Campaign:Changeling-The DERPing/Spellcasting

Here are the general spellcasting rules

Cantrips as in an overview

Spellcasting in Changeling is unlike most other games really. You don't have "spells" or "charms" per se, nor do you have Magic Spheres. Cantrips are somewhere in between the line of these, in terms of flexibility. All Cantrips are composed of an Art (what effects you can conjure), and a Realm (what you are allowed to target with your abilities). Casting a Cantrip involves selecting one art, and one-or-more realms:

• Example: for example, suppose one wanted to alter their facial features to look like a nearby security guard. They would use Metamorphosis ●● (Impersonate), with Actor ● (Someone they know intimately. This includes one-self). Now if the person wanted to disguise their rifle as an umbrella, they would use Metamorphosis ●● with Prop ●●● (simple machine). Now should the player want to disguise themselves as a tourist with an umbrella, they would need to use both Prop ●●● and Actor ●
  

Arts have a Governing Attribute. In the case of Metamorphosis, it is Stamina. This is what you roll, in addition to the lowest realm you possess, in order to cast your spell.

• Example: Say our Metamorpher has Stamina ●●●●, Actor ●●, and Prop ●●●●. If he wanted to disguise both himself and his rifle, he would roll Stamina+Actor, for this is the lowest level required realm. Should she have wished to disguise her gun alone, she would roll Stamina+Prop instead.
  

Should you have multiple realms that could affect the *same* target, you can use them as "Secondary" Realms, representing spellcaster synergy. Each "Secondary" realm used as such, grants -1 difficulty to the casting roll.

• Example: The Bone Reaper is an assassin who carries a knives made from a deer-antler. Being crafted objects, they are affected by Prop ●●, but being formerly living organic matter, they're also affected by Nature ●. He wants to use Legerdemain ●● to telekinetically hurl this knife towards a foe. Suppose the Reaper had Dexterity ●●●●, Nature ●●●● and Prop ●● (or Dexterity ●●●●, Nature ●●, and Prop ●●●●). Not only would our caster roll a whopping ●●●●+●●●● (As you only need *one* of the realms in question to affect the antler knife), but it also cast at -1 difficulty.

Finally, some Realms are Modifier realms. These are Cue, and Stage. The way these work, you may alter a spell effect to include up to that level's worth of metamagic; however, each level of Stage adds +1 to casting difficulty. In most cases, should multiple targets be affected, you must divide successes among them anyway (So no multiplying damage by Scene...sorry. :P)

• Example: A very angry sorcerer hurls an explosive fireball (Primal ●●●●) towards his foes. However, he wants it to go off after he yells *ka-BOOM*, a la the Demoman. Adding the area-effect would require Stage ●, while setting it to go off (Up to an hour later) is Cue ●. Adding these together, the result is +1 to the difficulty of the Cantrip.

Actually Casting the Spell

• Step 1: First, decide what you want to do. Find out the appropriate Art and Realm(s) combination to pull this off.
• Step 2: You may opt to perform a Bunk, a ritual designed to be thematically appropriate to the spell in question. For example, should one be using Soothsay to divine the future, throwing sticks and consulting the I Ching would be appropriate. Depending on how elaborate the ritual in question is, and how thematically appropriate, you may get significant difficulty reductions. Think of it like a precursor to Stunts in Exalted, and you're not far off.
• Step 3: Determine how much Glamour it costs to cast the Cantrip.
  • Should the target of the spell be an unenchanted person/supernatural, or the spell effect be Wyrd, add one Glamour to the cost. It costs no Glamour to affect objects targets with glamour with Chimerical effects.
  • Should you have not decided to perform a Bunk, add another Glamour.
  • Should you be using a Modifier Realms, add one Glamour for each one used.
  • Up to five additional Glamour points may be spent, each one lowering casting difficulty by 1 point.
  • Note that Dross may be spent in any of these cases, though you must roll a die for each point of Dross thus used, with potential blessings and mishaps...gwahahahahaha.
• Step 4: Determine the difficulty of the Cantrip.
  • If you have a target, it's said target's Banality, then add 4. Otherwise, it's *your* Banality, then add 4. Should you have multiple targets, use the highest Banality affected.
  • +1 to the difficulty,for each level of Scene being used.
  • -1 from the difficulty for every Secondary Realm you can justify.
  • -1 Difficulty per level of the Bunk you performed; there are up to 5 levels of Bunk.
  • -1 difficulty if one of the Realms being used is your Realm affinity. -2 difficulty if you have an appropriate Art Affinity.
  • -1 per point of Glamour/Dross spent beyond the minimum casting prerequisites.
• Step 5: Roll the dice!

It gets simpler with practice, don't worry.

Counter-magic

Of course, enemies may attempt to cast Cantrips on you in turn. There are two main ways to dispel them.

