FFVIII RPG Magic System



Spellshards: Squall and the other SeeDs found drawing hundreds of spells out of creatures to be very time-consuming, but there was no real alternative during their battles with Ultimecia, nor was there time to develop one. After the conflict was over, and people were concentrating on rebuilding, Squall gathered up the more experimentaly oriented SeeDs and put them to work discovering a better way to gather magic from the various monsters in the world.

After much research, the reason for monsters having unlimited supplies of magic upon which people could draw was discovered. Magic spells are made of building blocks that the SeeDs have dubbed, "Spellshards". Each monster contains one or more of these shards, or spell-bits as part of their mystic makeup. In a way, the Spellshards are expressions of the powers of the creatures themselves, which is why they carry spells that reflect their powers or weaknesses.

While each monster typically has several Spellshards, each spell requires a certain number of shards to be functional. This is the reason that monsters cannot always cast the spells that one can draw out of them, and why a particular monster may not be carrying a spell that one would expect. As monsters age and become more powerful, they usually develop additional shards, so it's quite possible to run into different members of the same monster species with slightly different Spellshards.


Guardian Forces & Spellshards: Unlike the raw spell energy, Spellshards cannot simply be tossed into a Guardian force and stored for later use. They are highly complex parts of spells, and GFs themselves contain spellshards, just as the various monsters do. At this time there does not exist a process for grafting extra shards onto a creature or Guardian force.

Instead, each SeeD carries a complex technological piece of jewelry called a Spell Matrix. This matrix must be tuned to a specific person in order for it to work. The more spells, and more potent spells, that exist in any particular matrix, the longer it takes to attune it to someone other then the regular user. In general, SeeD forces do not share Spell Matrices, as the effort required simply isn't worth the bother. Any SeeD worth the name should be more than capable of collecting their own spells to fill their personal Matrix in any case.

There's also a question of respect for the power of magic. Spell Matrices allow a SeeD to cast magic any time they like, as long as they have a Guardian Force junctioned. During experimentation with the Spell Matrix system, it was discovered that people who receive immensely powerful magic before they are capable of facing the enemies from which it must be drawn tend to be intoxicated by the power. There was only one particularly bad accident from this time, but one of the Labs in Galbadia Garden has been left as a burnt out shell as a reminder of what careless magic use can do.


Sorceresses & Spellshards: During the process of discovering Spellshards, an interesting discovery about the power of Sorceresses also came to light. Apparently women with the Sorceress power are able to directly incorporate Spellshards into themselves, making themselves one with the magic. This is not the limit of Sorceress power of course, nor does it explain why only women are able to possess this power. Those mysteries remain hidden. What is known is that while Sorceresses are able to develop their own Spellshards as time progresses, they can also take them from monsters and incorporate them into their own bodies, so as to be able to cast additional spells.

When one Sorceress passes on her power to another, at death, all the Spellshards are transferred as well, but it make take quite a while for the young Sorceress to assimilate all the knowledge and power she has been given.


Blue Magic and Spellshards: Blue Magic is a rudimentary form of Sorcery. Essentialy, there are certain monsters who have Spellshards that are almost viral, they transfer very easily, and they do it through physical contract rather than the Draw process.

Certain humans, i.e. Blue Mages, have the ability to absorb those shards in the same manner as a Sorceress. As neither Rinoa nor Teriel has attempted to take on any Blue Magic, and nothing is known about Alanna's experiances with such, no one knows if Sorceresses can chose to take on Blue Magic abilities or not.


Acquiring New Spells: Any SeeD or Sorceress with the proper training can attempt to discern what Spellshards lie within a particular creature with the proper training. (I.E. a skill roll) The Scan spell negates the need for any guesswork, as it will always reveal the total number of Spellshards within a creature. Once a likely looking shard has been found, the SeeD or Sorceress attempts to draw the shard into their matrix, or, in the case of a Sorceress, into herself.

