Core:Elder Sorcery: Difference between revisions

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Your GM has not decided on a full set of spell creation rules yet. Don't ask him about it. Don't suggest anything to him. He doesn't want to hear it. Asking or suggesting at this time will count as a death for your highest level character. However, the words exist.

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 {{Core|Your {{L|GM}} has not decided on a full set of spell creation rules yet. Don't ask him about it. Don't suggest anything to him. He doesn't want to hear it. Asking or suggesting at this time will count as a death for your highest level character.}} However, {{L|Category|Elder Sorcery words|the words exist}}.<includeonly><noinclude>
-'''Elder Sorcery''' is the raw "language" of creation used to create new {{L|Category|Spells}} and forms of magic. It is not purely a language in the strictest sense, but a generalized encapsulation of concepts and forms that can be represented through many different mediums of creative expression. It is most often expressed in verbal, written, or symbolic forms, but has also been cast as music, visual art, and even culinary arts.
+'''Elder Sorcery''' is the raw "language" of creation used to create new {{L|Category|Spells|spells}} and forms of magic. It is not purely a language in the strictest sense, but a generalized encapsulation of concepts and forms that can be represented through many different mediums of creative expression. It is most often expressed in verbal, written, or symbolic forms, but has also been cast as music, visual art, and even culinary arts. Anything spoken or otherwise cast in Elder Sorcery either is or becomes "true" in some sense.
 == Incantations ==
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 The {{GM}} will take all these into account when deciding if the spell is appropriately balanced and has the freedom to reverse their decisions later if they think they made a mistake.
+=== Maximum Number of Words ===
-Just because a spell may be "balanced" in a mechanical sense does not mean that it can be created. After all, an archmage that's been casting for millennia should be better at creating spells than a {{L|Core|Leveling Up|level 11}} {{L|Class|Flame Mage}}, even if their spells both use OP 1 words. This will manifest in several ways. The first in the number of words that be used in creating a spell. For the best chance of success, a character can only create words with 5 ''new'' words or less. So the new {{L|Class|Flame Mage}} could cast "use this torch for warmth" to try and empower a torch to provide the warmth needed to survive a harsh polar night. But their next spell could be "use this torch to immediately burn you to ash" to make it so their torch immediately {{L|Condition|Ruined|ruins}} any creature it touches. This spell is nine words long, but Elder Sorcery relies on the number of distinct concepts the caster can hold in their head at once. So, the second use of the word "to" doesn't count towards their limit. And since the words "use", "this", and "torch" were present in a spell they already made, they have practice with those ideas already and they don't count towards the limit wither. Thus the five new words are "to", "immediately", "burn", "you", and "ash". In this way each spell an Elder Sorcerer makes expands the dictionary of words they can work with. And if an Elder Sorcerer wants to create a long and complex spell in the future, they may want to make lots of smaller spells to build up to their ultimate vision.
+Just because a spell may be "balanced" in a mechanical sense does not mean that it can be created. After all, an archmage that's been casting for millennia should be better at creating spells than a {{L|Core|Leveling Up|level 11}} {{L|Class|Flame Mage}}, even if their spells both use OP 1 words. This will manifest in several ways. The first in the number of words that be used in creating a spell. For the best chance of success, a character can only create words with 5 ''new'' words or less. So the new {{L|Class|Flame Mage}} could cast "use this torch for warmth" to try and empower a torch to provide the warmth needed to survive a harsh polar night. But their next spell could be "use this torch to immediately burn you to ash" to make it so their torch immediately {{L|Condition|Ruined|ruins}} any creature it touches. This spell is nine words long, but Elder Sorcery relies on the number of distinct concepts the caster can hold in their head at once. So, the second use of the word "to" doesn't count towards their limit. And since the words "use", "this", and "torch" were present in a spell they already made, they have practice with those ideas already and they don't count towards the limit wither. Thus the five new words are "to", "immediately", "burn", "you", and "ash". In this way each spell an Elder Sorcerer makes expands the dictionary of words they can work with. And if an Elder Sorcerer wants to create a long and complex spell in the future, they may want to make lots of smaller spells to build up to their ultimate vision. In addition to this scaling word maximum, the maximum ''total'' number of words cannot exceed the caster's total {{L|Category|Leveling Up|level}}.
-There is ''no limit'' to the number of a spells an Elder Sorcerer can know. However, a player can't just hand their {{GM}} a list of 100 spells and expect to have them all available. The first limitation is that creating a spell typically takes at least a {{L|Core|Long Rests|long rest}}. In addition, a caster that knows lots of spells doesn't have all of them available at once.
+=== Prepared Spells ===
+There is no theoretical limit to the number of a spells an Elder Sorcerer can know or create. However, a player can't just hand their {{GM}} a list of 100 spells and expect to have them all available. The first limitation is that creating a spell typically takes at least a {{L|Core|Long Rests|long rest}}. In addition, a caster that knows lots of spells doesn't have all of them available at once. Know Elder Sorcery spells count as "{{L|Category|Rotator spells|rotators}}" for the purpose of prepared spell lists.
+=== Fumbling ===
+Since creating and casting Elder Sorcery is working with raw magic itself, it caries substantial risks when compared to {{L|Category|Conjured spells|conjured}} spells. Any time someone creates an Elder Sorcery spell, there is some chance of "fumbling". To determine if a spell fumbles, roll {{Dice|1d100}} four times, once for each of the following categories. For each category, the {{GM}} rates the spell on a scale from 0 to 10, based on the answers to the corresponding questions.
+# Incantation
+## How well does the incantation match the intention of the spell. Are there other interpretations that the incant could have? Is the intended meaning the most obvious meaning of the incant?
+# Intention
+## How doable is this intention in and of itself? Is it simple, clear, straightforward, and manageable? Or is it sprawling, far-reaching, vague, or metaphysically impossible?
+# Creation Cost
+## How appropriate is the creation cost for this spell? It must be at least 1 {{MP}} per OP of ''each'' word in the spell plus triple whatever the casting cost of the spell is (see {{L|Ability|Elder Sorcery Creation}}). If these criteria are met, the creation cost has a score of 8. Putting in more resources can push the creation cost up to 9 or 10. If this basic criteria is not met, the creation cost score is automatically 0. There is no downside to putting additional resources into the spell's creation cost.
+# Casting Cost
+## How appropriate is the casting cost given the intention of the spell? If it seems perfect, then a score of 10 is possible. If spell is under-costed ''or over-costed'', then the score goes down.
+For each category, you will need to roll at least the corresponding "spell creation {{DC}}" on your {{Dice|1d100}} roll. The base DC is 15 + 10 * (10 - score) - {{LVL}}. However, the {{GM}} can choose to give bonuses or minuses for spell creation. Some possible modifiers are outlined below.
+{|
+|+ Spell Creation Bonuses
+|-
+! Bonus
+! Circumstance
+|-
+| +5 * {{P}}
+| This is an area that the character is particular proficient in based on other spells they've created, things they've done, or certain abilities they have.
+|-
+| +5 * {{F}}
+| This is an area that the character is particularly fluent in based on other spells they've created, things they've done, ''and'' certain abilities they have.
+|-
+| +10
+| The creation cost is substantially greater than it needs to be given the spell being made.
+|-
+| +10
+| The incantation exclusively uses words the character has used in spells they've already made.
+|-
+| +15
+| There was substantial out-of-game work put into creating the spell's incantation.
+|-
+| -25
+| Beyond balance, the spell's intention would be breaking new metaphysical ground outside the scope of the character's knowledge.
+|-
+| -50
+| Beyond balance, the spell
+|}
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