Whether hidden occult lore, voodoo rituals, wizardly magic, odd gadgets from mad scientists, super powers, or psionics, Savage World's various magic powers are all in one system called “powers”.
In order to gain access to powers, you must pick an Arcane Background Edge available to your setting.
Every arcane background specifies:
If a character takes a new Arcane Background, she gets the new powers and a d4 in its arcane skill (if she doesn't already have it). If she already has an Arcane Background or Mystic Powers, she uses the largest pool of Power Points and applies any increases from other sources to it. All of her Arcane Backgrounds and Mystic Powers share this pool.
Each power is linked to the Arcane Background that provided it, so if you gained healing through your cleric arcane background, you couldn't use your wizard's spellcasting skill to cast it.
See arcane_backgrounds for a list of arcane backgrounds.
A character activates a power by picking a target within Range and making an arcane skill roll. A roll less than 4 means the power doesn’t activate. The caster spends one Power Point regardless of any Edges such as Channeling, unless the ability specifically says it reduces the minimum cost to 0.
A roll of 4 or higher means the power activates and consumes all the Power Points allocated to it, even if it misses the target (such as with bolt), or the defender resists.
Success means the hero spends the Power Points and resolves the power’s effects. A raise has additional effects noted in the particular power description.
Backlash: A Critical Failure w hen activating a power is called Backlash. It causes a level of Fatigue and all currently active powers instantly terminate.
Group Rolls: The GM can choose to make Group Rolls when large numbers of non-player characters are affected by a power. It’s useful to roll damage against each group of like targets separately in an Area Effect attack, for example, but to roll separately for those trying to escape an entangle or similar power.
Incapacitation: A caster’s powers terminate instantly if she’s Incapacitated, knocked unconscious, put to sleep, or otherwise rendered unconscious.
A character must be able to see his target and cannot be Bound. Unless the caster has the Silent Caster Edge, he must also be able to speak. If she’s gagged, underwater, affected by silence, or otherwise can’t speak, she can’t cast.
Casters must at least whisper their words of power, so if they don’t want to be heard they must beware of those with keen ears (Stealth versus Notice if the GM feels a wary character might hear the recitation).
It costs 1 Power Point to maintain a power for an extension of its base Duration. If a power’s Duration is five rounds, for example, it can be maintained for another five rounds for 1 Power Point once the initial 5 rounds are over.
Maintenance is per target but ignores other Power Modifiers, so renewing boost Trait on three allies costs 3 Power Points and extends the effect of each another five rounds. Unless a power says otherwise, the caster can terminate it as a free action.
A character recovers 5 Power Points per hour spent resting, meditating, etc. What constitutes “rest” is up to the GM, but they do not recharge while powers are maintained, or during anything more than mild physical exertion, emotional stress, or mental distraction. A hero can rest while riding a horse, for example, unless the animal is restless, the road is terribly bumpy, traffic requires frequent concentration, etc.
Heroes can also regain Power Points while walking if the conditions are generally favorable and the pace is leisurely.
Each power activated is its own action, and the same or different powers may be cast multiple times as a Multi-Action (see Savage Worlds). A wizard in a fantasy setting might open combat by invoking protection and deflection, for example, or a priest might attempt to banish a spirit while invoking smite on his mace.
A character may cast a power with fewer Power Points than it requires (whether she has them or not) by increasing the difficulty of her arcane skill roll. For every Power Point a character will short, she suffers a −1 penalty to the roll. Casting a 3-point healing with 0 Power Points, for example, inflicts a −3 penalty. Shorting is risky. If a character fails a shorted arcane skill roll, it’s considered a Critical Failure!
Trappings allow the core powers presented in this chapter to have many different appearances. They don’t usually have a game effect of their own, but are important for atmosphere and theme and should guide power choice and use of modifiers and limitations to match the trapping.
One character might fire magical missiles of glowing white energy while another hurls deadly icicles. Both use the bolt power and share the same mechanics, but they look and “feel” different. Combined with modifiers and limitations they become even more distinct. Maybe the magic missiles have the hasty modifier so it can be cast as a limited free action while the deadly icicles have armor piercing as they shear through armor.
Trappings do matter if an obstacle or opponent has a specific strength or weakness. If an ice troll suffers +4 damage from fire- or heat-based attacks, for example, a blast a player describes as a fireball counts as a fire attack and does +4 damage.
A power's trappings must be described on taking the power. A power’s Trappings don’t change unless the caster uses an Advance—see Changing Trappings.
Sometimes logic dictates a power’s Trapping should have some additional effect. Zapping someone with a lightning bolt while they’re standing in water should cause additional damage, for example.
When this occurs, the GM can decide there’s synergy that either increases or decreases the effect or damage (GM’s call) by +2 or −2.
Oppositional forces, such as fire and ice or light and darkness, don’t usually have synergy against one another (though such effects are sometimes accounted for in some creatures’ Special Abilities). If a fire blast hits ice armor (protection), for example, there’s no additional effect because they cancel each other out.
A character can learn two new powers when he takes the New Powers Edge, or he may instead add Trappings (along with any desired Limitations) to his powers in place of one or two of the new powers.
A hero who takes the New Powers Edge, for example, could choose one new power and add an ice Trapping to her bolt. The GM may also allow a player to change the Trapping or Limitation of an existing power when she gains an Advance. This should reflect a major change in the character in some way as determined by the player and GM.