Magical Implements

Magical Implements
A character with a magic skill can use an implement to enhance magic skill checks, as described in Part III, Chapter 2 of the Genesys Core Rulebook.

Druidic Circlet
(Generic)

Druidic circlets could be simple bands of entwined metal, elaborate headdresses of antlers, or even crowns of ivy. They help those using primal magic commune with the natural world.

When the user casts the Conjure spell to summon a living creature, adding the Summon Ally effect does not increase its difficulty. In addition, the creature remains summoned until the end of the encounter without your character having to use the concentrate maneuver

Holy Icon
(Generic)

Holy icons are items that represent your character’s faith and help them focus that faith to cast spells. These are generally religious symbols of some sort, perhaps necklaces, rings, emblems, or medallions. But they just as easily can simply represent your character’s beliefs.

Holy icons enable divine spellcasters to perform unique miracles. When they are casting a spell, adding any Divine Only effects increase the spell’s difficulty one less than they would normally. In addition, the number of wounds healed by heal spells cast by the user increases by two.

Magic Orb
(Generic)

These can be orbs of glass, gems, or other semitransparent minerals, and are generally small enough to be carried.

Magic orbs help augment the user’s ability to affect more targets with their spells. When the user casts a spell, adding the Additional Target and Additional Summon effects do not increase its difficulty. In addition, attack spells cast by the user increase their base damage by three.

Magic Ring
(Generic)

Magic rings are items of great power and danger in most fantasy settings. We decided to stick with that theme, so our rings are items of great power and peril.

When a character obtains a magic ring, you, the GM, choose one type of magic skill, then select three effects that can be added to spells cast by that skill. Two of the effects can normally only increase the difficulty of the spell by one; the third can normally only increase the difficulty of the spell by two. When the user casts a spell, adding these effects do not increase the spell’s difficulty. However, when using a magic ring, you must always upgrade the difficulty of any spells you cast once, and 2 [Threat] cannot be spent to destroy the ring. In addition, attack spells cast by the user increase their base damage by two.

An example of this might be a ring of protection, which allows your character to add the Range, Additional Target, and Reflection effects to a Barrier spell without increasing the difficulty.

Magic Scepter
(Generic)

A magic scepter superficially resembles a mace, though many are wrought from the finest materials or are intricately decorated with words of power. Scholars claim that the resemblance to a weapon helps the scepter boost and channel magical energies in battle.

When your character casts a spell while using a magic scepter, add [Boost] to the check and adding the Close Combat effect does not increase the difficulty. In addition, Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by two.

Magic Staff
(Generic)

Most mages prefer the trusty and reliable staff over other options. Whether carved from wood, forged from iron, or even wrought from bone, a staff signifies travel and distance. This link helps wizards increase the range at which they can cast spells. A staff also doubles as a handy walking stick for many an elderly mage on the road.

When your character casts a spell while using a magic staff,the first Range effect added to the spell does not increase the spell’s difficulty. In addition, Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by four.

Magic Tome
(Generic)

Most magic tomes are found in the depths of the tombs of long-forgotten spellcasters. A tome is not simply an instruction manual on how to cast a spell. The very act of writing spells upon the page can leave some small resonance with the world’s energies, and if the reader can read and follow the instructions exactly, they can call upon that resonance to boost their own spells.

When your character makes or obtains a tome, your GM determines up to two effects that the tome lets your character add to any appropriate spell without increasing the spell’s difficulty. The effects your GM chooses should normally (without the tome) only increase the difficulty of a spell by a total of three.

Magic Wand
(Generic)

Magical wands are as much a tradition of magic as staffs. Usually small sticks about the size and shape of a conductor’s baton, they can be constructed from just about anything and worked with any number of designs.

Magic wands help augment the user’s ability to cast spells in a very specific way. When a character makes or obtains the wand, you, the GM, determine one effect that the wand lets users add to any appropriate spell without increasing the spell’s difficulty. The effect chosen must be one that, without a wand, only increases difficulty by one. In addition, attack spells cast by the user increase their base damage by three.

