Wish-level magic

Sometimes, a mystic desires results more drastic than reasonably possible with a single mystic effect. Resurrecting an entire city block, creating an everlasting fireball, or turning an area into a permanent dead magic zone are examples of effects so extreme that only the most powerful mystics should ever have the ability to accomplish them. Such effects are known as wish-level magic, and are within the realm of possibility, but their use takes a heavy toll upon the mystic who invokes them.

To even fathom the use of wish-level magic, the mystic must have achieved level twenty, and must have twenty ranks in the desired wish-level effect’s primary sphere. Note that only mystic wizards, mystic sorcerers and mystic clerics can ever have the capability to perform such magic, because only they are able to reach such a high sphere rank.

The mystic first spends twenty points from the sphere from which he wishes to invoke the magic. Then, the DM computes the hypothetical level of the wish-level effect. Subtract twenty from that value (since the mystic did spend twenty points), and multiply the result by fifty. This value is the amount of experience the mystic must pay, and represents the portion of his life energy the mystic is pouring into the effect to bring it to life.

For example, say that a giant boulder has fallen from the sky, crushing a building and killing everyone inside, both friend and foe. Luet the mystic wizard wishes to resurrect all her friends who died in the explosion. First, she spends Heal 20 to initiate the effect. The DM figures that the building is 100 feet wide, so an area effect with radius 60 feet or so will be needed to encompass the entire building. Resurrection of a single person costs Heal 18, and converting it to a 60-foot radius area effect increases the total cost to Heal 135 (see the Target section for more information on area effects). In addition, since she only wants to resurrect her friends, she must pay Div 5 to exclude her enemies from the effect, bringing the grand total to Heal 135 + Div 5. Luet’s experience cost is therefore (140 - 20) * 50 = 6,000 EP, so she must pay Heal 20 and 6,000 EP to create the effect.

One other powerful effect that wish-level magic can create is that of permanent effects that would normally be instantaneous or temporary. To compute the hypothetical cost of a normally instantaneous effect, simply multiply the instantaneous cost of the effect by 100. For temporary effects, multiply the normal cost by 25.

As an example, say that Noj the mystic wizard wishes to create a magical enchantment on his staff so that anyone who touches it besides him suffers 5d6 points of fire damage each round until the offender breaks contact with the staff. Enchanting the staff with a one-time (instantaneous) charge would normally costs Pyro 5. He can use Div 1 (a divination trigger) to identify whether he is the person touching the staff, bringing the sphere total to 6, and the hypothetical cost of the wish to 600. After paying Pyro 20 to initiate the effect, Noj’s experience cost would be a whopping (600 - 20) * 50 = 29,000 EP. But it might be worth it to have a permanent enchantment protecting one’s prized possessions.