Wizardry: Gate Spells I
Finally, Gate spells! This college will contain some tricky ones. First of all, Plane Shift is one of the examples I made in the initial Wizardry post, but I will repeat it here for ease of reference. Astral Projection lets you project an insubstantial body to the Astral Plane that cannot affect anything there. Banishment sends the victim back to their home plane. I decided to add a clause that it cannot return from there for a month. Dismissal is a weaker version of Banishment.
Astral Projection
Keywords: None.
Full Cost: 20 points.
Casting Roll: Skill.
Components: V, S.
Cost: 1 FP to cast, no maintenance cost.
Casting Time: 10 seconds.
Range: Self.
Duration: Indefinite.
You leave your body behind, unconscious, while projecting your spirit to the Astral Plane. While there, you cannot cast spells or otherwise affect the world in any meaningful way. Your spirit form is visible, but insubstantial. It can be harmed by weapons that affect insubstantial beings. All HP and FP losses come out of the same pool, regardless of which form suffers them. The projection suffers any negative effects: shock, stunning, etc. If the projection would become “unconscious,” it vanishes instead. The mind snaps back to the body, which remains unconscious until it recovers.
If death results, consequences depend on which form suffered the killing injury. If this was the projection, the projector’s personality and mind are gone, but his body may survive as a mindless husk; use the Mortal Wounds rules (p. B423), but the victim can never awaken. If the body died, the projector gets a Will-15 roll, modified by Talent, at the moment of death. Success means he swaps his projection ability for the Astral Entity meta-trait (p. B263) and becomes a “ghost” in the realm his projection was in. Failure means he’s just dead.
This spell can be maintained indefinitely, but your body’s need to eat, drink, sleep, etc. effectively limits the duration to a day or so – longer if your body is left with friends, in a hospital, or otherwise cared for.
On the Astral Plane, projectors (but not native astral denizens) are attached to their body by a slim silver cord, which fades to invisible after about 20 feet. The cord always “points” in the direction of the projector’s body. Treat an attack on the silver cord as an attack to the vitals, except that it must be a cutting attack. There is no special penalty to defend against this attack.
Optionally, you may overload this spell to let other willing beings in physical contact project with you. Your casting roll will be at -5 per additional target, and your casting will cost an additional 2 FP. You can offset this penalty (but never get a net bonus) by voluntarily spending additional FP; each FP cancels -1 in penalties. If you roll a critical success, you recover all FP spent on this casting. A critical failure strains your spellcasting ability; the spell automatically fails, you lose 1d FP, and all your magical powers shut down for 1d seconds. You may buy off this penalty as a Hard technique.
Statistics: Jumper (World; Improved, +10%; Limited Access, Astral, -20%; Magical, -10%; Nuisance Effect, Cannot hurry the jump, -5%; Projection, Cannot affect new world, -50%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [20].
Banishment
Keywords: Resisted (Will).
Full Cost: 57 points.
Casting Roll: Skill.
Components: V, S.
Cost: 2 FP.
Casting Time: 1 second.
Range: Unlimited (standard).
Duration: Instantaneous, the subject cannot return for 1 month.
If the subject fails to resist, they are plane shifted back to their native plane, from where they cannot return for one month.
Statistics: Affliction 1 (Will; Based on IQ, Own Roll, +20%; Based on Will, +20%; Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%; Heart Attack, Variant, +300%; Magical, -10%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [57].
Dismissal
Keywords: Resisted (Will).
Full Cost: 52 points.
Casting Roll: Skill.
Components: V, S.
Cost: 2 FP.
Casting Time: 1 second.
Range: Unlimited (standard).
Duration: Instantaneous.
If the subject fails to resist, they are plane shifted back to their native plane. However, there is a 1-in-6 chance that they are sent to a random other plane instead.
