Principles of MURPS Magic
Spells are rituals for manipulating supernatural forces. In theory, this is a precise art: Each spell produces a specific, predictable effect.
Spells fall into three realms: clerical, druidic, and wizardly. Those of each realm require a special advantage – a spellcasting talent – to learn and cast, and are affected by the ambient level of a particular supernatural energy. The table below sums up the details.
| Realm | Advantage | Energy |
|---|---|---|
| Clerical | Holy Investiture | Sanctity |
| Druidic | Druidic Investiture | Nature |
| Wizardly | Magery or Bardic Talent | Mana |
Each spell is its own IQ/Hard or IQ/Very Hard skill. Most spells have prerequisites: advantages or other spells you must possess in order to spend points on that spell.
Learning New Spells
You can start the game with whatever spells you have the prerequisites and character points for. In play is different! To learn a spell, you must possess all of its prerequisites and do one of the following:
- Visit town and pray at the temple, study with the Wizards’ Guild, or similar. The GM may enforce Training Expenses and/or limit learning to one spell per week of downtime.
- Study a spellbook containing the spell. The GM may still require a week per spell, but you won’t have to visit town or spend money.
- Successfully expend a scroll containing the spell to impress it on your brain instead of casting it. Be warned, this depletes the scroll and can fail! But it lets you learn a spell in twice the spell’s casting time.
After meeting these conditions, you may invest one unspent character point in the new spell.
Realms of Magic
Wizardly
Wizardly Spells
Wizardly spells are mnemonics used by the gifted to manipulate mana. When learning a wizardly spell you can learn a spell without all or any of the prerequisite Spells. When doing so the Skill Level suffers -1 for each Spell missing from the Prerequisite tree.
No one may spend more then 70 points on Magery and Wizardly Talent combined. Additionally no Spell’s Skill Level can every receive a bonus of greater then +6 from Wizardly Talents.
Magery 0
10 points
This is basic “magical awareness.” It has three effects:
- You can cast wizardly spells!
- You can sense wizardly magic items. Roll vs. your Perception to notice a permanent wizardly spell, wizardly magic item, magic potion, or wizardly scroll. Success means you realize it’s magical. A critical success also tells you whether the magic is helpful or dangerous, and about how strong.
- You can sense the boundary between mana levels. The GM will roll secretly against your Perception, at -3 unless you’re specifically searching for the boundary.
Magery 1+
10 points/level
Higher Magery levels make all aspects of magic much easier for you! Add Magery to the Thaumatology skill, and to Perception when trying to sense magic items or mana levels.
Higher Magery also lets you produce more powerful results with many basic spells.
Wizardly Talent †
5-15 points/level
Gives all the benefits of the Magery within its respective College and is added to the Skill Level of any spells within the College.
A mage with Magery 0 does not need to buy any zero-level Magic Talents, but it is possible for a mage to have no Magery whatsoever and only rely on Magic Talents. In that case each Magic Talent 0 costs 4 points.
Mana
Mana is the ambient energy that underlies wizardly spells. Its levels and effects are as follows:
Very High Mana: Rare and unstable places where mana is pushing into the world. A wizard who casts a wizardly spell loses no FP or Energy, but still needs the amount of energy required. However, all failures are treated as critical failures – and actual critical failures produce spectacular disasters of the GM’s choosing!
High Mana: Not uncommon and seemingly random sites where magical power pools. Wizardly Recover Energy works especially well, restoring 1 FP every 5 minutes at any skill level, 1 FP every 2 minutes at skill 15-19, or 1 FP every minute at skill 20 or higher.
Normal Mana: The usual assumption when the GM hasn’t specifically adjusted the mana level. Wizardly magic works normally.
Low Mana: Places where magic is weak – which, like high-mana areas, seem to be random and not especially rare. Wizardly spells have -5 to skill for all purposes. Magic items are similarly affected. Wizardly Recover Energy does nothing.
No Mana: Extremely uncommon locales where mana is utterly absent. Wizardly magic won’t work, and ongoing spells are instantly dispelled. Exception: The effects of permanent spells and magic items are merely suspended, and resume once taken to an area with mana.
Mana is normal on average, but low- and high-mana spots are far more common than low- or high-sanctity ones. In some places, mana level fluctuates over time!
Clerical
Few gods are truly omnipresent, but most govern a sufficiently large facet of Creation that their presence pervades all but the most cursed of places. Gifted mortals can exploit this to channel a deity’s power – sanctity – to produce miracles. The rituals for doing so are clerical spells.
Holy Investiture
10 points/level
Holy Investiture permits you to acquire Holy abilities, and to learn and cast clerical spells. Add its level (maximum six) to all rolls required to use Holy abilities (not spells). When learning Clerical Spells Holy Investiture is the only requirement. Clerics do not need to know lesser spells as they are just channeling the effect.
A successful Perception roll with a bonus equal to level will let you detect blessed or cursed items or places, and changes in sanctity level (the latter at -3 unless specifically searching).
