Spellcasting Block

Download Spellcasting Block

Recommended: Attributes Block; Traits Block

Magic is a part of many fantastical stories. This block allows characters to wield the awesome forces of the arcane. The Spellcasting Block costs two Block Gain Trait slots to unlock.

After unlocking Spellcasting, additional Traits can be used to gain additional Arcana or more Mana.

Each spellcasting traits also acts as an Expertise Trait.

 

Arcana
When you unlock the Spellcasting Block by spending two Traits, you will choose your Arcana. This is the type of magic your character is gifted in, and all your spells will be related to this theme.

"Yllester chose “Arcane Mage” as his Arcana for his Spellcasting, specializing in raw offensive magic and physically debilitating spells. His spell list includes things like Arcane missiles, identifying magical items, and summoning other-worldly creatures."

"Velki chose “Shaman” as her Arcana. She works as a healer and speaker to spirits. Her spell list includes healing, speaking with the dead, and invoking spirits to do tasks for her."

Trained or Innate
There are two schools for gaining Spellcasting in Clattr.

The first is Trained Spellcaster. A Trained Spellcaster uses Cunning + Focus in order to cast spells. This style is often interpreted as the character being scholarly and disciplined, having put in effort to study the ways of the world to become a Spellcaster.

The Second school is an Innate Spellcaster. Innate Spellcasters use Spirit + Presence in order to cast their spells. For this type of character, magic is more instinctual. This character has been gifted magical power by something beyond normal knowledge - perhaps it has laid dormant in their bloodline, or has been granted by an unseen force, like a deity or powerful being.

Additional Options
There are few special options for Trained and Innate Spellcasters that the Storyteller may choose to add, especially if the Clattr game will be a long adventure over multiple sessions.

For Trained Spellcasters, consider adding Spellbooks. These tomes can be difficult to find, but once obtained, a Trained Spellcaster can spells in the spell book using the Spellbooks own pool of stored mana.

For Innate Spellcasters, they can harness the power of their magic and cast it through themselves without paying a mana cost. On a failure the spell sizzles, expending the mana for the caster anyways. And on a double failure the caster takes damage equal to the spell cost.

Mana
Mana is the resource for casting spells. A character’s maximum Mana is 6 when the character has used two Traits to unlock Spellcasting, addition traits used to gain Mana each give the character an additional 6 Mana for each additional trait spent. When casting a spell Mana cost is determined by how many properties the Spell has, There is a rising cost to Spells so that more powerful spells are exponentially more expensive to cast. While most will just look at the chart to find the Mana cost, for those nerds that want to know, Clattr using Triangular Summation to derive the Mana Cost (N(N + 1))/2; where N = how many properties the spell has.

Charms
After selecting an Arcana, players get access to Charms. Charms are simple spells for basic tasks or to add a mystical “flavor” to another roll. For example, instead of carrying a ranged weapon, a character with an Arcana of “Pyromancer” could freely throw a fireball at their enemies. This Charm would not have any additional effects, like catching enemies on fire for lasting damage. Another fire spell could also be used in a utilitarian way, like lighting a campfire. Charms make it so a character who is magic based can use their gifts in many unique ways.

The amount of unique Charms per player is not restricted, as long as they are congruent with their chosen Arcana. There is also no limit on the amount of times they can be cast. However, if a player is completely depleted of Mana points, then they no longer have access to their Charms.

While Charms are great for adding flavor to combat abilities, they cannot grant additional dice to roll in combat. However, they may open up additional opportunities. Examples may include a bonus for impressing an NPC by chilling their drink with an ice Charm, or success in searching a dark room with the aid of a Charm that summons light.

"Yllester is going to cast a Charm to flavor his ranged attack as an “arcane missile.” He will roll his 2 Perception + Finesse dice, as any other character would when making a ranged attack."

"Velki prefers a melee attack. She uses a Charm to summon a spiritual warhammer. It wields like any other physical warhammer, and she will roll her Strength + Power dice to attack with it."