Statistics: Affliction 1 (Will; Based on IQ, Own Roll, +20%; Based on Will, +20%; Costs Fatigue, 2 FP, -10%; Dismissal, +250%; Magical, -10%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Requires Gestures, -10%; Requires Magic Words, -10%) [52].
Keywords: Obvious.
Full Cost: 45 points.
Casting Roll: Skill-3 or Plane Skill (see text).
Components: V, S, F.
Cost: 1 FP or more (see text).
Casting Time: 10 seconds.
Range: Self.
Duration: Instantaneous.
The spell allows you to transport yourself to another plane of existence or dimension. To activate the spell, you must visualize your desired destination (you must have visited that place before), concentrate for 10 seconds, and make a casting roll. The casting roll depends on your familiarity with the plane of destination. Once you have visited a plane via a naturally occurring portal, a critical failure, or by “hitching a ride” with another planeswalker, you can memorize its “feel” by concentrating and spending character points to "learn" that plane as an IQ/Easy skill (the so-called Plane Skill). This process takes one hour per point you wish to spend. Use this skill when shifting to that plane in the future. Memorization is optional, but if you choose not to memorize a plane, you must roll against your normal casting skill at -3 to attempt to shift to that plane. Coexisting planes, such as the Ethereal Plane or the Plane of Shadow do not require memorization and require a roll against the skill without the -3 penalty.
If successful, you will arrive at your intended destination. However, if you fail, you will not be transported anywhere. In the case of a critical failure, you will end up in an unintended location chosen by the GM.
If you are carrying equipment heavier than your Basic Lift, then you make your casting roll at a penalty equal to twice your Encumbrance level. On a failed roll, you leave excess cargo behind; on a critical failure, you lose 1 point of IQ for each Encumbrance level you attempted as you “burned out” that part of your brain temporarily. This temporarily lost IQ recovers after you sleep.
When shifting to a plane coexisting with the one you are currently on, you will appear in the same physical location as where you left your previous plane, but on a parallel world. If there is no safe corresponding location within 100 yards of your intended destination, the spell will fail. This does not guarantee protection from other forms of danger, such as radiation or wild animals. If you possess Danger Sense, the GM may roll before a hazardous jump to provide a warning on a successful result. When shifting to a coterminous or a separate plane, you arrive with a deviation of 1dx100 miles.
The FP cost of this spell depends on the “planar distance.” To shift between two different layers of the same plane, spend 1 FP. To shift between two bordering planes (such as the Prime Material Plane and the Astral Plane), spend 2 FP. Spend one additional FP per each additional degree of “removal.” Certain very distant planes, such as the Far Realm, may require you to spend 10 FP.
To cast this spell, you must hold a small, forked metal rod. The size and metal type dictates to which plane of existence or alternate dimension the spell sends you. You must also be able to perform gestures and vocalize magical incantations.
If you wish to visit planes that you have not been to before, you must discover a natural portal, critically fail, or "hitch a ride" with another planeswalker. If you are in physical contact with another character that is traveling between planes, you can "hitch a ride" even if the character initiating the shift does not want company. Only the person initiating the shift makes a casting roll; wherever they end up, you do too.
Optionally, you may overload this spell to transport other willing beings in physical contact with you. Your casting roll will be at -5 per additional target, and your casting will cost an additional 2 FP. You can offset this penalty (but never get a net bonus) by voluntarily spending additional FP; each FP cancels -1 in penalties. If you roll a critical success, you recover all FP spent on this casting. A critical failure strains your spellcasting ability; the spell automatically fails, you lose 1d FP, and all your magical powers shut down for 1d seconds. You may buy off this penalty as a Hard technique for each plane.
Statistics: Jumper (World; Drift, Variant, -40%; Improved, +10%; Magical, -10%; Nuisance Effect, Cannot hurry the jump, -5%; Requires an appropriate forked metal rod, -15%; Requires gestures, -10%; Requires magic words, -10%; Uncertain Encumbrance, +25%) [45].
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