Casting Spells and Prayers

How Casting Works

All casting, whether it be through channeling the power of a school of magic or through a prayer of devotion requires a minimum of two things: an incantation, and a free hand with which to cast it. If your hands are bound, if both of your arms are broken, if you are under the effect of a spell or ability that prevents you from speaking the incantation, you cannot cast.

Every spell incantation follows the same formula. [School of magic or Divine Domain], [Effect], [Damage], [Duration].

  • [School of magic or Divine Domain] would be replaced by the name of the school or the name of the Domain for the spell or prayer that is being cast.
  • [Effect] is what the spell does. If it is a damage-based spell no effect needs to be stated as it is assumed to be damage.
  • [Damage] the number of damage done to the target’s Health Pool
  • [Duration] is the length of time the spell lasts for. If an effect is called without a duration modifier it is assumed that the effects of the spell last for 1 minute. Damage spells do not have a duration as the damage lasts until healed.

Certain spells or abilities may be able to temporarily reduce the Mana or Conviction cost on spells. The Mana or Conviction cost can never be reduced below 1.

Most spells will use a spell packet for conveyance of the effect to the target. A spell packet is the small birdseed-filled beanbag through which spells are delivered in-game at SusCo. Magical and Divine casters should plan to provide their own. 

In order to construct a spell packet, SusCo recommends utilizing natural fibers as much as possible so that lost packets will biodegrade, and avoiding grass seed for purposes of reducing invasive species should the packet burst. They will also be softer on impact with your target if you use sunflower-free birdseed. 

To construct spell packets, you will need twine or string, cloth cut into 5-inch by 5-inch squares, and birdseed. Lay your square of fabric out flat, or lay over a small bowl if preferred, then put the 3 tablespoons of seed in the center. Gather the edges and corners up around the seed to form a pouch. Tie the sides closed around the seed with your string. The end result should be a slightly squishy fabric-covered ball of birdseed, with a “tail” of loose fabric above the tie closing the ball.

Magic and Spells          

The Schools of Magic are Earth, Fire, Water, Wind, Bardic, Psionic, Gravity/Radiation (Gravrad), and Rune. For more information on each school’s focus, and any special casting rules, please see the Beginner Spells section in this book. Complete spell lists for each school are provided in the Supplemental Rulebook.
Drawing on the Arcane powers is no simple feat. Much as a warrior builds muscle and endurance, so too must the arcane practitioner build up a reserve of will to affect change on the world. 

The Divine, Religions, and Prayers

The Divine Domains are Creation, Death, Inspiration, Knowledge, Life, Nature, Storm, and War. For more information on each domain’s focus, and any special casting rules, please see the Beginner Prayers section.

The world of Mirhanan has many cultures and myriad systems of belief. We hope you will check out the Cultures of Mirhanan descriptions within Character Creation in this book, as well as detailed information on Cultures and religions in the Supplemental Rulebook, for more background and ideas to help you choose or build a faith for your character if you would like to include faith in your character design. 

On Being One of the Devout

Religion can be a difficult thing to bring to life in a LARP. While various cultures throughout the world of Mirhanan have a few deities (or deity-like beings) that they worship, you do not need to conform to any of these pre-designed religions. You don’t have to subscribe to any religion or pick a particular deity to be one of the devout, though having a background of any faith can add depth to a character with these skills.

Your character may have a personal belief structure or faith in a higher power or not. Perhaps your character feels a strong affinity to the values of a Divine Domain. Perhaps your character simply sees the domains as means to particular ends, and channels their Conviction accordingly.

Learning Spells and Prayers

After each event your character participates in, you may choose to learn one new incantation, either a spell or a prayer, from all the Schools of Magic and Divine Domains you have purchased. Unless you have a specific skill or in-game item to aid your studies, you may not learn more than a single incantation per event. 

If you purchase a School or Domain after an event, you may include it in the Schools and Domains you know for the purposes of learning a spell or prayer. (Unlike character creation, no spells or prayers are automatically learned during the purchase.)

You may always learn any beginner spells/prayers in a School/Domain you have purchased. To learn spells/prayers of higher tiers, you must meet all prerequisites.
 

  1. In order to learn any spells/prayers of higher tiers you must have at least one spell/prayer of the previous tier in the same school/domain.
  2. You must learn a total of eight beginner spells before you may learn any intermediate spells. You must learn a total of six intermediate spells before you may learn any advanced spells.
    To learn purist spells, you must first learn at least four advanced spells and have access to the correct Specialized tree. 

Likewise, you must learn a total of eight beginner prayers before you may learn any intermediate prayers. You must learn a total of six intermediate prayers before you may learn any advanced prayers.
To learn aspect prayers, you must first learn at least four advanced prayers and have access to the correct Specialized tree.

Some higher tier spells and prayers require additional knowledge: you will need to know specific spells or prayers of lower tiers in order to learn these. The spell/prayer description in each list will state any specific prerequisite required.

Beneficial Spells and Spell Stacking

Beneficial spells fall under one of five categories, and you are allowed to have one of each type on you at any given time. The categories are as follows:

Auras – Auras are a special type of reactive shield that are triggered by a specific event. If you hear the call “Backlash” followed by a carrier and effect, you have triggered an aura and must take its effects unless you have a shield against the specific carrier or effect.

Barriers – Similar to Shields, Barriers protect you from a specific effect. Unlike shields instead of being a one-time use, the barrier is active for a set amount of time – generally 5 minutes. The barrier’s duration starts from the time the spell is cast.

Bestowals – Some casters are able to grant you one-time uses of skills, spells, or abilities. These bestowals last until they are used or the event ends. The word “bestow” in an incantation denotes that the spell is a bestowal.

Shields – Shield spells can either be passive or active. A passive shield spell will trigger the next time you are hit by whatever the shield is protecting you from. An active shield spell allows you to take the effect instead of using its protection. The incantation will tell you whether or not the shield is active or passive.

Weapon Enchantments – Occasionally you will stumble across something that needs a specific type of damage to be hurt. Sometimes it’s just about the cool factor. There are spells and prayers that can help with this by enchanting your weapon to be able to do this.