Spell Permanency
Some spells can be made permanent rather than needing to be recast continuously. In fact, it is believed that this discovery of magical capabilities is what allowed for magical items, from runes and staffs to wonderous items, to be crafted.
Requirements
Spells that can be made permanent must meet the following criteria:
- Duration must be over an hour. Certain spells already meet this requirement while others, when heightened or when cast by individuals with higher Proficiency Scores, can be made to meet this. For example, Enlarge Object, which is a Level 2 Spell with a duration of 10 minutes per Proficiency Score, only lasts for 40 minutes when created by a caster with a Proficiency Score of 4 and so cannot be made permanent. However, if it is cast by an individual with a Proficiency Score of 6 or higher, the duration increases to 60 minutes or more allowing it to be made permanent. Or, if heightened to a Level 4 spell or higher, when the duration increases to an hour per Proficiency Score or more, Enlarge Object can be made permanent.
- Save or Spell Attack cannot be required. Any spell that needs a save from a creature or requires the caster to make a Spell Attack cannot be made permanent, despite mages’ best efforts.
Steps to Spell Permanency
Object: To make the spell permanent, you must attach it to an object which then becomes the source of the spell and counts as a magical item. If the spell does not specify an item that it must target, the object used for spell permanency can be of your choosing.
Materials: All spells being made permanent require material components, adding a Material Casting Action, which cost the price listed below. The materials used frequently are oils, plants, minerals, or other consumables as determined by the GM or player. All consumables are used in the process, whether the following steps are successful or not.
Time: The casting time itself increases to 5 minutes per Spell Level with cantrips requiring a minute.
Arcana: The final step is making an Arcana check to determine if the process was successful. A success means the spell is adhered to the object and is looped to remain in place. A failure causes the spell to unravel. The following table lists the Arcana DC for making spells permanent.
| Spell Level | Price | Time | Arcana DC |
| Cantrip | 1 gold | 1 minute | 13 |
| Level 1 | 2 golds | 5 minutes | 16 |
| Level 2 | 10 golds | 10 minutes | 20 |
| Level 3 | 18 golds | 15 minutes | 23 |
| Level 4 | 28 golds | 20 minutes | 27 |
| Level 5 | 38 golds | 25 minutes | 30 |
| Level 6 | 50 golds | 30 minutes | 34 |
| Level 7 | 64 golds | 35 minutes | 37 |
| Level 8 | 80 golds | 40 minutes | 41 |
| Level 9 | 98 golds | 45 minutes | 44 |
| Level 10 | 120 golds | 50 minutes | 48 |
Other factors and spell variables are addressed below.
- Casting Times: Adds a Material Casting action if not already used and increases the time to that listed above based on the Spell Level. The other casting actions, Somatic and Verbal, if not already used in the spell, are not added to the spell casting.
- Requirements: These must be met, including special materials. Any special materials already required for the spell are not included in the cost of making a spell permanent.
- Triggers: While few spells with triggers meet the base requirements, those that do, do not need the trigger to occur to make it permanent. Instead, the casting time increases by 10 minutes. The permanent spell then triggers as normal without the need for any actions spent on the part of the caster.
- Ranges: Permanent spells do not have ranges. Their effects are centered on the object used.
- Areas and Targets: The area of a spell is always centered on the object used to make the spell permanent. The targets of the spell are determined when the spell is made permanent and all requirements to be a target of the spell must be maintained during the process of making it permanent.
- Variables: All decisions are determined at the casting to make the spell permanent and all variables that rely on Proficiency Score use the caster’s Proficiency Score at the time of the casting. Other variables must be determined when the spell is cast.
Purchasing Permanent Spellcasting
Services exist that offer the sale of permanent spells. The spells must meet all requirements as listed above, the object that will center the spell must be provided by the buyer, and the price is doubled.
Most services for permanent spells are only available in cities, with the highest Levels offered being 4 or 5. Some exceptional circumstances allow for higher level spells to be made permanent, as determined by the GM.
There is always a 15% chance of a failure in the process to make the spell permanent. This failure consumes all materials donated to make the spell permanent with the exception of required materials for the spell itself and the object.
Spell Tags
Each spell has tags, like many other abilities, in their entries. See Chapter XVII, Casting Spells, for more information about where to find a spell’s tags. Tags are a method of determining what abilities interact with each other and how. They are often determined by what an ability does.
Spells have two types of tags along with the magical tag which is attached to all spells. The first type of tag is the spell’s school of magic. There are eight major categories: abjuration, conjuration, divination, enchantment, evocation, illusion, necromancy, and transmutation. Each spell has at least one school tag. Some abilities, such as the Arcane School trait, rely on these tags. Spellcasters who do not have abilities relating to a spell’s school often use the school tag to distinguish general characteristics of a spell.
The second type of tag is extraneous information. Not every spell has tags other than its school(s) and the magical tag. Those that do, have tags that relate to the damage the spell does, the effects it has or the materials it uses.