When you take holy investiture you must take a -10 point disadvantage to represent your religious tenants. If you lapse, your Holy Investiture stop working. To recover, you must donate $1,000 or more of treasure, accept a perilous quest, or offer other significant penance.
Sanctity
Sanctity is the ambient energy that empowers clerical spells. Its levels and effects are as follows:
Very High Sanctity: Extraordinarily rare places where a god set foot in the world! The caster of a clerical spell loses no FP or Energy, but still needs the amount of energy required. However, any failure counts as critical failure, unless the casting was clearly necessary for a holy quest. Genuine critical failure renders the cleric unable to cast clerical spells or use Holy abilities until penance is paid. Counts as no sanctity for the opposition.
High Sanctity: Long-established temples and monasteries. Clerical Recover Energy is extra-effective, restoring 1 FP every 5 minutes at any skill level, 1 FP every 2 minutes at skill 15-19, or 1 FP every minute at skill 20 or higher. Counts as low sanctity for the opposition.
Normal Sanctity: Most places! Clerical magic works normally.
Low Sanctity: The opposition’s temples and monasteries. Clerical spells suffer -5 to skill for all purposes. Blessed items are similarly affected. Clerical Recover Energy does nothing. Counts as high sanctity for the opposition.
No Sanctity: Extremely rare places of very high sanctity for the opposition. Clerical magic won’t work, and ongoing spells are instantly dispelled. Exception: The effects of permanent blessings and blessed items are merely suspended, and resume once taken to an area with sanctity.
The Opposition: Clerics and servitors of deities are either Good (assumed for delvers, priests in town, angels, etc.) or Evil (assumed for cultists, monster shamans, demons, and so on). Evil is “the opposition” for Good, and vice versa. The world has shades of gray; clerics don’t.
Druidic
Clerics looking at Creation see the Sun God hanging over the realm of the Sea God, where the Shark God swims. Druids stand back and view the shapes and brushstrokes as a panorama: Nature. Their spells channel the omnipresent “life force” that emanates from all living things – Nature’s strength – to affect those things and their environment.
Druidic Investiture
10 points/level
Druidic Investiture allows you to acquire Druidic abilities, and to learn and cast druidic spells. Add its level (maximum six) to all rolls required to use Druidic abilities. When learning Druidic Spells Druidic Investiture is the only requirement. Druids do not need to know lesser spells as they are just channeling the effect.
A successful Perception roll with a bonus equal to level will let you detect druidic magic items, or know the exact level of Nature’s strength at your location.
Nature’s Strength
Nature’s strength is the ambient energy behind druidic magic. Its main effect is to give a modifier when casting druidic spells:
Primeval wilderness: +1 to +5. Examples: Faerie forests. Wild places never before visited by Humans.
Ordinary wilderness: No modifier. Examples: Any place free of artificial development more advanced than mud huts and hiking trails. Not necessarily green; deserts and caves are part of Nature, too.
Nature remains, but isn’t pristine: -1. Examples: Dungeons and mines, with immeasurable tons of soil and burrowing things above, below, and to all sides. Tilled fields and clearings cut in the forest, which are still home to growing things.
Artificial structures: -3. Examples: Town. Inside castles, fortresses, towers, etc. In the middle of the largest dungeons, where all that’s beyond the walls is yet more dungeon. The GM may reduce the penalty to -2 if the druid takes pains to get slightly closer to Nature by visiting a park or seeking a wall with earth on the far side – or worsen it to -4 in tanneries, smithies, and other industrial places.
Nature extensively defiled: -5. Examples: Vast open-pit mines. Places where effluence from civilization has killed all but the hardiest wildlife. The GM can use -6 to -9, for particularly bad cases.
Nature supernaturally defiled: -10. Examples: Anywhere waste from mad wizardry or alchemy has twisted Nature. Places where Elder Things have warped reality.
Bardic
Bards cast wizardly spells. For the most part, these work normally:
- Prerequisite spells are unchanged.
- Energy Reserve (Magical) can be tapped for energy.
- Mana is required to cast, and has its usual effects.
There are a few differences, though:
- Bardic Talent replaces Magery. The same level is needed as a prerequisite, and it gives a permanent bonus to spells as Wizardly Talent would, but it can’t sense magic items or mana levels.
- Bards are limited to the Communication and Empathy, Knowledge, Mind Control, and Sound colleges.
- Bards must sing or play to cast, even from scrolls.
Bardic Talent
10 points/level
Bardic Talent enables you to buy Bard-Song abilities; add its level (maximum six) to all rolls required to use such powers. It also allows you to learn and cast wizardly spells from the Communication and Empathy, Knowledge, Mind Control, and Sound colleges – count it as an equivalent level of Magery for this specific purpose, helping you meet Magery prerequisites, and in some cases letting you produce more potent results. Finally, add its level to the Musical Instrument, Performance, Public Speaking, and Singing skills – and to reaction rolls toward your music when you perform for a willing audience.