Spellbrands

A Spellbrand is an effect rune that holds a spell: the spell's diagram etched into an item. Anyone who can channel can cast the spell through the item, whether or not they know it. An item carrying one is called a brand.

Casting Through a Brand

Casting through a brand follows the normal spellcasting rules. The user channels energy from the Aether into the item and through its diagram.

• Mysticism Ranks: equal to or higher than the spell's Complexity, with a minimum of 1 (so a cantrip brand needs 1 Rank). The user doesn't need the Spell Attunement talent for the spell's school.
• Contact: the user holds, wields or wears the item. A brand in a pack or saddlebag can't be used.
• Item attunement: the user is attuned to the item. A brand uses 1 of the character's 10 item attunement slots.
• Channeling check: against the normal Spell DC (10 + the casting's total Strain), with the normal results and Strain.
• Action cost: the spell's own casting time, as if the user knew it. Sustain works as normal.

Burned In, Chosen Each Time

Modifiers are part of the drawing, so the crafter burns them in. The user of a brand doesn't need a modifier's talent: a brand etched with Quick Cast casts quickly for anyone who can channel it, and still costs Quick Cast's Strain every time. Brew is the one exception: brewing is a whole process, so a Brew brand's user still needs the Brewing talent and the potion materials.

Tiers

A Spellbrand's tier follows the diagram's final Complexity, counting any modifiers burned into it. The breakpoints match the Spell Attunement talents.

Like any rune, a Spellbrand can be upgraded: re-etching the same spell into a higher-tier version (for example, adding a modifier) follows the normal rune upgrade rules.

Wear and Cracks

In a brand the spell's diagram lives in the item, so the item takes some of the punishment when channeling goes wrong.

On a failed Channeling check the item loses Durability equal to the spell's Complexity (minimum 1), and makes an item save: 1d20 + the item's level against the Spell DC of that casting.

On a critical failure of the Channeling check the item loses double Durability (the item save halves it or saves it entirely, as above), and the diagram cracks whatever the save. A cracked Spellbrand can't be channeled until it's repaired; the item's other runes still work. A Broken item can't be channeled either.

Wild Surges: a brand's caster and the item cast the spell together, so a Wild Surge from a brand strikes both of them.

Repairing a Cracked Diagram

Repairing a crack is a Crafting check against the rune's own crafting DC, made by someone proficient with the item's tool set. It needs no new essence: the spirit is still bound in, only the lines are broken. Lost Durability is repaired the normal way. The repair takes the Craft Time Rating of one complexity per tier:

Crafting a Spellbrand

A Spellbrand is crafted like any rune, with the normal requirements for magic items: the Magical Crafting talent, Crafting Ranks, a Masterwork base, the rune's materials and essence, and the base item's own tool set (Woodcarver's Tools for a staff, Smith's Tools for a revolver). It also needs:

• The spell: the crafter knows the spell, and every modifier they burn into it.
• Essence of the right quality for the tier, matching the spell's school.
• Trappings, set by the crafter when it's etched, exactly as when a spell is learned. The crafter's style shows: "this staff burns blue because old Ingrid made it."

A caster's help. A crafter who doesn't know the spell can work with a helper who does. The helper draws the diagram out (on paper, hide or slate) and must be present for the etching; the GM may let the helper assist checks as usual.

Copying a brand. Studying an existing brand counts as having its formula: the crafter gains Fortune on the first check of the crafting challenge. The crafter (or their helper) still has to know the spell.

Brands Lend a Spell

Using a brand lends its spell for that casting. The user can't change the diagram (its Trappings or modifiers), and the brand counts as knowing the spell for nothing else: prerequisites and crafting need the spell itself. Spells are learned through the Spell Attunement talents.

Relics: More Than One Brand

An ordinary item holds one Spellbrand: two diagrams on one item would cross and short each other out. Relics are the exception. Each Spellbrand beyond the first raises the item's Potency requirement by 1 (on top of what the highest-tier brand needs) and uses 1 more item attunement slot. An item with four cantrip brands needs Potency 3, is level 17 or higher and uses 4 item attunement slots; its 4 rune capacity holds exactly those four brands.

Buying Brands

Minor brands can be found for sale in larger towns. Lesser and higher brands come only through specialists, finds or commissions.

How It Fits Other Rules

Sample Brands

• Healer's Rod (Masterwork wooden rod, Minor Spellbrand): Heal (Conjuration, Complexity 1). Needs Mysticism 1. A trail doctor's rod, a circle and cross burned into the grip.
• Quickdraw Colt (Masterwork revolver, Potency 2, Greater Spellbrand, item level 11+): Haste (Transmutation, Complexity 4). Needs Mysticism 4. A bind-rune etched along the barrel; each failed channeling scorches it a little more.
• The Völva's Lantern-Staff (relic: Masterwork staff, Potency 3, four Minor Spellbrands, item level 17+): four cantrips spiralling up its length. Needs Mysticism 1 and uses 4 item attunement slots.