SO YOU WANT TO BE A WIZARD?

Either you’re a GM and you want to bring magic into your campaign or you’re a player who wants to incorporate magic into your character and your GM gives the go-ahead. Great, but how do you do that?

You have two paths to take when bringing magic into any Power Rangers game. The first is to use Sorcery, which can be found in Finster’s Monster-Matic Cookbook. It is primarily used by the villains since it is a darker type of magic, but it can be used by Power Rangers and other hero characters. The other option is Magic, which at the point of this writing has not been incorporated into the Power Rangers Essence20 system. It is, however, in the My Little Pony core rulebook. This guide is designed to help GMs and Players of the Power Rangers RPG easily adapt the MLP Magic System to their games and characters. The system will almost be identical to the MLP version, but all references to ponies or concepts from MLP will be changed to fit Power Rangers. If you want a little magic in your game, all you have to do is answer a question and read on. Do you want to be a wizard?

HOW TO BECOME A WIZARD?

So you’ve decided that you want to keep reading and learn how to use magic in the world of Power Rangers. Congratulations, you’ve taken the first step of a magical journey. What exactly is the next step?>

REQUIREMENTS:

There are two mandatory requirements for a character to learn and cast spells in Essence20. The first is the Spellcasting ability. The second is the Magical General Perk. This can be found in the MLP core rulebook on page 124, but we will talk about it from the perspective of Power Rangers in a bit.

What is Spellcasting?

Spellcasting is the first requirement for being able to cast spells in Essence20. It is a skill like any other in the system (Awareness, Initiative, Targeting, et cetera) with one major difference; it is not connected to any Essence skill. In fact, on the MLP character sheet, there is a separate stat-block for Spellcasting.

The Spellcasting skill is basically your knowledge of Magic. Anyone can have and use the Spellcasting skill, but it alone does not let you cast spells or even learn/master spells. A player who just has the Spellcasting ability can use it to understand Magical items and texts, but they have no innate Magical ability. Any Magic related ability check will most likely use a character’s Spellcasting ability. If a player is capable of casting Spells, they will use this skill when casting. More on that later.

• At level up, the Spectrum Role determines what Essence Score gets increased. The Essence Score still gets the increase, but the point itself is not distributed to a skill within that Essence tree.
  Example: Jack is a Quantum Ranger. He just increased his level from 4 to 5 and is granted an Essence Score increase to Speed. His previous Essence score was a 5, now it is increased to 6. He decided he wants tostart developing his Spellcasting ability instead of putting the point into a Speed skill.


• Moving to the character sheet page holding the Spellcasting stat-block (for simplicity, you can just use the page from the MLP character sheet). Just fill in the dot for the appropriate skill die. Example: Jack is just starting in Spellcasting so he will fill in the dot for d2.


• If the character already has a few skill points in Spellcasting and have been using Magic for some time already, they may want to specialize. The Mastered Spells list is used for not just what spells your character knows, but also for their specializations in Spellcasting. Specializations are done the same as other skills. Instead of raising the skill die, you can choose a Spellcasting Specialization and list it in the Mastered list. Examples of Specializations will be listed later.

Magical. What is it and how to get it?

The second component to using Magic in Essence20 is the Magical General Perk. As stated earlier, it can be found in the MLP core book, but here it is flavored for use by any non-pony character:

MAGICAL You are a magical being and are capable of casting spells. When you invest Skill Points into the Spellcasting skill, you also Master a Spell. You can only master a Superior spell when you have at least a d6 in Spellcasting, and a Virtuoso spell when you have a d10 in Spellcasting.

So how does a player get this? There are three methods for a player to give their character a General Perk in Essence20.

• Method 1: If a player chooses an origin that grants a General Perk as the Origin Perk at character creation, they can choose Magical unless the GM decides to restrict its usage at the start of a campaign.


• Method 2: When a character reaches a level that grants a General Perk, they can take the Magical perk. This occurs at 4th, 8th, 12th, 16th, and 19th levels.


• Method 3: Your GM can give you the perk as a result of events within the story. Sometimes the players are faced with a situation and judging by the outcome, the GM will determine that you have earned a specific General Perk. Example: Your ranger team has just discovered and unlocked an ancient artifact that had sealed all of Earth’s magic within it. A wave of mystical energy passes over you and you feel something from deep within your soul resonate and awaken. You now have access to Magic with the Magical general perk.

Once a character has the perk and skill in Spellcasting, they can start learning spells appropriate for their skill level. There are three tiers of Magic: Elementary, Superior, and Virtuoso, and four circles (types) of spells: Aid, Beam, Enchantment, and Utility.

Circles of Magic

Circles are classifications that define the type of a spell. What the spell does or how it's used is defined by the circle it belongs to. There are four Circles in the Essence20 magic system: Aid, Beam, Enchantment, and Utility.

