The Quintessential Chaos Mage
The Quintessential Chaos Mage front cover
| Author | Patrick Younts |
| Series | Quintessential Series |
| Publisher | Mongoose Publishing |
| Publish date | 2003 |
| Pages | 128 |
| ISBN | 1-904577-54-7 |
| OGL Section 15 | qcmg |
Note: Material in this section may be "mature" in nature.
The material below is designated as Open Game Content
Using Chaos Magic
Chaos magic spells are cast as a standard action. They are assumed to provoke attacks of opportunity, as more traditional spells do, and require verbal and somatic components, unless the spell weave is modified with the following option:
Should a chaos mage so choose, he can reduce a spell’s casting check’s DC by increasing the time required to cast it. By increasing the casting time to a full round action, he reduces the casting check DC by 2. Every additional round, beyond the first, spent casting the spell decreases the casting check DC by 1, to a maximum reduction of –10.
If the chaos mage is distracted while casting, his Concentration check DC is modified by the spell’s casting DC, rather than damage suffered. If he fails this check, he is also assumed to fail casting the spell.
The Limits of Mind and Body
Unlike more traditional arcane spellcasters, chaos mages are not chained and burdened down by the notion of spell slots, or a hard limit to the number of spells they can cast per day. In fact, chaos mages find those concepts downright alien, and view these limits as further proof (as if, to their minds, any more were needed!) that traditional mages are naught but children playing at adult games. Instead, chaos mages are limited by the strength of their own minds and bodies – even the most skilled practitioner of chaos magic must eventually bend to the endless, bruising assault of chaos.
Each time a chaos mage casts a spell, he suffers one point of damage for each five full points in the spell’s casting DC. This damage is applied immediately after the casting check is attempted, regardless of whether it was successful or not. If the casting check is successful, the damage is nonlethal, but if it is failed, the damage suffered is real.
So, for example, casting a spell with a casting check DC of 12 will cause 2 points of damage, while a spell with a DC of 23 will cause 4 points, and so on. While nonlethal damage heals quickly, it still presents a very real limitation to the chaos mage; any chaos mage who is staggered or knocked unconscious by nonlethal damage from spellcasting cannot cast spells again until he has had at least eight hours of continuous, full rest.
Concentration
Some effect elements detailed earlier in this chapter are listed as requiring continuous concentration. Spells with this requirement can only be maintained by force of will, lest they lose coherence and sputter away. Spells which require continuous concentration exist only so long as the chaos mage dedicates a standard action to maintaining them.
Maintenance of a spell does not provoke an attack of opportunity, but is otherwise considered a standard action in every way. Anything which can disrupt a spell during its casting can also disrupt the concentration required to maintain it, requiring the chaos mage to attempt a Concentration check as per the rules in Core Rulebook I. When determining the DC of the check, use the casting DC of the chaos spell being maintained as the basic difficulty and add modifiers as necessary.
Characters concentrating on a spell cannot cast another, thought they may voluntarily drop their concentration, ending the spell immediately – there are no penalties for voluntarily ending a chaos magic spell. Should a character fail his Concentration check, however, he is stunned until his next action, as the chaos energy he fought so hard to maintain pours into his own body.