For example, your character could have a wand of fire, which lets them add the Fire effect to any magic attack actions they perform. They could also have a wand of enervation, which lets them add the Enervate effect to any curse actions they perform. However, they cannot have a wand of grand summoning, because the Grand Summon effect increases the difficulty of the spell by two, not one.

Musical Instrument
(Generic)

While the scholars of Greyhaven University continuously and vigorously disagree as to whether bards are actual users of magic or are a bunch of charlatans, the truth is that most bards are probably a mixture of both. Their use of magic—such as it is—is likely entirely instinctive and affected greatly by the bard’s charisma. What this means is that bards do not craft magical implements as other spellcasters do, but over time, they tend to infuse the instruments they play with some small measure of power.

Some instruments have even been passed from bard to bard and, over generations, have become magical relics in their own right. Of course, a great many more instruments get passed off as magical relics when their owners need to make up the money lost in an ill-advised night of carousing.

When your character casts a spell using the Verse skill while using a musical instrument, adding the Additional Target effect does not increase its difficulty.

Implement Materials
Like the metal in arms and armor, and perhaps even more so, the material used in crafting magic implements such as staffs and wands is an important choice that greatly affects the performance of the resulting object. Many types of wood and other substances have inherent mystical properties that are only unlocked when fashioned into a magic implement.

A magic implement can only have one implement material, which your GM determines when the item is bought or obtained. This can never change after the implement is created or obtained

Bone
Implements carved of animal bone have long been used by spiritspeakers, witches, and the nightseers of the ancient Loth Caara tribes. Implements crafted from the bones of Humans and their kind are associated with necromancy and other dark magics. When properly prepared, the bones of an ordinary mortal creature can produce frightening effects.

When your character successfully casts an Attack or Curse spell, they heal 1 wound.

Price: Cost x ½.

Rarity: +2.

Oak
Oak is a plentiful wood that many practitioners of magic have found to channel arcane energies effectively. A few scholars theorize that oak’s durability and age resonates with the Etheric but most just feel that it makes sense to craft an implement from wood that’s tough.

Oak implements do not have any additional effects.

Price: No Change.

Rarity: No Change.

Hazel
Hazel is associated with inspiration, prophecy, and wisdom. Some magic practitioners prefer it for their implements, attributing their greatest successes to moments of inexplicable inspiration.

When your character generates [Triumph] while casting a spell with this implement, you may roll [Boost] and add it to the results, in addition to spending the [Triumph] normally.

Price: Cost x ½.

Rarity: +1.

Willow
Relatively uncommon in Terrinoth, willow trees are associated with the potential for great purification and healing as well as great despair and death. Willow wands and books bound in willow bark are highly prized among sorcerers.

When your character successfully casts a spell using a willow implement, you may add [Advantage] to the results.

Price: Cost x 2.

Rarity: +2.

Yew
Students of spiritspeakers and old magical traditions associate the yew with the natural cycle of renewal and rebirth. The forest born Elves of the Empire of the Golden Dragon prize it for this natural resonance, and sometimes even bind tomes between thinly laminated sheets of yew.

When your character successfully casts an Augment, Barrier, or Heal spell using this implement, they heal 1 strain.

Price: Cost x ½.

Rarity: +1.

Runebound Shards
A runebound shard can be used in either of two ways. Any character can activate a runebound shard to cause the effect described in the Activation section of the entry for that shard. If a character has Runes as a career skill and at least one rank in the Runes skill, they can also use a runebound shard as an implement and gain the benefits listed in the Implement section of the entry.

A runebound shard functions as an implement only for a character using the Runes skill. A character attempting a check using any other magic skill cannot use a runebound shard as an implement.

Runebound shards are typically small, and so all have an encumbrance of 0. They are also too rare and valuable to be offered for sale like lesser items. When nobles and wizards strike bargains to trade in these rare artifacts, the cost is always far beyond mere gold. Hence, no prices are included in Table 2–19: Runebound Shards (see page 119).

