes.   Some magical items can act as mana batteries. Some mana batteries are universal and some are keyed to followers of one deity. Sometimes a spirit can give mana to a divine spell caster but this is a rare ability.


Cover image: Symbol of the Nine by Pendrake

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