New talents

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I wrote these talents to allow players to give their characters a bit of a personal style and to make them different from the standard wizard of their kind.

Blood magic and Cyclical magic are elements of an ancient way of practicing magic, a way that dates from far before Teclis' teachings.

Blood magic has an alternative version. The GM can choose which one he allows in his game. I would suggest to use the standard version if you use the Chaos Dice mechanic on the previous page; hedge wizards having to roll so many chaos dice, a chance to avoid Tzeentch' Curse is worth a lot. Groups who use the magic system in the book may like the alternative version better.

The guest college talent is heretic; GMs should consider whether they allow this talent in their game. In allowing characters to cast spells from different colleges, this talent contradicts that part of the setting that states that human wizards cannot learn more than one colour of magic. I think that this talent makes magic and mages more interesting, and for me that is more important than strictly adhering to the setting. If you don't agree, don't use this talent.

Blood magic

When casting a spell or performing a ritual, the caster can cut himself with a silver knife. If he does, the player rolls a blood die together with his normal casting dice. The character takes as many wounds as the result of the blood die. If this brings Wounds down to zero, any additional damage is resolved on the critical hit tables and the caster must make a Will Power roll to concentrate enough to cast the spell.

The player may substitute the blood die for any normal die in the same roll. This can be used to get a higher result on the spell casting roll and/or to avoid Tzeentch' Curse.

This talent is available for hedge magicians, witches and druids. Characters with this talent can be recognised by the network of scars covering their body.

For an alternative version of this talent, change the second paragraph to:
The blood die is added to the casting roll. The die can trigger Tzeentch' Curse.

Cyclical magic

The caster's power waxes and wanes with the tides, or with the moon, or the seasons. Pick a cycle of nature; the wizard's command of magic ebbs and flows with this cycle. Then set the strength of thic cycle; weak (+/- 1), average (+/- 2) or strong (+/- 3).
At the top of the cycle the wizard gets a bonus, equal to the strength of the cycle, to his casting rolls. At the bottom of the cycle, the modifier is equally negative. The cycle should be symmetrical; the weak phases of the cycle should correspond in length and power with the strong ones.

This talent is available for hedge wizards, witches and druids.

Fast channelling

The wizard can choose to take a -10 to his channeling roll. If the roll succeeds, however, he can cast a spell right away, in the same action.

This talent is available for college wizards

Flexible magic

When using spell variations, the caster adds +10 to his WillPower when making the channelling roll.

This talent is available for college wizards.

Guest college

The wizard spends most of his time as master wizard studying at another college. As a result, he is less adept at casting spells of his own college - he can roll one less die on his casting roll than his Mag score indicates. However, he can learn spells of his guest college, at a cost of 100 XP per spell. If he wants to cast such a spell, he can roll at most two casting dice.

Wizards who study a second colour are treated with less respect, and some caution, by their colleagues - some wizards take any such study as a sign that their colleague has succombed to Dark Magic and the lure of Chaos. While others may take a less extreme view, they will still see their colleague as somehow inferior. Wizards with this talent always get a negative modifier on their Fellowship rolls when dealing with colleagues. The height of this modifier depends on how intense the revulsion of the other party is.

This talent is available for Master Wizards.

Swift Caster

See the description of this talent in the combat page. It is grouped with other talents that affect timing in the combat round.

Whymme, 2006