Protection
The ability to blast apart foes with a word and a gesture, to call forth horrible monsters bristling with teeth and tentacles, or travel anywhere in an instant draws many to studying the secrets of magic, yet most recognize that no matter how powerful the spells they cast, without some sort of safeguard they are as vulnerable as the lowliest peasant. The Protection traditions encompasses the many different efforts to mitigate the worst the world might throw at casters. From simple wards to elaborate security systems, it’s magic can mean the difference between life and death.
Protection Talents
FORCEFUL REMOVAL (Magical): You can use an action to drive back your foes. Each creature in your reach makes a Strength roll. On a failure, you push the creature 5 yards away from you. At level 3, a creature also takes 1d6 damage. At level 7, a creature also takes 2d6 damage instead. On a critical failure, the creature also falls prone.
MYSTIC AEGIS (Magical): You can use an action to create a protective field. Target one creature within 5 yards. Glittering tracery appears around the target for 1 minute. The effect imposes 1 bane on rolls to attack the target. When the target takes damage, it can choose to end the effect early to reduce the damage it takes by 2d6. You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
SECURE DOOR (Magical): You can use an action to seal shut a door. Target one door, gate, window, or similar object you can see within 10 yards. The target shuts and stays shut for 8 hours. Attempts to open it by any creature other than you fail, though the target can be destroyed normally. You can use this talent once, twice at level 3, and three times at level 7. You regain expended uses after you rest.
WARD SITE (Magical): You can perform a ritual to make a site secure. Target one Size 5 space within 10 yards. When you finish, a faint light appears on the edge of the space and winks out. For 8 hours, creatures inside the target space are invisible to creatures outside the space and no sound they make emanates beyond the target space. Finally, if an enemy enters the space, you know it and this knowledge wakens you if you are asleep. You can use this talent once. You regain the use of it after you rest.
Novice Protection Spells
Circle of Daggers
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A ring of magical daggers appears in the air around the target. If the target moves, it takes 3d6 damage and the spell ends early.
Concealing Ward
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 2 space within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A ward of concealing protects the target space. The ward prevents crea- tures outside the target space from seeing or hearing any creature inside it. The spell ends early if a creature in the target space harms another creature.
Lightning Wall
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 5 space within 10 yards
Duration: Until the end of your next turn
A curtain of lightning appears on one side of the target space. The curtain blocks line of sight. Any creature or object that moves through it takes 2d6 damage. A creature that takes this damage makes a Strength roll. On a failure, it becomes Strength impaired (luck ends). A creature can take this damage just once per round.
Magic Ward
Castings: 3
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
Gleaming tracery appears on the target and forms into a pattern that protects it from magic. When the target would be harmed by magic, it can end this spell to impose 2 banes on the roll against it and make the roll to resist it with 2 boons. If the magic deals damage or causes a target to lose Health, the target takes half the damage or loses half the amount of Health. This spell ends early if the target becomes unconscious.
Resistance to Damage
Castings: 3
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A shimmering field settles over the target’s body and then fades. When the target takes damage, it can choose to reduce the damage taken by 1d6 (2d6 at level 3, or 3d6 at level 7). Once it makes this choice, it loses access to the spell’s effect until the start of its next turn.
Shimmering Shield
Castings: 3, reaction when you or an ally within 10 yards is attacked
Target: You or the ally that enabled the casting of this spell
Duration: 1 minute
A shimmering shield interposes itself between the source of the attack and the target. The shield imposes 1 bane on rolls to attack the target.
Expert Protection Spells
Corrective Measure
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
Guilt and shame bloom in the target’s mind. The target becomes cursed for the duration. Each time the target harms a creature, the target takes 3d6 damage and becomes vulnerable until the end of its next turn.
Lift Curse
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
The dark magic afflicting the target pulls free, forming into a dark knot that then breaks apart into nothing. You end the cursed affliction from the target if it has it and render it immune to the cursed affliction for the duration. In addition, the target makes luck rolls with 1 boon.
Repulsion
Castings: 1
Target: One creature or object within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A humming fills the air around the target. Whenever a creature gets a success on a roll to attack the target using a melee weapon or unarmed strike, the attacking creature makes a Strength roll. On a failure, the creature takes 3d6 damage, is pushed 5 yards, and falls prone.
