Making Magic: Redux

Document here.

Previous version.

While my previous Wizard Downtime rules worked well enough, in the new post-apocalyptic paradigm I've been speeding up the ol' timeline so we'll get multiple years in-game per year of real time.

This is the exact opposite of a lot of games where you'll play for years and the characters only experience a few months of hooning around killing things.

Hence the very important rejigging of Downtime mechanics to taking place in units of weeks and months rather than days. Spend a month off and you'll get 4 weeks of downtime to be used at your leisure. More on that when I've rejigged the rest of the Downtime rules. For now, magic!

Chaotic Casters

I've spiced this up a bit with some new mechanics, and some juicier potion-making rules that focus on replicating found potions or generating random potions until you get one you like.

Activity	Time Taken	Cost/Spell Level
Copy Spell to Spellbook	1 Week	30 obols
Research Existing Spell	2 Weeks	150 obols
Create New Spell	4 Weeks	300 obols
Potions	1 Week	150 obols
Scrolls	1 Week	300 obols

Basic Gimmick
You're rolling up to three dice, with the size of each die based on the following factors:

Care: Roll 1d6. Improve by taking more time. +1 die size per extra week taken.

Quality: Roll 1d6. Improve by paying for higher quality materials. +1 die size per 100 obols.

Knowledge: If you have access to a library, roll 1d6. Adjust die size by Intelligence Modifier.

ie. Joe Average the Wizard has access to a library and isn't bothering to spend extra time. He rolls 3d6.
Smarto Richpants the Mage is in a town with no library but pays 300 obols for premium materials, and he's got a +3 Int Mod. He rolls 1d6+1d12 since the Quality is higher but without a library he can't put his superior intellect to use.

Roll and look up the result on the relevant table.

Spells

Add a spell to your spellbook, whether that's via copying a spell you have to hand, researching a spell that already exists in the game, or creating a whole new one.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Spell is now safely in your Spellbook.
9-12	Slippery. Roll one less d6 when casting this Spell spontaneously.
5-8	Seditious. Casting this spell simultaneously releases a Chaos Burst.
4>	Sentient. The Spell becomes intelligent, taking the form of a Familiar of its choice.    Your maximum Mana is permanently reduced by 1.

Potions
Copy a potion you have to hand, or create a random potion.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Potion is complete!
9-12	Spoilage. Potion will expire at the end of the next month.
5-8	Soured. Drinking this potion deals 1d6 damage in addition to its effects.
4>	Explosive! It goes terribly wrong! Take 1d6 damage to each ability score.

Scrolls
Copy a spell you have to hand into a Scroll. Anybody can use a Scroll, but most classes require an Arcana roll to use it.
If an appropriate caster identifies a Scroll with an Arcana roll (or the Identify spell), they Decipher it and don't have to use Arcana to cast it.

Roll	Result
13<	Success! The Scroll is complete! It can be used once before it crumbles to dust.
9-12	Overcomplicated. Scroll can only be used if Deciphered by an appropriate caster.
5-8	Indecipherable. Scroll cannot be Deciphered, so must be cast with an Arcana roll.
4>	Illegible. Scroll is Indecipherable and casts a random spell when used.

MY POTIONS ARE TOO MUCH FOR A BEAST, LET ALONE A MAN!

Clerics

Over half the current party are Clerics, to my delight. They're very very powerful and have some fun gimmicks.

A potential issue with the well-received new Cleric rules is that Clerics lost a few of their more powerful high level spells - namely Cure Disease and Remove Curse - so these are Downtime things now. Honestly it fits better this way - Curing Disease with a snap of the fingers is a little boring.

Activity	Time Taken	Cost
Bless Holy Water	1 Week	Free
Hasten Recovery	1 Week	100 obols
Treat Disease	2 Weeks	200 obols
Transfer Curse	2 Weeks	500 obols
Sanctify Church	4 Weeks	1000 obols

Bless Holy Water

Gain 1 vial of Holy Water per level.

Holy Water burns unholy creatures like undead, demons and elves for 1d8 damage.

Holy Water can be stacked 5 to an encumbrance slot.

Hasten Recovery

Miraculously increase the recovery speed of a person suffering from a lingering injury.