-Aid-

Aid spells are spells based on creation magic that are intended to help your teammates and others. Healing spells fall into this category. Example: Jack casts Healing Touch on his teammate, restoring 2 of their HP.

-Beam-

Beam spells are offensive spells. They are categorized as bursts of shaped energy directed at a specific target. It is Magic in its rawest form. Example: Jack casts Barreling Beam against Goldar. The attack succeeds, pushing Goldar back 15 feet.

-Enchantment-

Enchantment spells cause a transformation or improvement in a creature. These spells can help increase a character’s chances of succeeding on a task or they can help a creature survive in an area they normally wouldn’t be able to. Example: An Aquitian ranger is lost in the desert with a human ranger teammate. Her human teammate is able to cast the Adapt spell and does so, granting her the ability to survive in the desert for the duration of the spell.

-Utility-

Utility spells are spells that have more function than flair. These spells are practical in nature. Example: Goldar is keeping Kimberly captive within a cell. He's taken her communicator and morpher and she needs to tell the other rangers where she is. She looks out the cell window and sees that it's a cloudy day. She casts Cloud Art and changes the clouds over her position to an image that would mean nothing to everyone else, but tell her friends where she is. As long as they look up.

Tiers of Magic

There are three tiers of Magic. Elementary, Superior and Virtuoso. Each level grants more powerful spell types for the character. In order to unlock the next tier of magic, the character’s Spellcasting skill has to be at the appropriate die level.

-Elementary-

Elementary tier spells are the basic level of spells a magic user can learn in Essence20. A magic user can use Elementary tier spells as soon as they are able to cast spells. Though simple enough to learn and use, these spells continue to be used by all magic-users no matter their skill level.

-Superior-

Spells of this tier are more complex and require a higher experience level in order to use. Students of magic need to be able to cast this level of spell before they can move on to even higher and more powerful spells. A character needs to have a d6 or higher Spellcasting skill in order to use this tier.

-Virtuoso-

The highest tier of magical study in Essence20. A magic user is exceptionally gifted and truly dedicated to their craft if they can cast at this level. You must have a d10 in Spellcasting in order to cast at this tier.

HOW TO GUIDE: SPELLCASTING

Now you know the very basics of what magic is and how to get it in the Essence20 system. The next few sections will go over the process of learning/mastering a spell and casting the spells you know.

-Learning/Mastering Spells-

Whenever a character increases their Spellcasting skill, they can learn a new spell from their usable tier levels. The table below explains this in more detail:

Skill Die	Number of Spells Learned	Spell Tier Usable
d2	1	Elementary
d4	2	Elementary
d6	3	Elementary, Superior
d8	4	Elementary, Superior
d10	5	Elementary, Superior, Virtuoso
d12	6	Elementary, Superior, Virtuoso

Now that we know how many characters can learn and when, we just need to know how. There are two ways to Master spells: Learned and Researched.

-Learned-

This method is from spellcasting students studying both magic and spells simultaneously. A spellcaster can cast a spell while learning it as long as they have a teacher helping them, but they will only truly learn the spell if they can cast it at will. This is a narrative explanation for why a character can use a spell. Depending on your GM, you may have to spend time practicing in a controlled environment before you can consider the spell learned and usable on your own.

-Researched-

Researched spells work a little differently. Sometimes a spellcaster may need to use a spell that they haven’t mastered yet. They can spend time studying and researching that specific spell in order to gain temporary use of it. The time it takes to properly research the spell depends on the spell’s tier.

Tier	Research Time Required	Skill Die Required
Elementary	6 Hours	d4
Superior	12 Hours	d8
Virtuoso	24 Hours	d12

You’ll notice that the skill die required to research a spell is one higher than is required to unlock the tier itself. This is to show a magic-user’s competency at that level. You will need some experience casting at that level before you can research a spell properly.

There is a way to reduce the time it takes to research a spell. The research task can be divided up between friends. Other characters can lend their assistance to the character researching the spell. Those who have skills in Spellcasting can add an upshift to the researcher’s Spellcasting rolls. Others can help organize books and scrolls so that the researcher has an easier time finding the right material. For every person helping the researcher, the time it takes to research the spell is reduced by 1 hour.

As mentioned before, researched spells are temporary. All researched spells remain available to the magic-user who researched it for 24 hours. Once that time has elapsed, they can no longer use the spell unless they spend time researching it again or they get the chance to increase their skill rank in Spellcasting and choose to truly master the spell. If they choose to research the spell again, the GM may decide to give them a bonus to researching it, since they’ve already gone through the process before.

-Using Spells-

If you are in need of an increase to your skill die sooner so you can avoid any penalties, a character may suffer 1 Health Damage to gain an additional ↑1 to their Spellcasting skill. Be careful using this: an unconscious character is no better at Spellcasting than an exhausted one. Your GM might also want to impose certain rules regarding casting at below base die. These are optional Advanced rules.

