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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Shayuri" data-source="post: 3278119" data-attributes="member: 4936">I'll toss in. It's been noted in the book version that although Hagrid's wand was broken when he was expelled from Hogwart's, he had since covertly repaired it and snuck it into his umbrella. So no, you can't use just ANY old umbrella to work magic...just one that has a wand hidden in it. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />I'd also avoid "mechanicizing" aspects of the world that don't have to be. Assigning alignments to Houses, for example. The four school Houses were just emphasizing what traits each of the four Founding Wizards thought was most important. There's no other significance to them in the larger context of the wizarding world.It's also worth pointing out that potions in the Potterverse are so fast and easy to make that you can almost treat them as a form of spellcasting. It may take just hours or even less to make basic potions, which can have quite a number of effects. More advanced potions (Polyjuice for example) can take significantly longer. Weirdly, that whole, "It'll take months to brew" plot point vanishes by the time a bad guy needs to make it to imitate...Well. No spoilers. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />Also, it's noted later on in the books that a wizard CAN cast spells without the words and motions associated with spellcasting. Doing so is considered essential to proper dueling, in fact, since it prevents the foe from anticipating what you're doing, and speeds up your reaction time.-- Mechanically, just allow Still and Silent Spell metamagic feats to work as usual, on the fly. Potter wizards -always- cast spontaneously, any spell they know. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />  Applying metamagic doesn't increase casting time. Still and Silent Spell become prerequisites for Quicken Spell.Additionally, some wizards seem able to work magic -without a wand-. Dumbledore seems to have pulled this one off, at least once. And most wizards it seems manifest random magic by will alone while growing up. In game terms, this is so rare/uncontrollable, it probably doesn't need a rule.Oh, and on familiars. Although students must bring a "magical animal" to school...in no way to these animals appear to exhibit the properties of a familiar, other than being unusually intelligent (well, the owls and Crookshanks at least), and capable of rudimentary communication of emotions. Let's see...what else...Determining how many spells are known...thorny. Potterverse wizards seem, to me at least, more like sorcerors than wizards. Yet, they know a lot of highly specific spells, AND seem able to make relatively low-key magic effects without formal spellcasting (wizards are always moving furniture just by waving their wands around, etc). Perhaps some "spells" are actually feats...sort of like the feats that grant spell like abilities, or even better, the Reserve feats, that let you perform limitless weak magic if you know a related spell.</blockquote>

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