Each Hasten Recovery ritual reduces their recovery time by one week.

Treat Disease

Alleviate the symptoms and halt the progression of all diseases afflicting a person.

At the end of the ritual they may make a Save vs Law against each disease afflicting them, curing that disease on success.

Transfer Curse

Remove a curse from a person and place it into another vessel. The vessel can be any object, living or inanimate, but it must be present for the entirety of the ritual.

If the vessel is a willing person the transfer is automatic. Else the afflicted must pass a Save vs Law to successfully transfer the curse.

If the cursed vessel is ever killed or broken, the curse moves to the one who destroyed it.

Sanctify Church

Consecrate a building or structure to become a Church of your faith.

Churches are consecrated ground and painful for wholly Chaotic beings like demons, elves and undead to enter. Such creatures cannot use their supernatural powers within the area, and corpses in the area cannot be animated.

The sanctification lasts as long as the structure is used as a place of worship, or until the Church is desecrated by destroying the altar.

Discussion

Wizards

Spells
Some mild changes here on top of the timings, most interestingly - the potential to create a sentient spell! Extremely rare if you've got access to a library, but out in the woods with the hedge witches I suppose these things must be more common...
The other downsides are to make it more in-line with the new Mana rules for wizards.

Potions
I don't have enough opportunities to give players random potions, so here's a way for players to brew their own!
Rather than something boring like "brew a single-target spell you know into a potion", this now creates a random potion, or lets you clone a potion you already have. Much improved!

Scrolls
Deciphering is a bit messy. Basically any class can use any scroll with an Arcana roll. To allow MUs to use MU scrolls and Necros to use Necro scrolls without risk, successfully identifying a scroll means you can cast it without risk if it's on-type for your magic.
Full text for identifying scrolls and wands -
Roll Arcana. On success, you identify the spell. 
You also Decipher it if your character class can cast it. You can use Deciphered Spellbooks normally, and cast from Deciphered scrolls as an Action.

Clerics

Holy Water
Clerics can create holy water for free now! Good for fighting demons and elves and undead, so on-brand for Clerics.

Hasten Recovery
With the new Cleric comes the loss of classic Cure spells in favour of a healing pool mechanic. This does mean that there's no Cure Critical Wounds to heal a broken arm or something, so we've got this activity instead.
A team of Clerics healing one person seems pretty Christ-like. Maybe the disciples were Clerics too?

Treat Disease
A classic Cleric job, but in downtime form. Not much more to say really.

Transfer Curse
I never liked that Clerics could just cure a curse. Curses are fun!
So now there's this, which means a curse must be transferred to some other vessel.
The classic Levitican trick of a Scapegoat will totally work though!

Sanctify Church
A fun one because my campaign is going to have a through-thread of spreading across the world and repopulating it, chiefly by settling new towns in the horrible poisoned wastes. New towns need new churches, and this is how to make them!

Magic User Rework: 4 Kinds of Spellcasters.

In the last post we replaced Spell Slots with Mana.

In short:
1 Mana per level, spells can be Bound (memorised) for 1 Mana per Spell Level, or spells can be cast Unbound (spontaneously) at a risk.
Overall you get fewer safe spells per day, but you get far more flexibility and never run out of spells.

Casting Mechanics

I should note that I've changed the base magic rules slightly, mostly for ease of use.

Casting
Declare casting as an Action. The spell goes off at the start of your next turn. During casting you count as Surprised against all attacks.

Changed from "Declare before initiative is rolled, spell goes off at the end of the round". I kept forgetting to ask people to declare spells. Since initiative is rerolled every round, this could get crazy...

Interrupted Casting

If you are damaged mid-cast there are consequences based on your character class.

Down from "if you are damaged or attacked in melee", because if a creature can't hit a wizard standing still with a melee weapon they don't deserve to disrupt anything!

Exp Tracks
All casters - even Elves - use the Magic-User exp track.

Since Elves are on an even keel with the other casters at this point, it seemed unfair to penalise them.

Alright, on with the show.

Caster Classes

I've got 4 Chaotic caster classes in my game.
I could just have each class use the exact same core mechanics, but I like the idea that different casters feel different in play and encourage different gameplay styles.

