Magic: Shadow Magic and Incarnum Update

Magic: Shadow Magic and Incarnum Update

A few days ago I noticed a glaring mistake in my incarnum conversion - you can freely switch soulmelds on a particular chakra. Now I've edited the post, corrected the mistake, making switching the soulmelds on and off take 1 minute, and fixed some minor mistakes and miscalculations.

I've already covered the shadow magic conversion to Sorcery, but what if you wanted to give the shadowcasters more of a scholarly feel, using spells as skills, like in GURPS Magic? Here's my attempt.

Shadow Magic is a branch of arcane magic. Shadowcasters mix the energies of the Shadow Plane with the ambient mana to create magical effects. They do not need magical incantations, but require gestures. Because of this, all shadow spells are based on (DX+IQ)/2 instead of IQ, and the Magery advantage gains the Dance, -40% limitation. While the shadowcaster is casting a spell, his shadow performs different movements. This can be noticed with a successful Vision roll. Shadow magic covers manipulation of light, shadows, creating of black fire (deals cold damage instead of fire), fatigue draining, creation of items and projectiles of hard shadowstuff, transportation to the Shadow Plane and back, and so on. This restricted breadth applies the One College Only (Shadow), -40% limitation to the Magery advantage. While casting shadow spells, the caster gains +1 to his effective skill if he’s within an area of dim light or darkness (-5 illumination penalty or worse) and -1 to his effective skill if the illumination is brighter.

Finally, the Shadow Magery advantage is Magery (Dance, -40%; One College Only (Shadow), -40%) [1 for level 1, +2/level].

Use the following spells and prerequisites for the college of Shadow.

The College of Shadow
Spell Name	Prerequisites	Source
Animate Shadow	Shape Darkness, Shadow Magery 2	M154
Arrow of Dusk	Shape Darkness	New spell
Blackout	Darkness	M112
Blur	Darkness or Gloom	M113
Body of Shadow	DX 13+, IQ 13+, Shape Darkness, Shadow Magery 2	M114
Bright Vision	5 Shadow spells; No Blindness	M111
Continual Light	Light	M110
Continual Mage Light	Mage Light	M113
Control Shadow Elemental	Summon Shadow Elemental, Shadow Magery 1	New spell
Counterspell	Shadow Magery 1	M121
Create Shadow Elemental	Control Shadow Elemental, Shadow Magery 2	New spell
Dark Vision	Night Vision or Infravision	M111
Darkness	Continual Light	M111
Detect Magic		M101
Dispel Magic	Counterspell, 12 other Shadow spells	M126
Gloom	Continual Light	M112
Glow	Continual Light	M112
Great Ward	Ward, Shadow Magery 2	M122
Hawk Vision	5 Shadow spells; No Blindness or Bad Sight	M111
Hide	Blur	M113
Infravision	5 Shadow spells	M111
Light		M110
Mage Light	Light, Detect Magic	M113
Night Vision	5 Shadow spells	M111
Planar Summons (Plane of Shadow)	10 Shadow spells, Shadow Magery 1	M82
Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow)	Planar Summons (Plane of Shadow)	M83
Plane Shift Other (Plane of Shadow)	Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow)	M83
Remove Shadow	Light	M110
See Invisible	Dark Vision, Infravision	M113
Shade	Continual Light	M169
Shape Darkness	Darkness	M113
Shape Light	Light	M111
Shadow Blink	10 Shadow spells, IQ 13+	M148
Shadow-Slay	Body of Shadow, Remove Shadow, Shadow Magery 3	MDS16
Small Vision	5 Shadow spells, No Blindness or Bad Sight	M111
Summon Shadow Elemental	8 Shadow spells, Shadow Magery 1	New spell
Suspend Spell	Counterspell, Shadow Magery 1	M121
Wall of Black Fire	Shape Darkness, Blackout, Shadow Magery 1	New spell
Ward	Shadow Magery 1	M122

New spells

Arrow of Dusk
Missile

A bolt of shadow springs from your hand, draining vitality where it strikes. This attack has 1/d 20, Max 80, Acc 3, and deals 1 point fatigue damage per level. Use Innate Attack (Projectile) to hit.

Cost: Any amount up to your Shadow Magery per second, for 3 seconds. The bolt deals 1 point of fatigue damage per energy point.

