Wizard Spells

Wizard spells range from spells of simple utility to great and powerful
magics. The wizard spell group has no single theme or purpose. The vast majority of
wizard spells were created by ancient wizards for many different purposes. Some
are to serve the common man in his everyday needs. Others provide adventurers
with the might and firepower they need to survive. Some are relatively simple
and safe to use (as safe as magic can be); others are complicated, filled with
hazards and snares for the rash and unwary. Perhaps the greatest of all wizard
spells is the powerful and tricky wish. It represents the epitome of spell-casting–causing things to happen simply
because the wizard desires it to be so. But it is a long and difficult task to
attain the mastery needed to learn this spell.

Although some characters can use spells, the workings of magic are dimly
understood at best. There are many theories about where the power comes from. The
most commonly accepted idea is that the mysterious combination of words,
gestures, and materials that make up a spell somehow taps an extradimensional source of
energy that in turn causes the desired effect. Somehow the components of the
spells–those words, gestures and materials–route this energy to a specific and
desired result. Fortunately, how this happens is not very important to the
majority of wizards. It is enough to know that “when you do this, that happens.”

Casting a wizard spell is a very complicated ordeal. The process of learning
the correct procedure to cast a spell is difficult and taxing to the mind. Thus,
a wizard must check to see if he learns each new spell (according to his
Intelligence–see Table 4). Furthermore, there is a limit to just how much of this
strangeness–illogical mathematics, alchemical chemistry, structuralist linguistics–a wizard’s
mind can comprehend, and so he must live with a limit to the number of spells he
can know.

As the wizard learns spells, he records their arcane notes into his spell
books. Without spell books, a wizard cannot memorize new spells. Within them are
all his instructions for memorizing and casting all the spells he knows. As the
wizard successfully learns a new spell, he carefully enters its formula into his
spell books. A wizard can never have a spell in his books that he does not
know, because if he doesn’t understand it, he cannot write the formula. Likewise,
he cannot enter a spell into his books that is higher in level than he can
cast. If he finds an ancient tome with spells of higher power, he must simply wait
until he advances to a level at which he can use them.

The exact shape and size of a character’s spellbooks is a detail your DM will
provide. They may be thick tomes of carefully inked parchment, crackling
scrolls in bulky cases, or even weighty clay tablets. They are almost never
convenient to carry around. Their exact form depends on the type and setting of the
campaign world your DM has created.

Ultimately, it is the memorization that is important. To draw on magical
energy, the wizard must shape specific mental patterns in his mind. He uses his
spell books to force his mind through mental exercises, preparing it to hold the
final, twisted patterns. These patterns are very complicated and alien to normal
thought, so they don’t register in the mind as normal learning. To shape these
patterns, the wizard must spend time memorizing the spell, twisting his
thoughts and recasting the energy patterns each time to account for subtle
changes–planetary motions, seasons, time of day, and more.

Once a wizard memorizes a spell, it remains in his memory (as potential
energy) until he uses the prescribed components to trigger the release of the energy
patterns. The mental patterns apparently release the energy while the
components shape and guide it. Upon casting, the energy of the spell is spent, wiped
clean from the wizard’s mind. The mental patterns are lost until the wizard
studies and memorizes that spell again.

The number of spells a wizard can memorize is given by his level (see Table 21); he can memorize the same spell more than once, but each memorization counts
as one spell toward his daily memorization limit. Part of a wizard’s
intelligence can be seen in the careful selection of spells he has memorized.

Memorization is not a thing that happens immediately. The wizard must have a
clear head gained from a restful night’s sleep and then has to spend time
studying his spell books. The amount of study time needed is 10 minutes per level of
the spell being memorized. Thus, a 9th-level spell (the most powerful) would
require 90 minutes of careful study. Clearly, high-level spellcasters do not
lightly change their memorized spells.

Spells remain memorized until they are cast or wiped from the character’s mind
by a spell or magical item. A wizard cannot choose to forget a memorized spell
to replace it with another one. He can, however, cast a spell just to cleanse
his mind for another spell. (The DM must make sure that the wizard does not get
experience for this.)

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