Magic System

Key changes:

No clerics, druids, or bards as PCs.
Rangers and paladins cannot cast spells.
No wizard/sorcerer distinction.
Rather than “spell slots”, characters have mana points.
Spellcasters can cast any spells that they a) are of sufficient level to cast, b) know, and c ) have mana for.
Spellcasters recover mana points daily.
Spellcasters become fatigued if they go to zero mana.
Spellcasters can go below zero mana, with risks.
Spells are divided into spheres/schools/domains differently, with significant game implications.
Healing spells are in a separate category, and those who use them are much closer to modern-day doctors than to clerics.
Necromancy is taboo, extremely rare, and not available for PCs.

Spheres

Broadly speaking, magic is divided into three spheres:

Eldritch. The sphere of raw extraplanar energy.
Life. The sphere of energy connected to living beings.
Death. The opposite of the life sphere, related to death, the undead, and energies inimical to life.

The Life and Death spheres are similar to the Postive and Negative energy planes in the d20 SRD.

The spheres are connected, and there is some crossover between the techniques used to access energies from any of them. The Eldritch sphere is the easiest for most adepts to manipulate. The Life sphere is more difficult, and the Death sphere is harder again, and in addition to the difficulty in understanding there's a certain amount of discomfort related to accessing it.

Divine magic, as well as magic involving pacts with demons and so on, should be handled separately.

Mana

Spellcasters have the following mana points per level (total, not cumulative):

Level	Mana	Maximum Spell Level
1	5	1
2	8	1
3	12	2
4	17	2
5	23	3
6	30	3
7	38	4
8	46	4
9	53	5
10	64	5
11	77	6
12	93	6
13	112	7
14	135	7
15	149	8
16	164	8
17	181	9
18	200	9
19	221	9
20	244	9

Mages recover mana by resting, and eight hours of rest will bring them back to their full mana.

The intelligence bonus granted to mana is the lower of the character's level or their Intelligence modifier. If the latter is zero, they never get bonus mana. A mage with a +3 bonus would have the following mana point totals through 7th level:

Level Mana Maximum Spell Level

1 6 1

2 10 1

3 15 2

4 20 2

5 26 3

6 33 3

7 41 4

Spells cost mana to cast as follows:

Level of spell	Mana cost
0	1
1	2
2	4
3	9
4	16
5	25
6	36
7	49
8	64
9	81

To learn, prepare, or cast a spell, the wizard must have an Intelligence score equal to at least 10 + the spell level. The Difficulty Class for a saving throw against a wizard’s spell is 10 + the spell level + the wizard’s Intelligence modifier.

Spellcasters may specialize in specific schools or domains. Specialization may only be taken in one school or domain (although feats, prestige classes, etc., may alter this). Specialization means that spells in the specialized area cost specialization discount mana (rounded up), while spells outside that area cost non-specialization penalty mana (rounded up).

With those values set at .75 and 2:

Level of spell	Mana cost	Mana cost (specialty)	Mana cost (non-specialty)
0	1	1	2
1	2	2	4
2	4	3	8
3	9	7	18
4	16	12	32
5	25	19	50
6	36	27	72
7	49	37	98
8	64	48	128
9	81	61	162

Here, a character sees no specialization effect until 3rd level. Some samples:

3rd-level mage with no bonuses (12 mana)

scorching ray (2nd-level, 4/3 mana):

Non-specialist: 3 times

Evocation specialist: 4 times

5th-level mage with no bonuses (23 mana)

scorching ray (2nd-level, 4/3 mana):

Non-specialist: 5 times

Evocation specialist: 7 times

fireball (3rd-level, 9/7 mana):

Non-specialist: 2 times

Evocation specialist: 3 times

10th-level mage with no bonuses (64 mana)

scorching ray (2nd-level, 4/3 mana):

Non-specialist: 16 times

Evocation specialist: 21 times

fireball (3rd-level, 9/7 mana):

Non-specialist: 7 times

Evocation specialist: 9 times

ice storm (4th-level, 16/12 mana):

Non-specialist: 4 times

Evocation specialist: 5 times

cone of cold (5th-level, 25/19 mana):

Non-specialist: 2 times

Evocation specialist: 3 times

Running Out of Mana

When a mage uses all of their mana, they become fatigued.

