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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Libertad" data-source="post: 9565566" data-attributes="member: 6750502"><img src="https://i.imgur.com/UQo3dHY.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" /> Chapter Seven: MagicThe longest chapter in the book, spells in the [Title] Crawl Classics series are known for their diverse, random effects. Much like how a warrior has to make an attack roll with their weapon swings, a caster must make a spell check in much the same manner, adding a d20 + their level + Personality modifier. Beyond just a default failure/success rate, spells also have their equivalent critical successes and fumbles, along with degrees of success detailed in each individual spell where certain thresholds have their own enhanced effects.Unlike D&D, Pathfinder, and most other OSR games, [Title] Crawl Classics spellcasters aren’t limited by Vancian spell slots. They can pretty cast any spells they have access to as often as they want. The real limiting factor is the consequences for failure, which can take the form of deity disapproval (for Messenger’s Holy Acts), misfires (random negative effects that occur on a natural one, with each spell having its own list of misfire effects), and/or corruption (permanent changes to the caster, with its own tables of minor/major/greater effects). Not only that, it’s possible for spells to be “lost” on a low enough roll, where the caster loses access to casting a spell for the rest of the day.Three more things that make magic unique are spellburn, deity disapproval and mercurial magic. Spellburn is when a caster (only blasters, half-elves, and gnomes) draws upon their own souls to power their spells. They take temporary damage to their Strength, Agility, or Stamina score, gaining +1 to their spell check for every point they sacrifice in the score. Those who sacrifice 20 points’ worth of ability scores treat the spell check as a natural 20, and they can burn a number of points equal to the level of a lost spell to cast it, although bonuses to the roll require additional spellburned ability scores. A roll of a natural 1 on a spell check causes 1 point of ability score to be permanently lost. Furthermore, the gods look harshly on those who attempt to find fast workarounds to mitigating spellburn outside of natural healing. Those who attempt to use divine magic to heal it risk the offending parties being cursed on a failed Luck check, whose specifics are based on GM Fiat.Deity disapproval is relatively straightforward, where whenever a Messenger fails a Holy Act spell check, they gain a point of Disapproval. Any time they roll within their Disapproval range on future spell checks, they roll 1d4 for every point of Disapproval modified by their Luck and compare it to a table. The results are basically ways by which the deity imposes penalties on the Messenger, which can typically be cleared until the next day or doing some quest or sacrifice to prove their devotion. Such as donating a portion of Xcrawl prize money to a worthy cause of the deity’s choice.As for mercurial magic, every mage approaches the form and rites of their spells differently, meaning that individual spells can take on unique cosmetic effects or side effects once learned. When an arcane caster (non-Messengers) learns a new spell, they make a percentile roll adjusted by their (Luck modifier x 10%). There’s nearly 300 different results, including Gnomes who have their own mercurial magic table. The mercurial effects are more negative and debilitating the lower the percentile roll, with the higher results overall better and even beneficial side effects. For a few examples, the -5 result summons a spirit ogre who takes a swing at the caster on a failed casting, 34 is a Running Start that requires the caster to move at least 10 feet in order to cast the spell, 76 allows the mage to cast the spell without speaking and auditory effects of the spell can be voluntarily suppressed, and 101 lets the caster treat themselves as being able to treat the total amount of ability score points they spellburn as +1 more whenever they do so. In the event that the mage is unhappy with a terrible mercurial magic result, calling upon an arcane patron can get rid of it, but the cost is reliant upon GM Fiat by undertaking a quest for said patron. And speaking of which, casters with patrons can risk developing Patron Taint as the consequence of a low roll, which is similar to corruption in causing a physical/supernatural/personality change. But taint is in line with the patron’s personality and themes. For instance, one possible taint result with Circe as a patron might cause the caster to be forbidden to harm any natural animals at risk of losing access to their patron spells for the rest of the day.Last but not least, some spells are copyrighted. Basically, a copyrighted spell costs money every time it’s cast, requiring fiat currency worth 100 gold pieces as a material component. The component isn’t actually dissolved upon casting, instead magically teleporting into the copyright holder’s financial reserves. Only 8 spells are copyrighted spells, and they all are Blaster spells and are easily discernible in including the name of its creator as part of the title, like Egolf’s Wizardly Weapon. One might think that said spells are going to be overall better than non-copyrighted spells due to being costly, but this isn’t necessarily the case. They can have nifty effects, but as most XCC spells are situational there might be times when you’d much rather cast something else as befits the situation.