Editing Legend of Zelda RPG/1e (section)

====Magic Rules====
*Magic may be obtained either in the form of spells learned from study or tutelage, or in the form of magic items. Any spell may be available in either form, regardless of whether the name listed here would indicate one form or another. For example, the Cane of Somaria is an item from the Legend of Zelda video games that would be treated as a form of magic, but you could just as easily have an identical effect available as a spell called something like Conjure Block learned from an ancient tome or learned sage. There is essentially no functional difference between the two forms; it's essentially a matter of flavor, and GMs and players alike are encouraged to come up with whatever form they like for magic in their game. Unless otherwise noted, the term "spell", when used in the context of this system, may be used interchangeably to refer to either a learned spell or a magic effect cast from an item (such as the Fire Rod), as the two are essentially identical. However, there are a few slight differences in the way the two are handled:
**A magic item is in most respects treated the same as any other sort of physical item -- it must be wielded for use, and it can be lost, stolen, traded, or given away.
**In order to cast a learned spell, you must have a focus readied. Readying a focus is the same as wielding a weapon or tool -- it requires an action to retrieve from wherever you've stored it, and you must have a hand free to use it.
***Your focus can be any sort of object you like -- a spellbook, a wand, a staff, anything at all as long as it is a physical object. It can even be something worn on your person, such as an amulet, bracelet, or circlet, though even in this case you still must spend an action and have a hand free to ready it.
***Your focus does not count against your allotted starting equipment total; only the spells learned do.
***Even if your focus is readied, you must still spend an action to ready a new spell, calling it to mind for use. When you use an action to ready your focus, you ready your first spell at the same time. Once you ready a spell, it remains readied until you ready a different spell or item. For instance, once you ready the Heal spell, you can cast it over and over without readying it again, but if you were to attack with a weapon this would require you to ready the weapon, so you'd have to ready the spell again the next time you wish to cast it.
***The purpose of the focus is to ensure that those who cast spells from memory do not have an inherent in-game advantage over those who use magic items. After all, while one's items can be lost or stolen, it is much more difficult to deprive someone of knowledge. Thus, should a GM wish to deprive a caster of their magic (an act which should generally be discouraged, but may be used sparingly as an interesting development to the story), he or she can take away a practiced spellcaster's focus just as he or she could take away an item-dependent spellcaster's magic items. The focus and spell-readying rules also ensure that a spellcaster who casts spells from items isn't at a disadvantage in terms of actions needed to cast different spells; an item-dependent spellcaster must spend actions to retrieve the proper item from her pack, so it's only fair that a learned spellcaster must spend actions to prepare her mind for casting a particular spell. The goal in this system is to make the decision of whether to use magic through personal ability or through items purely an aesthetic one, a matter of how you wish to style your character.

The following rules apply equally to spells of all kinds:
*Each spell has an MP cost, which is deducted from your Magic Meter when you cast it.
**Some spells are "sustained", which means that you must continue paying MP each turn at the beginning of your turn to maintain the effect. These spells have an open-ended duration -- they last until you choose to end them (a free action that can be done at any time) or until you can't spend MP to pay for them. Paying for a sustained spell is a free action.
***You may only sustain a number of spells at once equal to your ranks in |magic|, and you may not cast any spells if you are currently sustaining the maximum number of spells you can. For example, a character with 3 ranks in |magic| could sustain up to 3 spells at once (or 3 instances of the same spell), but couldn't cast any new spells until she ended one of the spells being sustained.
*Unless otherwise specified, damage dealt by spells is not subject to reduction from normal armor, but is affected by damage reduction from magical effects and Warded equipment.
*Each spell requires some sort of |Magic| check to cast it. The check required to cast a spell is indicated under the "Check" line of the spell's description.
**'''Opposed:''' Offensive spells use opposed checks against the target, with the roll used to oppose dictated by the spell's description.
***Unless otherwise specified, a spell opposed by the target's "defense" may be opposed by passive or acrobatic defense as normal, but shield defense may only be used if the shield has the Reflective or Warded property. If the target has a shield defense readied, and their shield doesn't have either of these properties, use the target's passive defense instead.
***Some spells (particularly debuffs) may be opposed by a skill check (often |magic|) from the target. Even if the target has no ranks in the skill, it can still oppose the spell -- it just doesn't get any bonus dice for skill ranks. In these cases, just use the appropriate Attribute and Virtue combination.
**'''Unopposed:''' An unopposed spell requires that you score a certain number of successes on an unopposed check. If you meet the specified number of successes, you succeed in casting the spell; if not, the spell has no effect. The number of successes needed to cast the spell is listed first, with the success threshold listed immediately after it in parentheses -- i.e., a spell that requires an unopposed roll of X(Y) requires X successes, where a success is anything Y or higher.
*** Some unopposed spells list "N" as the number of successes needed. In this case, the spell has an effect no matter how few or how many successes you score, but the number of successes scored affects some variable of the spell's effect (typically duration).
*** Generally speaking, difficulties for non-scaling unopposed checks should be chosen from the following list (in order from least to greatest difficulty: 2(3), 3(2), 3(3), 4(2), 5(2). These can also be referred to in terms of spell "ranks", with 2(3) being rank 1, 3(2) rank 2, and so forth. The low end of the scale is most accessible to those who merely dabble in magic, without a very high Mental score or many ranks in the |Magic| skill, and most anyone can pull off a rank 1 effect with a decent degree of reliability. The upper end requires much more dedication to accomplish, demanding a good Mental score and |Magic| skill to pull off. A rank 5 effect is flatly impossible without at least 1 rank in |Magic| (or a purchased point of Mental, but that's far less cost-effective), and can only be reliably accomplished by a true master, with high ranks in both the Mental attribute and |Magic| skill. Virtues also are more important for the higher-rank spells. For example, a rank 4 spell could be cast with only a 1 in the relevant Virtue, but to do so you'd need to have 6 ranks in |Magic| (the maximum possible for a skill), whereas a character with high scores in both Mental and the relevant Virtue could fairly reliably cast a rank 4 spell with only 1 or 2 ranks in |Magic|.
**'''Group opposed:''' A group opposed check is used for spells that affect multiple subjects. The kind of roll made by the defenders is indicated by the same conventions as for regular opposed checks. The rules for how to make a group opposed check can be found [[Legend_of_Zelda_RPG#Group_Opposed_Checks|in the basic system info section]].