Combat Magic
Combat Magic
Classification: Specialization
Parent School: Projection
Combat Magic is not a standalone discipline — it is a category of practice and casting philosophy applied to spells from multiple schools. It refers to spells optimized for battle: fast casting time, high power output, designed to overcome defenses with minimal preparation.
Combat Magic draws primarily from Projection, Negation, Animation, and Conjuration, followed by Alteration and Dimensionalism. It is not something you learn as a separate skill — it is a way of learning and casting that emphasises speed and power over elegance and safety.
Specialization Rules
This is an advanced Specialization. To learn Spells (Powers) in this field, a mage must use their dot-purchase selections from the Projection skill track. Furthermore, specific spells within Combat Magic will explicitly require a secondary prerequisite (such as 1 or 2 dots in collateral Schools) to simulate the mixed-matrix required to cast them.
Progression
Acquiring dots and Powers here requires deep dedication. The spells are extremely potent but narrowly focused.
Example Powers
| Tier | Example Effect | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Tier 1 | Combat Flare | A quick, blinding flash of raw mana designed to disorient an opponent for a split second, interrupting their cast. |
| Tier 2 | Mana Knuckles | Coats the caster's fists in dense, kinetic mana to deliver heavy physical blows that bypass mundane armor. |
| Tier 3 | Shield Crack | A concentrated, high-velocity projectile explicitly designed to shatter or destabilize abjuration barriers. |
| Tier 4 | Blink Strike | Combines a short-range teleport with an immediate, momentum-driven kinetic attack, bypassing front-facing defenses. |
| Tier 5 | Doomsday Protocol | An all-out, highly unstable release of the caster's entire mana reserve in a devastating omnidirectional blast, often fatal to the caster. |
Mechanical Focus
Combat casting uses Willpower for raw output and Finesse for targeting. A Combat Magic specialty allows the player to reduce the casting time of known spell formulas by one step.
Lore Deep Dive
Combat magic is probably the most well-known and popular field of study that draws upon multiple magical disciplines. It is deceptively simple.
On one hand, most combat spells have rather modest shaping requirements and can be learned quite quickly by a dedicated mage. On the other hand, the very traits that make these spells so potent in combat inevitably come at the cost of mana efficiency and safety features. Getting a combat spell wrong is highly likely to hurt the caster. This, along with the inherently lethal nature of fighting for a living, means that combat magic is considered quite hard to truly master. Many mages know how to cast a combat spell or two for emergencies, but they would not dare call themselves combat mages.
The Economic and Political Reality: Despite its dangers, combat magic is very common everywhere, and is incredibly popular as a specialty. Even people who are not naturally suited for it often direct their energies into the field. Most states enthusiastically encourage their citizens to focus on this discipline, as there is always a high demand for more battlemages everywhere.