Attempting to craft new spirit powers requires the Spell Crafter secondary skill. It can be attempted once per week per Skill rank. The types of spell crafting that can be attempted are also restricted by Rank, and the Tier of the power can never be higher than the spell crafter’s own highest Tier. See Spell Crafting for more details.
Spell crafting attempts require a Sanctum or some other kind of dedicated spell crafting space. Experimenting with the creation of new powers can have disastrous effects and without a properly warded Sanctum the consequences of failure can be far reaching. As such, the Mage Wardens will not tolerate spell crafting attempts without the proper wards in place. With a properly warded Sanctum, any negative effects are at least contained within the Sanctum, but can still prove life altering or even deadly for anyone within. Meddling in the creation of new powers may in some cases also incur the wrath of the Dragons, who view themselves as the true guardians and custodians of magic (attitudes towards this depend on the Dragonflight). As a result of these risks, most colleges highly regulate and restrict this practice and rigorously enforce all the Laws of Magic.
To attempt to create a new power follow these steps:
- Explain the exact intent and form of the spell you wish to craft to a GM, who will then decide a spirit cost and Tier for the power (by comparing it to existing powers)
- Establish the material components required. Typically this would be parchment (such as a scroll or book) and 1 +1/Tier Essence of the matching Domain and 1/Tier enchanting material component of the matching School (i.e. a Tier 2 Frost power would require 3 Elemental Essences and 2 Everice). GMs may modify the requirements as they see fit.
- Roll an Intellect test , using advantage and disadvantage as follows (GMs can further modify these as they see fit).
- Disadvantage = 5 + 5 x Tier of the Power
- Advantage = 1 x level + 1 x rank of Spell Crafter secondary skill
- Example: A level 12 mage with Rank 2 Spell Crafter attempting to craft a T3 spell would have -6 Disadvantage on their Intellect roll -(5+3×5)+(1×12+1*2)
If successful the power is recorded upon the parchment and is treated similar to a Power Scroll. If used as a power scroll before being copied or transcribed elsewhere then it would be lost and/or need to be recreated from scratch.
If failing the attempt roll 1d6 and apply the effects for the number rolled plus typically all numbers below it as well:
| 1d6 | Result |
| 1 | Parchment is ruined |
| 2 | All material components are lost |
| 3 | The effects of whatever power they were attempting to create are cast on the spell crafter (if a beneficial power GMs may choose an alternate or modified negative result) |
| 4 | Rifts between Realms are created, typically resulting in hostile creatures from the associated Realm of Origin spilling into the Realm of Strife (see Codex of Creation-Denizens). The number, type, duration, and severity of this is dependent on the Spirit cost and Tier (i.e. if experimenting with a Tier 3 Fire power, this could spawn several Lesser Fire Elementals). |
| 5 | The effects of whatever power they were attempting to create are critically cast on the scholar (if a beneficial power GMs may choose an alternate or modified negative result) |
| 6 | A catastrophic failure occurs, the severity of which scales by Tier and Spirit Cost and could be deadly and/or permanent. The reach or area of effect also scales, unless properly contained within a Sanctum. A high degree of GM discretion is required, but as a default it can be assumed to result in a very large explosion dealing (1d12+10) per Tier damage of the associated damage type and spell effects (i.e. a T5 Frost power could deal 5d12+50 damage across several city blocks and flash freeze everything in its path if not properly contained, or if contained within a properly warded sanctum deal 5d12+50 damage and flash freeze just the area inside the Sanctum. |