Creating and Casting Spells
When your character wants to cast a spell they must determine the properties of the spell and then calculate the cost. This can seem somewhat confusing at first but can become second nature rather quickly. Below is a chart followed by some examples. Each Property increases the amount of turns the spell takes to cast by 1.

  

Harm
Cast a damaging spell. This adds an additional roll for offensive attacks and the attack roll now uses Cunning + Focus (for Trained Spellcasters) or Spirit + Focus (For Innate Spellcasters)

"Yllester wants a spell to cast a ranged spell attack on a target. He creates a spell using the Harm Property. When making his Cunning + Focus roll for a ranged spell attack he will roll 3 d10s, instead of the normal 2. Taking only the highest number as his attack as usual. This is just one die higher than a normal damaging Charm."

Recovery
Recovery can lower the Mana Cost of a spell. Adding a recovery property to a spell does not increase its mana cost, but does still use an additional action.

For every success a player receives they lower the mana cost of the spell by 1 for each spellcasting trait they have.

If the players roll a failure the entire spell is lost, but they do not use any of the mana the spell would have cost.

If the player rolls a double failure the entire spell is lost and the mana is still spent.

 

Enhance
Boost an Attribute. To boost multiple Attributes use Enhance again for each Attribute.

"Velki wants to summon the help of her ancestors to protect her for a round. She will spend Mana to cast an increase to her Fortitude + for one round, effectively creating a damage-soaking barrier around herself. She rolls her Spirit + Focus to cast the spell, resulting in a 4 and an 11. She keeps the 11, adding it to any rolls made with Fortitude until the end of her next round."

Jinx
Impair an Attribute. To Impair multiple Attributes use Jinx again for each Attribute.

"Yllester is being chased along rooftops by a vampire. He wants to make it difficult for the vampire to follow him. He casts a spell to weaken the Agility of his target. He rolls his Cunning + Focus dice, and gets a 1 and a 2. The vampire will need to subtract a 2 from any Agility rolls for the remainder of the round."

Augment
Give a friendly target a temporary new Trait. This can be used multiple times for multiple Traits.

"Velki has a spell she designed to allow herself to speak with the dead. She does this by casting an Augment spell on herself to give her a new Ability Trait for one round. In this case, she does not need to roll an Attribute to cast this spell. She may be required to roll an Attribute later to see how effective she is at using this temporary trait, such as making a Spirit + Assist roll to convince the dead to be forthcoming with information."

Alter
Affect an object. This object must fit into a single Room. Use Amplify multiple times to effect some thing multiple Room sizes or multiple objects.

"Yllester is being chased by that same vampire, who has recovered from falling off the roof a few rounds ago. This time, Yllester is going to use an Alter spell to make the rooftops behind him icy and slippery. He does not need to roll any Attribute to cast this.  Instead the Storyteller will require that the vampire to roll higher difficulty to keep from slipping off the icy rooftop."

Mend
Heal a character or restore an object.

"Velki wants a spell to heal a single target. When she casts this spell she will roll her two Spirit + Focus Attribute dice. The higher result will be how much health her target gains back."

Conjure
Summon a temporary companion.

"Yllester finds himself face to face with a strange sight: shadowy tentacles emerging from a foreboding closet. Yllester does not want to touch it. Luckily, he can cast a spell from his Demonology Arcana to summon an imp. Yllester will roll his Cunning + Focus, resulting in a pool of points to spend on that creature’s attributes. Like a player character, each Attribute of Yllester’s imp has a default d4 and a maximum of d12."

"Let’s say Yllester rolled a 4 and an 8. He then has 8 points to spend on creating the imp. Yllester puts 2 points into its Perception, and another 2 points into Finesse. Giving it a d12 in its ranged attacks, and 2 points each in its Agility and its Fortitude to give it d8s in those rolls."