• Banality can be used as a reflexive form of raw disbelief. Should a spell directly target you and only you (Area-effect fireballs do not count for this, but an attempt to Dominate you would), you may add a Banality point to your character, and roll Permanent Banality with a difficulty equal to the caster's permanent Glamour Rating. Each success reduces the enemy caster's successes by 1 die; should the result be zero, the spell is stopped.
• Counterweaving can be used against any Cantrip, but is harder to use. Spend a temporary Glamour point, and roll Wits+Gremayre with a difficulty equal to the caster's permanent Glamour rating. If you roll more successes than the caster did on their casting attempt, you dispel. Otherwise, nothing happens; unlike with Invoking Banality, this is all-or-nothing.

List of Arts

Arts are a general list of effects a Changeling can produce. Unlike a more Vancian system where every spell has exactly one effect (Magic Missile...fires magic missiles), many Arts when combined with different Realms can produce rather unorthodox effects. There was some...bloat related to these Arts though, with many arts copying each other's effects, or only being usable with one Realm (For example, many of the Infusion Art cantrips required the realm Fae 5 to actually cast...). So taking a page from Deeundeee, the arts roughly correspond to all magic schools except Necromancy. Many arts which had affects replicable by the main Arts are cut as well; as an example, Aphrodesia, which deals with the ability to influence a person's ability to fall in love, can be very easily replicated with Chicanery, which deals with a whole spectrum of emotions and illusions.

Chicanery deals with illusions, emotion, and sleight of hand. Governing Attribute: Manipulation
●     Fuddle: 
●●    Veiled Eyes:
●●●   Fugue
●●●●  Haunted Heart
●●●●● Captive Heart

Legerdemain deals with prestidigitation and general stage magic. At lower levels, this means assorted sleight-of-hand tricks, and
low-level telekinetic tricks, and conjuration at higher levels. Governing Attribute: Dexterity
●     Pressure:
●●    Lash
●●●   Animation
●●●●  Effigy
●●●●● Creation

Primal deals with elemental evocations. The 5th-level ability Elder Form was replaced, due to it being essentially a weaker
version of the level 5 Metamorph ability, and because a lot of the other arts that were cut (Pyretics, Kryos, Skycraft) were very much
ultra-specialized versions of Primal, which went against the *flexible* nature of this Art. This is not a subtle Art. These evocations
are direct manifestations of the caster's will. Governing Attribute: Strength
●     Aether Dawn:
●●    Eldritch Prime:
●●●   Shape the Elements :
●●●●  Essential Evocation:
●●●●● Elder Form:

Metamorph deals with physical transmutations, be it camouflage, size alteration, or anything else. Most the transmutation
elements of Primal were moved over to this, to properly separate the two realms, although both Arts used in conjunction with one
another, can have truly devastating effects. Governing Attributes: Stamina
●     Hidden Form:
●●    Impersonate:
●●●   Go Ask Alice:
●●●●  Merlin's Lessons:
●●●●● Mythic Transformation:

Soothsay deals with divination magics. At lower levels, it lets one sense strands of fate (And can provide potential aid to
aspiring Talecrafters). At higher levels, it allows limited alteration of fate. Governing Attribute: Perception
●     Omen:
●●    Fair is Foul and Foul is Fair:
●●●   Tattletale:
●●●●  Augury:
●●●●● Fate Fire:

Sovereign: deals with Enchantment magics, and the ability to directly influence the minds of others. The nature of the Dreaming is
such that only nobility can learn this; as a rule, your levels in Title determine the maximum level you can learn this to.
●     Protocol:
●●    Dictum:
●●●   Presence:
●●●●  Weaver Warding:
●●●●● Geas/Ban:

Wayfare deals with all magic related to travel, and getting from point A to point B quicker. With higher levels of sorcery, it
can also act as a good equivalent to Correspondence magic. Governing Skill: Wits
●     Featherfeet: There are several uses for this ability. First, by rolling this, each success gives you a turn where you ignore
      surface penalties to move-silent checks, and you leave no tracks. Alternately, you may jump up to success stories directly  
      upward and/or count as falling one story less for purposes of damage.
●●    Quicksilver: Sacrifice the turn. Next turn, you gain your caster successes worth of extra actions, a la Celerity.
●●●   Portal Passage: Creates a portal through an object. This lets one pass through walls, increase the size of a Thermal Exhaust
      port, etc.
●●●●  Windrunner: Fly like a birdie. The roll determines your flight speed. 
●●●●● Quicksilver: Teleport anywhere you have been in the past, if you succeed. 

There are additionally two Advanced Arts which are not available at character creation. To learn Naming or Chronoss requires being inducted in the Crystal Circle, a Seelie organization that only accepts those deemed Sorcerous. (In game requirements, this means knowing one Art at level 5, and another Art at level 4). Alternatively, Chronos is taught amount the Scathach should one be deemed responsible enough to work fate.

