Effects and Definitions

=Effects and Deffinitions=

Common Effects

 * Note: Any effect that has “until cured” as part of the duration will end when a convergence occurs (in addition to when it is cured or dispelled).

Avoidance
While partial concentration is maintained, the target of avoidance may not approach within 10 feet of the caster. The person maintaining the avoidance must hold one arm up with palm out, toward the target when possible (i.e. partial concentration).

Duration: Concentration (generally) Note: The caster may use the other hand to cast spells, fight, or even maintain another avoidance or wall. The target of the Avoidance should walk away if the caster approaches them, but is not required to move any faster than a walking pace. If the target is forced into a situation where they cannot move away (i.e. pinned), they may fight normally if the source comes into melee weapon range of them (even if the avoidance source is “fear”). They may not throw spells unless the source is within a swords reach however.

Backlash
A Backlash refers to an additional, undesirable effect as a result of a partial resurrection. This typically occurs when the resurrector is either very unskilled or very unlucky. The severity of backlashes range anywhere from returning with minor cuts and bruises up to missing limbs or a case of lycanthropy if the resurrector is particularly unskilled and unlucky.

Berserk
Target must attack anyone around them, friend of foe, from closest to farthest.

Duration: 1 minute

Cure
Cure will either heal lost body or remove all of a specific category of effects from the target. The category must be spoken when cast. (I.e. Cure 5 body, Cure all mind effects, Cure all Force effects, etc.)

Duration: Instantaneous

Critical
Critical occurs when a character reaches 0 body. Any spell or physical damage can cause this. When this occurs, the character falls down unconscious, and is dying. During the Critical phase, a character can be healed by a Tier 1 cure body spell, a Healing Touch, First Aid, etc. After the 1 minute Critical phase, the character enters the “lifeless” phase. During the lifeless phase, a character has 5 minutes to receive a Life spell, partial resurrection at a circle, or a Preserve Body spell. After that 5 minutes (6 total minutes after reaching 0 body), the character is dead and requires a full resurrection, which has a chance of failure… meaning a permanent death.

Death Effect
Character is immediately reduced to 0 body, bypassing the 1 minute “critical” phase all together and immediately entering the 5 minutes “lifeless” phase.

The character remains on the ground “lifeless” for 5 minutes and can only be brought up by a life spell, a partial resurrection at a circle, or preserved by a preserve body spell.

After 5 minutes, the character becomes dead and the spirit typically moves directly to a circle for a full resurrection (although, if the player wishes, the spirit may remain with the dead body). Neither first aid nor magic healing will restore a character affected by ‘death’. Typical sources of a death effect are a killing blow or a kill spell from the death sphere.

Duration: Until life spell or resurrection

Destroy
The named is immediately destroyed. Destroy can be used only on held or worn items or unattended inanimate items, never living creatures or dead bodies. is a call to help communicate the effect, not part of the incant. Acceptable calls include: “weapon”, “shield”, “armor”, “item right/left hand.” If the call is ambiguous, i.e. two weapons carried and right/left not included in call, victim may choose right or left hand if it holds a valid target.

Typical defenses against destroy are:
 * Dodge or Phase Shield (vs. any destroy effect, magical or physical)
 * Parry or Aura of Deflection (vs. Sunder or physical destroy only)
 * Shield of Negation or Redirect spell (vs. Shatter or magical destroy only)
 * Additionally, some items are magically or innately unshatterable.

Examples of destroy effects include:
 * Sunder Skill: Weapon struck is destroyed. I.e. Sunder, Destroy.
 * Shatter Spell (Teir 4 Kinetic Spell) or similar innate effect: Spacket is tossed at target, call “destroy (right/left hand if applicable)

Duration: instantaneous

Diagnose
Diagnose is a skill that determines either all effects or all damage on the target by saying either “diagnose body” or “diagnose effects.” I.e. “Diagnose effects” would reveal paralyze by will, silence by mind, drain by blood, etc. “Diagnose body” will reveal how far down in body the target is, i.e. “down 6”. Optionally, the character can additionally state their maximum, i.e. down 6 of 7, in order to better describe the extent of their wounds.

Duration: instantaneous

Disabled
Disable is also referred to as unconscious or knocked out. This effect is most frequently delivered by the finesse skills “Disabling Blow” or “Waylay”. In order to deliver a “Disabling Blow”, the character must be willing, paralyzed, or similarly motionless (not simply stunned however). “Waylay” must simply be delivered by surprised from behind.

