Chapter Seven: Magic

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The sources of magical energy on Athas are very different from those in other AD&D ® campaign worlds. Athas is a world without deities, where clerics worship the elemental powers themselves. Despite the brutality that seems infused in its soil, Athas is a fragile world, where the very existence of wizardly magic can disrupt and destroy the land's ability to support life.

I. [^] Priestly Magic

The priests of Dark Sun worship the beings that inhabit the elemental planes: those of earth, air, fire, and water. In Dark Sun campaigns, priest spells fall into four spheres associated with those four elemental planes, and a separate Sphere of the Cosmos. This last sphere is by far the largest, though the other four hold generally more powerful, more specialized spells. All priests on Athas thus draw magical energy (the energy with which they cast spells) from the elemental planes.

[^] Sphere of Earth


[^] Sphere of Air


[^] Sphere of Fire


[^] Sphere of Water


[^] Sphere of the Cosmos

Clerics have major access to the sphere of the element they worship, plus minor access to the Sphere of the Cosmos. Templars have major access to all spheres, but gain spells more slowly.

There are no deities in Dark Sun. Those spells that indicate some contact with a deity instead reflect contact with a powerful being of the elemental planes.

II. [^] Wizardly Magic

Wizards draw their magical energies from the living things and life-giving elements around them. Preservers cast spells in harmony with nature, using their magic so as to return to the land what they take from it. Defilers care nothing for such harmony and damage the land with every spell they cast.

[^] Defiling

Defilers wield magic with no concern for their dying world: Indeed, defilers are much to blame for Athas's Heroes' current state. With each spell they cast, defilers draw magical energy from the life force of plants in the vicinity and channel it to their own selfish ends.

Even the sorcerer-kings, however, are not the most dread users of defiler magic: the great dragon's defiler magic is so powerful that it destroys living ani mals as well. All magic cast by defilers up to 20th level, including all 1st through 9th level spells, destroys plant life only. Any creatures in the area, however, suffer great pain.

[^] Casting Defiler Spells:

Spells cast by defilers use all the necessary verbal, somatic, and material com ponents. The absence of any of these precludes the successful casting of the spell. The range, duration, casting time, area of effect, and saving throws re main unchanged.

When a defiler casts a spell, all vegetation in a sphere around him turns to ash. The radius of that sphere depends upon two things: the abundance of vegetation in the area, and the level of the spell cast.

[^] Defiler Magical Destruction Table

Terrain Type123456789
Stony Barrens101417202224262830
Sandy Wastes101417202224262830
Rocky Badlands101417202224262830
Salt Flats101417202224262830
Boulder Fields101417202224262830
Silt Sea101417202224262830
Mountains101417202224262830
Scrub Plains344555566
Verdant Belts222333444
Forest112222233

The number shown is the radius, in yards, around the defiler where all vegetation is turned to ash. The effect is instantaneous with the casting of the spell. Note that these numbers adjust for specific situations. For example, in a city, the mud pits might have no more vegetation than the stony barrens, while the gardens of the sorcerer-king will be equal to a teeming forest.

[^] Casting Multiple Spells from the Same Location:

If a defiler casts more than one spell from the same location, the radius of destroyed vegetation expands around him. Consult the Defiler Magical Destruction Table for the highest level spell cast from that location, then add one yard for every other spell cast. (Spells equal to the highest level spell are treated as additional spells).

For example, the defiler Grifyan casts alightning bolt,a 3rd-level spell, while in the scrub plains. The area of ash around him will be 4 yards. In the next round, he casts amagic missilespell, expanding the radius of ash by 1 yard, bringing the total of burnt earth to 5 yards. In the third round, Grifyan decides to unleash anadvanced illusion,a 5th-level spell. Since this is the highest-level spell cast from this location, the area of ash is recalculated; 5 yards for the 5th-level spell, plus 1 yard each for the two lower-level spells cast, for a total radius of ash of 7 yards.

[^] Effects on Living Creatures:

Though only plants are destroyed within the radius, living creatures are caused great pain. Any being in the radius of a defiler's magic suffers an immediate initiative modifier penalty equal to the level of the defiler spell cast. No matter how high the resulting initiate roll, though, the pain can never keep a character from performing an action during a round. The initiative penalty only postpones when the action occurs.