Mages may use more mana than is in their pool by burning hit points for mana, at the following conversion rate:

10% of their base hit points (rounded up) = 10% of their daily mana pool (rounded down).

A first-level mage with 5 base hit points and 7 mana/day would need to spend 1 hit point to get 1 mana.

A sixteenth-level mage with 76 base hit points and 167 mana/day would need to spend 8 hit points to get 16 mana.

Mages may convert hit points to mana as long as they have hit points to spend, with the following effects for each time they do before resting and bringing their mana pool back to full :

They become fatigued. DC 15 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 10 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution damage.
They become fatigued. DC 16 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 12 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution damage.
They become fatigued. DC 17 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 15 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution damage. DC 10 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 18 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 18 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution damage. DC 12 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 19 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 19 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution damage. DC 14 Fortitude save or 1 point of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 20 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 20 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution damage. DC 16 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 21 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 21 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution damage. DC 16 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 22 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 22 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution damage. DC 18 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution drain.
They become fatigued. DC 23 Fortitude save or they become exhausted. DC 23 Fortitude save or 2 points of Constitution damage. DC 20 Fortitude save or 3 points of Constitution drain.

Armor and Arcane Spell Failure

Arcane spell failure has worse effects than under normal rules. If arcane spell failure occurs, mana is always spent for the spell as normal unless indicated otherwise. Characters cannot induce arcane spell failure deliberately.

If arcane spell failure occurs, roll d% and consult the following table:

01-10	Spell has no effect.
11-20	Spell has no effect but costs twice as much mana. This can result in forced hit point to mana conversion, with the attendant side effects
21-30	Spell has no effect but does its mana cost in hit point damage to caster
31-40	If intended to target someone or thing other than the caster, the spell now targets the caster. If intended to target the caster, the spell is now targeted randomly. (Even if the spell should be touch only, or can only be cast on the caster normally, etc.)
41-50	Spell has no effect but does its mana cost divided by 10 (round up) times d6 damage to everything within 10'. Type of damage (cold, fire, electricity, etc.) is determined randomly.
51-60	Spell has no effect but blinds everyone within 20' for mana cost divided by 10 (round up) rounds.
61-70	Spell has no effect. Caster is rendered unconscious (no save).
71-80	Spell has no effect. An antimagic sphere appears centered on the caster, lasting 10min/caster's level.
81-90	Spell works as normal; caster is teleported in a random direction and random distance. (Max distance mana cost times 10').
91-99	Spell has no effect, acts as a rod of wonder. (If original spell was untargeted, determine target randomly.)
00	Spell has no effect; sphere of annihilation appears in front of caster. (DC 15 Reflex save for the caster to avoid touching it.)

Schools

Schools of magic are the same as in the SRD, and the same applies to domains and descriptors. All sorcerer and wizard spells are available to mages. Cleric and Druid spells that are not healing spells, are not based on the alteration of living creatures, and not related to connections to deities, may be available to mages with GM approval.

The transmutation school is affected prety badly by the fact that anything involving alteration of living creatures is pushed over to the “life” sphere. Conjuration is diminished by the loss of everything in the healing subschool. Necromancy is a restricted school, and no spells in that school or with the “death“ descriptor may be taken by mages or healers.

The other schools are mostly unaffected from the SRD versions.

Healers

Healers are a special class of mages focused on the Life sphere. Their training is similar to that of modern-day doctors, but they use magic instead of antibiotics and modern technology. They use their access to the Life sphere, coupled with deep understanding of how living bodies work, to heal.

Healers can heal without using their equipment, but this requires more effort; generally they will sew a wound closed and then use magic, rather than using magic to heal the wound without first treating it nonmagically.

Because of ethical issues from their training, and because of their affinity with living beings, healers are generally loath to kill. The exact nature of this restriction depends on the individual. Most will still act in self-defense without qualms. Some may prefer to use only nonlethal weapons.