A summoned creature is rank 1, so only rolls 1 attribute dice at a time and has 10 health. It will not possess traits, or kickers. However they can have a Concept. Summoned creature can flavor their Attribute rolls as the Storyteller and players see fit, so Yllester’s Imp may shoot a fireball charm as its ranged attack even though the Imp does not have the Spellcasting Block itself.

Amplify
Make a spell affect a larger area/multiple targets

Normally when casting a spell, it only affects 1 target/object in a room. With an Amplify modification to a spell, multiple targets or a larger area can be affected.

"Velki wants to assist Burlap in attacking some archers. She designed a spell called The Grasping Dead to work as a jinx against Agility with multiple targets. First, Velki rolls her Spirit + Focus to see how badly she will jinx the archers. She gets a 1 and 7, so she will jinx them to subtract 7 from any Agility rolls they make in the next round."

"Next she rolls Spirit + Focus again to see how many targets she will be able to jinx. She got a 3 and a 5, so can jinx up to 5 targets."

Extend
Make a spell last for multiple rounds, minutes, or hours. This must be used for each Property the Spellcaster wants to Extend.

"Velki wants to be able to use her ancestral barrier again to have enhanced Fortitude, but would like to have it for multiple rounds. First Velki rolls her Spirit + Focus to determine how much stronger her fortitude will be. She gets a 3 and a 7, keeping the 7. She then rolls to see how many rounds she can keep it for, and gets a 5 and a 6. Velki will add a 7 to any fortitude roll she makes in the next 6 rounds."

''During combat the duration roll is most commonly applied to rounds, rolling a 4 is equal to the spell lasting 4 rounds. However it is important when creating spells that the Spellcaster and the Storyteller speak about what the spells duration measurement will be. Perhaps a spell that turns copper into gold lasts minutes instead of rounds. A spell that summons a spectral steed lasts hours, or perhaps even days.''

Control
Manipulate the mind or form of a person or object.

"Velki did not have much luck convincing the ghost to share information with her, so she has now resorted to trying to Control it. Velki rolls her Spirit + Focus and the Ghost rolls their Spirit + Defend to try and stop her from taking control. Velki rolls an 11 and the spirit rolls a 7, The Ghost will now do her bidding. Velki also used Extend to make the spell last for 2 hours/turns. Every hour/turn the Ghost can roll against the same 11 to try and regain control. The ghost also gets to attempt a roll anytime Velki asks it to do something it would normally not be comfortable doing."

Transform
Change the natural form of a person or object.

"Yllester has taken a third Arcana, nature, and wants to turn himself into a bird. Similar to Conjure, Yllester will roll his Spellcasting die to decide how many points he gets to spend in building his new bird form."

Yllester is still a Rank two character, and can use his Concept and Traits as long as they are applicable. While he does not get new Traits, he does get a second, temporary Concept stating that he is now that animal. With Storyteller discretion this could give him Trait like abilities, such as flying.

Transform can do many things, turn water to wine, copper to gold, or a parrot into a goat. Yllester can use his Frost Arcan to turn himself to ice, and Velki could turn herself into a Ghost.

Regain Mana
There are 3 ways to regain lost Mana in Clattr. Players do not need to roll to disenchant, and can merely decide to use the item in this way to regain Mana. The amount of Mana regained depends on how magical the object is. For instance, a sword that only glows to produce light may only give 1 or 2 Mana. An artifact like a vessel for a djinn may give 50 Mana. However, a character can not hold more Mana than their original pool. Only one player can disenchant a single object, and the Mana from it can not be shared. The object is completely destroyed by disenchanting in most circumstances.
 * Long Rest like removing Damage (Spell Casting Attribute/Endurance)
 * Disenchanting Objects
 * Consuming Mana Gems

When Consuming Mana Gems, Players will roll to see how much Mana is restored based on the type of Gem. Not every Gem of this kind contains untapped Mana. Those that do often gleam with their own light.