GURPS Principles of Magic + Enchantment Redesign

 Mana Types:

No Mana Zone: Can't cast spells at all other than artificialy creating mana zone by releasing mana from the body of the mage.

Very Low Mana Zone: Spells are cast at -10 to skill. Rare

Low Mana Zone: Spells are cast at -5 to skill. Uncommon

Normal Mana Zone

High Mana Zone: Spells are cast at +2 to skill capped to learnable spell cap. Very Rare

Very High Mana Zone: Spells are cast at +4 to skill capped to learnable spell cap. Extremely rare.

Aspected Mana: Spells of the aspect are cast at +1+5 to skill, capped to learnable spell cap. Some zones give penalty to other aspects equal to zone potence.

Aspected mana zones go from potence of 1 to 5.

Ambient Mana: Mana from the sorroundings, without it it's like breathing without oxygen in terms of spell casting, while very low and low mana zones became like high peaks of mountains where it's hard to breathe. It can be gathered to cast spells for free by taking -5 to skill for every 1 FP/ER, to a minimum skill of 10, blocking spells normaly can't use ambient mana but a mage can try to gather ambient mana nearly instantly by taking -10 to skill and -5 per ER/FP absorbed, thus allowing to instantly cast blocking spell costing 1 FP/ER by taking -15 to skill, costing 2 FP/ER by taking -20 to skill and so on.

Personal Mana: Personal mana of all living beings that possess a soul. It naturaly regenerates in any mana zone at rate of 1 FP/ER per 10 minutes. A mage who knows 'Absorb Ambient Mana' skill can speed up this regeneration.

Average SM+0 human has 10 Energy Reserve and can slowly increase it.

Life Force/Blood Magic: Binding force that connects soul and body, it can be used to fuel spells but hurts whoever spends their life force, each point of HP regenerates once per week and limits maximum HP by however much was used.

Life force potence is based on hit points and magery. 

No Magery 1xHP

Magery 0(1) x HP

Magery 1 x 1 x HP

Magery 2 x 2 x HP

Magery 3 x 3 x HP

Magery 4 x 4 x HP

Magery 5 x 5 x HP

Increasing Personal Mana:

Personal mana can be increased by spending 120 hours on meditation in relaxing environment. The time does not need to be continous and can be resumed if interrupted. This time cannot be decreased and after 120 hours passess, the Energy Reserve increases by 1.

Personal Mana Limits:

Mages can have limited amount of maximum Energy Reserve depending on their Magery level. Exceptions exist for powerful and often big beings who have more average mana, though they still cannot exceed the amount if they hit the cap of their magery.

No-Magery = 10 ER.

Magery 0 = 10 ER

Magery 1 = 20 ER

Magery 2 = 40 ER

Magery 3 = 80 ER

Magery 4 = 160 ER

Magery 5 = 320 ER

So an average human mage with Magery 0 cannot train their energy reserve to beyond 10, they first need to train their Magery level to 1.

Magery benefits:

Magery doesn't add to skill level of spells.

Magery level x level is limit of charged missile spell damage. The cost is still only by Magery level CP value.

Thus fireball charged by:

Magery 1 = 1d , 1 DR

Magery 2 = 2d, 2 DR, 2 IT;DR

Magery 3 = 6d, 6 DR, 3 IT;DR

Magery 4 = 24d, 24 DR, 4 IT;DR

Magery 5 = 120d, 120 DR, 5 IT;DR

Skills:

Thaumatology: Represents magic theory, it allows user to research new spells as well as identify spells being cast by other beings even without knowing them.

Absorb Ambient Mana: Mage can gather ambient mana from the sorrounding area to speed up their mana regeneration, depending on zone it can give buff or debuff to ambient mana absorbing skill.

Very low mana zone -20 to skill

Low mana zone -10 to skill

Normal mana zone

High mana zone +10 to skill

Very high mana zone +20 to skill

Skill of 10 allows mage can regenerate 2x amount. - 50% chance of success per absorbtion(10min). - Can only move slightly like scratch an itch, has to focus intensly on gathering mana

Skill of 20 allows mage can regenerate 3x amount. - Can lay on bed or such while focusing on mana gathering

Skill of 30 allows mage can regenerate 4x amount. - Can relax comfortably with limited movement

Skill of 40 allows mage can regenerate 5x amount. - Can do non straining work like walking, talking, reading

Skill of 50 allows mage can regenerate 6x amount. - Almost effortless, can do everything but maintain or cast spells

Skill of 60 allows mage can regenerate 7x amount. - Passive, can do whatever you want, works even while being unconscious

Mana absorbtion is limited to mana zone in mage sorroundings.

Absorbing too much mana too quickly can cause mana zone level to drop.

Skill level of 40 is maximum that a non-ascended mage can achieve. IQ + Magery x5 skill cap in pure skill.

