The magic of Athas is channeled through the elements, and through life. Clerics have pacts with the elemental forces; Druids have a pact with a spirit of nature. Templars receive their spells through their sorcerer-king. But Mages... Defilers and Preservers... draw energy from the plant life that surrounds them, and shape that magic into spells.
As in Hackmaster, Defilers and Preservers are Mages. As such, they may memorize one spell per level per day, and may cast any spell they know at an increased cost. They may upcast spells for a greater price, adding more damage, time, range, or whatever the spell allows. However, their magic works very differently than the Mages of Tellene, because they are unable to generate or hold spell points. Instead, they must gather their spell points from the surrounding plant life, and use those to cast their spells. Preservers, as the name implies, maintain the health of the land from which they draw energy; defilers destroy it.
Wizards are not well-liked on Athas, partially due to the results of defiling. Their Honor is often degraded by the fact that they are wizards, and wizards are, in the mind of most Athasians, untrustworthy scum. Casting spells may incur damage to one's Honor if observed, but will take that honor no lower than the character's Fame; if everyone knows you're a wizard, casting spells doesn't hurt your Honor.
Gathering Energy
Before casting a spell, the mage must gather energy equal to that required by the spell (including any upcasting) and they may begin casting during the second on which the last point is gathered (so, if capable of gathering 30 points per second, they would be able to cast an apprentice level spell at their usual casting time). While gathering energy, they are vulnerable, as if they have spell fatigue. If hit while gathering energy, they must make a spell volatility check as if they normal-cast all the points they had gathered to this point, possibly resulting in a mishap (if the character is preserving, they may add the mental saving throw bonus from their Wisdom to the spell volatility check, but never suffer a penalty for low wisdom, for this purpose).
Gathering energy is very noticeable in clear conditions, including in the darkness; if being unnoticed is important, the mage may roll an opposed test between Arcane Lore and Observation; however, this must be purposefully chosen by the mage. The mage gains a bonus to Arcane Lore for this test by reducing the speed of their gathering; when defiling, each point per second subtracted adds +2 to their Arcane Lore for this purpose; preservers add +5 per point per second subtracted.
Defiling and Preserving
With each spell cast, a mage has the choice to defile or preserve. When a character defiles, they strip the soil of life; plants all die, and the soil is infertile for years. The more powerful the spell, the more ground that is destroyed. The more energy gathered in the same place, the more ground that is destroyed; an inch of radius per spell point. Preservers don't do this; their method of gathering energy shares the power with the affected plants and soil, leaving it healthy.
Why defile? If defiling on purpose, it is for speed. If the wizard is preserving, they may gather 10 points, plus 5 points per level, per second; at 7th level, a preserver can gather enough energy in one second to cast an Apprentice Spell. If they choose to defile, however, it is 10 points per level.
Defiling might also be the result of a mishap; if the mishap roll is 1, the mage must make a Wisdom save against the same volatility or lose control of the spell and defile.
Lastly, defiling is addictive; if someone who has defiled recently attempts to gather energy via preserving, they must make a d20p+Wisdom saving throw against d20p + their maximum level of spells; if they fail, they defile anyway (hybrid casters find this somewhat easier than full casters).
But defiling has consequences beyond the destruction of the land; defilers carry with them an ineffable taint of their magic, and suffer a penalty to encounter reactions equal to their saving throw bonus v. spells derived from their class. Additionally, Good and Neutral characters who frequently defile move inexorably towards evil.
The Benefits of Being a Wizard
However, the wizards of Athas do not have to simply eat a shit sandwich; they have two large benefits over the wizards of Tellene.
Firstly, because they do not use their own spell points, they do not suffer spell fatigue after casting a spell; they have something similar during the gathering energy phase of spellcasting, but they do not suffer it after casting. High level mages, capable of gathering vast energies in a short amount of time, can throw spells almost as quickly as they can cast them.
Secondly, and most tellingly, they are not using their own spell points, so they never run out; they do not have a limit to the number of spells they can cast per day, though they must gather energy each spell. This fact makes the wizards of Athas incredibly frightening, and incredibly powerful.
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