Magic-User: The flexible caster.
The main focus of the Mana system.
Bind spells for safe casting, access to Cantrips, and the ability to create Familiars.
Leave Mana Unbound to cast spontaneously.

Muscle Wizard: The frontline caster.
Increased survivability since Bound spells boost HP and melee attack, and spells are instant-cast so can't be interrupted.
Unbound Mana might be used to overload a powerful punch attack, and spontaneous casting means you could cast more than one Magic Missile Punch per day.

Elf: The spontaneous caster.
Defined by their Heartspell - a level 1 Spell that defines their Elf species.
Cannot Bind Spells, so they always cast spontaneously unless they're casting their Heartspell. Very chaotic!
Spooky Elf powers boost your Heartspell or grant special abilities, but are lost as you spend Mana.

Necromancer: The Vancian caster.
Work best when they do the traditional Vancian memorise-spells-at-start-of-day thing.
Can Unbind spells to do AoE damage, and use Unbound Mana to cast Subjugate Dead.
Reliant on spell components for many of their spells.

Magic-User

Bound Spell Perks:

Cantrips: 

You can tap into the power of Bound Spells for minor magical effects. 

For example Sleep might be used to make someone yawn, or Magic Missile could be used to improve your aim.
When you cast the Spell, you lose access to its Cantrips.

Familiars: 

When you Bind a Spell you may form it into a Familiar.
Familiars are smallish creatures on-brand for the spell - like Shield could be a hedgehog or Spiderclimb might be a spider or gecko.
When you cast a Familiar's spell, you can cast it through that Familiar if you choose. It vanishes once its spell is cast.
Familiars can communicate mentally with you, will obey simple orders, and cannot be harmed.
If you die, all of your extant Familiars go rogue - each erupts as a Summon spell with HD equal to Spell Level and runs amok!

Interrupted Casting:

Bound Spell:
If damaged during the casting of a Bound Spell you release a Chaos Burst.
If you wish, Save vs Chaos to negate the Chaos Burst and re-Bind the spell, effectively putting it back in your head like you hadn't tried to cast it. Otherwise the spell fails and is lost.

Unbound Spell:

If damaged during the casting of an Unbound Spell you risk disaster.
When the spell goes off, roll on the Chaos Conduit table an additional time for each instance of damage. Take the worst result.

Notes:

Themes:
Magic-Users are flexible and the most easily re-themed into a Witch or a Sorcerer or Druid or whatever kind of archetype you like.
Cantrips give the player a lot of leeway to get imaginative with minor effects. As a general rule of thumb these should be about as powerful as the classic (non-5e) cantrips like Blink or Bee.
Familiars have been in the game for a long time, but previously they've been a permanent animal companion who can hold an extra spell. Now they are spells and I'm quite excited about it! If a wizard shows up surrounded by a menagerie you'll know they're dangerous, and also maybe have some hints as to what spells they're packing.

To Bind or not to Bind?
Magic-Users have the most obvious risk/reward to Binding spells.
Bind them for the Cantrips, Familiars and safer casting, or leave your Mana unbound for flexibility.

To Cast or not to Cast?
Similarly, if you've Bound some Spells you have another obvious choice - keep the spell Bound for the perks? Or cast it for the immediate benefits?
We've had one Wizard who kept hold of Magic Missile forever instead of casting it because he liked using a Cantrip that gave him a bonus to Aim.

Interruptions:
Bind a Spell and if you're interrupted the spell is cancelled no matter what, but you've got a chance to retain the spell for later.
Cast spontaneously and there's at least a chance that you'll cast the spell regardless - pour enough Mana into a spontaneous cast and it's impossible to stop it from going off successfully.

Muscle Wizard

Bound Spell Perks:

Muscle Magic:

Your fists are d4 Shanky weapons, and can be dual-wielded (naturally).
Each Bound Spell improves your strength and physique.
You gain +2 HP and +1 to melee attacks per Mana committed to Bound Spells.
You lose these perks as you cast the spells. If you reach 0HP from spellcasting, you fall unconscious from overexertion.

(Un)interrupted Casting:

I Cast Fist:
Your spells are cast instantly via punching, so you can never be interrupted!

