Magic Overview

The source for magic in the world of Cphera is a person's soul. Souls have effectively limitless energy, but amount of power that a character can draw from his soul is limited by two factors, his spiritual Capacity and Tenacity.

Capacity

A character's Capacity is essentially his magical battery. It limits how much power can be channelled over the course of a day.

By default, a character's Capacity is equal to endurance * 1/2 spellcasting ability (default Intuition).

Capacity is only spent when a spell is cast that is difficult for the caster.

Capacity is recharged whenever a character gets more than 6 hours of sleep.

Overspending Capacity

A character can spend as much capacity as he or she wants, but if you spend more capacity than you have there are consequences. For every point spent over your total, you take 4 points of damage. You may continue casting even when you have no capacity left, but you take a -2 to spellcasting checks and the same damage rules as above apply.

Tenacity

A character's Tenacity is a measure of how many magical effects he can hold onto at any given time.

It is equal to Willpower + 1/2 Capacity.

Most spells change something about the world once and then are done. Some of these effects are instant (lighting a fire); some of them change something and then the effects linger, eventually wearing away (toughening armor). Occasionally a spell requires the caster to be constantly attending to it. These spells require Tenacity.

The Tenacity required to maintain a spell is equal to the Capacity spent to cast it. For most casters this means the cap of any single effect is 5, for meeting the DC exactly and spending 5 capacity, but Sorcerers, with their 50% chance of semi-effectiveness even for "failed" spells, may occasionally choose to maintain a twisted spell, which will usually have an even higher cost.

Spells that took no capacity to cast still cost 1 point of Tenacity to maintain. Even the most insignificant expenditure of magic will have an impact over time.

Tenacity is not spent, it is reserved. If you reserve more points than you have Tenacity, you may either spend the difference in Capacity each round (a steep cost), or you must drop effects until your reserved points are no longer higher than your Tenacity.

When you go to sleep, are knocked unconscious, or die, all spells that you are currently sustaining through Tenacity are dropped, and their effects end. If you want to hold on to spells for longer than this, you must take the Enchanter feat.

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Mixed Spells can often require much more than 5 Tenacity, as each component that ends up costing capacity will reserve Tenacity (if it is a spell that requires Tenacity). The points of each component are reserved separately, and if you are forced to drop some effects you may drop one component at a time, leaving the spell partially active.

Mixed spells can be created that draw the Tenacity required from some other source - but you have to find a source of magical power puissant enough to power the spell.