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Fatigue from Spells
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Mages may find that working with arcane energies has a direct physical effect on their bodies. Just as physical exertion takes its toll, so too does magickal exertion, leaving a character fatigued . For descriptions of the fatigue levels, see the section on Fatigue.

Ranked Magick

To determine the fatigue incurred by a Ranked Mage from spellcasting, first determine the character's level by totalling up the dice invested in "Cast X Rank Spells." Find the row of the chart that corresponds with the mage's level and read across the chart until you find the entry which matches the Ranking of the spell being cast and read fthe fatigue level from the top of the column.

Vin Gygrax has Cast 1st Rank Spells - 4D and Cast 2nd Rank Spells - 3D to give him a level of 7. Using the chart, we see that using a First Rank spell will cause Vin to suffer Light Fatigue and casting a Second Rank spell will cause him Moderate Fatigue.

OPTION

A spell causes fatigue points equal to its Ranking and is dealt with much as College Magicks are, see the following section.

College Magick

College Mages roll a stamina check against the spell's "cost to cast" as a difficulty number at the end of the turn in which they cast the spell. Success indicates no fatigue taken while failure is a sliding result similar to the damage table (see chart).

Steve's character, Kleburn, casts a 1-point Fireball spell. With a Stamina of 2D, Steve will make his roll easily, barring a 1 on the Wild Die. The tiny Fireball didn't phase his opponent, so he builds up a 3-point Fireball to hurl. Kleburn's Stamina is still enough to keep him from noticing much in the way of fatigue. Later the same day, Kleburn casts a Teleport spell which has a casting cost of 8. With only 2D he can use to beat a fatigue-check of 8, Kleburn is probably going to suffer a noticable degree of fatigue from this casting.

Fatigue level does not increase unless the result rolled is greater than the character's current level of fatigue. The mage's fatigue level is advanced to the new result.

Kleburn rolls his 2D for Stamina, getting a (5) and a 2 for a total of 7, missing his Teleport target of 8 by one point. This leaves him Lightly Fatigued. Casting the Teleport spell again in an effort to rapidly put as much space as possible between him and his pursuer, he rolls a (2) and a 3, missing the Teleport difficulty by 3 points, another "Lightly Fatigued" result. Since the second result is the same as the first, there is no change in Kleburn's fatigue level. One more Teleport results in a roll of (2) and 1, missing by 5 for a "Moderately Fatigued" result. Kleburn now suffers the effects of being "Moderately Fatigued."

Should a player roll 2D for a stamina check and get a 1 on the Wild Die, GM's may ignore the dice total and declare the mage to have missed the target difficulty by that amount. This is reflective of the GM's option of discounting the Wild Die and the highest other die rolled, resulting in a total roll of zero.

Had Kleburn rolled a (1) and a 4, the GM could have declared he missed the roll by 8 (the Teleport's target difficulty number) and assigned him a "Moderately Fatigued" result.

Maintained spells are rolled against the spell's cumulative cost - if a spell costs 8 to cast and 4 to maintain every 10 seconds, the mage must roll a stamina check against the original casting cost of 8 the same turn he casts the spell. If the mage opts to maintain his spell after the first 10 seconds, the difficulty number to beat becomes a 12. If he opts to maintain it again, the difficulty number becomes a 16, and so on. If the caster attempts a new spell while maintaining another one, the new spell's difficulty is figured by adding its "cost to cast" to the current total of the maintained spell.

OPTION

If you prefer to have spellcasters accrue fatigue by fiat rather than by chance, simply require the player to keep track of the "cost to cast" for all spells cast. The current total may be compared to the above chart as if it were the number by which the fatigue roll failed. (A score of 0 indicates "no fatigue," rather than the "Lightly Fatigued" chart result.)

Steve's character, Kleburn, casts a 1-point Fireball spell. He is now Lightly Fatigued and subject to the penalties that come with that state. The tiny Fireball didn't phase his opponent, so he builds up a 3-point Fireball to hurl. His fatigue total is now 4, which advances him into the Moderately Fatigued bracket. A short while later, after running from a less-than-amused opponent, Kleburn decides discretion is the better part of valor and casts a Teleport spell which has a casting cost of 8. This raises his total to 12, putting him at the upper end of the Heavily Fatigued range. If he has teleported himself to a safe place, he can rest and begin reducing his fatigue rating.

As fatigue is reduced (see fatigue chart), the mage is considered to be at the upper end of the new fatigue level. Any new spellcasting performed is added to this.

After Kleburn's emergency Teleport back to his personal laboratory, Kleburn sits down to rest. After making a successful check to reduce his fatigue level (see "Recovering from Fatigue"), Kleburn is now Moderately fatigued and has a current total of 8. Another successful reduction and his total will be 3, then dropping to 0 after a final reduction.

OPTION

If a mage's fatigue is caused by spending spellpoints, the fatigue can be reduced at a rate fixed like the recovery of spellpoints. For more details, see the "Optional Spell Point Recovery" table.

After his emergency Teleport, Kleburn sits down to rest. After an hour passes, 4 points of accumulated fatigue are removed, leaving him at 8 and now moderately fatigued. Another hour reduces him to 4, and a third hour will leave him totally refreshed. Had he laid down to sleep, his fatigue would have dissipated much faster.

Many spells in the "College Magick" system have very low casting costs, in the 1, 2, or 3-point range. Barring a Wild Die "complication," using a simple Stamina check against each spell-casting will have little result in fatigue levels. If you want to use fatigue as the main limitation on spellcasters, having the points accumulate would be the better way to go.

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