Multi pillar casting skill

[freespace2dotcom]

Now, I want you to know, Legate, I'm not 100% happy with this. It's a very rough draft.

 

For one, it's at the very least Y2 material (maybe even Y3) yet formatted for Y1.

 

For another I don't like the title "Cross-Casting" I can't think of anything better, though.. Maybe a Latin or Greek name...

 

Finally, I'm terrible with names They may need to be changed.

 

But I've finished working on it and want to continue writing a chocolate cake adventure, so here it is. Tell the team that if they want to use it, it still needs some work.

 

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Skill - Cross-Casting

Cross-Casting is mage’s shorthand for “Casting spells from across multiple pillars.” In other words, it is about taking phemes from two or more pillars of magic, and binding them to a palette to cast a spell. Despite its deceptively simple-sounding title and premise, Cross-Casting is a very complex art due to the fact that it technically encompasses knowledge across every known pillar of magic. This skill is best used by mages who already have considerable knowledge in several pillars of magic; indeed, those lacking in these disciplines will find this skill difficult, if not near impossible to raise. For this reason, it has long been frowned upon by academia at large, mostly due to the exorbitant cost in time and skill required to be considered a master in just one pillar. (Some pride is probably involved, too.)

This skill also has a severe drawback in that relatively little knowledge from it can be directly applied to the base pillars themselves… It’s a very specialized form of magic, you see. However, for those who are able to overcome all of that and learn this skill, they will find themselves able to cast spells that will make virtually any other wizard green as a Dragon with envy. It’s really quite neat how that happens.

Research skill

1. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian I
2. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian II
3. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian II
4. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian IV
5. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian V
6. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VI
7. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VII
8. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VIII
9. Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian IX
10. Intelligence +1

 

Levels Lores, & Abilities:

1. Academically Unsound (Lore)

3. Enhanced Spellcaster (Ability)

6. The Great Things About Magic (Lore)

10. (11?) Gift of the Dedicated (Ability)

 

 

• Subskill - Cross-Casting Spells (this should maybe be set at a maximum of ~5. Unlocking a further level would then require getting other subskills at 10+)

This is the heart of Cross-Casting. Wizards who can successfully cast most of the spells in this category are a very, very rare breed. Requirements to cast them are as varied as their effects, but there is one thing uniform about them: Their difficulty! (Which stems largely from the utterly enormous pool of phemes out there.) Spells that fall under this discipline are typically more complicated than that of a single pillar, and the most advanced ones can make even Master-Level wizards cringe at the thought of having to cast them. That said, there’s a reason for that. Such spells are amongst the most powerful known throughout Elumia and normally require several wizards working in tandem to cast successfully.

• Subskill - Cross-Casting Palettes (skill max should maybe be same as theory of. Or maybe if there are multiple palette skills in future years… any ideas?)

This skill is arguably the most important for those who wish to blend magic from the pillars. Not just any old palette will accept any combination of phemes without fuss, and those who try will soon learn their folly. An illusionist from ancient Oncestria by the name of Norman Applegate once attempted to add some numerical Astrology phemes to his Glamours, not realizing that his cube Palette would cause the results to mathematically cube, causing him and those around him to see 474,552 slightly different illusions at the same time, making them all go temporarily insane until the spell wore off. Thankfully, accidents like that, (and the repercussions thereof!) can be avoided by due diligence in this skill.

 

• Subskill - Theory of Cross-Casting (This skill should start with a maximum of zero. for every 5 points in the theory of one of the 5 legal pillars, the skill max of this should be raised by 1. So if theory of Astrology, Incantation, Revision, Negation, and Glamour are at 10, this skill’s max should be 10. The Theories of Enchantment, Gates and Mastery shall also help see this skill’s maximum rise, though only by 1 for every 10 points.)

The Theory of Cross-Casting is the reason why most mages never bother with seriously learning Cross-Casting as a whole. In order to be even remotely knowledgeable in this requires a working understanding of the theory of the various magic pillars. Detractors say that this is a useless and unnecessary skill, as mages who are competent in several pillars can accomplish in separate actions many things that a single mage who knows how cross-cast can do.

