Here comes a pdf with all the spells the characters have access to, 30 all in all. You can get them here (339KB): https://annabmeyer.com/Downloads/rules/VGHC6%20Skirmish%20Game%20Spells.pdf
A few notes, so lets look at a spell, and why not the most iconic one, Fireball:
Level: 3
School: Evocation
Casting Time: 1 Action
Range: Long (120 feet)
Effect: 20 feet radius of fire
Components: V, S, M (bat guano and sulfur)
Duration: Instantaneous
Saving Throw: Athletics (Evasion) Dex halves
A fiery mote streaks to a point within range and explodes in a burst of flame. The fire spreads around corners and ignites unaended flammable objects. Each creature in the area takes 23(6d6) fire damage.
Specialization (Evocation or Elemental)
+1: 7d6 Fire Damage 30 feet radius
+2: 8d6 Fire Damage
+3: 9d6 Fire Damage 40 feet radius
+4: 10d6 Fire Damage
Damage Expertise (Fire)
+1: Damage Die increase to d8.
+2: Damage Die increase to d10.
+3: Damage Die increase to d12
+4: Damage Die increase to d12+2
Conduit: Arcane , Divine , Primal Strain: Elemental Taint: None
Most here would be normal for everyone who played any edition of D&D, but there are few changes. First one is Saving Throws, which in Hawk Tales uses Skills (and sometimes expertise) with a DC set by the caster.
Specialization is a way you can effectively upcast spells without the need to use up those higher level spell slots. So casters that are not specialized can still make use of this table and upcast, but it will cost them a higher slot. Specialization can be access in two ways, School Specialization (Evocation in this case) and Strain Specialization (Elemental in this case).
Damage Expertise is another way of getting a bigger bang, Arcane casters can specialize in various forms of energy, fire, cold, lightning, necrotic, force and and so on. There are 11 different Arcane Damage Expertise's in the game now, and that hopefully covers all.
School Specialists are the Abjurers, Evokers, Diviners, Elementalists and so on. Strain Specialists are your Shadowmancer's for example. Damage Experts could be a Pyromancer for example. This system gives players a chance to create casters that are everything from Universal Arcanists to hyper focused Demonlogists.
This isn't only for Arcane casters. All schools, except Clemency, are Arcane, but Strain and Damage Expertise are fair game for Divine and Primal casters as well. So a Cleric of Heironeous can get an Elemental Strain specialization and a Lightning or Radiant (or both) Damage Expertise and really scale up his spells.
The bottom row of the spell description lists:
Conduit: how the magic can be gained. Arcane (by knowledge or Intuition).
Divine: Gifted by a deity (or other powerful creature, or entity).
Primal: Magic power gained by attunement to nature.
Strain: the source of energy the spell uses which can be important since the spell needs access to that source. The type of casting determines the key factor of WHEN the source is tapped, which can be critical during adventuring.
Innate Casters access the strain only once, when they gain the ability to cast the innate magic. This is why innate magic is both costly and difficult to learn and limited to low level spells for mortals.
Ritual and Spontaneous Casters access the strain at the time of casting, which can be very limiting when you go to other planes for example.
Prepared Casters access the strain when preparing the spell, which can make them the most versatile of casters, since accessing certain strains can attract unwanted attention. So by being able to prep at home base and then move into a dangerous location you can bring in lots of power and set it off even in difficult places. The problem comes if you run out of spell slots..
This is only a second alpha version but I already feel like I'm starting get to my goal of having a magic system that on the surface for low level beginning players is almost as easy as regular D&D, but as you play, level up and face more dangers and new situations, the magic rules are able to deliver much more depth and flavor.
Some Strains are kind of pseudo systems in a way, like Cerebral (mind magic) that opens up a whole new field whish its own portions and rules, since the psyche is not the physical world, and even the Fey, Shadow and the other Metaphysical Strains have quirks as well. But I'm going to detail them in future posts.
I hope this sounds interesting, and thank you again for all your support that makes this possible!
