War Magic was invented by the Arcane Servitors of Thoyrion during the Second Planar Crusade, and became instrumental to the victory of alliance forces against the devils of Baaltor. It also opened a new chapter in the history of military warfare, where mages were no longer a mere blaster on the battlefield capable of taking down crucial units, but rather weapons of mass destruction capable of crippling or annihilating entire armies. Ever since the appearance of war magic, military forces around the world began fielding countermeasures against its capabilities. This includes increasing abjurers specialized in dispels, training mages in the utilization of barriers to impede war magic shots, and reserving elite mages for rapid response against an incoming war magic spell.
There are three types of war magic developed and perfected by blaster mages over the centuries, each of which requires extensive arcane knowledge and spellcasting power to perform. The three types are assault spells, phalanx spells, and tactical spells.
•Assault spells focus on high damage potential and is utilized to take down large fortified structures and tough units, such as reinforced keeps, resilient devil lords, and colossus constructs.
•Phalanx spells focus on multiple shots and is utilized to penetrate heavily defended targets. Phalanx spell shots usually spreads out before heading towards the target, decreasing the chances of all the shots being dispelled during flight, as each shot will require a separate successful dispel to negate. Phalanx spells are also effective at taking down elite troops capable of surviving the lower powered tactical spells but spread out enough to make assault spells ineffective.
•Tactical spells focus on wide area and is utilized to cripple and wide out entire units, as a single tactical spell burst is usually more than capable of taking down several regimental formations, while higher level tactical spells like Fire Storm can destroy half an opposing army if successful.
All war magic spells have extensive range that allows them to be launched across the battlefield. Depending upon the distance between casting to target, a war magic spell may require up to a minute to travel to the target. A war magic spell shot travels at a speed equal to 2,000ft + 200ft per caster level per round. For example, an Enlarged Tactical Fireball at CL20 will travel at a speed of 6,000ft per round with a maximum range of 12,000ft (over 2 miles).
Due to the complexity of the spell, a war magic spell typically takes a full minute to cast. However, spellcasters making use of the Rapid Spell metamagic (reduce to 3 rounds) and Arcane Spellsurge boost spell (reduce by another round) may be able to fire off one spell per two rounds.
Changes to Rapid Spell metamagic feat, it now reduces casting time as follows:
1 Day 10 Hours 3 Hours 1 Hour 30 Minutes 10 Minutes 3 Minutes 1 Minute (10 Rounds) 3 Rounds 1 Round Standard Action
Round your spell’s casting time up to the nearest category and use above progression to determine the new casting time.
In order to cast the spell, the caster must make a successful spellcraft check (DC 15 + 3 x [original spell’s level + 6]) to successfully shape the spell. For example, a Tactical Delayed Blast Fireball requires a DC 54 spellcraft check. A failure on the spellcraft check causes the caster to fail the spell.
In order to maintain the casting process despite the overwhelming amounts of magical energy being channeled, the lead caster and any contributing casters must succeed upon a successful concentration check (DC 10 + 2 x total levels of spell slots expended). Each caster only makes concentration check for their spell slots spent. For example, a Tactical Delayed Blast Fireball cast using four level-seven slots from the caster and two level-seven slotsfrom two separate contributor requires a DC 66 concentration check from the lead caster and a DC 24 concentration check from each contributing caster. Any failure of the concentration check will cause the overall spell to fail, thus mage circles often contain extra contributing mages than required in the event that one of the supporting casters were distracted or damaged and caused their spell to fail. Also, when a caster fails the concentration check, they must make a fortitude save (DC 10 + levels of spell slots expended) or become dazed for 1 round. Failure by 5 or more causes them to become stunned for 1 round instead. This effect is caused due to residue spell-burn, and thus cannot be removed by magical means.
If any caster were to draw power from a magic item towards the casting of a war magic spell (such as a Rod of Absorption), the user of the item must make concentration check as if he expended a spell slot of equal level.
The enhanced stats of a war magic spell are treated as the ‘base’ stats of a spell for the purpose of increasing with metamagic. For example, a tactical spell, with its range multiplied by fivefold, enhanced by enlarge spell metamagic would change the maximum spell range to tenfold times its base (rather than six times its range, as per normal D&D stacking).
To reduce the strain on the caster in both spell power and concentration required, mage groups often utilize ‘mage circles’ for the casting of a war magic spells. Mage circles received their name from the use of Casting Array boost spells to link the lead caster and contributing casters together.
There are two ‘requirements’ for a contributing caster. First, they must have the Cooperative Spell metamagic feat (sometimes substituted with a Metamagic Rod of Cooperation [CArc]). Second, they must be able to cast the base spell of the tactical spell (sometimes substituted with a Runestaff).
Mage circles also typically include abjurers (to dispel counter-fire spells), diviners (to help pinpoint priority targets), incantantrixes (to apply metamagic to the spell during casting), and other defensive support.
Note: Remember you can’t make use of a metamagic rod and a runestaff at the same time.
During the casting of a war magic spell, the magical power being gathered and channeled congregates to such an extent that it actually becomes visible in the air. A typical war magic spell looks like a huge whirling field of energy, radiating a myriad of similar colors based on the type of spell used. Also, all spellcasters and magic-sensitive beings within at least 100ft will feel a light pull towards the center of the casting. All creatures in the area must also make DC 20 fortitude checks or be blinded by the light generated by the magic for 1d4 minutes. Those that succeed are dazzled (–1 to attack, search, & spot) and treat all enemies as blurred (20% concealment) for the same duration.
Note: While it is not impossible to mimic the casting of a war magic spell, most illusion spells do not actively generate enough light to imitate the power of a true war magic spell.
Multiple applications of war magic is referred as advanced war magic, usually requiring the power of over a dozen elite blaster mages lead by an epic spellcaster. While the power of an advanced war magic spell is astronomical, the costs are as well. For example, a legion spell (double phalanx) requires:
•One spell slot at +13 spell levels (+6 from the first application and +7 from the second). Most mages utilizes a Twinned Casting Array to reduce the costs.
•Five spell slots at +6 spell level (from a single war magic application).
•Twenty-five base spell slots.
Advanced war magic typically utilizes only two types of spells: Strategic class spells, which may be a tactical assault spell, a tactical phalanx spell, or a double tactical spell; and Legion class spells, which is a double phalanx spell (usually with multiple twinned metamagics attached).
While it is common for elite blaster mages to solo cast a war magic spell, it is usually not suggested as it burns through a caster’s magic reserves at an amazing rate. Only an Arcane or Argent Servitor is capable of solo-casting an advanced war magic spell due to their excessive requirements.Statistics: Posted by Zanaikin — Fri Aug 17, 2007 3:23 am
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