Close Range Caster:

Ultimate Muscle:
The maximum range of a spell is 10' - extra distance you run or jump or flash-step to the target - and you are never affected by AoE from your spells.
When you cast a spell you must combine it with an unarmed attack that automatically hits for maximum damage, plus bonus damage equal to Mana consumed in the casting.
You can target yourself or your punched target with the spell, so if you want to target yourself it's best to target an enemy but perfectly ok to punch a wall or small animal or something.
On the other hand, if you want to cast a buff spell on a friend you'll want to make sure they don't have a glass jaw...

Notes:

Themes:
Obviously the Muscle Wizard remains one of the sillier classes, but I've always been pleased by how they work in play compared to a regular M-U. Especially since I've got fond fond memories of POWERLAD.
The theme is obviously to PUNCH. They've got frontline combat buffs, and since they snap-cast their spells they're less vulnerable than other casters in the thick of it.
A new change is that they have to combine a spell with a punch attack. Previously damaging your target was optional, and I'll be interested to see how this works out.
Since Mana is limited compared to Spell Slots, each Mana committed to Bound Spells gives +2 HP. This works out better for the MW in early levels and gets to be on-par with the bonus HP of the previous version by level 7, which is a sweet spot. Plus their attack bonus grows quicker.

To Bind or not to Bind?
Muscle Wizards will usually want to bind all their Mana into their muscles to increase their power and reduce their squishiness.
On the other hand - spontaneous casters can cast in armour and Muscle Wizards can't be interrupted, significantly reducing one of the main risks! I kinda dig the idea of an Armoured Muscle Wizard and the Muscle Wizard's low AC has always been a weakness, so this could shift the balance.

To Cast or not to Cast?
Always a straightforward class - the Muscle Wizard has always had to decide between keeping their spells back (for the HP and attack bonus) and using their spells for immediate effect.

Elf

Heartspell Perks:

Heartspell:
There are 20 species of Elf. Each has one of the standard first level spells as their Heartspell.
It defines their species - the mutations and abilities they gain from the magic infusing their magical forms. As they use their magic, flinging it out into the world, they slowly regress back towards that feeble mortal form.

For each point of Mana in the Elf's Mana Pool, they gain an additional power and mutation from their Heartspell. Current document is here. They lose these gifts as they use up Mana.
When an Elf has 0 Mana in their Mana Pool they lose access to magic - they are human again.

Moondancer:

Elves do not sleep. They regain their full Mana Pool after dancing under the moon for an hour per level. If prevented from doing this somehow, they do not replenish their Mana.

They gain +1 to their maximum Mana Pool when they dance under a crescent moon, and double it under the New Moon.

They take -1 to their maximum Mana Pool when they dance under a gibbous moon, and halve it under the Full Moon.

Casting:
Elves cannot Bind spells. They must cast spontaneously (with all associated risks) if they want to cast anything but their Heartspell.
Their Heartspell, by contrast, is easy. It can be cast instantly as an Action. When they cast their Heartspell the Elf must Save vs Chaos - on failure they spend 1 Mana, otherwise they cast the spell for free.

Interrupted Casting:

Heartspell:
Since a Heartspell is cast instantly as an action, it cannot be interrupted.

Unbound Spell:
If damaged during the casting of an Unbound Spell you risk disaster.
When the spell goes off, roll on the Chaos Conduit table an additional time for each instance of damage. Take all results, but successes don't stack.


Notes:

Themes:
Elves are all about the creepy fae vibes.
Forcing them to be Spontaneous Casters feels thematically on-brand, as does giving them potentially infinite casts of their core Heartspell. Around Elves, watch yourselves.
The effect of the Moon is more powerful than it was in the past, so Elves would do well to ensure they're paying attention to the moon phase. Due to certain incidents my campaign's moon is in a close orbit so you get 2 moon cycles per month. More opportunities for moon madness!
Since Mana is doubled at the new moon, Elves can reach higher power levels more quickly. Exciting! And it forces me to bulk out the Heartspell power list quicker.

To Cast or not to Cast:
Elves, unlike other casters, completely run out of magic when they run out of Mana.
They also gain far more from retaining their Mana than the other classes - powers and mutations that give them cool abilities and make their Heartspell more powerful.
The choice is then - keep my powers? Cast my Heartspell and risk losing a small part of my abilities? Or weaken myself for certain by pouring Mana into a regular spell?

