In our first Mechanics Monday, we're going to take a quick delve into the rules for spellcasting within Visions of Zumea. Spellcasting is a critical feature for any fantasy RPG system, and Visions of Zumea aims to place more control into the hands (and dice) of its spellcasters.
Casting Spells. To cast a spell, you must have the Cast a Spell or Cast an Incantation action available to you, which usually comes from your class choice. Of the ten classes within Visions of Zumea, the Arcanist, Bard, Elementalist, Magus, Planeshaper and Ritualist all have spellcasting features, along with certain subclasses of the Ranger (Call of the Wild) and Warrior (Templar).
Spellcasting Rolls. The concept of a Saving Throw is well established in numerous RPG settings and systems. The Visions system strives to put more power back into the spellcaster's hands via the use of Spellcasting Rolls. For the majority of spells, the success or failure will depend on the Spellcasting Roll made by the caster themselves (instead of a Saving Throw made by the victim or target of the spell). Spellcasting rolls vary slightly based on your character class (which determines the Spellcasting Ability Score), but all follow the same general formula:
Spellcasting Roll = d20 + Spellcasting Ability Modifier + Proficiency
After a Spellcasting Roll is made, it is compared to one of four Defense Scores. Like Attack Rolls that are compared to Armor Class, each spell's description will indicate which of the four Defense Scores it will target: Fortitude, Reflex, Resolve or Wit. If the roll is equal to or greater than the target's Defense Score, it is a success! Otherwise it is considered a failure (but worry not - many spells still have effects even on a failure).
Let's look at an example - Deathly Chill is a 5th Tier spell that has the following spell description:
Make a spellcasting roll against the target's Fortitude. On a success, the target takes 6d8 + 15 cold damage, half as much on a failure.
The full spell description is a little longer, but for our purposes let's just look at this portion. If an Elementalist were to cast this spell on a troll they were fighting, they would first make a Spellcasting Roll as noted above. Let's assume the Elementalist is 5th Level (meaning they have Proficiency Score of 2), with a Willpower Score of 4. If they roll a 13 on the d20, then their Spellcasting Roll is 13 + 4 + 2 = 19. They then must compare this roll to the Fortitude of the target, in this case the troll. The troll has Fortitude of 18, and so the spell is considered a success! The Elementalist then rolls 6d8 + 15 and deals this much cold damage to the troll.
If instead the Elementalist rolled a 5, their total Spellcasting Roll would be 5 + 4 + 2 = 11, which is below the Fortitude score of the troll. The spell is then considered a failure. But the spell description indicates that the troll still takes half damage! So the Elementalist still rolls 6d8 + 15, and deals half of this value to the troll as cold damage.
Multitarget Spells. Some spells can target more than one creature. The Target field within the spell's description will always indicate what it can target (for example: a creature, the spellcaster itself, or multiple creatures in an area). If casting a spell that targets multiple creatures, the spellcaster only make one Spellcasting Roll and compares that to the Defense Score of each creature targeted (or within range).
As an example, let's say the same Elementalist above wanted to use the spell Slicing Arc. The spell description reads:
Make a spellcasting roll against the Reflex of all creatures in a 15-foot cone. A creature takes 4d8 force damage on a success, half as much on a failure.
If there is a troll and a wolf within the 15-foot cone in front of the Elementalist when she casts this spell, she will first make a single Spellcasting Roll. Let's say she rolls an 8 on her d20 and so her total Spellcasting Roll is 8 + 4 + 2 = 14. The Reflex score for the troll is 13, and for the wolf is 16. The Slicing Arc is therefore considered a success against the troll (14 versus 13) and a failure against the wolf (14 versus 16). The Elementalist then calculates her 4d8 force damage, applying full damage to the troll and half damage against the wolf.
The aim for Spellcasting Rolls is to put more control back into the hands of the spellcaster. While Saving Throws are still used to end certain magical effects (or resist environmental effects such as traps), the ability to initially affect a creature with a spell is based on these Spellcasting Rolls.
Stay tuned for future Mechanics Mondays as we continue to explore the other systems within Visions of Zumea, and be sure to check out these systems for yourself in our free playtest: https://visionsrpg.itch.io/visions-rpg.