Arcanist

Spell Focus

Casting is hard. But it's easier with a focus!

• Wands: targeted spells
• Staves: concentration spells
• Orb: area spells

Casting Styles

There are two distinct styles of arcane casting: Erudite and Innate.

Wizardry

You use Intelligence as your casting stat.

You have the ability to master spells. For any given usage of a Forma, keep track of the number of successes and failures. When you've had at least 3 successes and 1 failure, or if you roll a natural 20 on spell, you master it, and no longer need to hit its DC to avoid miscasting. (Does not apply to Ritual Casting).

If you have access to the spellbook of another Wizard, you can attempt to learn their spells. For each day of downtime, roll an Intelligence check against one of the Forma's spell DCs (your choice). If you succeed 3 of these checks before failing 3, you learn the spell. If you fail 3, you cannot learn any more spells from that book.

Sorcery

You use Charisma as your casting stat.

You are a specialist at ritual casting, in particular the use of quick, ad-hoc rituals in the heat of battle. You can substitute Charisma for any one Intelligence or Wisdom check during the ritual. You also suffer no penalty for contamination when you don't perform ritual cleansing. Your Latent Energy for ritual casting increases by your Charisma modifier.

Forma

You are able to cast spells by evoking the power of ancient symbols, power words, and arcane formulae. While helpful, these are but aids to master the mental control needed to to envison formae, which form the basis of spells.

Formae (the plural) each describe a fundamental magical effect, such as opening a portal, or creating light, or transforming an object's shape. To do more complex things, it is possible (through even greater mental effort) to combine multiple formae at the same time. A spell comprised of a single forma is described as one of the "First Order", whereas one comprised of multiple is "Second Order". "Third Order" does not describe three formae, but instead describes a combination of multiple forma, at least one of which is Second-Order. One can imagine Fifth Order spells as quite complex indeed.

• You do not use an Energy mechanic to cast spells. Rather, you roll skill checks, the DC of which is based on the difficulty of the formae and adjectivae involved; failure on these checks can cause negative consequences.
• By default, when casting spells, you use mnemonics, which are mental aids in the form of geometric symbols, arcane words, gestures, etc. These are not themselves the components of magic, but rather devices that aid in the construction of formae in your mind. It is nearly impossible to learn formae without them, although it is possible to cast a well-known spell without them, if necessary. When deprived of your mnemonics, you suffer a penalty to the spellcasting check: -5 if deprived of your voice and -5 if deprived of your ability to gesture.

Lux (Light)

Let there be light!

Vis (Force)

• Ordo (order): mend what is broken; organize what is chaotic
• Parma (shield): protect yourself
• Porta (portal): you know, portals?
• Clavis (key): opens doors, containers, etc
• Purgatio (purification): removes impurities/dirt/etc
• Ignis (fire): burns
• Vox (voice): produce a sound your voice is capable of
• Visus (sight): see that which you cannot see

More

2nd-Order Uses

Adjectivae

These are modifiers you can apply to any spell. They generally add to the DC. Each of them requires a Feat in order to use.

• Inversa (reverse): light to darkness, push to pull, fire to cold, etc
• Persevero: extend a spell's duration beyond concentration
• Roboro: intensify a spell's effect

Ideas

Two uses for each base power:

• Sustained (Fluere): what you can do continuously (concentration). Example: force shield, lux, flames!
• Burst (Impleo): what you can do when you charge up a round's worth of mana and let it go all at once. Example: magic missile, flashbang, fireball?

More ideas:

• Enchant into item (imbuo)
• Contingent cast
• Soul bind

Paths

Wizard

Sorcerer

Golemwright

Chronomancer

Battlemage

AKA Warden

They get enchantment points to basically create their own magic items. Like Harry Dresden, obv.