Interruptions:
Heartspells are cast instantly - they're a safe option.
Unbound spells are far riskier. Interruptions risk chaos, but also some certainty. If you've already rolled a Success then you know the spell will go off. The issue is you don't know how many side effects you'll be facing...

Necromancer

Necromancer Spells:

Voice of the Dead:
Many Necromancer spells and abilities require spell components. The most important component is Last Breath - the final breath of a sapient being. These are usually stored in glass vials, and breathing in a Last Breath grants you the Voice of the Dead for ten minutes.

Lesser Dead:
There are three basic flavours of 1 HD Lesser Dead, available to all Necromancers.
Skeleton: Can use weapons. Take 1 damage from non-Smashy attacks.
Zombie: Double HP. Slow - acts at the end of each round. Becomes an area of damaging zombie bits when killed - dealing 1 damage to anyone standing in it. Becomes a fast, intelligent Ravenous Zombie if it eats a brain.
Skin Kite: Doesn’t obey orders. Real bastard. Flies slowly. Takes 1 damage from Smashy attacks. Grapples fleshy targets, dealing 1d6 damage and healing itself to 6 HP per successful Grapple.

Master of the Dead:
Necromancers have the innate ability to raise and control the Dead. Each of these abilities requires the Voice of the Dead.
Animate Dead: Spend X Mana, raise that many lesser Dead minions. Takes 10 minutes.
Subjugate Dead: Spend X Mana, roll Xd6+level and Subjugate that many HD of Dead, weakest first.
Command Dead: Free action. Give your undead orders. Complex orders take a whole Action instead.

Bound Spells:
Necromancers use a unique Necromancer spell list (first couple of spell levels converted for use here based on the book here)
Spells must be Bound to be cast - Necromancers cannot cast spells spontaneously. Unlike other casters, you can bind more than one copy of the same spell.
In addition, many spells require the listed ritual components.
Binding Spells takes an hour. Spend X Mana and bind that many spells. Mana spent this way is lost until the spell is cast.

Casting:
Spells take a round of ominous chanting and rattling and summoning up the souls of the Dead.
Declare you are casting as an Action and the spell goes off at the start of your next turn.
Traditional: Cast the spell and lose it from your mind. Sacrifice 1d6 HP to retain the spell if you wish.
Mana-Boosted: Spend Mana to cast the spell. You retain the spell and count as casting at 1 level higher per Mana spent.

Interrupted Casting:

Death Burst:
If you are damaged while you are casting a spell, A burst of death magic deals 1d6 damage per Mana spent in the casting to you and everything with 10’.
Undead are healed for the same amount.
You lose the spell unless you cast a Save vs Chaos.

Notes:

Themes:
Thematically, Necromancers are encouraged to be careful and plan ahead. If they want spells they need to pack them in advance, otherwise they have to fall back on basic dead-raising Necromancy.
Last Breath is a commodity in the post-apoc economy because there are so few people left, so people use it as a currency. Pretty macabre.

To Bind or not to Bind?
Do you keep your Mana unbound so you can cast your Dead-affecting spells? Or do you bind it into spells, reducing that option?
Once you've bound a spell you can cast it over and over by sacrificing HP, so that's good.

To Cast or not to Cast?
Since there's no passive benefit to retaining spells, the question is more how to cast.
Do you cast it once and lose it from your mind? Or go full blood magic and power the spells with your HP? The choice is yours!

Gimme the Full Thing Already!

Full text, with the "Core Mechanics" integrated, is either in the player-facing Quick Class Breakdowns booklet, or in the latest House Rules Document.

Magic-User Rework: Fuck Spell-Slots Get Mana

Imagine a hosepipe.

Binding a Spell is like making a spray gun for the hose, walking back to the tap, turning it on, and calmly walking back to the nozzle to water your plants.

Casting a Spell Unbound is turning on the tap and running like hell to grab the end of the hose before it starts whipping around everywhere, then trying to control the spray with your thumb while simultaneously discovering that the hose is an angry snake.
It's risky but hey, at least you didn't need to waste all that time making a stupid nozzle!

