Spell of Desperation:In a time of great need, as an act of desperation, a mage may attempt to cast a free form Great Magic spell to achieve his goal. The spell may only be cast if the gamemaster agrees that an act of desperation is necessary or appropriate. The mage must specify in detail what he want to attempt to achieve. The gamemaster will assign a target number for success or failure of this spell. Usually this number will be in the upper 20's or lower 30's. Upon casting the spell, the mage will loose all spell casting ability for a period of 24 hours. The test roll for the casting attempt shall be 1d20 + ranks in the appropriate magic path + ranks of the linked attribute for that spell + miscellaneous modifiers. The caster may at his option spend additional body points at a rate of 1 body point for each 1 bonus point added to the casting test roll. He may spend body points up to and including the number that would cause his death. The number of these body points used to enhance the casting attempt must be specified prior to casting the spell or making the test roll. These lost body points may not be magically healed, but will return after eight hours of rest. If the caster rolls a 2 or less on the d20 test roll, he suffers a backlash from the spell. This backlash counts against his total number of backlashes he may suffer per day, and in addition causes him 1d20 points of physical damage. Luck points may used to re-roll a failed rolled. ( A character does not die upon reaching zero body points, he simply goes unconscious. He can drop to a number of points below zero equal to [ 6 + (2 x toughness)] before dying. Thus a character with a toughness of 0 dies at -6, toughness of 1 at -8, toughness of 2 at -10, and toughness of 3 at -12, and so forth.) |