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/zwwCywu.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />Now on to the spells themselves. Unlike Dungeon Crawl Classics, spells in Xcrawl only go up to 3rd level rather than 5th. There are 46 spells for Blasters to learn, gnomes have 15 spells all of which are 1st level, and each of the five patrons has 3 unique spells learnable only by mages who take them as a patron. While this amount may seem small in comparison to other systems, individual spells can have a wide variety of effects depending on the spell check result, most with a page and a half worth of results.It goes without saying that it would take too long to cover each and every spell in this book, but I can focus on some of the more interesting ones and some of their effects. They include Arcane Aspect (self-buff that summons a fearsome supernatural manifestation marking the caster as a powerful entity, with effects granting from bonuses on intimidation checks to attack rolls and Reflex saves), Blue Streak (makes the caster or touched target move faster, giving increased movement speed, bonuses to AC and Reflex saves, and more powerful effects allowing for running across liquid and vertical surfaces and even additional Action Dice), Cantrip (simple visual, auditory, and kinetic effects that can do a variety of minor things), Countermagic (can be used to counter any spell in a spell duel, dealing damage to the enemy caster as magical feedback), Dungeon Drone (summons a magical drone the caster can see through which is the size of a baseball and can venture ahead, with higher effects granting increased movement, greater maximum range from the caster, and can turn invisible) Spellweaver Blast (an all-purpose destructive energy blast where the caster can choose from a list of effects from AoE shape to damage type dependent on the spell check result), Dungeon-Vision (grants caster and possibly allies enhanced senses, such as infravision at its base and greater effects such as bonuses on finding hidden and invisible stuff), Egolf’s Wizardly Weapon (transforms the caster’s body part into a silly yet deadly weapon, such as their mouth into a megaphone that shoots sonic blasts or their hand into an axe), Melsenschlap’s 2-D Dweomer (warps nearby space-time to do things like bend light to see in magical darkness, turn someone insubstantial as they exist outside the third dimension, or create magical holes in structures to pass through), Power Word: Hero (can one or more effects like that of a comic book superhero, such as x-ray vision, laser eye beams, and being ‘bulletproof’ which reduces all incoming damage which can even reduce harm to 0 points),* and the Cavalry (summons alternate versions of the caster from parallel realities, which instead of having the caster’s stats have a list of general warrior types with different levels of power ranked as tiers).*By default, all successful attacks deal at least one point of damage.The Gnome’s few spells are heavily themed around stereotypical fairy tales and trickery stuff. For example, Creature Companion summons a magical animal whose overall stats and therefore power is based on the spell check result; Entryway Charm can magically lock doors and similar entryway structures to all beings save the caster, where higher results determine duration and the amount of other beings that can pass through; Jinx grants a broad list of debuffs on a target such as penalties to attack rolls or reduced movement speed; and Smoke and Mirrors can cause various “stage magic” style effects, such as being able to teleport between entryways when passing through one of them, or the caster turning invisible and replacing themselves with an illusionary double.There are three spells I’d like to cover on their own: Invoke Patron, Patron Bond, and the Xcrawl Special. Patron Bond is a 1st level downtime spell, requiring at least a week to cast, where the caster forms a pact with some greater supernatural entity. The types of beings this can encompass are quite broad, although only a few beings are specifically interested in crawlers. The Adventurer’s Guild is quite stringent on what patrons crawlers can take, as they want to cultivate a “family friendly” image and patrons deemed too advertiser-unfriendly aren’t allowed. Upon completion of casting the spell, a successful spell check grants the caster knowledge of the Invoke Patron spell but only once per day by default. Higher spell check results can grant other possible boons, such as additional castings per day. In fact, casting Patron Bond on another person grants overall better results than casting it on yourself, such as allowing the subject to gain permanent bonuses on subsequent Invoke Patron/Patron Bond checks for every 10 followers they recruit to the patron’s service.