Intent

This is about making Spell Slots optional without making a whole separate Sorcerer-type class.
It's also about not having to rewrite all my spells. Who's got that kind of time??

Do you memorise your spells at the start of the day, limiting yourself in exchange for reliability?
Or do you cast spells spontaneously, increasing the risk in exchange for flexibility?

The core of this is basically a straight pull from Logan's magic rules with the Bound Spells thing plugged in. One step closer to stealing every last house rule from Last Gasp!

Core Caster Mechanics

I'm going to focus this article on core mechanics for Magic-Users first, then tell you about the differences between caster classes later.

Mana: You have 1 Mana per level. This is your Mana Pool - your personal magical reserve.
Mana can be used to Bind Spells for safer casting, or left in your Mana Pool to be used for spontaneous casting.

You can still cast spells when you’re out of Mana, it’s just significantly more dangerous.

Your Mana Pool refills after 8 hours of rest.

Spellbinding: This is the equivalent of memorising spells and requires a Spellbook.
Bind each Spell by spending Mana equal to the Spell Level.
Your maximum Mana Pool is reduced by the same amount until the spell is cast.
The Spellbinding process takes an hour of intense concentration. You can create as many Bound Spells as you want during the hour, but you cannot double up on Bound Spells.

Casting Bound Spells: Declare casting as an Action, it goes off at the start of your next turn. You count as Surprised against attacks until the spell goes off.
You cannot cast Bound Spells if you are more than Lightly Encumbered. It's something to do with metal or heavy gear or game mechanics getting in the way of the magic.

Casting Unbound Spells: Requires a Spellbook to hand. Declare casting as an Action, it goes off at the start of your next turn. You count as Surprised against attacks until the spell goes off.

Roll 3d6 on the Chaos Conduit table with the associated modifiers.
Roll an extra d6 for each Mana spent.
Roll one less d6 per spell level.
(If this would ever make you roll less than 0d6, it's an automatic Cosmic Horror result instead)

Success means the spell goes off! Hurrah!
Chaos Burst requires a roll on the best Wild Magic table.
Cosmic Horror requires you to roll on Last Gasp's That Which Should Not Be table.

Chaos Conduit Modifiers:

- Aptitude: Your Intelligence Modifier.

- Encumbrance: -1 per Encumbrance Level.

- Blood Sacrifice: Sacrifice your HP for +1 per point.

Discussion - Core Mechanics

So that's the basic core of the thing, a fairly straight swap to add Spontaneous Casting to standard Vancian Magic-Users.

If you want to do the classic Vancian memorise-at-the-start-of-the-day thing you can do that.
If you want to keep all your Mana free for Spontaneous Casting, you can do that too.
If you're out of Mana and you need to cast something, it's possible!

This also brings in the possibility of memorising spells later in the day if you've got an hour - a bit like casting as a ritual. Facing a riddle door on a mountainside and you've got a couple Mana spare? Bind it into a Knock spell and you'll be saying "Mellon" before you know it!

Bound Spells
Making this a choice means that I can tie existing mechanics and extra perks into having your spells Bound.
Familiars are made from spells now, for instance, and the Muscle Wizard's powers are tied into Spellbinding - their body is fortified by binding spells into their muscles.
There's also the extra bit where someone relying on Bound Spells can leave their Spellbook at home - they only need one to hand if they are to cast spontaneously.

Unbound Spells
Spontaneous Casting is built around the assumption that it's best to match Mana Burn to Spell Level, evening the penalty out. If you don't want the risk, burning even one extra Mana makes the spellcasting much safer, taking you from about 20% chance of Cosmic Horror on 3d6 to a mere 3% on 4d6.
Good odds!

Armoured Wizards

You'll notice that spontaneous casting allows wizards to cast in armour! My justification is that they're shaping the spell around their gear, as opposed to Bound Spells which are much less fluid.
Classic Vancian wizards need to stick to flowy robes, Sorcerer-types can wear a bunch of armour and make up the difference with Mana or blood!

Quasi-Levelless Casting

This is part of my soft move towards all spells becoming scaling Level 1 spells, a la Wonders & Wickedness. This way I can still use the regular spells in the book while any new spells can be introduced at Level 1.

