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Anyone can learn to be a spell caster, by devoting a chunk of feats and skill points to the task. These rules cover the basics.
Each type of spell caster has its own feat, which you must take in order to have access to those spells. You may specialize in one, gaining ever more powerful spells, or spread out among several and content yourself with more variety and lower level spells.
Being a spell caster requires a lot of dedication: to be good at it will consume many feats and skill points. In return for this, however, you can tinker with the basic forces of reality...
Spell Caster Feat: Each type of spell caster has a special feat which you take to become one. The first time you take this feat, you gain access to 0-level spells; each additional time you take this feat, you gain access to spells one level higher.
You may never cast spells more than half your level (rounded up).
It costs 1 skill point to know a spell, or 2 skill points to master it. If you are researching the spell on your own, this takes 7 days (8 hours per day) per skill point. If you have a spellbook with the spell in it, this only takes 1 day (8 hours per day) per skill point.
You may put points into your spell casting skill with the usual level limits on skills. The spell casting skill is different for each type of spell casting, and is named after the spell caster type (thus, a diviner has a divination skill; an illusionist has an illusion skill).
You may cast any spell you know. This takes one full action and the appropriate spell components. You then make a spell casting skill check, with the following DCs:
DC 10 + (spell level x 4) base casting difficulty
add damage taken if hit while casting
(halve if this is continuing damage, such as from an acid arrow
add the save DC-10 (min 0) of a distracting spell (such as flash)
add +10 if grappling or pinned
add +5 for violent motion (, casting while running, riding a galloping warhorse or small boat in white water)
add +10 for incredibly violent motion (large earthquake)
add +5 if casting defensively
these rules replace the Concentration skill
Against Magic Resistance, the spell only affects the target if you exceeded the target's resistance number with your spell casting check.
Once you have cast the spell, make a Will save against DC 10 + (spell level x 2). On failure, you become Winded (STR -2, DEX -2, can not run). If already Winded, you become Exhausted (STR -4, DEX -4, can not move faster than a walk). If already Exhausted, you fall unconscious. You may recover by one stage of weariness per hour of rest.
If you have mastered a spell (put 2 skill points in it):
+2 competency bonus to the spell casting skill check and the Will save vs fatigue.
+2 competency bonus to related rolls (such as spellcraft to identify the spell).
+2 to DCs for others to save vs your spells (or disbelieve for illusions).
A 5th level spell caster should be able to cast level-0 and level-1 spells all day long with little or no difficulty. Level-2 spells will be somewhat chancy, and level-3 spells may be close to impossible for any but a specialist. Regardless, the highest level spells a spell caster can use will tend to fatigue the caster very quickly, while the lowest level spells will tend to not be fatiguing at all.
Spell components are determined by the caster type.
The arcanist taps the [i]elemental planes[/i] in a manner similar to the four big gods... but on a much smaller scale. He also taps more distant dimensions, although these spells are often weaker and more specialized. Most arcanist spells are evocations and summonings, but legends also speak of such things as teleporting and shaping space and time itself.
Arcanists are rare due to the intelligence required.
Casting: Arcanists must trace a circle and sigil in the air (with the sigil inside the spell circle) while chanting the words of power. Some spells also require a physical anchor to the [i]material realm[/i].
More craft than lore, enchanting covers the skills and knowledge necessary to bring out the hidden properties in mundane objects. The enchanter is a creator of the sorcerous swords and infinite silk threads of legend.
Enchanters are extremely rare, as the discipline required is harsh, and few live long enough to master the craft. A 5th level enchanter is "just beginning".
Casting: Enchanters can briefly awaken the properties of an item with a touch and a few inaudible words to the item's spirit, but to properly enchant something requires weeks of hard work.
Lots and lots of sensory, divination, intuition and similar such spells. Some telepathic stuff (including charm and sleep). Espers are thematically related to healers (they draw on the same inner source), but are far rarer. Espers are not well known or well trusted... and most people find their agressive powers icky.
Casting: Espers need only to concentrate to cast their spells.
All living things possess a biological aura, which the healer has learned to commune with. Unless otherwise stated, all healing spells require that the caster touch the subject and spend one full round in deep concentration. Casting while moving adds +5 DC to the spell casting check, in addition to any normal modifiers for violent motion.
Cure and inflict spells, primarily, with a smattering of other stuff like delay poison. The most common type of spell caster, with 1 in 500 people being one. Healers higher than 5th level are exceedingly rare, and things like raise dead are the stuff of legends. Healers are reasonably useful in combat, as they usually have no components other than touch and concentration. Combat healers typically learn the quicken metamagic feat early in their career, as well.
Casting: Healers must touch the subject (with a few exceptions), and concentrate. Like espers, healers do not need much extraneous effort.
Illusion centers around the creation of phantasmal constructs, semi-real objects and things which fool the senses. As the illusionist grows in power, the constructions take on stronger reality, even fueling their own strength with the belief of those who perceive them, and can become quite powerful.
Illusion magic does not directly affect the mind; the illusionary construct is actually present, reflects light, and so on. It simply isn't entirely real. Belief can impact it, but the illusion is there even if no one can see it.
Casting: An illusionist shapes and controls her creations with her hands, and gesturing is continuous through the course of her spells. Skilled illusionists can dispense with this somewhat, and there are additional constructs which can be learned which operate constructs independantly of the illusionist.
Unlike the arcanist, the naturalist channels the powers of [i]this[/i] plane of existence, tapping the natural structure of the natural world. Naturalism is part magic, part lore, part knack for getting along with the wild.
Casting: Naturalists speak to the natural world, and it listens. For the most part, this is all that is required. Some spells are more involved, requiring petitions to nature spirits or small ceremonies.
Little is known of this dark art, for it is banned in any civilized region. It makes a mockery of ancestors, violating their bodies and spirits to achieve th ends of the necromancer. Many necromancers are said to also be healers, and the two overlap somewhat in approach.
Casting: It is not known what unholy rites are performed on the bodies of a necromancer's victims, or what blasphemous ceremonies necromancers perform to violate the realms of the dead.
The priest uses magic to commune with the divine. The spells of the priest are simple pleas for small miracles, and the priest often has a long-term relationship with particular servants of the gods.
Casting: Priests verbally invoke the powers they need for the particular effect they need. Most gods also require small ceremonies in their honor, and certain material foci have been known to improve the chances of a spell working.