<img src="https://i.imgur.com/9DSfZsJ.png" alt="" class="fr-fic fr-dii fr-draggable " data-size="" style="" />As for Invoke Patron, it is different from other spells in that it has an explicit limit on how often it can be cast per day, always requires at least 1 point of spellburn to use, and its particular effects are dependent on the patron in question. While they’re detailed in Chapter 10, there are 5 patrons written up which I’ll cover here. They include…The Amazing Rando: first wizard to die in Xcrawl. Invoke Patron has showmanship-themed effects such as summoning shadow adventurers to attack opponents or ‘rewinding’ time to make PCs immediately heal damage/spellburn loss. Bonus spells are things like turning the caster into a martial arts prodigy and blasting loud damaging music.Circe: sorceress of Ancient Greek myth. Invoke Patron gives potions, animals, and sea-based effects to aid the caster. Bonus spells are things like forcing targets to lose their will to fight and thus flee the combat, turning creatures into animals, and being able to brew a variety of potions with various unique effects.Medea: sorceress-turned demigoddess who helps worshipers enact vengeance. Invoke Patron generally imposes misfortune and damage on the caster’s enemies, while bonus spells include the ability to brew various poisons, confusing targets to act randomly or attack their allies, and creating soldiers out of earth to fight the caster’s enemies.Barzodi: the secret leader of the Necromancer’s Guild, fought against British soldiers during the revolution before being betrayed by George Augustus. Invoke Patron has life-draining and zombie-creating effects, bonus spells include rotting touch saps Strength and can cause fear, cursing enemies with debuffs, and learning secrets from the dead which grant temporary knowledge and skill training.Prometheus Firebringer: Titan who stole the secret of fire from the gods, specializes in teaching casters about spellburn, but those who have him as a patron risk the wrath of the gods. Invoke Patron grants a broad variety of buffs such as ability score boosts that can be spellburned, regaining a lost spell, or a bonus to the caster’s next attack/skill/spell check. Bonus spells include restoring spellburned ability scores or creating a reserve of energy to draw from for this purpose without risk of cosmic/divine wrath, summoning the power of Prometheus into their next attack that deals extra damage to the target and the damage is then absorbed by the caster as bonus points to spellburn, and calling divine fire down as an AoE attack.Finally, the Xcrawl Special is a 2nd level Blaster spell. This is not the spell’s true name, which is in fact a single dangerous word that is never shared and must be learned on its own. It is where the caster alters their True Name and thus how they interact with the cosmos. They can choose to cast it unassisted, which takes a year’s worth of downtime, or with the aid of their patron or similar powerful entity which only requires an action but subjects the caster to a subjective ten years’ worth of training under their patron/entity/etc as rapidly sped-up time. Once cast, they choose one spell they know which grants them a permanent bonus on spell checks to cast it, and then another spell they know which takes a penalty of equivalent amount. The bonus/penalty is dependent upon the spell check resultThoughts So Far: The spell system in Xcrawl Classics has a very distinct feel in comparison to D&D, Pathfinder, and even other OSR games. Much like Critical Fumbles and Hits for physical fighters, magic and its interacting subsystems have distinctive risk/reward factors with strong themes that distinguish the classes from each other. A Messenger’s Disapproval is unique in much the samer manner as Misfire, Corruption, and Spellburn is unique for Blasters and arcane types. The wide variety of effects for a single spell, combined with mercurial magic, make spells feel a lot less predictable and formulaic, and even 1st level spells can feel like they’re punching well above their weight class with a good enough roll. The fact that level adds to spell checks allows for a feeling of progression in being able to misfire less often and more regularly attain better results.I particularly like the concept of patrons, which can grant a caster additional power and favors in tangible ways, but at a cost such as with patron taint and perhaps being expected to undertake quests furthering the patron’s agenda in the world. There is a marked difference from Dungeon Crawl Classics, where it was mandatory for Elves and Wizards to take a patron, whereas in XCC it’s optional.Join us next time as we learn more about the darkly satiric world of Xcrawl in Chapters Eight, Nine, and Ten!</blockquote>

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