Big Guns for Low Levels

The other side of this is that it means I can let low level spellcasters use high level spells. They'll never use them otherwise if the soft-cap remains at Level 7!
It's just crazy risky if you don't have enough Mana to match the spell level.
As it stands a Magic-User at level 6 could bind a single Level 6 spell - gaining access to such bullshit as Disintegrate and Power Word Kill five levels early. Finally! More than a thin sliver of the spell list is within a Magic-User's grasp!

Probability of Overcasting Success.

In case it's of interest, a Magic-User casting an unbound Level 1 spell without Mana has about a 50% chance of casting it successfully.

Only issue is that of that 50%, most of it is "Success + Cosmic Horror" so you might want to boost it with blood magic if you're not intending it as a Hail Mary.

Lore Reasoning

Magic in D&D is so mechanics-oriented that it forces everyone to invent their own headcanon.
Here's mine.

What is Magic?
Magic is of Chaos - a roiling dimension of infinite energy that lies just beyond our own.
A universe dominated by chaos would be one of infinite randomness and infinite entropy. Chaos is inimical to the foundations of our reality.
Magic-Users constrain this change-energy, imposing order on the Chaos to create repeatable effects.

What is a Spell?
A spell is a three-dimensional shape that can be unfolded into the higher-dimensional form of the spell and trick Chaos into changing reality in an extremely specific way.
Chaos "thinks" it's causing a random effect, but pouring it through the specifically shaped fifth-dimensional portal tricks it into having a single outcome.
Essentially you're tricking it into picking one result from an infinitely long random table.

What is Casting?
Casting is the tricky process of unfolding your three-dimensional net of the spell into the higher-dimensional reality. It takes concentration - least of all since it's functionally impossible to imagine.
If the spell is already Bound this is skilled work but fairly straightforward, like folding an origami crane from instructions.
If you're casting Unbound it is far more tricky, like folding an origami crane without instructions while someone loudly counts down from ten in your ear.

What is a Wizard?
A Wizard is someone who has cracked their very soul in some manner, whether on purpose or by accident. This crack is small enough to let a trickle of Chaos in, suffusing them with Chaotic energy.
Magic-Users channel the energy with their mind, baking the glyph-forms onto their synapses.
Muscle Wizards channel the energy with their body, binding the glyph-forms into their muscles.
Elves are of magic. Magic is in their bones and blood - part of what they are. When they cast spells they're flinging their own innate magical essence out into the world.
And Necromancers use it to drill directly into the Ghost Dimension and use the released energies to bind and coerce the spirits of the Dead.

Chaos Warning

That up there is the main core of this Mana system.
In the next post I'm going to go into the differences between the four Caster Classes in the grand tradition of trying to make casters "feel" different to each other while retaining the same core mechanics.

Magic-User, Muscle Wizard, Elf and Necromancer.
Flexible, Physical, Spontaneous, and Ritualistic.
Watch this space!

Making Magic: Spell, Potion and Scroll Creation for Wizards and Clerics

PDF here.

Main changes are adding some tables to roll on when Chaotic classes research spells, and adding a minigame where Clerics can craft Protection Scrolls by killing stuff with a blessed weapon.
Hopefully it's more interesting than the default!

So spell research! Something I'd never really thought about much.
Base LotFP has it as a time sink and a money sink. You gamble how much time (and thus, money) you're going to spend, the DM rolls how long you actually needed to spend, and if you gambled too low you lose the time and money.
As Perttu is fond of saying and Logan points out in his spell research rules, this is boring as fuck.

The reason I haven't really gone into it much is that I quite like time and money sinks.
Time sinks mean I can jump the timelines of various encroaching dooms forward, and also hopefully make game time keep up with real time.
Money sinks are because it's always nice to have another thing for players to burn money on.
Keep them poor. That keeps them hungry for more!

The other thing is I quite like the idea that a wizard spends time researching spells alone in a tower while their friends are having fun carousing in the town below.

The Last Gasp spell research stuff is pretty kickass, but I do want to keep Spell Research as a downtime time sink and my wizards have got more trad spellcasting mechanics than Logan's Maleficar.
Also I needed to put Cleric spell stuff on there.