…But what they will not say is how inefficient that way is. A mage that can apply theory from many different fields of magic can find themselves combining pillars to create spells that do everything that several individual pillar spells do, and more, and do it faster, and at less cost. It’s the difference between building a house once, and building it only to remodel it a couple of times to get it just the way you want it… So really they’re just sore.

• Subskill – Cross-Casting methods (This should be a normal subskill and relatively easy to raise.)

The methods of Cross-Casting are hard to explain. Unlike other subskills in this field, this skill does not draw much upon those of the base pillars, but instead is a field of knowledge all on its own. Those who pursue this skill are thus more common. It is all about how to take phemes like ‘air’ and ‘void’, which belong to different schools and are not direct opposites, and combine them in such a manner as to create an effective and novel soundproofing spell around a room, as opposed to simply voiding all sound from a room. (Which is usually not such a good idea!) If phemes are the the vocabulary of spellcasting, this is the grammar. (other methods would be too foreign, like a different language)

Abilities

 

Enhanced Spellcaster

Your practice with phemes and spells involving several Pillars of magic has given you unique insight to casting spells, giving you a +1 bonus to your Enspell Parent skill.

 

 

Gift of the Dedicated

 

The Bad News is, your borderline obsessive dedication to all things magical has finally crossed that line. Resulting in a permanent Decrease by 1 to your Charm.

 

The Good News is, your obsessive dedication to all things magical has finally hit paydirt! You now know more about the fundamentals of magic as a whole than perhaps most of the professors at the Academagia! (They’d be hard pressed to admit to this, however.) This results in a +1 bonus to your command at the parent skills of ALL Pillars of magic, (This includes even the less than legal ones, just don’t tell anyone.) due to your uncanny ability to know and apply some obscure factoid from another Pillar that no specialist would know about, allowing you to do some really cool things that awes and inspires everyone that sees you work your Magic. Resulting in a permanent increase to your Charm by 1. It’s really quite the net gain.

 

 

Lores

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian I

 

 

Aileen Strawford was an unusual mage. Born with an unusually strong talent for magic, she was quickly found by and apprenticed to a Master of Incantation by the name of Alex Fergunson at the tender age of 7. Fergunson marveled at how naturally she took to her studies, and by the time she was 9 she had learned enough of his art that he realized that her apprenticeship was going to be a very short one by the standards of the time.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian II

 

Not wanting to lose such a talented apprentice so quickly, Furgunson began concocting ways to lengthen Aileen’s apprenticeship. The first thing he did was begin teaching her what he knew of Negation. He was not a master in that art, of course… but he did know enough to pad out his teachings in Incantation for a year. It did cause him considerable discomfort to see that his dabbling in Negation, which had taken him many years to learn (in short sessions on the side, admittedly) were no match for the girl’s capacity to learn in short order.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian III

 

 

Furgunson eventually started buying books focused on the simplest teachings on the other magic Pillars. He had little real knowledge in these areas, but he figured that he could gleam the most important parts of these books, and then replicate these teachings for the benefit of his apprentice, who would then study from the books. And that is how Aileen’s studies were padded for another year.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian IV

 

Eventually, the book method got to be too taxing for old Fergunson. They simply became too advanced for him to learn, even superficially, without distracting him from his own works. By this time, Aileen was 12, and slightly suspicious of her master, knowing full well he was a master of only Incantation. Out of immediate ideas, the master reluctantly resumed teaching her Incantation.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian V

 

One day, an old friend of Fergunson’s, a well known Revisionist, dropped by. During a small chat between the two, the topic eventually fell upon one of the Revision books that Fergunson had bought that was lying around. What was that doing in an Incantation master’s house? After some coaxing, Fergunson relented and told his friend what he had been doing with his apprentice. His friend laughed, and continued to until Aileen was asked to give a demonstration of her prowess in Revision.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VI

 

 

The Revisionist knew his friend had no real aptitude outside Incantation, and realized that most of Aileen’s skill outside that field had to largely be due to her own innate talent with magic. Her own skill in Incantation at this point was more than enough to start a career. When he asked if she would like to learn more about Revision, she was ecstatic, and Fergunson knew that her apprenticeship with him was soon to end.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VII

