Time Required: Varies

Reaching deep within, you draw upon the strands of magic, shaping them into a spell of your choice. Choose one spell that you know. You expend an amount of mana equal to the power of the spell, and make a Spellcasting skill check against the defence or TN listed in the spell. Success and failure results on the Spellcasting check are given in the spell itself.

You must have one free hand and be able to speak to cast at full efficiency. If you have no free hands, you suffer slight to your Spellcasting skill check. If you cannot speak, you suffer slight to your Spellcasting skill check. As always, these instances of slight can stack. A hand that is holding a spellcasting focus is considered to be empty for the purposes of this action.

Note that you expend the mana regardless of the result of the skill check. You always cast the spell; the check determines whether you control it successfully.

Special: This is the general sequence of events for casting a spell. However, some sources of magic have rules that alter the above.

• Divine Magic uses Grace, rather than mana, to fuel spells. This is a separate pool of power, and is tracked separately from mana.
• Studied Magic requires that you prepare your spells. You can only cast from the list of spells that you have prepared. Further, casting a spell using Studied Magic takes additional time.
• Weaver Magic does not draw upon a personal store of mana. A Spell Weaver never has to worry about running out of mana. However, they do have to worry about cool-down time, and they cannot cast at all if they do not have both hands free.

Some spells allow a saving throw to end them. The saving throw will be made against a TN equal to your passive Spellcasting skill—that is, your total Spellcasting skill value plus ten.

It is possible to expend additional mana to make a spell more effective. Any spell can be Overcharged, but the total amount of mana that you expend on a spell (including its initial cost) cannot exceed your Spellcasting skill's training ranks.

When you Overcharge a spell, treat your Spellcasting Attribute—but not your Spellcasting Skill—as if it were one higher for each additional point of mana spent. This applies only to the spell being Overcharged. This will increase your Spell Save TN, and will affect any variables within the spell that depend on your Spellcasting Attribute. In addition, if the spell has an Overcharge section, you may choose among the benefits listed on the spell. Each option will list the number of additional mana required to select that option.