Spells

Magic

The section details the spells available to ponies of levels 1-20. Spells are different from talents because they don’t have any associated die with them, so they never get any more powerful. Where applicable, any requirements to learning a particular spell are included. Remember that spells with requirements are both potentially more powerful and more dangerous (see The Risks of Magic).

Spell Format

Spells in Tails of Thedastria have the following format.

Spell Name

What the spell is called. Of course individual enchanters might call a certain effect something different, just for psychological effect.

Magic School

There are four different schools of magic in the land of Thedastria—Creation, Entropy, Primal, and Spirit. Each spell belongs to one (and only one) of them.

Spell Type

There are four types of spell—attack, defense, enhancement, and utility—and each spell falls into one of these categories.

Mana Cost

This tells you how many Mana Points (MP) it takes to cast the spell.

Casting Time

It can take anywhere from a few moments to a few hours to cast a spell. This entry tells you how long it takes to cast this one.

Difficulty

Your casting roll must meet or beat this number for you to successfully cast the spell.

Test

Some spells require tests from the target, usually against your Spellpower. This entry details the type of test the spell requires, if any. The effects of the test are specified in the description. Oftentimes a successful test has one effect and a failed test a different one.

Description

This entry explains what the spell does in detail. Armor protects against any damage inflicted as normal unless it is noted as penetrating damage (in which case, it ignores armor altogether).

Allies and Enemies

Many spells’ descriptions refer to “allies” and “enemies.” Don’t overthink these definitions: Allies are those who’re fighting on the caster’s side and enemies are those trying to do them harm. It’s possible but not common for a disinterested third party roped into a combat situation to be neither ally nor enemy, and it’s likewise possible but uncommon for someone to switch sides (and thus, classifications) in the middle of a fight. In instances where things are complicated or unclear, the Narrator decides whether a given combatant is an ally, an enemy, or neither at any given time.

Stacked Spell and Effects

Unless a spell’s description says something else, the target of a given spell can only be affected by one casting of that spell at a time, whether the multiples are cast by the same mage or by different mages. For example, a pony already enjoying an upgraded damage bonus from an aura of might spell cannot gain an additional damage bonus if a mage casts it on them again. Similarly, a pony suffering a downgrade from the daze spell cannot suffer an additional daze while the first one is in effect.
A spell already cast on a target is completely unaffected by an additional copy of the same spell cast on the same target. Another casting does not, for example, extend the duration of the effect. It instead does nothing at all. For example, a mage under the effects of rock armor cannot cast rock armor again five minutes before the first casting’s expiration to effectively extend the duration. The mage must wait for the first casting to expire and then cast it again.
The above is true even when a target is suffering only partial or reduced effects of a spell because they resisted an earlier casting. For example, a pony suffering the reduced effects of a vulnerability hex (only the Defense penalty) cannot be targeted with an additional vulnerability hex while the effects of the first one persist by a mage trying to make that pony suffer the talent downgrade, too.
Perhaps obviously, spells that have an immediate effect that then becomes permanent are not subject to a stacking restriction. For example, a pony who is restored by a heal spell and regains lost Stamina can immediately be affected by another heal spell. There is no “duration” of heal; its effects do not lapse.
The effects of different spells can overlap, and are cumulative when they do, unless a given spell’s description says something else. For example, a pony with an upgraded Body from a heroic offense spell who is also enjoying the upgraded damage bonus from an aura of might spell does more damage than normal on a hit in combat—the effects stack.
Unless a given spell’s description says something else, there is no restriction on the number of times a mage can cast a particular spell on different targets, even if their durations overlap. For example, a mage beset by enemies can cast a walking bomb each turn even while previous targets survive, as long as each walking bomb spell has a different target.

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