Unless stated otherwise, activating a runebound shard is a maneuver. Some runebound shards function as a weapon when activated, in which case the listed weapon profile specifies the skill a character uses to make the combat check. A runebound shard’s weapon profile might specify a skill that is not normally a combat skill, such as Discipline. In this case, the skill should be treated as a combat skill in all regards for the purposes of the combat check.

Arcane Bolt Rune
(Generic)

Many different runebound shards produce a powerful blast of magical energy when activated. While these runes vary wildly in the appearance and exact manner of their effect, the results are similar in dealing harm to living targets. Some arcane bolts manifest as diffuse showers of light that deal limited amounts of damage over a wide area. Others are focused beams that deliver all their energy in a powerful lance that makes a mockery of armor.

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the arcane bolt rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Ranged; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Auto-fire).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, the first Range effect added does not increase the check’s difficulty. In addition, they must add the Impact effect with no increase in difficulty. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by four.

Blasting Rune
(Generic)

A blasting rune works by imbuing a piece of stone within line of sight of the caster with such energy that it shatters apart in a small but powerful explosion. These runes are greatly prized by the Dwarves, who use them not only in defense, but also to break apart inaccessible bits of stone during their mining operations. The Orcs of the Broken Plains also make good use of this shard when they can manage to obtain one, because the craggy terrain of their homeland ensures that the bearer of such a rune is never far from a suitable weapon.

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the blasting rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Discipline; Damage 9; Critical 3; Range [Medium]; Blast 7, Knockdown).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, they must add the Blast effect and may add the Impact effect with no increase in difficulty to either. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by five

Ice Storm Rune
(Generic)

Ice storm runes can be used to create a localized, but very intense, blizzard. These runes do not require moisture, and they even function in arid environments. A bearer who activates such a rune quickly becomes the epicenter of a swirling vortex of snow-blown wind. This vortex can be directed to move independently of the wielder, and anyone caught within it soon suffers the effects of the freezing cold. As a weapon, this is particularly effective against Dragonkin, many of whom regard the bearers of such runes with fear and hatred.

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the ice storm rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Discipline; Damage 7; Critical 2; Range [Medium]; Blast 4, Ensnare 3).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, they must add the Ice and Blast effects with no increase in difficulty. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by four.

Immolation Rune
(Generic)

Immolation runes are weapons in and of themselves. When one of these shards is activated, a burst of flame projects forward from the rune. These runes have their own source of power, of course, but a user can concentrate some of their own energies into increasing the size and intensity of the flames. This is injurious to the user, but not nearly so much as it is to their target. The burst only lasts for a few seconds, so the shards are useless for illumination, but they are effective for personal protection and starting fires

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the immolation rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Discipline; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Short]; Burn 2).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, they must add the Fire and Deadly effects with no increase in difficulty. In addition, after rolling the magic combat check but before applying damage, your character may choose to suffer any number of wounds no greater than half their wound threshold in order to add an equal amount of damage to all hits of the attack.

Lesser Rune
(Generic)

Some runes are capable of legendary feats of magic. Some are, well, not, and of little interest to anyone but a Runemaster, who is capable of bending their capabilities beyond their design. Though lacking the fame of other runebound shards, these items are still priceless and the subject of many a quest.

Activation: This rune can be used for a small beneficial effect that varies by rune, such as casting light as a torch, conjuring a small illusionary creature, throwing your voice, or starting small fires as a tinderbox. Your GM chooses the minor effect associated with the rune when the shard is discovered or obtained.

Implement: When your character obtains a lesser rune, the GM determines one effect that the rune lets the character add to any appropriate spell without increasing the spell’s difficulty. This effect should ideally be thematically linked to the minor effect determined earlier. The effect the GM chooses should only increase the difficulty of a spell by one. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by three.

Lightning Strike Rune
(Generic)

A lightning strike rune is used to call down a bolt of lightning. It is a powerful weapon; most foes struck with a bolt of lightning are either killed outright or stunned senseless. Certain creatures, constructs, and undead beings, though, are resistant to this magic to some degree, as they would be to natural lightning.

