Enchantment nature: Attack
Magical skill used: Air, Darkness, Death, Earth, Fire, Life, Light, Projection, Water; Death, Air and Projection magic are best.
Description: An attack enchantment is one that launches an attack against the target, with the purpose of causing the target some form of damage. The duration of all attack spells is Instantaneous.
Power: The power of an attack enchantment determines the basic value for the damage dice roll as a result of the enchantment. The basic value is equal to twice the Power of the attack enchantment. Hence, if the caster successfully hits a target with a Power 4 attack spell, the caster makes a dice roll using a basic value of 8 to determine how much basic damage is done by the attack.
The minimum Power of an attack enchantment is 1.
Finesse: The finesse of an attack enchantment determines the basic value for the attack dice roll, to determine whether or not the attack successfully hits the target. The basic value is equal to twice the Finesse of the attack enchantment. Hence, if the caster launches a Finesse 5 attack spell, the caster makes the attack dice roll using a basic value of 10.
Limitations: The magical skill used limits the effects of the attack the caster can perform. The referee should apply discretion, but the following list may help.
| Skill | Attack restrictions: |
| Air | Two forms of attack are possible: Wind blast. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is physically struck by a blast of wind (blunt damage). Armour protects normally from this kind of attack. Cannot be done underwater or in where there is no air (e.g. in vacuum). Lightning. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is physically struck by a blast of wind (blunt damage). Metallic armour provides no protection against this type of damage (i.e. the maximum armour protection value is 3 points). Targets suffer damage only if they are earthed (i.e. in direct or indirect contact with the ground). |
| Darkness | Bolt of darkness. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the caster will drain some of the target's life force. Armour provides no protection against this type of damage. The basic damage is halved unless the target is light-aligned. |
| Death | Life drain. This attack may be done at range or by touch. If successful, the caster will drain some of the target's life force. Armour provides no protection against this type of damage. The basic damage is halved against death-aligned beings (such as undead). |
| Earth | Rock blast. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is physically struck by a piece of rock travelling at high speed (blunt damage). Armour protects normally from this kind of attack. |
| Fire | Fire ball. This attack may be done at range or by touch. If successful, the target is struck by flames which cause fire damage. Metallic armour provides no protection against this type of damage (i.e. the maximum armour protection value is 3 points). Always very obvious - maximum concealment is zero. The basic damage is increased by +2 against water-aligned beings. |
| Life | Sleep. This attack may be done at range or by touch. The attack is a mental one, so the defender uses his/her Trance (including mental resistance specialism) + WP in the defence dice roll. The attack has no effect on unnatural targets that do not sleep (e.g. automatons or undead). Armour provides no protection against this type of damage, but mental resistance reduces the damage. The damage inflicted by a sleep attack does not create a normal wound, instead there are two impacts. Firstly, the sleep attack counts as a blunt blow to the head for the purposes of determining whether the target is stunned, staggered or knocked out by the attack. Secondly, instead of receiving a wound, the character loses tiredness levels equal to the seriousness of the wound (i.e. a Sleep enchantment that would have produced a Light wound instead causes loss of one tiredness level, Medium wound two tiredness levels, etc.). |
| Light | Star fire. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is struck by flames which cause fire damage. Metallic armour provides no protection against this type of damage (i.e. the maximum armour protection value is 3 points). Always very obvious - maximum concealment is zero. The basic damage is increased by +2 against darkness-aligned beings. |
| Projection | Two forms of attack are possible: Telekinetic punch. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is physically struck by a telekinetic force (blunt damage). Armour protects normally from this kind of attack. Mental blast. This attack may be done at range or by touch. The attack is a mental one, so the defender uses his/her Trance (including mental resistance specialism) + WP in the defence dice roll. The attack has no effect on unnatural targets that have no mind (e.g. automatons or certain undead). Armour provides no protection against this type of damage, but mental resistance reduces the damage. |
| Water | Ice splinter. This attack may be done at range only (i.e. Range or Area of effect must be at least 1). If successful, the target is physically struck by a splinter of ice (impaling damage). Armour protects normally from this kind of attack. Maximum concealment is 3. The basic damage is increased by +2 against fire-aligned beings. |
Examples:
Tim has a Fire magic score of 5 with +2 1/2 specialism in attack spells, and a WP of +2. It is a hot sunny day on arid plains and a combat is taking place. Tim sees a group of 5 warriors approaching him. He tries to cast a fireball that will explode in their midst. The enchantment is Power 5, Finesse 4, Range Medium (i.e. 4), Concealment 0 (very obvious to onlookers), Duration Instantaneous (i.e. 0), Area of effect 4 metre radius (7 metre diameter) reducing over the area (i.e. 2), Investment 0 = Difficulty 15 in total. His basic value is 5 + 2 1/2 +2 = 9 1/2. He uses hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +2, plus the referee rules that the arid conditions give him a +1 modifier to the use of Fire magic. This gives him an overall basic value of 12 1/2. He risks 12 points to get a dice roll of 4D + 1/2. In the event, he rolls a 6, 5, 3 and 4, giving a dice roll result of 18 1/2, i.e. the enchantment succeeds. A fiery ball flies from Tim's hands into the middle of the group of warriors, where it explodes. Tim makes attack dice rolls against each of the warriors within the area of effect, using a basic value of 8 (twice the Finesse of the enchantment). He manages to hit the warrior in the middle of the blast and two of the others. Tim then makes damage dice rolls against the warriors that he hits, using a basic value of 10 against the warrior in the middle (full Power of 5 applies because the warrior was in the central hex) and 8 against the other warriors he hit (Power is reduced to 4 because they are further out from the blast). Against the warrior in the centre of the blast, Tim rolls 3D+1 for the damage and gets a 4,3 and 5 making a basic damage of 13. The warrior is wearing studded leather armour (which has a normal protection value of 4 but against fire damage only 3) and has a ST of +2, giving him a damage resistance of 5 against this damage. The basic damage - damage resistance is therefore 8, meaning the warrior will take a Medium wound unless he opts to soak the damage.
Later in the fight, one of the warriors moves into melee range (i.e. adjacent hex to Tim). Tim reacts by casting an enchantment to breathe fire on him. Tim chooses an enchantment with Power 8, Finesse 4, Range Adjacent hex (i.e. 2), Concealment 0 (very obvious to onlookers), Duration Instantaneous (i.e. 0), Area of effect single target (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 14 in total. His basic value is 5 + 2 1/2 +2 = 9 1/2. He uses hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +2, plus the referee rules that the arid conditions give him a +1 modifier to the use of Fire magic. This gives him an overall basic value of 12 1/2. He risks 12 points to get a dice roll of 4D + 1/2. In the event, he rolls a 3, 2, 3 and 4, giving a dice roll result of 12 1/2. Rather than lose a tiredness level, he chooses for the enchantment to fail. He will try again on another action. After dodging a couple of sword blows, Tim tries again. This time he rolls a 4, 4, 5 and 2, giving a dice roll result of 15 1/2. Second time lucky. The flames surge towards the warrior. Tim makes an attack dice roll using a basic value of 8 (twice the Finesse of the enchantment). The warrior foolishly decides not to dodge, and the flames hit him. Tim now makes a damage dice roll using a basic value of 16 (twice the Power of the enchantment). Tim rolls 5D+1 and gets a 2, 4, 3, 1 and 6 making a dice roll result of 17. The warrior is wearing studded leather armour and has a ST of +1/2, giving him a damage resistance of 3 1/2 against the fire damage. The basic damage - damage resistance is therefore 13 1/2, meaning the warrior will take a Critical wound unless he manages to soak the damage.