Laws & Limits of Magic

Laws of Magic

There are six fundamental Laws of Magic. Any spellcaster can try to invoke one or more Laws when casting. If you succeed at invoking a Law, you have advantage or the target has disadvantage (DM's choice). Alternatively, you can avoid some or all of the Strain (DM's choice).

The 6 Laws of Magic are:

• Inertia: things continue as they are
• Possibility: anything can happen until something happens
• Harmony: likeness is sameness
• Contagion: once in contact, always in contact
• Displacement: raising this lowers that
• Entropy: things fall apart

Invoking a Law

Invoking a Law takes role-playing, not rolling dice. Invoking a Law takes more than just riffing on the details of a spell. It takes an appeal to significant evidence of something profound taking place. Just as regular magic is extraordinary compared to mundane phenomena, invoking a Law is extraordinary compared to to regular magic. Invoking a Law usually takes preparation and forethought. The preparation doesn't need to be physical preparation (e.g., meditation may be evidence). The DM decides whether you successfully invoke a Law.

Experienced magicians learn to fear the potential invocation of Laws against them, and often take great care to avoid being vulnerable to the Laws. When you are the target of a hostile spell, you can debate with the DM about whether the Law can be invoked.

Example: Isawa is trying to start a fire in the building across the street. Isawa has chiseled out a chip of granite from the cornerstone using tools and a ritual unique to his Order. Isawa also has a page from the original blueprints. He channels the spell through the chip to invoke the Law of Contagion. He uses a candle to burn the page to invoke the Law of Harmony. The DM approves both invocations.

Example: A Swarmkin cultist is trying to cause Isawa to spontaneously combust. The cultist has a glass vial with a sample of Isawa's blood from last week. He uses a candle to heat up the vial to invoke the Law of Contagion. However, every morning Isawa performs a thorough bodily cleanse in his lab, so the old blood is no longer be strongly connected to Isawa. The invocation of the Law fails.

Limits of Magic

Magic is very powerful. However, as magic is understood by most spellcasters, it has limits. All spells and most other magic obey these limits.

• Limit of Divinity: There are some beings and forces whose nature, intent, and influence cannot be understood or changed by magic. Some spellcasters see this limit as arising from the cumulative belief of a large number of mortal beings, while others see it as evidence of one or more higher powers.
• Limit of Essential Nature: Each thing has an essential nature. This includes including all beings, matter, energy, and forces. A thing's essential nature is tied the thing's identity, including its origins and composition. Magic can change any or every other aspect of a thing except this essential nature.
• Limit of True Belief: Magic can't create, change, or destroy a being's true belief. Magic can repress a belief or create a false contradictory belief, but the true belief will eventually revert back. Some spellcasters view this limit as a special case of the Limit of Essential Nature. True love and similar pure feelings are true beliefs, so they also can't be fundamentally changed with magic.