Thaum (was Anima) E6. In a magical world, everyone has Narrativium (PEACH)

[johnbragg]

How do freeform casting works?
Can I convince people I am an hedge wizard that is so cool he can attempt to cast any spells as freeform casting by sacrificing some of his life force?

Free form casting means that you don't know a spell (Spells Known), but it's on your list. Let's say you're a low-level hedge-wizard summoner and you have Summon Monster I (Celestial Dog), Summon Monster I (Fiendish Raven) and Unseen Servant as your Spells Known. (Not worrying about numbers right now--let's say Spells Known: 3 1st and roll with it.) You can try free-form casting to summon a Fiendish Octopus, or a Dire Rat (SNA I list), or whatever skeleton you get for Summon Undead I. You're a summoner, you summon things. You're taking a risk and going outside your comfort zone (chance of failure, backlash damage), but it's not completely out of your area of competence. You can't just free-form cast magic missile or shield or charm person, and you just don't have the power to summon something from a higher level list.

IF you're a book-wizard, and you want to cast a spell, you need to have access to that spell in a spellbook. A spellbook isn't just one wizard's personal idiosyncratic collection of spells--it's a stable batch of spells united by a theme and known by a name (Necronomicon, LEsser Book of Changes, Greater Book of Changes, Compendium of Conjuration, Testament of HErmes Tristigatus, etc). Or you have to use the individual-research rules. You're a book wizard, so no book no spell. (You can cast your Spells Known without a book, because you've internalized those spells by studying them in--books.)

I'm still working on what advantages specialist casters get. On the one hand, they lose a lot of versatility compared to book-wizards. On the other hand, PC specialist will create Tier 4 ubercharger problems, where there is no "sweet spot" of difficulty where challenges are difficult but still manageable.