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NERO® Additional Magical Skills Play-test
Version 4.5 031504
For NERO Rules: Matthew Sims, Joseph Valenti

Objective

            To incorporate the uniqueness of Harmonics and Nature Magic into the existing magic structure rather than duplicating existing spells in new schools.. 

General Rules:

            There are two new skills and a new duration of spells associated with this playtest.

The following two skills allow for specific spells to be cast upon multiple targets.  The ability, now called Manifolding and once limited to Harmonics, is no longer a separate school of magic but rather is a method of using a modifying a caster’s spells to touch cast on multiple targets and can be used with the spells from either celestial or earth magics.  There are two skills associated with Manifolding: Prepare Hearth which is the prerequisite to use the ability and allows a player to pace an area to form a hearth, and Manifold which allows spells to be cast multiple times using a single spell slot if cast in the proper manner within a Hearth.  Spells may only be manifolded from memory, they may not be manifolded from items or scrolls.  No unrestricted item may contain an already manifolded spell. 

Skill: Prepare Hearth

            This skill allows a player to attune a room for use in manifolding spells.  The room to be used follows some rigid guidelines. The room must have a roof that would keep out rain, and must have well defined boundaries that are under that roof. Those boundaries need not be walls, but they do need to be immobile. The Hearth will not extend outside any doorway or passage that leads from the room. To attune a room the caster must pace the boundaries of the room staying within arms reach of each wall and holding their arm extended palm out toward the wall. They must pace the room at walking speed and at no time during the pacing of the room may they use any other skills or take body damage or the preparation will fail.  If the caster cannot do this due to some danger or obstruction then the room cannot be prepared as a Hearth. Once a room is prepared, it will last until the character who prepared it leaves its confines, dies, or is affected by a Dispel Magic or the room itself is targeted by a Dispel Magic.  Multiple characters can prepare the same area, but each must do so in order for them to manifold spells within its confines.

 Skill: Manifold

            The skill manifold allows a character to multiply the number of targets they may affect with specific spells.

            To manifold a spell it must be cast within a hearth as defined by the skill Prepare Hearth.  Being within this Hearth allows the character who prepared it to tap into deeper powers of magic and extend the number of targets certain spells can affect.  To manifold a spell the character must gather everyone the spell is to be cast on around them, each target must be fully within the hearth and within reach of the caster.

            The caster must cast the spell in a manner reflecting his drawing upon deeper magics.  He may do this through song, litany chanting, or recital of verse.  To manifold a spell or to cast in continuously the caster must create original lyrics for singers or poems for orators.  Each of this type of spell they wish to learn must have its own lyrics or poem and be recorded in the player’s spellbook.  The lyrics or poem must have intelligible meaning which is related in content to the spell being cast and must be in English (or the predominant language of the area the game is run in, if NERO were run in France then French would be accepted) with at least one stanza of four lines per level of the spell but extra lyrics may be added to the end for artistic purposes if the character so chooses.  After the required lyrics or poem the character must state the full incant for the spell. The entire song or poem must take at least two seconds per stanza to perform. A song or poem can be longer for artistic purposes. The lyrics or poem and any tune used to perform the lyrics must be in game, in period, and must relate to the magical effect. Tunes that are familiar to popular or classical culture, such as the William Tell Overture, Toccata & Fugue, or Yellow Submarine must be avoided.

The entire performance of the lyrics or poem should be reasonably sonorous.  It should substantially match the song as written in the player’s spellbook.  Some minor variation is allowed, as with any sort of performance, as long as the performance is reasonably smooth and appears correct.  Speed singing, poor accompaniment, poor vocalization, or clearly fumbled words will invalidate the casting of the spell.  It is permissible for PCs and NPCs to use the same lyrics though it is preferred that for richness of the game each player using this skill should try to have their own unique lyrics.

If a player fails to comply with the spirit of these rules by constantly using poor lyrics, anachronistic music, badly fumbled vocals, out of tune lyrics, or poems with poor scansion then a complaint should be brought to a local rules marshal. If a number of complaints are brought up against a particular player then the local rules marshal will review the situation and possibly remove the skill from that player’s characters due to a consensus that the person is detracting from the game.

            Once the recitation or song is complete the caster must touch cast the spell on each target using the complete incant.  The maximum number of targets that can be affected by a manifolded spell is equal to the number of spell slots or the appropriate school of magic the character has to a maximum of six.  This can be modified as follows.  If the caster is accompanied by music the number is increased by one increasing the maximum by one.  If the caster has additional characters singing or reciting in chorus with them who are capable of manifolding the same spell the number is increased by one raising the maximum by one.  This brings the absolute maximum number who can be affected by a single manifolded spell to eight.

If a target is not touched after the spell, or the target does not remain within arm’s reach, or the target leaves the hearth, that target is not affected. The caster is subject to spell disruption while casting the manifolded spell and the chorus or accompaniment can be disrupted as per rules for spell disruption as well. If the caster uses an instrument, that playing is considered to be part of the casting and both hands can be used to play.

             The following spells may be manifolded.  These spells may be found in the eight edition core rules and in Additional Playtest Spells Volumes 1 and 2.

            The cost of the skills are as follows:

Duration: Continuous

            Continuous is a specific form of concentration which requires the caster to continually chant a litany, recite a verse, or sing a song with the limits listed under manifold.  At the end of each repetition the caster may state the incant for the spell and deliver the effect as specified in the description of the spell.  As long as the caster continues to repeat the verse they may continue to recast the spell using only one spell slot.  Each spell with this duration may impose other limits upon the caster to continue the spell.  The caster may not speak outside the words of the verse or incant and may not use other skills while continuing a spell and may not pause longer than 5 seconds.  Taking body damage will interrupt any spell being continued.  If a continuous spell is used once the cast may simply state the incant.

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