This skill allows a character to channel a school of magic through their weapon. For the character’s strike, the weapon acts as a spell packet, but the character needs to make contact with the target. A spell cannot be channeled through another weapon but will go through a shield, thus the target can block with their weapon but not their shield and stop the spell from going off. The full spell verbal for the spell must be recited and the casting can be interrupted normally, however the character can cast the spell with their weapon in hand for that school only. The channeled spell costs the normal amount of Power Points.
Upon learning this skill, the character learns to channel one school of magic. The character may channel any damaging spell from that school plus a small number of spells specified on the table in the Mystic Warrior section of the Playtest Document. The character can cast and channel a spell while holding a weapon in their hand. To cast a spell normally, they must have a free, unfettered hand as per the normal casting rules.
Channeling a spell replaces the normal damage the weapon would do, even if the typical weapon damage is more than the spell’s damage. Channeling strikes cannot be combined with any specialty martial attacks except the Speed skill. Channeling strikes also cannot be combined with any Warlock skills except the Speed Cast skill.
The character can channel through any weapon they have dedicated. Any attempt to channel a spell using a normal weapon fails and the Power Points are expended. In the special case of weapons enchanted with an element, only that element can be channeled, though any spell can be spell parried or redirected. Additionally, channeling a spell from that school of magic with a permanent Ritual of Elemental Weapon or a Greater Elemental Magic Weapon will lower the cost of the channeled spell by 1 Power Point with a minimum of 1 Power Point. This discount only applies to spells channeled and not a spell cast normally.
If a character misses their target, they can continue to try and strike their target until they connect with a blow or 5 seconds elapses. If the character accidentally strikes the ground or some other viable object, the spell is lost. The target can use a martial skill, such as Crit Parry, Master Parry, Slay Parry, etc., to stop the channeled spell, but the spell is not expended. Similarly, a character can stop the attack for another character using a martial skill. A Dodge will prevent the channeled spell from landing but will not expend the spell.
The character can learn to channel other elemental schools of magic, but these must be learned separately with the Expanded Focus skill, see the Mystic Warrior section of the playtest document.
Only Low Magic Schools can be learned to be channeled, therefore, Spell Songs and Nature Magic cannot be channeled. This skill can only be used with a spell cast by the character and not when invoked from an item or read from a scroll.
Back to the Skills List