Editing Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (section)

== Magic/Spellcasting ==

WFRP is also probably the only high fantasy universe in which magic is not (terribly) overpowered. Not so much because the rules don't have spells that can deal [[rage|4*1d10+4 damage '''every''' hit having a chance to be critical, dealing another 1d10 damage]], which [[munchkin|keeping in mind that a PC min/maxed and lucky too can at most have 22 hitpoints and 13 damage reduction]] is quite a bit. No. It's because of the fact casting even a lowly fireball [[FATAL|has the chance to open a rift to the realm of Chaos that sucks you in so your ass can be eternally fucked by Slaanesh]] (done by rolling doubles on your casting roll). There is a minor mishap table and a major mishap table for miscasts.

There are a lot of arcane Lores you can specialise in (Beasts, Death, Fire, Heavens, Life, Light, Metal and Shadow) and being a wizard means being inducted into the College at Altdorf to be sanctioned, though it is explicitly noted that if you are an adventurer with magic that is probably because you couldn't quite cut the mustard to be an Imperial battlemage (and if you are an elf, mastering the human Wizard Lord career means you are only just beginning to be considered skilled enough to begin serious elven magic training). Unlike ''D&D'' which runs on Vancian magic principles (Wizards are a magical gun who have to be "loaded" every morning with the spells they want that day and each spell has a prescribed effect that cannot be dialled up or down when convenient), arcane spellcasters here channel the Winds of Magic that sweep across the world from the poles to produce magical effects. In other words, ''every'' arcane caster is like a Wild Magic Sorcerer. If the Winds are absent in the area when casting a spell, it is likely to fail, but if you try to cast a Fireball spell that normally has the effects of a grenade in a place where the Winds blow strong enough, the Fireball might come out the size of a house and able to level an area the size of an entire city block. Each school is based on one of the Winds and humans can normally only learn one (elves can learn more), and mastering more than one wind is the quick path to power but also damnation as that way lies Dhar, a school using a mixture of multiple winds used by daemonologists and necromancers (when you cast Dark Magic, you roll on the miscast table even if you ''succeed'', and failing just makes everything even worse). But being part of a school of magic actually changes you fundamentally as you become seeped in the magic - if you join the Bright Order, expect your hair to become bright orange, your body to carry a lingering smell of sulphur, and leave ash and scorch marks everywhere you touch; if you join the Metal order, you might gradually transform into a walking, talking gold statue (which has its own benefits until you become unable to walk and have to be wheeled everywhere by an assistant).

Oh, and don't be an unsanctioned magic user casting from the Hedgecraft or Witchcraft lores. Or you can expect a visit from a gang of [[Witch Hunters|scowling, heavily-armed men with spiffing hats]] eager for a little chat.

Similarly there is divine magic that can be cast by priests and other holy figures, divided into lesser Blessings and higher Miracles. The Empire is polytheist and acknowledges several gods of varying stations, even excluding the non-human deities. The largest cults are those of Manann (sea god worshipped by sailors and fishermen), Morr (god of death and dreams, worshipped by undertakers and undead hunters), Myrmidia (Athena-esque patron war goddess of Estalia and Tilea), Ranald (god of trickery and luck, worshipped by gamblers and the poor), Rhya (goddess of fertility and life), Shallya (goddess of mercy and healing, her priests are pacifist "white mages"), Sigmar (patron god of the Empire, basically Thor meets Charlemagne meets Jesus), Taal (folky god of animals and the wilds, popular in Tabalecland), Ulric (the manly old god of war, winter and wolves popular in Middenland and is the Odin to Sigmar's Thor, also Sigmar's favored god before he ascended) and Verena (goddess of learning and justice, the "other half" of Myrmidia continuing the Athena analogy). Divine magic is generally safer than arcane magic but requires you to live by certain strictures and if you break them you are likely to offend your god when you call their aid, leading to mishaps and curses.

Unfortunately 4th Edition brings a controversial shake-up to the magic system that [[Fail|leaves arcane magic in a poor spot]]. Percentile system tend to be extremely failure heavy at the best of times, and previous games like Dark Heresy accounted for this by making a (+20) test standard for a Normal test, giving a mediocre 40 score a decent chance of succeeding and extra success levels simply improved the result. Here, someone apparently ignored everything learned from before and made every single spell require at least a Challenging (+0%) test, so a starting a wizard has at best a 50% chance of casting the weakest spell, and wizards do not get access to the Instinctive Diction skill to give extra success levels until TIER 3. This is just for the lowest difficulty spells. Many spells require 6-11 success levels to cast, meaning that without maxing out the plus success level skills you have to have a total skill over a hundred to even have a 1 percent chance of casting them. Now you can use the extremely broken advantage system and things like the Bright Lore of Magic trait to boost casting but good luck getting to a point where your wizard isn't useless. The only band aid they offer is Channeling, which allows you reduce the SL of spell to zero over a few turns, but giving up your action over multiple turns to cast a single spell will play havoc on your action economy. If that wasn't enough, you still have an extremely high chance of miscasting over multiple turn while Channeling, plus even using Channeling requires you to waste experience improving the Channeling skill instead of your Language Magic skill which is still required to cast any spell. ''And'', if you take damage while Channeling, it fails anyway. So unless the DM is deliberately having enemies avoid you then it's practically impossible to channel in combat. This is especially pathetic when you compare spells to miracles and see how priests get divine abilities as strong or stronger than your spells, all of which are SL 0, plus they are socially acceptable in the setting so have no roleplay issue like wizards do. All in all, playing an arcane spellcaster in 4th Ed. is the true WFRP masochist experience.