These Arts are gained gradually by wizards as they increase in level. No Art can be used at all until it is purchased - a 5th level Bright wizard with Create, Attune Bright Magic, and Attract Bright Magic all through the roof still can't even light a match if he doesn't have the Flame Art.
Many Arts will give access to one or more new skills when first purchased; these skills must be purchased to complete the career in which the Art is gained (exception: skills associated with Arts learned during apprenticeship may not be learned until the apprenticeship is completed and are therefore required to complete Wizard 1 instead). Skills made available at higher levels of an Art's knowledge are not required for career completion, but the Art cannot be improved further until these skills are learned.
Improving a known Art or purchasing a skill associated with a known Art is always considered to be in-career for any scholarly or magical career. However, improving an Art requires that the character have a suitable source to study from, either a tome in the Art of greater level than the character's or a supply of appropriate crystals and sufficient lab time. The rate of study is based on the amount by which the source the character is studying from exceeds his knowledge.
| Art | Colleges | Skills | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Techniques | |||
| Create | Gold Dark High |
Ability to create things | |
| Destroy | Amethyst Dark High |
Ability to destroy things | |
| Manipulate | Dark High Light |
Ability to move or alter things | |
| Sense | Celestial Dark High |
Magic Sense Magical Awareness (2) |
Ability to detect things |
| Forms | |||
| Chaos | Dark | Demon Lore Arcane Language (Demonic) (2) |
Ability to manipulate magical energy directly or to affect demons |
| Ether | Celestial Grey |
Astronomy (2) | Ability to work with air, wind, and lightning |
| Flame | Bright | Ability to work with fire | |
| Flesh | Amber Amethyst Jade |
Identify Undead Heal Wounds (2) Surgery (4) |
Ability to affect the bodies of people and animals |
| Image | Grey | Evaluate Divining (4) |
Ability to manipulate the senses, create and destroy illusions, and affect light |
| Liquid | Jade | River Lore Dowsing (2) |
Ability to affect liquids |
| Mind | Amber Bright Grey |
Hypnotise (2) | Ability to affect the minds of thinking beings |
| Plant | Amber Jade |
Identify Plants Herb Lore (2) |
Ability to affect vegetable matter |
| Substance | Gold Light |
Metallurgy Mining (3) |
Ability to work with nonliving solid materials |
| Metamagical | |||
| Order | +1 Threshold/level | ||
| Purify | +1 Recovery/level; all tests to learn or write about Purify are at -30 | ||
| Chromatic | |||
| Attune (Color) | +1/level to college's Forms and/or Technique; grants access to college's skills, collegiate Art, and other benefits and limitations |
||
| Attract (Color) | Generates 1 level of Ambient Power of the specified color per level of the Attract Art | ||
Learning new Arts or improving existing Arts generally requires a suitable source to study from - a book on the subject, a tutor, or a supply of appropriate crystals. The higher the level of the source being studied, the easier time the student will have in his studies.
Study times are listed in months, however this does not require that a single, contiguous block of time be expended. One month is considered to be equivalent to 32 days, which may be spread out over any length of time. A minimum of 8 hours must be spent studying on each day and any time in excess of 8 hours provides no additional benefit.
Learning the first level of a new Art is typically the hardest part of the process. The initial period of study lasts one month if learning from a tutor (who must have at least level 2 in the Art being taught) or three months if learning from books. At the end of this time, the character may attempt an Int test to learn the Art. If this test is successful, the character may immediately spend 100 EP to gain the Art at level 1. On a failure, the character must spend another month studying (at this point, books are as good as tutors) before attempting another Int test. There is no limit to the number of times the Int test may be repeated and the 100 EP cost is paid only when the test succeeds and the Art is gained.
Once an Art is known, a character may study it from books just as effectively as he can from a teacher and, if no qualified instructor can be found, he may even perform his own research into the Art. This always takes one month regardless of the source.
The key factor here is the effective level of the source the character is studying from. The effective level of a text is equal to its actual level. The effective level of an instructor is three-quarters of the instructor's skill in the Art, always rounded down.
When doing research from crystals, things get a little more complex. At the beginning of the month of study, the GM makes an Int test on the character's behalf at -10 per crystal used beyond the first; this result should not be revealed to the researcher's player. On a non-extreme failure, the effective level of the source is one-half of the number of crystals used. On a success, the source's level is equal to the number of crystals multiplied by (1 + 1 per 10 points the roll was made by). On an extreme failure, something goes very wrong; at some point in the month of research, the GM should describe the crystals' untimely destruction, typically resulting in the character gaining 1-2 points of Chaos Taint or 1-20 points of Magical Taint per crystal, an automatic Catastrophe test, or similar. In any case, the effective level will be 0. If the research period is interrupted for more than a week at any point, the effective level is halved. Crystals used in research are always destroyed in the process, regardless of the result.
Crystals may only be used to research Forms or Techniques associated with their color, the corresponding college's Chromatic Arts, or Metamagical Arts. When performing research with crystals, the researcher is considered to be in an area of Ambient Power at a level equal to twice the number of crystals used (plus any natural Ambient Power) and gains Taint accordingly for each day of research.
Once the effective level of the character's source of information is known and the month of study is complete, the character may make an Int test at -10 per level of the character's level in the Art (actual level only - Attune bonus does not apply here) and +10 per level by which the source's effective level exceeds the character's level. If this test succeeds, he may spend 100 EP on the new level. If it fails, he must spend another month studying and try again.
Example: Wolfram the Amber wizard wishes to increase his Flesh Art from 2 to 3. He happens to have 3 Amber crystals and chooses to take his chances on sacrificing them for research. The GM secretly rolls against his Int of 58 at -20 for using 3 crystals and gets a 15, beating it by 23 - the number of crystals is multiplied by 2 for an effective level of 6. At the end of the month of study, Wolfram makes a second Int test, this time needing a 78 (Int 58 - 20 + 40) or lower to successfully improve his skill.
Note that a source whose effective level is less than or equal to the character's level in the Art is useless - the character already knows everything the source can teach and can therefore learn nothing more from it.
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