Conjure Check

This article is part of Teramore's homebrew magic system, and can safely be ignored for any character using rules-as-written spells (mana/spell slots).

A Conjure Check is a dice roll to determine the success or failure of a spell. It is influenced by the caster's skill, the balance of Aether and Null in the area, and how well a spell is known and understood.

Dice Pool

A Conjure Check is comprised of a pool of d10's. A Caster's skill in the relevant School (or Schools) determines the number of dice rolled. If the spell only involves one school, the dice pool is the caster's skill x2. If it involves two schools, then the dice pool is the skill in each school added together.

Example: A Caster has 3 Ranks in Sortisism, and casts a Sortisism spell. The dice pool would be 6d10 (2x3).

A Caster has 2 Ranks in Fabrimancy, and 3 Ranks in Nexumancy, and casts a spell involving both. The Dice pool would be 5d10 (2+3).

Note: Casting with more than two schools is not possible, see Orthoscription for more information.

Success & Failure

Whether a spell succeeds or fails, and to what degree, is determined by the number of "successes" and "failures" that come from the dice pool being rolled. Success vs. failure is generally 6's and higher. That is, any dice that rolls 6+ adds a success, and any dice 5- does not. These successes are added together. The DC for the conjure check is the spell level being attempted. I.e. a 4th Level spell requires 4 successes. If a conjure check meets or exceeds this DC, the spell is cast, if not, it fails and the mana is still consumed.

Critical Fail or Success

On a roll of a 10 on any dice, it critically succeeds. It counts as a success, and an additional die can be rolled in the check. Additional die can add to, but never detract from the total number of successes.

If any of the die in a conjure check roll a 1, the dice critically fails. Not only does it not count as a success, but it detracts 1 success from the total. Note that there is a way to avoid critical failures, see Emergent Magic below.

If a Conjure Check results in a result of fewer than 0 successes (there were more 1's rolled than there were successes, resulting in a negative number of success) then the spell critically fails. The results are at the DM's discretion, with the failure being influenced by the spell level (higher level spells fail more spectacularly), the degree of the critical failure (how negative the result), and roleplay considerations.

Definitions

Equalibrity - The balance of Aether and Null, represented as ᘉ/ค. This denotes the end of failure and beginning of success. Unless otherwise noted, Equalibrity is ᘉ/ค=5/6.

Spontaneous Magic - Any spell or effect being attempted by a caster without prior study or preparation. All Spells are considered Spontaneous unless they meet the definition of Emergent or Codified Magic.

Emergent Magic - A spell becomes Emergent when it has been studied and refined, usually through downtime. A spell requires one hour of study per spell level (cantrips are 30min), and experimental materials are expended in the pursuit and research - these could be anything from rare ingredients, intricate devices, expensive gems or minerals, or even paying for access to archives or for peer-review. The cost in GP is below.

Once a spell is Emergent, it is written in the caster's spellbook (or other thematically appropriate method of recording). Future Conjure Checks are now Improved Conjure Checks; 1's no longer critically fail and do not detract from the total number of successes.

Spell Level	Material Cost (Gold Pieces)
Cantrip	10 GP
1st	50 GP
2nd	200 GP
3rd	500 GP
4th	1,000 GP
5th	2,500 GP
6th	5,000 GP
7th	10,000 GP
8th	20,000 GP
9th	50,000 GP

Codified Magic - Any spell from official D&D 5e sourcebooks is considered a Codified Spell. These spells are so thoroughly studied, refined, and structured through extensive use and academic pursuits, that they are reliable and (generally) safe. Codified Spells do not require a conjure check. A chart is available here showing what school of magic is related to each Codified Spell.

Standard Conjure Check - A roll where a spell is Spontaneous, or altered from an Emergent or Codified version. 1's count as critical failures, and 10's count as critical successes.

Improved Conjure Check - A roll for an Emergent (known) spell. 1's do not critically fail, and 10's count as critical successes.

Codified Spells do not require Conjure Checks.

Statistical Reference

Note that the tables show the percentage chance of rolling that specific number of successes with a given dice pool. To determine the chance of meeting and exceeding the DC, you must add the percentage chance of the minimum roll to the percentage chance of all higher numbers, representing the likelihood that a conjure check would roll at or above the DC.