Duration: 5 minutes

Disable Limb
A Disabling Blow scores no damage, but completely disables a limb. A person affected by a disable limb to 1 leg may not walk, but may hop along on 1 foot. With two disabled legs, a character may not stand or move at all. A disabled arm may not wield a weapon or hold a shield. Any item held when an arm becomes disabled must be immediately dropped.

Duration: Until “cure disabled limb” or next convergence

Disarm
Target must drop the disarmed item (typically a sword or shield). No one may touch a disarmed item for 3 seconds. If after 3 seconds, two or more people simultaneously attempt to pick up the item, the original possessor wins the tie and may take the item. This is irregardless of strength.


 * Note: If a weapon is strapped on or attached to the hand such that it cannot be disarmed, then the arm is instead disabled all together until cured (see Disable Limb). For shields that are strapped on such that they cannot be easily dropped, the shield becomes ineffectual for 3 seconds. Any damage scored to the shield is taken by the defending character.

Examples of disable effects include:
 * Finesse Skill; “Disarm”: call “Disarm” during swing, item or arm struck is the item disarmed.
 * Disarm Spell (Tier 1 Kinetic spell) or similar innate effect: “disarm, right/left hand,” disarm item indicated. Only held items and shields may be disarmed.

Typical defenses against destroy are:
 * Retain, Dodge, or Phase Shield (vs. any disarm, magical or physical)
 * Parry or Aura of Deflection (vs. disarm skill or physical disarm only)
 * Shield of Negation or Redirect skill (vs. Disarm spell or magical disarm only)
 * Additionally, natural claws and some powerful characters are completely immune from being disarmed. They will respond with “no effect” if affected by a disarm while so immune.

Duration: at least 3 seconds

Dispel
Dispel removes all magic effects and latent spells on the target.

Duration: instantaneous

Dominate
Dominate is a much more powerful version of Influence (see: Influence). The target of a dominate effect treats the caster as a trusted friend and will follow all commands and requests to the absolute best of their ability. A dominated character will immediately defend the person who dominated them, but will otherwise generally wait for commands or requests before taking other more complex actions. For a complete description, see the Tier 8 Dominate spell in the Enchanter school.

Duration: 10 minutes

Drain
Drain causes the target to be unable to use any in-game skills, including wielding any weapons or casting any spells. The effected person is still literate and remembers all knowledge skills, but is generally too drained to do either task extensively.

Duration: 10 minutes

Fear
Fear simply a means of avoidance (see: Avoidance). The effect is identical to all other avoidance effects in every way and carries no additional role-play effect.

Duration: Concentration (or 10 minutes if it was delivered by voice) Note: By Voice fear does not need concentration maintained via the hand gesture. The duration for a by voice fear is instead a flat 10 minutes.

Feeblemind
An individual affected by feeblemind may not speak coherently or use any in-game skills. Further, they should role-play a complete stupor. They may stumble around, but should avoid consciously running away from harm.

Duration: 10 minutes

Full Death
Full death refers to a death that could only be undone by a full resurrection (not simply a partial resurrection or life spell). A full death is recorded on the character sheet and has a chance of being the last full resurrection ever possible for the individual (i.e. the next death is permanent).

Imbue
Target gains some ability (i.e. Imbue Shield of Negation, Imbue Aura of Deflection, Imbue immunity to all mind affects, etc.)

Duration: Until used, removed, overwritten, end of next convergence, or as listed in spell duration Note: A character may have only 1 shield, 1 aura, and 1 blade spell imbued at a time. If a second within those categories are imbued, it will overwrite the original.

Influence
Influence is a very minor version of dominate. The target of an Influence effect treats the caster as a casual friend and will generally be cooperative, but usually be suspicious of strange requests or unusual suggestions. An influenced individual will always be non-aggressive toward the person who influenced them and will generally try and protect them, but not necessarily at a significant risk to their own life.

Duration: 10 minutes

Killing Blow
Killing blow delivers an immediate death to the target (see: Death Effect). Any PC may perform a killing blow on any unconscious or paralyzed individual, but NPCs are specifically forbidden from doing so without specific plot permission. To deliver a killing blow, hold a weapon close to the neck or chest and say “killing blow 1, killing blow 2, killing blow 3”, followed by the amount of damage that would normally be done when striking (2 normal damage for example). The weapon must be able to affect the victim for the killing blow to take effect (see: Thresholds).
 * Note: A killing blow may not be performed on a stunned person.