Spell Schools
Spell Schools are thought to originate from ancient mages vying for power against each other. However, as the origins are unknown, other popular stories that seek to explain the existence of these specialization include original spells gifted by deities, the underlying magical structures of the world, or a long-lost decree in how magic was to be used. Whatever the source, the results are seen today in the structure of spells. Each spell belongs to at least one of the main schools. Each spell school attached to a spell counts as a tag for the purposes of interacting with other spells and abilities
- Abjuration. This school is renowned for its protection spells. Within this school are also elements of control, often beneficial, of physical matter.
- Conjuration. This school is well-known for its creation spells, which can produce matter from nothing. From this knowledge of nothing into something, mages developed spells that bend reality between the planes of existence, creating tiny rips between time and space and allowing passage through those holes.
- Divination. While famous for its spells to divine the future, this school focus on the acquirement, keeping, and sharing of knowledge.
- Enchantment. This school focus is on effects which impact the mind directly. These range from bolstering to hindering others all through the power of suggestion and mind.
- Evocation. This school is famed for its battle magic. Used for centuries by battle mages, this school has developed a unique talent with damage and the elements, from fire and ice to force and sound.
- Illusion. Deception is the core of this school which has developed dozens of spells to trick the senses of sight, sound, smell, and touch.
- Necromancy. The power of life and death and the balance therein is the true focus of this school. Necromancy is the creation of spells to restore or remove life as well as create false mimics of true life.
- Transmutation. This school is all about the mutation of forms from physical to psychic to supernatural. It is famous for the whole body transformation spells.
Some spells belong to two or more schools. These spells are known as having originated from collaboration between mages of different schools or created by those who pursue magic beyond the strict borders of the eight schools.
Spell Tags
Other spell tags provide more details for certain groupings of spells. All spell tags dictate how spells interact with each other and other abilities.
- Acid. This tag marks spells that deal acid damage or utilize acid in their effects.
- Air. Generally used for weather and other air related spells, this tag is attached to those which use or affect the air and winds.
- Auditory. These spells utilize sound components to be effective.
- Cold. This tag marks spells that deal cold damage or utilize cold, most frequently in the form of water or wind, in their effects.
- Consecration. These spells cause an area to impart benefits, penalties, or both to creatures that enter the space.
- Curse. These spells inflict long term penalties that are more resistance to removal.
- Darkness. These spells create areas of extremely low or no light and can counter spells with the Light tag.
- Death. These spells attempt to kill creatures, with or without high damage.
- Detection. These spells seek information , frequently about location, pertaining to other creatures, objects, or knowledge in the present.
- Dimensional. These spells create extra dimensional spaces or demi-planes.
- Disease. This tag marks spells that inflict diseases.
- Earth. Generally used for stones and other ground related spells, this tag is attached to those which use or affect the dirt and stones.
- Electricity. This tag marks spells that deal electricity damage or utilize lightning in their effects.
- Emotion. These spells manipulate a creatures emotions.
- Fear. This tag marks spells that inflict the Frightened or Fleeing conditions.
- Fire. This tag marks spells that deal fire damage or utilize flames in their effects.
- Force. This tag marks spells that deal force damage or utilize magically created force in their effects.
- Fortune. These spells grant benefits that mimic luck.
- Healing. Generally used for spells that retore hit points, this tag is also attached to those that remove conditions and penalizing effects.
- Light. These spells create areas of bright light, similar to daylight, and can counter spells with the Darkness tag.
- Lingual. These spells utilize language, often in addition to sound, to be effective which means another creature must understand the caster’s language to be affected by the spell.
- Misfortune. These spells inflict penalties that mimic luck.
- Morph. These spells partially alter the physical form of a creature. As long as an effect with the morph tag does not alter the same part of the body, a creature can benefit from multiple effects with the morph tag.
- Move. These spells alter a creature’s movement.
- Mystical. These spells cause damage that bypasses or lessen the normal effects of immunities and resistances.
- Negative. This tag marks spells that deal negative damage or utilize the negative energies in their effects.
- Nonlethal. This tag marks spells that deal nonlethal damage.
- Plant. Generally used for spells which manipulate plants, this tag is attached to those which use or effect plants.
- Psychic. This tag marks spells that deal psychic damage or interact with the cognition of others.
- Poison. This tag marks spells that deal poison damage.
- Polymorph. These spells completely alter the physical form of a creature. A creature can never voluntarily be the target of more than one effect with the polymorph tag simultaneously.
- Positive. This tag marks spells that deal positive damage or utilize the positive energies in their effects.
- Possession. These spells control or manipulate the soul or spirit, used interchangeably, of a creature either independently or in direct relation to its body.
- Prediction. These spells seek information about future events.
- Revelation. These spells seek truth by bypassing various methods of deceit.
- Scrying. These spells seek knowledge about a location or person’s surroundings.
- Shadow. These spells manipulate or mimic the essence of the Shadow Plane.
- Teleportation. These spells move creatures across great distances instantaneously.
- Visual. There spells utilize seen components to be effective.
- Water. Generally used for water and other liquid related spells, this tag is attached to those which use or affect the rains or water.