Chronos deals with time manipulation, allowing for one to view the past, to increase the duration of other cantrips, etc.
●     Wyrd: The targets affected by this must roll Intelligence at difficulty 7, scoring 2 successes, or become confused as
      to the order in which events occur. So one would see a person die, then the bullets fire, etc. Adds +1 to the difficulty of
      all mental attributes.
●●    Backwards Glance: This ability can be used to give a subject total recall of an event, and the other is to "read" what has
      happened to a target in the past. The more successes, the further back one can look.
●●●   Dream Time: Hoo boy, this is basically the True Brujah Temporis dickery. Through localized time manipulation, one can either
      gain extra actions, slow down aging, rapidly speed up aging, or slow down actions. (As an example, slowing down a person that
      they can only take an action once every three turns or so...evil, evil Dream Time). 
●●●●  Permanency: This ability allows one to extend the duration of any Cantrip that isn't instant effect (So no Permanency+Holly
      Strike. Nice try). Each success doubles the amount of time the cantrip lasts.        
●●●●● Reversal of Fortune: Aka the Sands of Time ability. For noncombat purposes, this ability lets you redo a certain action 
      up to success number of rounds ago. For peaceful purposes, up to minute success number of rounds ago.

Naming deals with the power inherent in true names; lower levels let one better divine language, while higher level ones can
make dramatic alterations. A classic example would be how a Golem is inscribed with "Truth", which is one symbol away from "Death."
Change the name, and the fate follows. Another example would be changing a "Polymorph Potion" (turning a person into what they want)
into a "Polymorph Potion" (turning a person into a parrot, with a penchant for going "Squawk, Polly want a Cracker").
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List of Realms

One of the main problems with Realms in 2nd edition Dreaming was that there was no real way to affect non-Changeling magic, spirits, etc. This was most likely an unintentional error on the part of White Wolf, especially considering that one of the Arts, Spirit Link, was designed specifically for dealing with Spirits. The Fae and Actor realms had a lot of unnecessary overlap as well, that for this revision, it made more sense to merge the relationship aspects of Fae into Actor, and convert Fae to Ephemera, a realm dealing with general metamagic.

Realm of Actor: This realm deals with targeting sentient beings.
Level     Title                        Description:
●         True Friend                  A well-known buddy/chum, etc.
●●        Personal Contact             You've spoken with this person before and know their name.
●●●       Familiar Face                You've seen the person before, but need not know their name.
●●●●      Complete Stranger            As long as the person isn't an enemy, you can affect them.
●●●●●     Dire Enemy                   You are engaged in combat or a competition with this person.

Realm of Ephemera: This Art replaces the “Fae” realm. Ephemera covers intangible things, such as audience emotions, 
magic in general, and other abstract concepts which don’t fall under other Realm. 
Level     Title                        Description:
●         Cantrips                     Affects the ongoing Cantrip effects of other Fae.
●●        Powers of Fae                Affects Redes, Birthrights, or other Fae magic and powers.
●●●       Prodigals                    Affects all magic produced by non-Fae entities.
●●●●      The Dreaming                 Affects Dreaming related unusual phenomena (the Mists, Firchlis, etc.).
●●●●●     Essence of Ephemera          Affects Umbral phenomena, also affects concepts (i.e. “freedom”, “love”, etc.) 

Realm of Prop: This realm deals with manufactured objects.
Level     Title                        Description:
●         Ornate Garb                  Clothing, rings, etc.
●●        Crafted Tool                 Any simple tool with no moving parts, such as a sword (Flails move) 
●●●       Mechanical Device            Any non-electric device with moving parts. Guns work, but not cars (electric ignition).
●●●●      Complex Machine              Electronic devices, security keypads, cars, etc.
●●●●●     Arcane Artifact              Abstract constructions, such as operating systems, data packets, etc.

Realm of Scenery: This realm deals with objects of nature.
Level     Title                        Description:
●         Dead Matter                  Once-living organic matter. Can be used as a supplementary realm for Crafted Tool.
●●        Verdant Forest               Living vegetable material (plants, fungi, algae, etc.)
●●●       Feral Animal                 Non-sentient creatures, including chimerical animals, but not stuff animated by magic.
●●●●      Natural Phenomena            Affect occurrences like weather, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc.
●●●●●     Elemental Essence            Anything of the four classical elements, or periodic table.

Realm of Cue: This is a modification of the Time Realm. This lets you ritually hang a Cantrip, and set it to go off later.
You cast the spell as normal, then you set a conditional on how the spell can go off (So this would be what you use to cast Explosive
Runes, or it can be used for Vancian-style spell preparation); should the Cantrip not be cast by the time mentioned, then it fizzles
away. As an alternate use, should the spell last for an extended period of time, then this ability allows one to create a kill-switch
condition for it which will function until the date specified. So if a princess were put in magic slumber, one could put "Kissed by
true love" as a conditional to end the sleep spell, up until the level of Time Realm used. So if level 3 Time were used, the prince
would have a week to find her. He better work fast!
Level     Description:
●         Hour
●●        Day
●●●       Week
●●●●      Month
●●●●●     Year

Realm of Stage: This is a metamagic realm used to increase the area of the casting area of the spell. 
This can mean making a blast radius, a line, or a cone, or some other shape. Emphasis on shape, not shapes.
Note that you need the normal realms prerequisite to cast a spell anyway.
Level     Title                        Description:
●         Chamber                      25 square feet/max
●●        Cottage                      200 square feet/max
●●●       House                        750 square feet/max
●●●●      Park                         2,000 square feet/max
●●●●●     Kingdom                      50,000 square feet/max