Lifeless

 * See: Critical.

Nausea
A nauseated individual cannot attack or cast spells. They may still use their weapons to defend themselves however. They should role-play being sick or queasy.

Duration: 1 minute

Partial Death
A Partial Death refers to a death that was undone by a partial resurrection or life spell. A partial death is not recorded on the character sheet and has no consequences beyond a possible backlash caused by an unskilled or unlucky resurrector.

Pacify
A pacified individual may not take any offensive action until they are attacked via weapon or harmful spell.

Duration: 10 minutes or until attacked

Paralyze
A paralyzed individual may not move at all. They must hold their pose as best they can and may not vocalize at all. When 0 body or unconsciousness is reached, the body falls to the ground, but the individual is still paralyzed for the duration.

Duration: 10 minutes (falling down if unconscious or dead)

Petrify
The target becomes a stone statue, of size category +2.

Duration: until dispelled or destroyed (no cure)

Pin
When pinned, the right or left foot, of the targets choice, becomes stuck to the ground. The victim may pivot on the stuck foot, but not walk.

Duration: 1 minute

Poison
A poisoned individual loses 1 body per minute.

Duration: until cured or resurrected

Pull
Pull is a type of attack (generally force based) that moves the target toward the source of the pull. All push or pull attacks will have a number following the attack (i.e. Force Pull 10, or Force Push 5). The target moves a number of steps toward the caster equal to the number spoken. The target must immediately complete the movement and may take no actions while doing so.

Duration: Instantaneous (the move should be completed as promptly and safely as possible)
 * Note: If the player would collide with a solid object (like a large wall or fence) the effect ends at a safe distance from the obstacle and any other players also pushed into that obstacle (i.e. move safely and do not physically push into people or objects in an attempt to complete the movement). A pushed character may not be targeted by any attacks or effects until the movement is complete.

Push
Push is the same as Pull, but away from the source instead of toward (see: Pull).

Relocate
Target must move at a safe rate to a location designated by the caster. Typically the new location is represented by a spacket at the new location.

Duration: Instantaneous (the effected character should move to the new location as promptly and safely as possible and may take no actions whatsoever while completing the movement. The effected person cannot be targeted or attacked while completing the movement)

Silence
A silenced individual may not vocalize whatsoever.

Duration: 10 minutes or until cured

Sleep
The target of a sleep effect falls asleep. They are awakened by any damage.

Duration: 10 minutes or until damaged

Slow
The target of a slow becomes slowed. To represent this, the target must say “slow 1, slow 2, slow 3” before any attack, spell, or activation of an item. The effected may not run and should speak slowly.

Duration: 10 minutes or until dispelled

Soul Bound
Soul Bound refers to an item that has implicit magical ownership or association with a given individual (or on rare occasion, a group or bloodline). Soul Binding is a rather expensive and powerful magical effect. A Soul Bound item cannot be stolen or taken from its owner, but it can be dropped, set down, or knocked out of hand. When this occurs, the item acquires a “Sword in the Stone” like attribute in that only its rightful owner can pick it up again. Anyone else who tries will find it impossible to pick up or move by any means. Upon permanent death, the soul bound item becomes permanently affixed to its owner (if worn at the time of death) or permanently affixed to its location otherwise (i.e. Sword in the Stone).
 * Additionally, if a character takes a full death and is resurrected, any and all soul bound items will appear with them, like any other limb or body part. This will not occur after only a partial resurrection or life spell.
 * Note: Abusing the “Sword in the Stone” aspect of a Soul Binding, like hiding a Soul Bound item in a box to prevent the box from being able to be picked up or moved, has been known at times to permanently undo the Soul Binding.

Stun
A stunned individual becomes dazed for a brief moment. They may not move, attack, defend, speak, or take any action for 3 seconds.

Duration: 3 seconds Note: A stunned individual may not have a killing blow used on them

Substantiate
Any individual effected by substantiate may not phase or become immaterial for the duration. They also loose all immunity to force. Lastly, if the target is immaterial or incorporeal, they become material for the duration.

Duration: 10 minutes

Torment: Torment is a subset of stun (see: Stun). In addition to being stunned, the Target must cry out in pain.

Duration: 3 seconds

Vortex
An individual in a vortex must spin slowly in place for 10 seconds. The effected should call out “vortex 1, vortex 2…, vortex 10”. The target may not attack, move (other than spinning), talk, or cast spells. The effect cannot be cast upon or attacked for the duration, but will still suffer any by voice attacks that occur.

