Four By Five Magic

Four-By-Five magic is a system designed for FUDGE, although it has been adapted to other systems like FATE System, Microlite20 and Amber Diceless RPG. The system uses an verb-noun method to classify spells, much as Ars Magica does. It was originally written by Steffan O'Sullivan in 1999 for 5-point FUDGE. Since this is a wiki article, this article is a corruption enhancement of the original.

A magician learns words of power, spoken by the creator(s) to bring the world into being. It's not enough to duplicate the sound, the magician must also flex their spirit to pronounce the correct "sound" equivalent in the local ether. This emits an effect that local reality cannot ignore.

In FUDGE, a magician knows all the words except "Control" and "Spirit", which they only learn if they spend at least 3 points in the Magic skill group. In Microlite20 and other level-based games, a starting wizard would know 3 words and gain another word every 3 levels, but "Control" must be the last action word and "Spirit" must be the last realm word.

The effectiveness of a spell depends on how much mana is invested in the spell, or the margin of success made on a magery skill roll.

What about Vancian magic? Untested option rule: give the magic-user 150% as many spell-slots as normal, each which can be occupied by one word, rounding up to the closest even number. Spells need two words to be cast so this reduces the # of spells per day, but spells are much more flexible so it's meant to balance out.

Words

There are nine words of power. Spells are usually an action (verb) and a realm (noun) together. Below are also the words in Latin in case you want to get all Harry Potter. (Don't forget that Latin puts the verb after the nouns.)

The Four Actions:

• Communicate with (defero): Read, Seek, Inform, Sense, Determine, Understand, etc.
• Diminish (infirmo): Weaken, Damage, Injure, Reduce, Break, Dull, Deteriorate, etc.
• Enhance (augeo): Strengthen, Heal, Enlarge, Repair, Sharpen, etc
• Control (tempero): Shape, Hold, Command, Form, Direct, Dictate, etc.

(only after mastering the other actions can a magician learn to properly use the Control word).

The Five Realms:

• Body (corpus): Living body of sentient beings, animals, plants.
• Energy (navitas): Fire, wind, electricity, motion, sonics - and if the GM is willing, time.
• Matter (materia): Solid material with no mind - stone, metal, wood, leather, paper, plastic.
• Mind (mentis): That which normally inhabits and animates/motivates an aware creature.
• Spirit (animus): That which motivates the living but no longer inhabits a body, or never did, or what unnaturally inhabits a body, item or location.

(only after mastering the other realms can a magician learn to properly use the Spirit word).

(Water overlaps Energy and Matter realms: vapour or liquid water would be Energy, because you're altering it's motion, but ice or stagnant water would be Matter.)

These combine into twenty spell effects.

Spells

There are only 20 possible utterances with these words of power, but this doesn't limit the magical effects to only 20 possible effects; each spell is a description of the effect the magic-user wishes to create, with embellishments made by the context of the spell, pointing, gestures, ritually carved sticks or patterns on the floor, etc. Most of the time these are not necessary, but help the wizard to concentrate and make her will clearly understood by the cosmos.

The potency of a spell's effects depends on how much mana is invested in emitting the words of power, or by the margin of success in a magery/spellcraft skill roll. The original rules mentioned four levels of effectiveness for each spell (and their d20SRD equivalents):

• Fair (standard) potency spells include things that don't seem like magic to most people, but are nonetheless caused by a magician.
• Good (extraordinary) potency spells include still normal events, but those which happen at strange times.
• Great (spell-like) potency spells include things that most people will acknowledge to be magic - things that go beyond the natural; however, these are still relatively minor effects.
• Superb (supernatural) potency spells include things that everyone will admit is major magic.

Communicate/Sense Spells

• Sense Body: “Read” an opponent, determine skill level, diagnose, determine whereabouts, etc.
  • Fair: discover an opponent's skill level by the way he holds his sword
  • Good: diagnose the most difficult disease accurately
  • Great: look at person and know their physical skills, including levels, at +/-1 accuracy
  • Superb: sense when a specific person walks into a room in the same city

• Sense Energy: Sense types of energy, clairvoyance, psychometry, foresee, etc.
  • Fair: sense which rooms in the inn you are at have a lit fire
  • Good: hear words spoken into the wind at the other end of the ship
  • Great: feel the personality of the last person to use an object
  • Superb: sense when magic is being used in a castle yonder

• Sense Matter: Sense type of matter, seek out closest of a given type, determine quality, strength, etc.
  • Fair: sense the quality of a sword by touching it.
  • Good: determine how much money a person is carrying
  • Great: “imprint” your signature on an object - be aware of who touches it over the next week
  • Superb: locate the nearest quantity of gold within a mile

• Communicate with Mind: Telepathy, both read and send, languages. May be Opposed by Willpower.
  • Fair: stare into a person's eyes and convey a two-word message without speaking or moving.
  • Good: send a silent message to someone in the same room.
  • Great: read surface thoughts of a subject
  • Superb: read a person's desires

• Communicate with Spirit: Communicate with spirits, summon. May be Opposed by the Spirit's Willpower.
  • Fair: (no such thing as a "typical" communication with spirit)
  • Good: ask a spirit “yes” or “no” questions and understand the answers
  • Great: talk freely with any spirit
  • Superb: summon a spirit from another realm (although the spirit still has to get here...)

Diminish Spells

• Diminish Body: Damage, shrink, weaken, make clumsy, etc. Opposed by Health.
• Diminish Energy: Reduce fire, flow of water or air, counter a magic spell, etc.
• Diminish Matter: Damage, shrink, dull, break, warp, etc.
• Diminish Mind: Confuse, make stupid, induce headaches, memory loss or distraction, discourage, etc. Opposed by Willpower.
• Diminish Spirit: Injure, shrink, weaken, etc. Opposed by the spirit's Willpower.

Enhance Spells

• Enhance Body: Physical Healing, increase Strength or Agility, counter fatigue, increase size, increase movement ability, etc.
• Enhance Energy: Increase the size of fire, a flow of water or air, aid a wizard in casting a spell, etc.
• Enhance Matter: Repair, strengthen, sharpen, increase utility or aesthetics, enlarge, etc.
• Enhance Mind: Mental Healing, increase memory, temporarily raise intelligence, counter mental attacks, encourage, etc.
• Enhance Spirit: Heal, increase size, encourage, counter attacks, etc.

Control Spells

• Control Body: Shape-shift, freeze in place, cause hand to attack owner, cause to stumble, enable to fly, etc. Opposed by Health.
• Control Energy: Fireballs, jets of water or air, magical bolt, etc.
• Control Matter: Shape inanimate matter, telekinesis, animation, open locks, etc.
• Control Mind: Dictate actions, emotions, attitudes, loyalties, beliefs, etc. Opposed by Willpower.
• Control Spirit: Dictate actions, emotions, banish from this plane, etc. Opposed by the spirit's Willpower.

Source

• The original article by Steffan O'Sullivan