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the lightning strike rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Discipline; Damage 8; Critical 3; Range [Long]; Auto-fire, Disorient 3).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, the first Range effect they add does not increase the check’s difficulty. In addition, they must add the Lightning effect with no increase in difficulty. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by five.

Rune of Collection
(Generic)

While runebound shards operate in such a simple fashion that they can be used by those without magical training, some can only be used properly by practicing wizards. Runes of collection act as fonts of magical power by slowly drawing upon the ambient magic of the Verto Magica. These shards each provide a safe and reliable well of magic, although their capacity is limited and wizards who rely on them may falter when the shard is lost.

Activation: The runebound shard glows slightly with untapped power, but nothing seems to happen.

Implement: When casting any spell, your character reduces the difficulty of the check by one. In addition, your character suffers 1 less strain when casting a spell.

Rune of Fate
(Generic)

Among the most subtle of runebound shards, the rune of fate directs the powerful magic held within the shard to influence the very skein of destiny. Even an untrained user who clutches the shard in their hand finds the luck of themselves and their allies improving in subtle but undeniable ways. A Runemaster can coax myriad effects forth from the shard, consigning their enemies to fumble their weapons or helping allies to fortuitously slip their blades through impossibly narrow chinks in the foe's armor.

Activation: As an action, your character may activate this runebound shard to move one Story Point from the player pool to the GM pool; add [Despair] to the next check that targets your character.

Implement: When your character casts an Augment or Curse spell, you may add the Additional Target effect with no increase in difficulty. In addition, when your character casts a Curse spell you must add the Doom effect with no increase in difficulty.

Rune of Misery
(Generic)

This runebound shard imparts painful afflictions upon the target, rarely enough to seriously injure but more than enough to weaken. Elite bounty hunters in the Free Cities fight viciously for them, as such shards can allow them to take in their quarries with less chance of bothersome bloodshed.

Activation: As an action, the bearer suffers 3 strain and selects one target within short range. The target becomes disoriented for three rounds. While the target is disoriented due to the rune of misery, the bearer may spend 2 [Threat] generated on any check the target makes to inflict 1 wound on the target.

Implement: When casting a Curse spell, your character reduces the difficulty of the skill check by two. In addition, your GM can spend 2 [Threat] on the check to inflict 1 wound on your character.

Soulstone Rune
(Generic)

A soulstone rune is an object of dread, for it has within it the power to leech away life-energies. A bearer of such a shard soon acquires a dark reputation. When the shard is active, the bearer can focus their will on a visible target. That foe grows increasingly weak, while any aches and injuries suffered by the bearer are assuaged. These runes work too gradually to make for effective weapons, but in time, a bearer could even be brought from near death to full wellness, at the likely cost of the life of their chosen target.

Activation: When your character activates a soulstone rune, it affects all other characters (including allies) within short range. Affected targets must each make an Average (2) Discipline check as an out-of-turn incidental. If they fail the check, they suffer 3 strain and become staggered for oneround. The bearer then heals 1 wound they are currently suffering for each target that failed the check. At the GM’s discretion, minions affected by this runebound shard are simply defeated.

Implement: When your character casts a Curse spell, in addition to the spell’s normal effects, it also inflicts a number of wounds equal to your character's ranks in Knowledge (Forbidden) on all affected targets. Additionally, your character heals 1 wound each time a target under the effects of the curse suffers wounds (including when the Curse is cast).

Stasis Rune
(Generic)

A character who activates a stasis rune focuses on a single target. For a brief period, the target feels as if they are frozen in time and space. Even if left unassailed, the target finds the experience of catching up with time highly upsetting in the short term.

Activation: As an action, your character suffers 2 strain and chooses one character within short range. That character is staggered and immobilized until the end of their next turn.

Implement: When your character casts a Curse spell, they must add the Paralyzed effect with no increase in difficulty.

Sunburst Rune
(Generic)

When activated, a sunburst rune emits a powerful burst of intense light that disorients the foe and inflicts scorching-hot wounds.