Duration: 10 seconds

Weakness
A weakened individual attack with a -2 damage penalty (minimum 0 damage). Additionally, they may not carry or drag anything of size category 1 or larger (i.e. may still carry their weapon, shield, etc, but may not carry or drag bodies).

Duration: 1 minute

Body
This is a somewhat rare attack that’s employed by non-corporeal undead or some death spells for example. This effect ignores armor, and all damage is done straight to body. An example of the damage call for this type of attack is: “5 normal body”.

Armor
This effect ignores body, and damages only armor. An example of the damage call for this type of attack is: “5 normal armor”.

Damage
This is the most common type of attack. This effect is tallied first against armor, then body once armor is exhausted. An example of this type of attack is: “5 magic damage”.

By Voice
A “By Voice” effect represents an area of effect attack. All within hearing range of the call are affected (whether they can actually hear it or not). Those who do not hear the effect because of distractions should still take the effect. Furthermore, plugging ears or being unable to hear does not prevent by voice effects. By voice effects are not stopped by sanctuary, magic circles, walls, or buildings.

True Aim & Perfect Aim (aka, By Name or By Sight)
True Aim and Perfect Aim attacks are ranged weapon or spell attacks which hit automatically without the need to connect with a spacket. These types of attacks require high level skill in order to use. The target of the spell is informed by pointing or by name rather than hitting them with a spacket.

Aura (imbued)
A player may have only 1 Aura imbue active at a time. If a second is applied, it overwrites the first. A protective Aura intercepts an attack, preventing all damage or effect from 1 attack. Auras generally apply to physical attacks, like the Kinetic spells Aura of Deflection and Aura of Reflection.

Blade (imbued)
A player may have only 1 blade spell active at a time. If a second is applied, it overwrites the first. A blade spell will trigger when a weapon strikes for the first time.

Dodge
Target moved fast enough to avoid any effect (spell or melee, but not by voice), even if the spacket/attack hits.

No Effect
No Effect means the target cannot be affected by the attack type. This is common if a person is completely immune to something that was used against them, like a Rager immune to pacify.

No Damage
No Damage means the weapon or spell does not harm the victim. No effect is ever suffered if No Damage is called. This type of defense is called if someone is not hitting hard enough to break a threshold (see: threshold below) or a powerful undead that cannot be damage by non-magic weapons for example.

Phase
Phase allows a person to become immaterial momentarily, causing a physical or spell attack to miss (not a by voice attack however). Phase can also by used to pass through thin solid objects like a door or wall.

Parry
The target uses a drawn weapon to knock aside the attack. Parry can be used on physical attacks only, like a sword strike or arrow, never spells.

Resist
Target shrugs off the effect, but subsequent similar attacks may affect the target.

Reflect
Attack is reflected back at the attacker and does not affect the original target. The Tier 5 Enchantment Spell Mirror Shield is an example of a Reflect.

Redirect
Attack is redirected to any other valid target of the redirector’s choice. Essentially, Redirect is the same as Reflect, except the redirector can choose the target instead of defaulting to the original source. This is a rare and powerful skill available to Blade Channelers as an example.

Shield (imbued)
A player may have only 1 shield imbue active at a time. If a second is applied, it overwrites the first. An imbued shield blocks the first appropriate attack directed at the person who has this imbued. Imbued shields typically block spells, like the enchantment spells Shield of Negation or Mirror Shield, but Death Shield for example will block any death effect, magical or otherwise. See the specific spell descriptions for details.

Vigilance
The target is able to avoid a fatal strike (i.e. any physical attack that would reduce them to 0 body) by being extra aware of the attack. This leaves the user with one body instead of being reduced to 0. Alternatively, vigilance can be used to completely counter a waylay effect.

Thresholds & Damage Type Hierarchy
A threshold prevents damage from certain attack types or amounts. A silver threshold, for example, will prevent any damage of a type lower that silver on the chart below (i.e. just normal). A threshold of 4 would prevent damage from any attacks scoring 1 to 3 points of damage, regardless of type. Damage of a type equal to or higher on this chart than any given threshold will break the threshold.

Order of protection for material thresholds:
 * Magic (highest level of attack… i.e. swinging magic will generally hit anything)
 * Any Element (i.e. Fire, Ice, etc.)
 * Mithril
 * Acid
 * Silver
 * Normal (lowest level of attack.. i.e. swinging normal will not effect anything that has any sort of material threshold)