If successful, a portion of the spell matrix becomes energized with the magic of the shard, and the SeeD is one step closer to being able to cast the spell. Even before all the shards for a specific spell have been gathered, that spell energy can be junctioned to a Guardian Force to increase the user's abilities. The more shards present, the more of a boost the Guardian Force can provide.

Each Spell requires a certain number of shards, as mentioned before. Each of these shards is different, so it is no use drawing the same shard out of a single enemy over and over. In some cases different members of the same enemy species may have different Spellshards, in other cases a SeeD may have to seek out multiple enemies to complete a particular spell.


Casting With Spellshards: It is possible to cast a spell without having all of the spell shards that describe that spell, but it requires significant effort on the part of the user, and the spell will necessarily be less potent. Despite this, some SeeDs never acquire all the shards for the more powerful spells, as they require many shards, and the effort is not always worth it to SeeDs who aren't very magic oriented.

Once all the shards for a specific spell have been collected, the spell can be cast without the SeeD expending any extra energy, beyond the basic cost for the spell. However, enemies and other soldiers with the ability to draw magic will be able to cast that spell directly from the SeeD in question!

Even if a SeeD has all the Spellshards he needs for a particular spell, it may still make sense to Draw a spell out of an enemy. Drawing one or more shards for a spell one has already completed �powers up' the spell, allowing the caster to cast it without using mana. To power it up again, one must simply draw at least one shard for that spell again. Unless damaged, Spell Matrices never lose their shards, even if someone or something performs a successful Draw on the SeeD.

NEW! The actual mechanics of casting a spell are as follows. Each spell has a Mana cost, and is cast using the Sorcery skill. Willing targets (of say, healing spells) are easy to cast on. As long as there isn't a critical failure, the spell works fine. With unwilling targets the caster has to beat the subject's Magic Evade attribute to successfuly hit them with the spell. Legitimate targets are those that the caster has a line of sight to, and are within 3x his Sorcery AV in yards. Opaque, solid barriers block magic, transparant or non-solid barriers do not. Blinding effects do not stop spell targeting either.

For each spellshard that the spell is missing, the Mana cost of the spell increases by 5 mana or 100%, whatever is less. So a spell that costs 2 mana to cost, if the caster is two spellshards short of the whole spell, actualy costs 6 mana. If instead the spell in question cost 15 mana to cast, and 2 shards were missing, it would now require 25 mana to cast the spell. In addition, it's difficult to fake the missing shards with raw power, so each missing shard reduces the caster's Sorcery AV by 1. Returning to the example of spell with two shards missing, when casting that spell, the caster's Sorcery AV would be reduced by 2. This isn't such a problem with the lower level spells that only have three or six spellshards, but trying to cast Holy with a -26 penalty to your Sorcery AV is basicaly begging it to explode in your face. The more skilled the caster, the less shards they need to force a spell through, but doing this can be dangerous, as a critical failure can cause any number of bad effects, starting with targeting the caster instead of an enemy.

Spell Hierarchy: The discovery of Spellshards lead to a codification of the relative power of various spells. While it was always known that some spells were more powerful than others, the discovery that some spells required more shards than others was the key component in laying this out logically. Below is a list of all the spells that SeeD Spell Matrices can hold. It is technically possible to create a matrix that can hold other spells, and there are rumors that the Odine labs in Esther, eager to develop this new technology, are already working on non-standard Matrices. Also, Sorceresses can learn many spells beyond the ones listed below.

Standard SeeD Spell Matrix
Spell Matrix Tier Shards Spells
1 3 Blind - Blizzard - Cure - Fire - Scan - Silence - Sleep - Thunder
2 6 Berserk - Confuse - Float - Haste - Protect - Shell - Slow
3 9 Blizzara - Cura - Drain - Esuna - Fira - Thundara
4 12 Aero - Bio - Dispel - Life - Reflect - Regen
5 15 Break - Demi - Double - Water - Zombie
6 18 Blizzaga - Curaga - Death - Fireaga - Thundaga
7 21 Pain - Quake - Stop - Tornado
8 24 Aura - Full Life - Meltdown - Triple
9 27 Flare - Holy - Meteor
10 30 Ultima



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