So I basically boiled it down to this. Intended to be printed double-sided.
Costs in silver standard as normal for me, change it to gp if you use a gold standard.

Making Magic: Lawful Version

Making Magic: Chaotic Version

For Chaos

The chief gimmick is still that it's a gamble, except unlike base LotFP a failure means you suffer some sort of negative consequence beyond just wasting time and money.
This is most notable in Spell Research itself. You could lose that spell slot forever!
On the other hand I don't want manufacturing consumable potions and scrolls to be a massive risk. What's the harm? They only get to use it once, and it's never actually come up in my game yet.


Some notes on modifiers:

• There's no bonus per level. I don't want to hamstring low level casters, and I don't want high level casters to succeed automatically.
• People can still just spend the maximum amount of time to ensure success. I'm ok with that, at least it means they burn a bunch of money and time.
• You can still research spells if you can't find a big enough library, it just takes longer and/or is more risky.

Some notes on the rest.
Changes for those who aren't using all of my house rules in Courier:

• Arcana is a skill that replaces Architecture in my game. Int score improves Arcana, as does having Identify prepared. Intelligent wizards with access to Identify can thus get a sizable bonus.
  >Just ignore the Arcana bonus if you don't use it, it's easy to get bonuses just from spending more time anyway.
• Spell Research, second result: "Can only be cast via a spell swap" refers to my house rules. Casters can swap spells on casting, but risk doom on Last Gasp's Cast the Bones table.
  
  >Change to something like "take spell level in damage whenever you cast it"
• Scroll Making, second result: "Even you need to use Arcana or Read Magic to use this scroll" refers to another house rule.
  Anyone can roll Arcana to use a scroll, even if they're not a caster. If a caster uses Read Magic on a class-appropriate scroll they can use it without needing to roll Arcana.
  >Could be swapped for something like "Scroll is half as effective"

For Law

Clerics, as the only Lawful caster class, have a less random system.
Because Law is reliable and Chaos is random. Something something thematic mechanics.

I also like that Holy Water and the new Protection Scroll mechanic require returning to the same church every day. I like this because Clerics are encouraged to stick around one church for a while, even if they adventure in the meantime.

Holy Water:

Pretty much as per LotFP. Bless the same font of water every day for ten days, receive a vial of holy water.
Differences are you can make a few at a time if you're willing to use up more than one Bless per day (not explicit in the LotFP rules), and if someone drinks it they get affected by your Denomination Spell.

Spell Scroll:
As per LotFP, without the rolling.

Protection Scroll:
Big changes! And hopefully a fun mini-game.
LotFP has some strange mechanic where you have to sacrifice creatures of the appropriate type and the total HD slain is the percentage chance the scroll is actually created.
Which is cool and all, but having to commit goblin genocide in order to reliably get a scroll that keeps them away for up to an hour is a hard sell. By the time your scroll's ready, there won't be any goblins left!

Now its a minigame where the Cleric has to kill creatures with a special knife they create, and at some point they'll have killed enough for the Protection Scroll to be completed!
You can still do this in a church, and it's still percentage based (guess I lied when I said god doesn't play dice with the universe), but the key thing is that you can make your sacrifices when you're out adventuring.

Want to make a Protection from Goblins scroll? Go out there and kill goblins! With the knife! In the name of your god! But make sure you're only killing goblins, anything else makes all your prior effort for nothing.
You could also kill just one goblin then wait around until you eventually get the Scroll. It's 50sp a day and you've got to stick around the church though.

This also leaves it open for Clerics to have multiple Protection Scrolls (and thus multiple ritual knives) on the go at once, making sure they're murdering the goblins with their Goblin Knife and humans with their Man Knife.
I don't think there's a literary precedent for this, but it sounds pretty cool.

"What if I don't want to use a knife?!"
Any minor weapon is fine, mostly so you have to remember to use it if you want those sweet sweet Sacrifice points.
Fuck, although, a wax-sealed pistol reserved for killing demons would be rad as hell. Maybe you have to put a seal on every shot?! I'd probably allow this.

this was a cool thing in Equilibrium but there are NO good screenshots of the cross-shaped muzzle flash