Gaining New Spells – Alicorns

Alicorns learn spells differently depending on when they are in the timeline. After the Maripony incident, alicorns that regain their mental independence are capable of learning spells just like unicorns, with many of them quickly able to relearn many of their spells from their time as a part of the hive mind or before by some magical variant of muscle memory.

Before the Maripony incident, when the alicorn hive mind was predominantly under the Great and Powerful Goddess’s control, only a rare few alicorns were capable of learning and developing new spells (only those few who took the Magical Savant, Arcane Devotion or Wasteland Weirdo perks, as a matter of fact), and those few were only dispatched sparingly by the Goddess, if at all. Alicorns from this part of the timeline must formally request that the Goddess give them specific spells or versions of spells by sending part of the mind of the unicorn that knew the spell into them via telepathic link. Even at this point in the timeline, however, all alicorns may still gain new spells with precursors that they already possess by casting those precursor spells repeatedly and rolling under the learning percentage on a casting roll, just like unicorns. The case generally arises that such spells are immediately reabsorbed into the hive mind and sent where the goddess deems they would be most useful (i.e. usually not to your character).

Alicorns can learn an unlimited number of level 0-3 spells, and can learn a single level 4 spell.Arcane Devotion and Magical Savant may both affect the number of level four spells an Alicorn can learn. It is not recommended that GMs allow alicorn characters to take either of these traits. You were warned.

Burning Out

Burning out is what happens when a unicorn or alicorn has pushed their magic too far; it’s the magical equivalent of a severe muscle cramp. While burnt out a character may not cast spells of any sort, even level 0 spells like basic telekinesis or light. They functionally become an earth pony with a horn. Burning out also occurs if a unicorn or alicorn’s horn is removed or critically damaged.

Unicorns and alicorns can experience burnout whenever they try to cast beyond the limits of their remaining strain. Whenever an alicorn or unicorn depletes their magic pool entirely (hits 0), but continues to cast spells, the need to start rolling to prevent burnout.

To continue to draw strain requires a magic roll. For every point of strain they attempt to draw beyond zero, into the so called “negative strain pool,” that roll’s MFD becomes one step harder.

If the player succeeds at the newly modified MFD, then they cast the spell and do not suffer from burn out; their strain will continue to restore at its normal rate, and their remaining strain is reduced to 0 (they don’t have to record or keep track of however far into the negatives they went).

If they do not succeed at the newly modified MFD, but would have succeeded at the original MFD, then the spell is still cast. After the spell is cast, they immediately suffer magical burnout.

Finally, if they fail at the newly modified MFD and would have failed at the original MFD, then the spell fizzles and the character immediately suffers magical burnout.

So for example, when Little Pip was fighting Xenith in the Fillydelphia pit, she expended an enormous amount of energy using her at-the-time level 3 telekinesis spell. She depleted her strain so much that when the time came for her to use her telekinesis again to prevent herself and her new-found friend from crashing to an untimely demise, she didn’t have enough strain to cast telekinesis at the level she needed without going into negative. After she cast her spell to extend the flight of her impromptu-escape vehicle, she wasn’t able to use even the most basic telekinesis for some time.

In game terms, this means Little Pip’s roll to draw past her strain limit was unsuccessful, but she still rolled well enough that the spell was cast. She rolled well enough to get under her normal target number, so the spell went off, but not well enough to get under the new TN.

Recovering from burnout can be a long and arduous process. Without supernatural aid (such as may be provided by certain zebra potions), it takes 1d4 weeks of in game time for a unicorn to begin to recover from burnout under normal conditions. They may recover faster (less than half that time) if assisted by other unicorns with spells like Magical Assist or Mana Battery.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 843