 

 

On her next Birthday, Aileen’s apprenticeship was formally concluded. A few weeks later, she again became apprenticed and studied Revision. This time she was older, and with the head start from Fergunson, within a couple of years, her skill in Revision was already close to her Incantation skills. A failed experiment involving Incanting candy, and Revising them into different flavors however cut that apprenticeship short… Having been ostracized by the villagers after local children started licking their now tasty arms and hands due to having eaten said candy.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian VIII

 

 

Aileen was marked by that experience. No real harm was done, but there were no Negaters in the village and when she left, (or was forced to leave depending on who tells the story) she decided to ensure that from then on she would be able to fix any damage her magic might accidentally cause in the future. At this point, she was almost 16 and a little too old for another apprenticeship, so she traveled across all of Elumia, Learning Negation and other magics by exchanging magical services along the way.

 

Tale of an Omni Disciplinarian IX

 

 

By the time she was 25, Aileen Strawford was famous amongst travelers as a powerful mage who could fill the role of almost any wizard. She never acquired the title of Master, but even the nastiest sky pirates were known to let ships carrying her go without any trouble. She disappeared one day without a trace following the destruction of Monteon. Whether she perished with the island or vanished upon the news of proscriptions that came soon after, nobody knows. But to this day her absence is mourned and rejoiced by travelers and sky pirates respectively.

 

Academically Unsound

 

To the Legate of the Academy of Magic of Mineta and the Regent of College Durand:

 

I’m writing this letter because my son has informed me that he has been learning Incantation and Glamour along with his Negation classes. I don’t think it needs to be said again, but I shall repeat it: Our family comes from a long and unbroken line of Masters in the art of Negation. To allow a child to indulge in such whimsical fantasies as learning such lesser arts is to destroy generations of careful planning and pedigrees. I understand that for an institution such as yours, part of your attraction is being able to teach all the different Pillars of magic for other types of students, but by diluting the pureness of a pillar, you reduce its value. I refuse to sit by and watch my son become nothing more than one of those ‘street magicians’ simply because of some sappy sentimental stories involving some witch who lived centuries ago. Please ensure that this is corrected when my son returns to classes next year.

What shall you surprise me with next? A female Regent?

 

Regards;

 

Alfonso del Solona

10 Kapsus, 1641

 

 

The Great Things About Magic

 

“I saw a kid the other day, must have been a student of the Academy, that Revised one of those Cogspring toys into a 5 foot tall version of itself, and flawlessly added a Glamour to bring it to life, crushing another kid’s toys. Now, I’ve been in the business of doing similar things for a long time, and I have to say, that that was the most wasteful use of magic I’ve ever seen, yet… I couldn’t help but be impressed with the kid’s technique and skill. I’ve never seen that done with one spell before.”

 

- Mario Stroletti

[Legate of Mineta]

Free;

 

I'll pass it on to the Team- no guarantees, but, it is interesting.

[freespace2dotcom]

Yeah, I kinda expect that the team has their own ideas on the subject matter. Still, if some it is taken by the team I'll be happy, This was never really meant to be a straightforward cut and paste operation.

[Schwarzbart]

Some other ideas the Multi pillar casting skill could also reduce the training multiplicator of the Magic skills that have a high one.

It also could have a Research skill that only focus on Research topics of the core Magics but is faster with it.

[freespace2dotcom]

weeeeell,

 

I kinda wrote this more on a whim...

 

You see, I expect the team to at best cut this up into tiny pieces and maybe rearrange it so that it fits into their own ideas for multi pillar casting which will be seen in Y2-5. If they simply take the lores and a description, and if I'm lucky, maybe the 'reward of the dedicated' ability, I'll be really happy. This was written like a year 1 set of skills but I don't expect the format for future years to be that way.. It's more a guideline to my own ideas on multipillar casting in the lore, than a set of skills for use in the game.

 

I certainly don't expect to see in in y1. If they copied it verbatim I'd be really surprised, and that's why I didn't go into a great deal of detail on it.