Priests pray to the powers of the world and channel their energy through their own bodies. Becoming a priest is very simple. By studying THEOLOGY the aspirant learns miracles automatically. However, they are low in power and limited in usage. With the choice of a patron deity he gains access to more powerful miracles but they are all themed. A priest can never become as versatile and free in his choice of miracles as a mage with his spells.
A priest can (but don't need to) choose a deity as his patron. This gives him access to the miracles of the deities portfolios (areas of incluence). The patron must be chosen carefully, because changing it later will drain the priests power.
A priest needs karma to perform his miracles. The problem is that karma never regenerates by itself. To regain his lost karma, a priest must perform church services or sacrifices (see SERVICE and SACRIFICE).
The mystic path of magic is very time consuming. Spells must be researched,
discoveries lead to new questions, and more than once a wizard must leave a
field untouched to specialise in another.
After gaining the first level in MAGIC THEORY, a magician gains access to new
fields of magic. Researching them gives access to new spells and maybe other
fields, and so on.
Example:
1 level in MAGIC THEORY gives access to ELEMENTALISM (FIRE)
1 level in ELEMENTALISM (FIRE) gives access to FIRE ARROW
3 levels MAGIC THEORY, 2 levels in ELEMENTALISM (FIRE) and 3 levels in FIRE ARROW
give access to FIRE BALL
and so on...
Mages need mana to cast their spells. Mana regenerates very slowly (1 point every two hours). So many mages shorten the time with meditation (see MEDITATE) that effectively doubles the restoration rate.
Psions know three areas of influence: The mind that can be shielded or controlled, the senses that can be sharpened or fooled, and the body that can be altered. Each and every psionic power belongs to at least one of these areas. To gain access to these powers, one must study these areas and master them. Then one by one the desired powers will manifest themselves.
The psion's power is measured in psi points. To restore them completely, he only needs to sleep at night or rest during the day.
Spells that need 1 or more hours to complete are called rituals. Rituals almost always need a building to be performed in and cost permanent experience points. Note also, that some rituals have extremely high power point cost, that is beyond the points you will normally have when gaining the spell. To lower, even circumvent, these costs, there are several possibilities available.
Power points
These options are only available for mages and spells that are fueled with mana.
Experience points
Mages and priests can prepare rituals by creating paraphernalia (called ritual points). The order
RITUAL is needed to do so.
You must be in a building to create ritual points (rp in short). A building can store two
types of rp: magical and divine. A building must give a learning bonus to store such points
and the amount of points is directly proportional to the bonus: BONUS x 50.
Each usage of the order RITUAL generates an amount of rp, that equals your skill level in MAGIG
THEORY or THEOLOGY (depending on what kind of rp you want to create). The building adds its
learning bonus to these points, but the bonus can never be higher than the skill level. And you
can never produce more than 10 rp per hour.
When invoking a spell that needs experience, 10 rp are converted in one experience point.
There is no limit in how much rp are converted.
Example: A priest with THE 2 in a cathedral (bonus: 3) uses RITUAL. After one hour he has generated 4 rp: 2 from his skill and another two from the building bonus (3 is reduced to 2 because it was higher than the skill level of 2).