Mana zones can be enhanced in density by creating mana gathering manifestation. This manifestation absorbs mana over great area, dropping individual zones into low or very low range while the focus point becomes high or very high mana zone. High mana zones can only be enhanced to by 4th circle mages while Very High by 5th circle mages. The area is calculated by mana production multiplied per specific zones until they all together reach desired amount.

Example 9 very low mana zones enhance 10th into low mana zone and so on.

Spell Skill Limits:

A mage can only learn spells up to their IQ + Magery x5 in level.

For example Mage with 10 IQ and Magery 2 can learn a spell up to 20 level.

A mage with 15 IQ and Magery 0 can learn it to 15 level.

Skill overwhelming Skill:

A mage can win the battle due to skill, if both spell skills are equal then both defending one has 50% chance of defending while attacking one has 50% chance of succeeding. Example being skill 40 teleportation vs skill 40 flesh to stone spell(provided you know counterspell and teleport spell at skill 40), both have half chance of escaping or being petrified.

Spell at basic mastery of 20+ can be used to decrease enemy own defense(IQ/HT/ST/DX and so on) by taking -2 penalty for enemy -1 penalty.

Spell A 40 vs Counterspell A 40 = 50%

Spell A 40 vs Spell B 40(and mage knowing Spell A and Counterspell at 40) 50%

Spell A 40 vs Mage A(with stat at 15) = 25%

Spell A 40 vs Mage A with Amulet +5 = 50%

Skill bonuses up to mage own cap(only really usable for non combat purposes like teleportation):

Mana Zone - +2 or +4 depending if it's high or very high mana zone.

Ritual/Ceremony - By paying 100% more energy, you can increase skill by +4, subsequent 100% increses can boost it by +1 more per magic circle after first mage achieved so up to +8(+4 and +4) at 5th circle by paying 600% energy, each 100% energy used to boost skill takes 10x the cast time to properly stabilise the spell. Thus it takes 60x as long to cast the spell if it's supplied to maximum. Compartmentalised Mind can work together to use this ceremony with combined power by cutting time needed in addition to providing bonus energy by gathering ambient mana one time per mind.

Aspected Mana - +1+5 skill based on aspected zone power.

Blood Magic - If you use even 1 HP(for SM0) to power your spell, you get +1 skill bonus to spell, no more, you need to roll HT at -1 per 10% HP used due to shock of using your life force, if you fail, you are stunned briefly after the spell is cast due to supernatural pain.

Reasoning varies by defenses, so here is a couple.

Teleport defense fails because Mage A spell disrupting nearby mana or approaching in perfect harmony with sorrounding and thus making teleport harder.

Barrier defense fails because Mage A spell goes through miniscule almost non existent weak spot in Mage B barrier.

Etherealness and so on fails because of similar reasons to teleport spell.

Other simple reasoning could be that enemy mage mana being wielded so skillfuly that it disrupts inferior skills of those who are mage enemy.

Spells themselves require 120 hours to learn to IQ x for spell difficulty.

A mage with a teacher can learn a spell to base level by spending 60 hours.

A mage with teacher who teaches them with great efficiency and care personally on single student/teacher basis can learn a spell in 30 hours.

A mage can learn a spell without teacher but spellbook in 120 hours.

A mage who already knows the spell at base level and does not have a teacher can train to master the spell by spending 120 hours to increase its level by 1.

A mage can create a spell by researching it for 400 hours. If it's critical success then spell is perfect as desired. Success means spell is created with few side effects that can be removed with time. 120 hours per undesirable side effect. Failure means spell isn't created. Critical failure means a bad spell is created that seems fine until used. Then it becomes known that the effect is completely one not desired, and very possibly annoying or possibly harmful(but not lethal) to caster or sorroundings.

Magery 1-5 decreases time needed to learn, create and train a spell to new level by 10-50%.

Artificial Mana Zone:

A powerful mage finding himself in no mana zone or one he doesn't like can realease a large amount of his own mana to create an artificial mana zone that lasts for 1 min, allowing him to use magic or magic with less penalty for the duration. Mage can absorb unused ambient mana until the effect ends or is absorbed completely.

The zone created has base cost of:

9 for very low mana zone. Magery 1 - Only temporary one for Magery 1 as they can't enchant.

18 for low mana zone. Magery 2

36 for normal mana zone. Magery 3

72 for high mana zone. Magery 4

144 for very high mana zone. Magery 5

If this mage finds himself in truly dangerous situation like a plane of existence that has no mana and the mage doesn't know any planar travel spells then he can create true manifestation of mana zone which lasts forever unless drained or damaged in some way. Cost to do so is 500x the base cost. Zone can be bumped to very low, then low and normal and so on with split cost if desired.

Once a true manifestation of artificial mana zone is complete, a mage can use other ways to elevate sorrounding no mana zones to a new standard.

Spells have default duration of 1 minute. It can be decreased for lower cost but not increased unless the spell is designed in such a way(in which case ups the cost by 2x per inscrement, 10min, hour, day, week, month, year, century, millenia) which is less efficient than just enchanting an item to do this. To keep up long duration maintenance of a spell, you can use maintain spell spell.