Activation: Until the end of your character's turn, the sunburst rune counts as a Ranged weapon with the following profile: (Ranged; Damage 4; Critical 1; Range [Medium]; Breach 1).

Implement: When your character casts an Attack spell, they must add the Holy effect with no increase in difficulty and gains the Breach 1 quality. This is an exception to the normal restriction limiting Holy to spells using the Divine skill.

Teleportation Rune
(Generic)

A user of one of these shards can teleport either themself or a small object they concentrate on a short distance. It is safest to teleport to a location within line of sight; while users may have the ability to teleport through walls, if they materialize in the same space as a solid object, it can lead to terrible injury. Teleportation

runes especially rare to find as they are highly sought after by all manner of assassin, criminal, and adventurer.

Activation: As an action, the user can teleport themself or a single silhouette 0 item in their possession to any location within extreme range that they can currently see. Alternatively, the user may attempt to teleport to a location they have previously experienced in person, but this requires a successful Average (2) Vigilance check. The GM should modify the check based on the circumstances, including how long it has been since the character visited the target location, the length of time spent there, and so on. The GM may spend [Despair] or multiple [Threat] to have the character end up far from their intended location, inside a monster’s lair, or in an even worse situation.

Implement: When your character casts any spell, the first three Range effects added to it do not increase its difficulty.

Terror Rune
(Generic)

None can fathom why the dragons crafted terror runes, given their own innate baleful nature. Adventurers fortunate enough to possess these runes, though, find them invaluable when exploring the dark catacombs within the Mistlands or facing down the creatures of the Ru.

Activation: While possessing a terror runebound shard, your character can ignore the effects of fear, as per page 243 of the Genesys Core Rulebook.

Implement: When your character is casting a spell, any friendly affected targets are immune to the effects of fear for the spell's duration. Any enemy affected targets must immediately make a Daunting (4) fear check as an out-of turn-incidental.

Vision Rune
(Generic)

A vision rune allow a character to expand their eyesight to extraordinary lengths. They can see over the horizon and even through sealed containers or behind walls, abilities any thief or spy would pay anything to do. Wizards can also use them to hurl spells at hidden foes or in darkness, and have allowed the sightless Jenti the Just to recover from unhealable injuries and become a famed sorcerer in the Imperial Court.

Activation: As an action, a character can make an Average (2) Perception check to cast their gaze upon a land anywhere within three day's travel as if they were standing there themselves, or to see through a solid object within medium range as if the intervening material was as clear as glass.

Implement: When casting a spell, your character can choose any target in range, even if they cannot see it (such as if the target was in darkness or behind a wall).

Wanderer's Stone
(Generic)

Wanderer’s stones are worn on the chest and direct an emanation of healing energy to the heart and lungs. While this energy is too subtle to help heal injuries or disease, it does effectively stave off the effects of fatigue. Characters who bear one of these shards are able to walk, run, swim, row, fly, and fight with significantly improved stamina. Often, instead of using their shards themselves, bearers attach them to the harness of a mount or draft animal in their possession.

Activation: Once per encounter, as an action your character can use a wanderer’s stone to heal 5 strain.

Implement: When your character casts an Augment spell, they may add the Haste and Swift effects with no increase in difficulty.

Ynfernael Rune
(Generic)

Ynfernael runes are shards that have been captured and corrupted through the malicious actions of those who seek the regard of demons. An Ynfernael rune has one purpose: to inflict pain on others. The bearer of an Ynfernael rune must spill some of their own blood to activate the shard, but once they have done so, the unholy power unleashed ensures their foes will spill an even greater amount.

Activation: As an action, your character can activate the Ynfernael rune, choosing to suffer a number of wounds not exceeding their wound threshold. For each wound suffered this way, all characters within short range suffer 1 wound.

Implement: When casting an Attack spell, your character must add the Empowered and Deadly effects with no increase in difficulty. When the spell’s effects are resolved, the spellcaster suffers 1 wound. If the magic check fails, the spellcaster suffers an additional 4 wounds. Attack spells cast by your character increase their base damage by three.