Time to cast: 1 to 3 seconds.

Prerequisite: Shape Darkness.

Item
Staff or wand – the missile is fired from the end of the item. Usable only by shadow mages. Energy cost to create: 800.

Planar Summons (Plane of Shadow)
See page 82 of GURPS Magic.

Prerequisites: 10 Shadow spells and Shadow Magery 1.

Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow) (VH)
See page 83 of GURPS Magic.

Prerequisite: Planar Summons (Plane of Shadow).

Plane Shift Other (Plane of Shadow) (VH)
See page 83 of GURPS Magic.

Prerequisite: Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow).

Shadow Blink
As Blink (see page 148 of GURPS Magic), but transports via the Plane of Shadow.

Prerequisites: 10 Light and Darkness spells and IQ 13+.

Summon Shadow Elemental, Control Shadow Elemental, Create Shadow Elemental
See pages 27-28 of GURPS Magic.

Small Shadow Elemental [Tome of Magic, page 164] 40 points Attribute Modifiers: ST-4 [-40]; DX-1 [-20]; IQ-2 [-40]; HT-3 [-30]. Secondary Characteristic Modifiers: SM-1; Basic Move -1 [-5]. Advantages: Dark Vision [25]; Doesn’t Breathe [20]; Doesn’t Eat or Drink [10]; Doesn’t Sleep [20]; Flight [40]; Immunity to Metabolic Hazards [30]; Injury Tolerance (Diffuse) [100]; Pressure Support 3 [15]; Vacuum Support [5]. Disadvantages: No Fine Manipulators [-30]; No Legs (Aerial) [0]; Slave Mentality [-40]; Weakness (Sunlight; 1d per minute) [-60]. Creature Type: Elemental.

Wall of Black Fire
Area

Creates a curtain of black fire around an area. The wall is four yards high, but may be made higher by scaling the cost as the height (double for 8 yards high, triple for 12 yards high and so on). Every turn, anyone crossing or touching the wall suffers burning damage with the No Incendiary modifier (the damage comes from extreme cold and can’t set things on fire).

The wall blocks vision. Dark Vision allows to see through the wall.
Duration: 1 minute.

Base cost: 2 to 6 to cast. Same cost to maintain. Each turn, the wall inflicts 1d-1 burning damage for every two points of energy put into its base cost.

Prerequisites: Blackout, Shape Darkness and Shadow Magery 1.

Item
(a) Staff, wand, or jewelry. Usable only by shadow mages. Cost to create: 500 energy and a $500 onyx. (b) A Wall of Black Fire may be made permanent at an energy cost of 100 times normal.

Shadow Magic in Ritual Magic

Path of Shadow
Spell Name	Source
No penalty (0 prerequisites)
Counterspell	M121
Detect Magic	M101
Light	M110
Ward	M122
-1 penalty (1 prerequisite)
Continual Light	M110
Great Ward	M122
Shape Light	M111
Suspend Spell	M121
-2 penalty (2 prerequisites)
Darkness	M111
Gloom	M112
Glow	M112
Mage Light	M113
Shade	M169
-3 penalty (3 prerequisites)
Blackout	M112
Blur	M113
Continual Mage Light	M113
Shape Darkness	M113
-4 penalty (4 prerequisites)
Animate Shadow	M154
Arrow of Dusk	New spell
Body of Shadow	M114
Hide	M113
-5 penalty (5 prerequisites)
Bright Vision	M111
Hawk Vision	M111
Infravision	M111
Night Vision	M111
Small Vision	M111
Wall of Black Fire	New spell
-6 penalty (6 prerequisites)
Dark Vision	M111
Shadow-Slay	MDS16
-7 penalty (7 prerequisites)
See Invisible	M113
-8 penalty (8 prerequisites)
Summon Shadow Elemental	New spell
-9 penalty (9 prerequisites)
Control Shadow Elemental	New spell
-10 penalty (10 prerequisites)
Create Shadow Elemental	New spell
Planar Summons (Plane of Shadow)	M82
Shadow Blink	M148
-11 penalty (11 prerequisites)
Plane Shift (Plane of Shadow)	M83
-12 penalty (12 prerequisites)
Plane Shift Other (Plane of Shadow)	M83