1s/instant x0.25; mostly for blocking spells

10s x0.5

1min x1

Magic Manifestations:

Pure Manifestation: Normal magic effect that is temporary. Example is Create Fire Spell.

Permanent/Continuous Manifestation: Magic effect that has been made easy to use without knowing the spell or be continuously active through large amount of mana. Example is Fireball Staff for Permanent and Golem for Continuous.

Ceremonial/Ritual Magic:

Ceremonial magic is a type of ritual where the leading mage casts a spell with assistance of other people. This takes 10 times the time of normal casting but gives several benefits which are:

+1 to skill roll for every 25% more energy up to 100% and +1 per 100% energy per circle of magic after the first for a max bonus of +8.

Supply the spell leading mage would otherwise have not enough personal energy to cast.

However Ceremonial Magic has it's own limits, these being are:

A non mage cannot supply energy at all.

A mage without Magery required to learn the spell can provide up to their Magery of energy, whether by spending FP/ER or a powerstone in their possession. Treat Magery 0 as Magery 1. There can be at most 100 of such mages assisting.

A mage with Magery required to learn the spell can provide up to their Mageryx5 of energy and can use a powerstone to provide additional energy equal to their max possible.

A mage with Magery required and who knows the spell at any skill level below leading mage can provide up to their Mageryx10 of energy and can use a powerstone to provide additional energy equal to their max possible.

A mage with Magery required and who knows the spell at a skill level equal or above to leading mage can provide however much energy they want and can use a powerstone to provide additional energy equal to their max possible.

Ceremonial Magic can be used for enchantment by taking -3 to skill per assistant.

Enchantment:

Enchanting is divided between 'Slow and Sure' and 'Quick and Dirty' way.

S&S is mage creating a magical link to the item/point in space or similar area where the enchantment has to be, by creating this link a mage can slowly send his own mana into the enchantment. This will let mage send up to 25 FP/ER per enchanting day into the enhancement if they are at 5th circle, assuming 24 hours of doing it. A normal mage will probably spend 8 hours per day. Should a mage be in some way capable of doing more then they can up to triple the speed if they spend 24 hours doing enchanting.

 The formula for this is MageryxMageryxMagery per day. If his skill in both enchanting and the spell he enchants is 13 then he can take -3 to a minimum of 10 for each assistant to help him with the enchantment, the assistant needs to know both spells at at least 10 skill, but they do not contribute to final roll for success in any way unless they leave in the middle of enchanting, which imposes additional -3 penalty to the mage leading the enchantment. Each assistant can contribute up to 50% of leading mage contribution per day, however an assistant can contribute 100% of leading mage contribution by knowing both spells at at least same level as leading mage.

Q&D is mage creating the enchantment all at once by preparing mana required. Mage can this way use his FP/ER and one powerstone for the task. If his skill in both enchanting and the spell he enchants is 13 then he can take -3 to a minimum of 10 for each assistant to help him with the enchantment, the assistant needs to know both spells at at least 10 skill, but they do not contribute to final roll for success in any way unless they leave in the middle of enchantment, which imposes additional -3 penalty to the mage leading the enchantment. Assistants also use FP/ER and one powerstone, they can provide energy as written in Ceremonial Magic, the powerstone can provide up to another equal amount.

Q&D + S&S can be combined, a mage with high energy reserve can choose to spend some mana from his reserve and then if it isn't sufficient or he wants to only use such an amount, he can continue to enchant by S&S way.

Enchantments cost itself is divided into three types based on cost multiplier:

50x for mages(Only mage can activate the enchanted item).

75x for non mages(Both mages and non mages can activate the enchanted item).

Continuous enchantments(Continuousis active magical effect that is permanent in an area or an object and is always active unless enchanter gives it additional enchantment to turn off like a gate spell.) require to additionally enchant Power Enchantment into the item/space/etc. to constantly gather ambient mana for it equal to energy cost before maintenance discount.

Each Power Enchantment gathers quickly 1 ER/FP and costs 100 to enchant.

All enchantments became disabled in no mana zone and can only work in low and very low mana zones if created at base skill of 20 and 25 to counteract the penalities these zones impose.

Powerstones:

A mage can create powerstone but has limit on the capacity of magery.

1 ER/FP in Powerstone recovers in:

Very Low - 1/day

Low - 1/12 hours

Normal - 1/6 hours

High - 1/3 hours

Very High - 1/1.5 hour

Powerstone Capacity:

Magery 2 - Up to Powerstone with 10 ER

Magery 3 - Up to Powerstone with 20 ER

Magery 4 - Up to Powerstone with 30 ER

Magery 5  - Up to Powerstone with 40 ER

Cost to make 1 ER/FP Powerstone is 40 if mundane object like rock or glass sphere is used. It becomes 10 if a suitable object is used(gem, gold, pearl and other precious objects)