Reveal Refuge
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 1 space within reach
Duration: 24 hours
A stationary two-dimensional magical door appears inside the target space. The door has any appearance you choose. When it is closed, the door is invisible to all creatures other than you. The door serves as the border between your world and an extradimensional space that remains in existence for the spell’s duration. The space is empty and bare, with smooth walls, floor, and ceiling of a color you choose. Dim or faint light fills the space. The air inside is at a constant, comfortable temperature.
Creatures outside the door can move into the extradimensional space while the door is open. Creatures inside the space can see the door and open or close it as they choose.
Each creature in the extradimensional space when the spell ends makes a luck roll. On a success, it appears inside the door’s space. On a failure, it disappears into the Void, where it finds whatever fate that the Sage deems fit.
Ward Against Harm
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
Tiny glowing shields appear all around the target’s body and settle in place, at which point they disappear. The spell imposes 1 bane on rolls to harm the target and grants 1 boon on the target’s rolls to avoid harm.
Whisk Away
Castings: 1, reaction when a creature you can see becomes injured or incapacitated
Target: The creature that enabled the casting of this spell
Duration: Instant
The target flickers in and out of existence before it teleports to an empty space you can see within 5 yards and heals 6d6 damage.
Master Protection Spells
Bestow Invulnerability
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 hour
You render the target invulnerable to damage. The target gains 20d6 of invulnerability. Whenever the target takes damage, it can expend any number of dice of invulnerability, roll them, and reduce the amount of damage taken by the total of the roll (minimum 0). Once the target runs out of dice, the spell ends early.
Columns and Shackles
Castings: 1
Target: Up to five Size 1 spaces within 20 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A stone column from which hang magical glowing chains appears in each space and remains for the duration. A column has Health 20. If destroyed, the column disappears.
When an enemy starts its turn within 5 yards of at least one column, the enemy makes an Agility roll with 1 bane. On a failure, a chain snakes out from the column to wrap around the enemy. The enemy takes 3d6 damage and becomes tethered to the column until the spell ends or the column is destroyed. The chain prevents the enemy from moving more than 5 yards from the column that holds it. A column can tether just one creature, and a creature can be tethered to just one column at a time.
Disruption Shield
Castings: 1
Target: One creature within 5 yards
Duration: 1 minute
A sigil appears on the target’s body and remains there for the duration. The target emits a disrupting field that spreads through a Size 10 space centered on it until the spell ends. The spell ends early if the target becomes incapacitated. An ally of the target that starts its turn in the field takes 5d6 damage and makes a Will roll. On a failure, the ally becomes confused and slowed until the start of its next turn.
Forbidden Zone
Castings: 1
Target: One Size 10 space centered on you
Duration: 1 hour
A faint field forms along the edges of the target space and remains in place for the duration. Any enemy that passes through the target space, though no more than once per round, takes 3d6 damage and makes a Will roll. On a failure, the enemy takes an extra 4d6 damage. If the enemy becomes injured as result of this damage, the enemy also becomes stunned until the start of its next turn.
In addition, enemies inside the target space become vulnerable for as long as they remain there.
Supreme Security
Castings: 1, perform a ritual
Target: One structure you can see
Duration: 24 hours
The structure becomes protected and gains the following effects for the duration:
- You know the location of any enemy inside the structure. You, and you alone, hear a chime when a creature enters the structure.
- Objects inside the structure as well as the structure itself take half damage.
- All doors, windows, and other objects close and lock throughout the structure. Only you and any creature you choose when you cast this spell can open these objects.
- Mist creates light obscurement in all interior spaces within the structure.
- No creature can enter or exit the structure by magical means.
- You can use an action to sound an alarm that persists until the spell ends or you end it using an action. The noise of the alarm causes creatures in the structure to become deafened for as long as they remain in it.
Word of Escape
Castings: 1
Target: Up to five creatures within reach
Duration: 24 hours
You speak a magic word, imprinting the knowledge of it on each target. At any time before the spell ends, a target that lacks the confused, controlled, stunned, or unconscious affliction can speak the word on its turn and teleport to an empty space of your choice within your reach.