Example: A conjure check is rolled for a 3^rd level spell. The caster has 4 ranks in the given School. The player rolls 8d10, and the DC is 3. On the below chart, adding the chance of rolling 3 successes (29%), plus 4 (13%), plus 5 (4%) (and none 6 or above since the chance is practically 0%) the player could know that they have a 46% chance of casting the spell, a 54% chance of failing, and within that a 2.41% chance of critically failing.

Conjure Check Probability (Standard Equalibrity)

Number of Dice	0 Successes	1 Success	2 Successes	3 Successes	4 Successes	5 Successes	6 Successes	7 Successes	8 Successes	9+ Successes
1	54%	46%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
2	30%	50%	20%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
3	16%	44%	30%	10%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
4	9%	38%	34%	15%	4%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
5	5%	32%	36%	20%	6%	1%	0%	0%	0%	0%
6	3%	27%	36%	24%	8%	2%	0%	0%	0%	0%
7	2%	23%	35%	27%	10%	3%	0%	0%	0%	0%
8	1%	19%	34%	29%	13%	4%	0%	0%	0%	0%
9	1%	16%	32%	30%	16%	5%	1%	0%	0%	0%
10	1%	14%	30%	30%	18%	6%	1%	0%	0%	0%

Number of Dice	0 Successes	1 Success	2 Successes	3 Successes	4 Successes	5 Successes	6 Successes	7 Successes	8 Successes	9+ Successes
10	1%	14%	30%	30%	18%	6%	1%	0%	0%	0%
11	<1%	12%	28%	30%	20%	7%	2%	<1%	0%	0%
12	<1%	10%	26%	30%	22%	8%	3%	1%	0%	0%
13	<1%	8%	24%	30%	24%	10%	4%	2%	<1%	0%
14	<1%	7%	22%	30%	25%	12%	5%	3%	1%	0%
15	<1%	6%	20%	30%	26%	14%	6%	4%	1%	0%
16	<1%	5%	18%	30%	27%	16%	7%	5%	2%	<1%
17	<1%	4%	16%	30%	28%	18%	8%	6%	3%	1%
18	<1%	3%	14%	30%	29%	20%	9%	7%	4%	1%
19	<1%	2%	12%	30%	30%	22%	10%	8%	5%	2%
20	<1%	1%	10%	30%	30%	24%	11%	9%	6%	3%

Improved Conjure Check Probability (Standard Equalibrity)

Number of Dice	0 Successes	1 Success	2 Successes	3 Successes	4 Successes	5 Successes	6 Successes	7 Successes	8 Successes	9+ Successes
1	50%	50%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
2	25%	50%	25%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
3	13%	38%	38%	13%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
4	6%	25%	38%	25%	6%	0%	0%	0%	0%	0%
5	3%	19%	31%	31%	13%	3%	0%	0%	0%	0%
6	2%	13%	28%	31%	19%	6%	2%	0%	0%	0%
7	1%	9%	23%	30%	22%	11%	3%	1%	0%	0%
8	1%	7%	20%	27%	23%	14%	6%	2%	1%	0%
9	1%	5%	16%	25%	23%	18%	9%	4%	1%	0%
10	1%	4%	14%	25%	23%	20%	11%	5%	2%	1%

Number of Dice	0 Successes	1 Success	2 Successes	3 Successes	4 Successes	5 Successes	6 Successes	7 Successes	8 Successes	9+ Successes
11	<1%	4%	13%	24%	23%	20%	11%	5%	2%	1%
12	<1%	3%	11%	21%	23%	21%	14%	7%	3%	1%
13	<1%	2%	9%	19%	22%	21%	16%	9%	4%	2%
14	<1%	2%	8%	17%	21%	21%	18%	11%	5%	2%
15	<1%	1%	7%	15%	20%	21%	19%	13%	6%	3%
16	<1%	1%	6%	13%	19%	21%	20%	15%	8%	4%
17	<1%	1%	5%	12%	18%	20%	20%	17%	10%	5%
18	<1%	1%	4%	11%	16%	19%	20%	18%	12%	6%
19	<1%	<1%	4%	10%	15%	18%	20%	19%	14%	7%
20	<1%	<1%	3%	9%	14%	17%	19%	19%	16%	9%

Probability of Critical Failure

# of d10s	Crit Fail Chance (%)
1	10.12%
2	9.01%
3	7.66%
4	6.43%
5	5.09%
6	4.08%
7	3.16%
8	2.41%
9	1.89%
10	1.43%
11	1.12%
12	0.85%
13	0.65%
14	0.51%
15	0.39%
16	0.29%
17	0.22%
18	0.18%
19	0.14%
20	0.10%