Okay Rolemaster, don't hide things! I am normally one to never create a caster first because it means learning how the magic system works as well as character creation, ability rolls, combat, skills, and so on. But I want to immerse myself and if I don't learn how magic works it means hours learning in the middle of a combat when an enemy flings a spell at my character and I have no clue.
So I wonder, how do you cast a spell? So in Spell Law, page 38, I find this:
Base Casting Bonus? I flip to section 1.4 of Spell Law, definitions, and look for it there. Not there. Hmm. Index in the back of the book? Sends me back to page 38. Where else did I hear this?
Character generation with the sample character in Chapter 2, Character Creation Overview, of Character Law:
Did she buy that as a skill? Nothing else is said here. Let me check the Index of Character Law. Nothing under Base Casting Level or Casting Level Bonus. Hmm. Wow, I am lost. So I start skimming the book. Maybe it is mentioned in Character Law under Experience and Advancing Levels? Here it is on page 127 of Character Law, but it isn't called Base Casting Bonus:
To be fair, this is also in Spell Law, in a summary chart in the back of the book on page 269, but it isn't called Base Casting Bonus (note the +20 cap is not mentioned here):
Okay, that mystery figured out, cool! Next time, please put all the rules for how to cast a spell in one place! Those of us learning the game are going to go crazy looking for rules like this. Then again, it was the 80's and like people's style and hair, they were all over the place.
Spell To-Hit Types
That mystery solved, the rest of the magic system is a bit crunch-heavy on modifiers and tables, but it doesn't seem too difficult if one understands the concepts.
Non-attack spells are a straight d100 roll with a 2% chance of spell failure.
Attack spells have a handful of modifiers and use a single attack table that results in spell failure or a modifier on the resistance roll table on the next page. That is cool. Note there are no skills covering these types of spells and you don't have to buy any, you are just using your level as a bonus and NOT using a skill.
Elemental skills use special Directed Skill Bonuses from special skills your character needs to buy per spell. If you don't have the skill, you use your agility bonus. The modifiers to the attack roll here are different, and it follows the weapon to-hit system, with charts per spell, skill plus modifiers pushing the number up, and defenses pushing the number down. Crits happen like all other attacks.
Note there is another spell skill type in Channeling, which besides a Directed Skill for a Spell, are the magic skills you buy to use magic. Or at least the ones I know about so far. This answers the question: do I have to buy skills to use spells?
Yes for Channeling, maybe for directed elemental attacks (but recommended, otherwise Agility bonus), and no for all other general purpose spells - this uses your Base Casting Level Bonus. Runes and Staffs/Wands skills are also required before you use those too, and you can find those rules in Character Law on page 86, near Channeling. Now I can design a magic-using character and know what I need, and how it mostly all works with the system.
Informational Spells
A side note here on how cool this game handles scrying - a universal problem to many of the games derived from D&D. Targets pf scrying and informational rolls get resistance rolls, and if they roll high enough they can detect the scrying, information about who is scrying (like location), and the spell can even fail. A smart magical target could scry back, and I may even house rule a powerful wizard (with the spells to do this), could provide the scrying party wrong information on purpose.
Lesson: Don't scry on Saruman. He will let you see what you want to see, or lead you right into a trap without you knowing. Cool stuff and I can see the scrying wars being risky and dangerous business, which solves the problem of divination and puts a fun meta-game of cat and mouse on the normally "we know everything" problem of these types of spells.
Okay, understanding spells is out of the way, now on to this Background system...
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