• Advanced Rule - Heroic Casting: If the downshift places you below base die level on the table, you can still cast the spell at the Base die level. However, you take 1 Health point of damage for each upshift you need to get back to the Base die level. You cannot raise above Base die level using this method. Your health damage heals at the normal rate.


• Advanced Rule - Exhaustion: The GM may decide that anyone who reaches ‘Fumble’ is absolutely exhausted. They do not regain the usual ↑1 until they spend a round not casting any spells. After that, they begin regaining ranks at ↑1 as normal.

-Spellcasting Difficulty-

The base difficulty of casting a spell is tied to its Tier. The more powerful the spell, the harder it is to cast due to downshifts. The difficulty can also be increased or decreased due to circumstances. A character who rushes might have a harder time than someone who takes their time. Having the right tools and magical apparatus might aid them as well.

Spell Tier	Base Difficulty
Elementary	10
Superior	15
Virtuoso	15

Combat spells, like Energy Beam, require the Spellcasting roll to meet or beat both the casting difficulty and the defense score of the target. Also, any spells cast with an enemy within reach of the caster suffer an additional ↓1 per adjacent enemy.

Example: Jack is in combat with some putties and has decided he wants to try out the new spell he learned ‘Energy Beam.’ He has a d6 in Spellcasting and Energy Beam has a cost of ↓1. There are 2 putties adjacent to him. Even though they are not his target, he has to add a ↓2 to his roll, bringing him to the Base Die of a d20 for his roll. Energy Beam is an Elementary Tier Spell so the base difficulty is 10. He rolls the d20 and gets a 9. This means that the spell fizzles because he is unable to concentrate due to the presence of the two putties. On his next turn, he regains ↑1 to his Spellcasting from the cost of the spell the previous round and moves 20 feet away from the putties. He looks at his target from before and casts the spell again. This time he has no penalty from adjacent enemies and only a ↓1 for the cost of Energy Beam. He rolls a 14. This not only beats the casting difficulty of 10, but also the Toughness Defense of the Putty (13). The putty takes 1 Energy Damage which is enough to defeat it.

Spells also all have duration, range, and effects just like any other ability, weapon or device in Essence20. Since they are so common in the game system, I will not go into detail about them here. All spells require a standard action to cast. Aiming can also be used to assist in casting an attack spell. Depending on your GM’s gameplay style, this means that if your character does not move on their turn, they can use free actions to add an ↑1 to the Spellcasting roll. Aiming seems to vary across the different properties using Essence20 so this could mean a character could use up to 3 free actions to aim (MLP has both ↑1 using only 1 free action, or up to 3 for an ↑3 to aim. Ultimately it relies on your GM’s choice).

-Dispelling-

What is dispelling? Dispelling is the caster’s ability to uncast (or dispel) their magic as easily as they cast it. If a magic-user wants to end the effect of a spell they cast before its duration expires, they can use a free action on their turn to stop the spell’s effect. This comes in handy when you cast a protective spell on someone you thought was a friend and they turn on you. Removing the protection will help you take them down.

Dispelling also works against another caster’s spell. If the spell’s duration hasn’t expired and the effect is within 30ft of you, you can use a Standard Action on your turn to attempt to dispel the magic. You and the caster who initially cast the spell roll Spellcasting skill tests. If your roll beats theirs, the spell instantly ends. If your roll is lower than theirs, then the spell continues. It does not cost the opposing Spellcaster an action to resist your dispel attempt.

-Mastery Specializations-

As mentioned earlier, Spellcasting can be specialized. Instead of using a skill die increase to raise your skill level, you can instead choose to specialize in mastering a Tier and Circle of magic. In order to do this, you also need to have mastered a spell from within that Tier and Circle. For example, Jack has mastered Energy Beam. He gains another skill increase to spellcasting but has decided he wants to specialize in Elementary Beam Spells. This means that he will be able to cast all Elementary tier Beam spells (Energy Beam, Barreling Beam, and Lancing Beam). On top of that, when he casts any of those spells, he rolls as specialized so he can use every die from his current skill level (after the spell cost) down to the base die roll. Example: Jack’s Spellcasting skill die is at d8 now. He specialized in Elementary Beam spells and he casts Energy Beam which is a ↓1 cost spell. His Spellcasting is lowered to d6 and he rolls a d20 + d6 + d4 + d2 and adds the highest skill die roll to his total.

You cannot specialize in “All Beam Spells.” You must choose to specialize in a tier and circle of magic that you have already mastered a spell in.

-Magical Knowledge-

Another specialization is in Magical Knowledge. This is a specialization that allows you to roll all your skill dice when researching magical history, nature of magical creatures, or the type of spell or effect might be in use somewhere. You can also use it when deciphering magical influences on a situation.

This is the basic essentials of learning and using magic in Essence20. This guide is unofficial and will be replaced if/when Renegade Games releases a sourcebook for magic for the Power Rangers RPG.