The Wise

Becoming a Wise

In game terms, the character POW must be 14 or greater, and they must have Personal Magic Casting skill of over 50%. The character must spend five growth points.  Normally, becoming a Wise during character generation is only possible if the Referee allows it since it is a big commitment for the character and something best explored in-game.

Special Abilities

The Wise have the following special abilities.

Access to any Personal Magic spell

Except for those Personal Magic spells exclusive to Religions, they can learn any spell without the need of a teacher. All the Wise needs to do is go into seclusion for one day per point of magnitude they are learning and contemplate the spell that they want to learn. They then spend the usual growth point cost, and the spell is theirs.

Ignore Limit on Variable Magnitude

Wises go deeper into the magic than normal characters and can transcend the limit of six points of magnitude on variable spells.

Learn More Magic Spells

The Wise may learn up to POW x 2 in magnitude of spells instead of the normal POW’s worth.

Create Magical Places

Wises can tune into the streams of magic that flow from the Magical Realm into the Real World and bring these two parallel planes close enough to one another to create magical places that they can use for their benefit.

If this is done in haste and under stress, it requires a successful Personal Magic Casting skill test. All magic places have a volume of 20 metres cubed. The descriptions below give the magic point cost to create specific types of magic place.

Seclusion. A hidden place in the wilderness where the Wise can learn magic undisturbed or simply just disappear. The seclusion has a connection to the Real World but technically exists in the Magical Realm. Detected by a character using Second Sight. It costs one magic point per day that it exists. For the duration of the seclusion, the Wise cannot regain the magic points that they have put into its creation.  Seclusions can only be used by the Wise or another Wise that they invite into it, due to the special magical understanding that is required to believe that it exists.

Sanctuary. A place that gives the wise, and those accompanying them, protection against enemy magic and magical forces. It costs one magic point per hour, but companions accompanying the Wise may contribute magic points. While in the sanctuary any defensive Personal Magic spells, like Counter Magic and Protection, cast by the Wise, apply to anyone.  Unlike a seclusion this has to be a real place, such as a cave or a room in a house, that the Wise then connects with the Magical World. Any magic points spent creating the sanctuary do not return until the Wise who created it ends it.

Power. The Wise can create a magic store tied to a physical location. The location is between one and the creator’s POW metres in radius.  At the time of creation, the Wise puts in an amount of Magic Points and can add to them over time. Places of Power, in theory, can store an unlimited amount of magic points.  Magic detection spells, such as Second Sight and Mystic Vision, can easily find Places of Power. Other Wises can pull magic points out of the store on an opposed Personal Magic Casting skill test, where the opposing skill is the Personal Magic Casting of the Wise who set up the store originally.

All magic places can be dispelled at will or upon the death of the Wise that created them.

The Ability to Understand Magic

Using their Personal Magic Casting skill, the character can discern the effects of any type of magic they come across. A standard success tells them the general effects, and a critical tells them the exact nature of the magic and its source (i.e. Personal/Divine/Sorcery).

Commonly Known Personal Magic Spells

Wises commonly learn the following Personal Magic spells.

Countermagic, Create Charm, Create Magic Point Store, Create Scroll, Dispel Magic, Personal Insight, Second Sight.

Limits on Wises

Wises may never learn Divine Magic or Sorcery, since these formal approaches of magic are contrary to the Wises floating and haphazard view how magic works and sever the link that the Wise has with the magical realm.

Becoming One with Reality

Wises who reach mastery in spell casting, and have a wide variety of spells and a sanctuary magic place set up, can become one with the land that their sanctuary is in and achieve a kind of immortality.

Requirements

  • POW at maximum (21 for humans).
  • Personal Magic Casting at 100%.
  • Must know least ten different Personal Magic Spells.
  • The have created a sanctuary magic place.

Benefits

  • Power has no maximum.
  • If killed, returns to the sanctuary, and a new body is built from organic matter from the surrounding area over a period of 1D6 days.

Wises who become One with Reality are usually retired from play after a couple of Quests at that level.  After tying up a few loose ends in their mortal lives, and defeating one last big threat to their land, they disappear into the wilderness to explore the new intimate relationship they have with their land.