EDRulebook: 11 Spell Magic

DISPELLING MAGIC

Many spells in the descriptions below have extended durations (see Determine Duration). It is possible to prematurely interrrupt the duration of a spell, disrupting the effect of the spell. This is known as Dispelling. The primary way in which spells can be dispelled is through the use of the Dispel Magic spell (see Wizard Spells in this section). It is also possible to dispel the effects of some spells through a Willpower Test. The spell descriptions below indicate whether or not the spell can be dispelled by making a successful Willpower Test.

The Difficulty Number of dispelling a spell is based on the Circle of the spell. The table below shows the Dispel Difficulty Number for each spell Circle.

DISPELLING TABLE

Spell Circle	Dispel Difficulty	Spell Circle	Dispel Difficulty
1	7	9	18
2	9	10	20
3	10	11	21
4	12	12	22
5	13	13	24
6	14	14	25
7	15	15	26
8	17

Dispelling can also affect other magical abilities with extended durations, such as talents and certain creature powers. The Dispel Difficulty for talents is determined by the rank of the talent. Substitute the rank of the talent for the spell Circle in the table below. The Dispel Difficulty for creature powers appears in the description of the creature. Unless a spell, talent, or creature power specifically states otherwise, these magical abilities can only be dispelled using the Dispel Magic spell.

EARTHDAWN SPELLS

This section contains most of the spells available to magicians in the world of Earthdawn. Though the spells listed here go no higher than Circle 8, higher spells do exist—even as high as Circle 14 and 15. Higher Circle spells are mostly very old. During the current magic cycle the deepest magical research went into developing shelters against the Horrors rather than spell research.

In decades past some magicians experimented on their own, developing new knowledge and spells outside the fellowship of magical research. There are also legends of 5,000-year-old grimoires buried beneath ruins long before Throal’s first ruler united the wild dwarven tribes. Dragons are also rumored to know these high-Circle spells, but their covetousness is common knowledge. If you want your character to have these great spells, he or she will have to find them.

The spells in this section are organized according to the Discipline that casts them, in other words, Elementalist spells, Illusionist spells, and so on. In each category, the spells are organized and ranked by Circle Number. Spells of Circle 1 are the least powerful spells in the game, while Circle 8 spells are the most powerful (for now).

Each spell listing provides both a spell’s description and its game statistics. These statistics are for the spell’s Thread Number, Range, Effect, Casting Difficulty, Weaving Difficulty, and Duration.

[Crystal Ball]

THREADS

The Thread Number tells how many spell threads a magician must weave into a spell pattern in order to fully form the spell. Simple spells do not require the caster to weave additional spell threads. The spell matrix is sufficient to hold the entire spell intact. If the spell requires no spell threads, that is indicated by the word None.

RANGE

The Range of the spell is usually given in yards. A range of Touch means the caster must touch the recipient of the spell, which could also be the caster himself. A range of Self means the spell only works upon the caster.

EFFECT

The spell Effect varies with the spell. The most common use of the Effect dice is to generate a number. This number then represents another value, for example, the duration of the spell, the amount of damage the target takes, a creature’s Attribute Values, the Difficulty Number for tests made by opponents, and so on. When a character needs to generate such a number, the spell description instructs the player to “roll the Effect dice.”

In the case of spells that do damage to a target, the result of the Effect dice roll is the step number used to determine the damage done by the spell (see Make Damage Test of Combat). When a spell requires an Effect dice roll, the step number will be indicated as, for example, Willforce + 4. This means that if the magician is successful in casting the spell, he adds 4 steps to his Willforce step to determine the Effect. A magician player should calculate, then record the Effect steps for all his character’s spells. This will save time in the thick of combat.

Some spells require the magician to make an Effect Test. In this case, use the Effect step indicated under Effect, and make a test as normal against the Difficulty Number given, usually the target’s Spell Defense. See Making Tests, in Game Concepts.

CASTING DIFFICULTY

The Casting Difficulty is the Difficulty Number for the Spellcasting Test. For some spells, this will be the target’s Spell Defense Rating. For other spells, it is simply a predetermined number given in the spell description. The term target can refer to the recipient of a beneficial spell as well as to an opponent.

The spell description explains the spell’s effect or any special information for the spell.

WEAVING DIFFICULTY

The Weaving Difficulty is presented as two numbers separated by a slash. The first number (to the left of the slash) is the Difficulty Number for weaving spell threads into a spell pattern (see Weave Threads into Spell). A notation of NA means the spell requires no spell threads and so has no Weaving Difficulty.

The second number (to the right of the slash) is the Reattunement Difficulty, used when a magician is attempting to reattune on the fly (see Reattuning on the Fly).

Reattuning a matrix on the fly takes only one round. The character makes a Thread Weaving Test against the Reattunement Difficulty Number of the spell he is trying to place into a matrix. If the test is successful, the new spell replaces the old. All that happens if the test fails is that the magician has wasted some time. Reattuning on the fly costs Strain; a character takes 1 Damage Point for each attempt.

If a character performs any other action while reattuning on the fly, all spell matrices are wiped clean. The character can cast no spells until they are again placed in spell matrices unless he casts from a grimoire or uses raw magic.

DURATION

This is the length of time the spell remains in effect. A spell’s duration is usually given in rounds (10 seconds of game time), though spell durations can also be measured in minutes, hours, or longer.

Unless the description specifically says otherwise, Rank refers to the rank of the magician’s Spellcasting Talent. Thus, a duration listed as “10 + Rank minutes” refers to a number of minutes equal to the character’s Spellcasting Rank + 10.