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Magic is the heart of the Goldensword system. The rest of the system is designed to work around the core magic system. However, you don't HAVE to use magic if you don't want. But we encourage you to try it. It's easy and fun!

(This section relies heavily on concepts explained under character creation)

Magery is essentially your skill level in using Magic. In order to use Magic at all, your character must have their Magery attribute greater than zero.

To cast spells you will roll a success roll based on your Magery attribute vs. the Difficulty rating of the spell. The Magery attribute also determines the number of Magic Points (MP) the character can use in a day.

Magic Points (MP) = 3 x Magery.

Your number of MP determines how many spells you can cast in a day. Higher MP = more spells. For example, a character with Magery of 2, will have (3 x 2 = ) 6 MP, so they can cast up to 6 points worth of spells per day. (see Powering a Spell section below)

A character with low Magery, can still use magic, but they will have lower skill and cast fewer spells per day.

Like all attributes, Magery can be increased using XP, as the character progresses.

If a character is to have NO magic ability, their Magery should be set to ZERO. This will zero out their casting and spell learning abilities and they will not be able to use spells, (but still can use enchanted items). Having ZERO Magery gives a character a 10 point defense bonus against magic attacks or any other spells used on him (by adding 10 to the cast difficulty).

Characters with Magery of 10 or higher should be aware of automatic detect magic

Spells must be learned. This allows the mage an ever-evolving development arc, and gives him something to hope and plan for, much like the swordsman ever seeking a more mythic sword.

Spells function as incremental knowledge which builds synergistically. Essentially, the mage acquires both an understanding of physical reality, coupled with a knowledge of how to apply that understanding to bring spiritual action to bear onto that physical reality.

Take a look HERE to see what types of spells are available.

Each spell has the following characteristics:

For info on specific spells, see SPELLS

To cast a spell, you must concentrate or meditate for the specified time to cast then roll for success based on your Magery attribute vs the spell's difficulty rating.

Normally, failed casts do not consume MP as they simply have no effect. The exception to this is that critical fails do expend the MP but result in strange, catastrophic or humorous effects pertinent to the intended effect.

Casting a spell takes energy, in the form of Magic Points. When you cast the spell, you must pay this cost in MP. If you run out of MP, you can't cast any more spells that day.

MP regenerates back to your maximum during a half-decent night’s sleep. Taking a regular turn on night watch shift does not decrease regeneration, but staying up all night allows no regeneration.

There are loopholes, though:

• You may ask your friends to help by using pooled MP.
• At the GMs discretion, some campaigns may allow other Alternate Spell Power Mechanisms

Each magic spell must be learned - you can only cast spells you know. Spells may be learned from other mages, or from found or purchased grimoires (spell books). XP is expended to learn a spell. (the GM should build interesting ways of finding new spells into the campaign)

XP to learn = 1 XP per Spell Difficulty level. (Eg. a spell of difficulty 20 takes 20 XP to learn.)

Most spells have prerequisites. You can not learn a spell unless you already have learned it's prerequisites.

You need to keep track of which spells you know using a grimoire listing all the spells you know along with the difficulty level, time to cast, etc. for each spell.

See spell learning example

In some game systems, casting a spell causes the spellcaster to forget the spell, so that he has to study to relearn it. This is NOT the case in GoldenSword. Once you know a spell, you know it forever (as long as you retain your grimoire) (see also loss or destruction of grimoire.)

At the discretion of the GM, for some campaigns, each character may possess a few already known spells

You may spend XP to improve your spell skills. This can be done two ways:

The first way is to improve spells directly. Spend 2 XP to lower any single spell's difficulty rating by 1 point.

Another way to look at this is that when learning a spell, you can opt to pay double XP, to reduce the difficulty to half of it's default level. Say a spell is difficulty 10, for a total of 20XP, you can learn it at difficulty 5. 10 XP to learn it at difficulty 10, plus 10XP to reduce difficulty to 5.

The other way to improve spells is indirectly, by improving Magery. Spend 50 XP to improve your Magery attribute by 1 point. This effectively improves all spells by reducing the required success roll. (it also increases the number of spells you can cast per day by increasing MP).

MP cost cannot be lowered directly, but you can increase the amount of MP available to you in several ways:

1. increase your Magery attribute (Spend 50 XP to improve your Magery attribute by 1 point.)
2. convince one or more other characters or NPCs to pool MP with you
3. find some power stones
4. hang out at a high mana Loci

Sorry, casting time can not be improved!

(except by casting spell Fast Cast)

Spells lists are located here

Any spell can be used during combat, provided you have a chance to concentrate, but more difficult spells may be interrupted by enemy attacks. Any spell with a cast time greater than 1 combat round may be interrupted by a hit and must be started over.

Melee and ranged attack spell can be defended as usual. Unless otherwise specified, ranged attack spells fly in a straight line to the target. Physical barriers affect it just as they would affect any ranged weapon.

Magic takes three forms:

1. Spell Casting
2. Enchanted Items
3. Potions & Poisons

Potions and Enchanted Items can be USED by any character, but are only crafted by those with special Skills:

• Herbology and/or Venomology are used to create various potions and poisons
• Enchanting is an advanced skill, which also requires advanced Magery and crafting skills.

Magery level determines MP and spellcasting skill

Using points:

• MP are used while casting
• XP are used to learn and upgrade spells