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Gaining New Spells – Unicorns and Half-Breeds

Unicorns and races whose magical spell casting ability is derived from the unicorn portion of their parentage or ancestry can gain new spells after character creation in one of three ways. They can gain the knowledge of how to cast a spell from a book, they can be taught a spell by a teacher who knows how to cast said spell, or they can learn a new spell by experimenting with increasing the power or modifying the effects of spells they already know.

When learning a spell by any of these means always consider two things: what your unicorn or half-breed’s cutie mark is, and the level requirement for the spell they’re attempting to learn. Most unicorns are only capable of learning spells that are related in some way to their cutie mark (i.e. their tag skills). This is obviously not always the case – characters with the Arcane Devotion and Magical Savant traits in particular are exceptions to this – but it’s much simpler to treat this rule as having no exceptions.

To ensure that the game retains at least some semblance of balance, most spells have level requirements that prevent more powerful spells from being learned until a character has reached a minimum level. A character cannot learn a spell under any circumstances until they are at that spell’s requisite level (barring GM intervention). Many spells also require certain precursor spells to be learned.

Finally, unicorns and similar casters have a limit on how many spells they can know at each level. While there is no limit to the number of level 0 and 1 spells a character can learn and channel, a normal unicorn can only learn to channel up to INT Level 2 spells, INT/3 Level 3 spells, and a single Level 4 spell. Arcane Devotion and Magical Savant both double this number after the division and necessary rounding have taken place.

All spells cost a character something in the learning of them, be it time, effort, or in many cases a new perk. Learning a spell is a large portion of your character’s development, and will always be represented as a perk on your character sheet.

In the case of spells learned via teachers or from books, the spell is learned as a quest perk; you pay for it in-character by devoting time and resources to either the teacher or the book.

In cases where spells are self-taught or are learned through observation, new spells are acquired as level-up perks. New-spell perks can be taken when a character levels up, as long as the character has a strong roleplaying reason to be able to learn the new spell. Taking a spell perk replaces the normal perk a character would obtain at that level. Magic is an ability that doesn’t come cheap!

Recommended Rule: Learning by the Numbers – Learning a spell on your own requires repeated use and experience with that spell’s precursor spells – weaker or lower level spells that your desired new spell has as part of its requirements. Every time a precursor spell is cast or seen, the chance of learning a new spell increases by 1%. Large groups or groups using a fast experience track for gaining levels should consider increasing this (from 1% to 2-5% per cast) to keep spell progression in line with level. This percentage represents a caster’s familiarity with a given precursor spell and their ability to push that spell beyond its limits. The so-called “learning percentage” associated with a spell can be recorded on the character sheet in the spells known section on the second page.



Use of overglow, elaborated on in the Magic Kindergarten section later on) grants a 5% temporary bonus to this percentage for every level of overglow (maximum bonus of 15%). Why would you want to grant a bonus to this percentage? We’re getting to that!

If at any time the die roll to cast a precursor spell is less than or equal to the learning percentage, the caster can teach themselves a new spell with that precursor. Learning a new or more powerful spell in this fashion requires that the new spell (the one being learned) has its character level, precursors, and cutie-mark compliance requirements met. Telekinesis (TK) is a bit of a special case here – only when using telekinesis as its own action (to pick up or move an object) does its learning percentage increase. Other uses of Telekinesis are reflexive, and do not teach a character the limits of that spell’s use.

If a spell is a precursor to multiple other spells then the caster may choose which one to learn, and the ‘learning percentage’ for the precursor will continue to increase with each casting up to the maximum (95%). The only exception to the above rules occurs if a higher level spell has multiple required precursor spells, in which case the percentage that must be rolled under to learn the new spell is the lowest of them. So in the case of Transmogrify, a level 2 spell which has as its required precursors both Conjure Tool and Teleportation level 1, the learning die roll must be below the lower of the two learning percentages upon casting for the caster have the option of learning the new spell.

When a character gains a new spell by pushing an old one to its limits, they immediately gain knowledge of how to use the spell and the option to use the newly acquired spell in place of the one that they were casting at the time, and their next level-up perk is immediately considered spent in advance. They can still use the newly acquired spell as often as they’d like before actually spending the perk. If a unicorn or half-breed has the opportunity to learn a new spell by this method but doesn’t want to spend their next perk, they may elect not to learn it.

Optionally, spells that are self-taught (invented by the character and improved strictly via roleplaying) do not cost a level-up perk when gained. This may also be extended to spells that a character (especially a magical savant character or one from a particularly prestigious magical bloodline) learns via observation of other unicorns or alicorns casting them.

Many GMs may wish to tweak the balance of costs differently depending on characters, making some methods of acquiring new spells cost perks and other methods give new spells as quest perks instead, as they see fit. Fallout Equestria, for example, uses a system of spell-advancement that is similar to the one outlined above for Little Pip’s spell progression, while Fallout Equestria: Project Horizons has the protagonist’s initial precursor spell be self-taught and cost a level up perk while the subsequent self-taught spells are obtained as quest perks.


 

In summary (because that was a lot to take in):

  • Unicorns can learn spells in three ways: being taught by someone who knows the spell, learning the spell from a book, or developing the spell on their own.

 

o If taught by a book or a teacher, the ability to use the new spell is acquired as a quest perk. If learned by other means, use of the new spell requires that the character spend a level-up perk.

 

  • Recommended: Every time a spell is cast, it increases its learning percentage by 1%. If up close, watching a spell as it is cast and seeing it effects can also increase the learning percentage. Overglow gives a 5% temporary bonus per level used.

 

  • Recommended:If a new spell is self-developed or adapted from precursor spells, it can be learned by rolling under the learning percentage, as long as all other spell requirements are met for the new spell.

 

  • Recommended:Spells with multiple precursor spells use the lowest learning percentage of their precursors when you’re rolling to try and learn them.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1012


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