[^] Ash:

The ash created by defiler magic is black and grey, completely devoid of life or life-giving elements. Nothing will grow in an area of ash for one year. The ash itself is very light and usually blows away, leaving behind a lifeless, circular scar on the ground. Even with the ash gone, though, the defiler's magic has leeched all life-giving nutrients from the soil, so that an area defiled may take many years to recover life, if it ever does.

V. [^] Trees of Life

Atree oflifeis a mighty and magical tree, enchanted by a powerful priest or wizard. The magical life forces oftrees of lifemake them virtually eternal. The greatesttrees of lifeare ancient: many solitary trees predate the villages around them and others stand in entire groves, a quiet testimony to the great wizards of a bygone age. Present-day priests and wizards still create new trees to enrich the world or, in the case of the defilers, to pervert their powerful life forces to further their destructive, evil ambitions. Atree of lifeis, in essence, a living magical item.

It stores and channels energies from all four elemental planes. Thus, though wizards can create atree of life,only clerics and druids can tap its special powers.

[^] Special Powers:

Any cleric or druid in contact with atree of lifereceives from the tree four spells, each of which can be cast once per day. The spells gained areheal, augury, divination,andmagic font.

[^] Destroying a Tree of Life:

A tree of life has two distinct parts: its physical form and its life force. The stump, branches, roots, or leaves of atree of lifemake up its physical form, and are not inherently magical. The same things that would destroy a normal tree will destroy the physical form of atree of life(e.g., chopping it down, burning it) with one exception. Neither climate nor terrain effect atreeof life. One will flourish in the middle of the desert or on a rocky mountain face, regardless of drought, severe weather, natural lightning, earthquakes, and so forth.

Destroying the tree's life force is much more difficult. Atree of life,at any stage of growth (even sprout) has 100 hit points (10 levels of 10 hit points each) that can only be affected by life-draining magic. The wizard spellsvampiric touch, enervation, trap the soul,andenergy draincan each drain hit points;death spell, finger of death, limited wish, and raze can each snuff out 3 levels of the target tree; and awishslays the tree. The priest spells that affect a tree's life force areraise dead(and its reverseslay living), restoration(and its reverse,energy drain ) ,a n dresurrection( andits reverse , destruction).Undead creatures that have an energy drain attack can affect the life force of atree of life.

Defiler magic also affects a tree's life force. Every level of defiler magic cast within 100 yards of atree of lifedrains one level of life force from the tree. This negates the effect the spell would otherwise have on surrounding vegetation.

The life force of a tree of life is completely snuffed if it falls below zero levels or hit points. The life force will not regenerate if either of these numbers falls below zero, in which case both the life force and the physical form of the tree die.

[^] Regeneration:

Both atree of life'sphysical form and its life force regenerate. If the tree's physical form is damaged or destroyed, it will grow back, to full size. The tree will regrow at a rate of one quarter of its full size per week. A sprout will appear in one day, grown to a sapling in one week. It will grow to a young tree in two week, then to a full-sized adult tree in three. After four week, thetree of lifewill revert to its true form: an ancient and mighty tree. No matter how many times the physical form of the tree is destroyed, it will always grow back in four weeks.

The life force of a tree of life regenerates one level (10 hit points) per hour. It regenerates even if the life force reaches zero points, but not if it goes below zero.

Though originally created by wizards to combat the destruction of nature, trees of life are now heavily exploited by defilers, who use the trees' powerful life forces to charge their defiling spells.

Sorcerer-kings often have large gardens within their cities, even within their palaces, where groves of trees of life are tended and maintained. Thus, defilers can exercise evil magic from their citadels without decimating the cities below—a desperate measure to keep their tiny verdant belts as plentiful as possible.

VIII. [^] Magical Items

Use of magical items never causes a defiling effect on the surrounding grounds. However, defilers who create magical items do cause destruction at the time of manufacture.

[^] Potions and Oils:

On Athas, potions are drawn from the juices of fruits. Rules on how to use these fruits appear in Chapter 10: Treasure.

[^] Scrolls:

Scrolls found as part of a treasure will always be papyrus and will lack a case of any kind, unless otherwise noted. As such, these delicate scrolls often do not survive the combat in which they are won. The spells on a scroll can be either wizard or priest, as indicated in theDungeon Master's Guide,and should be determined using the random spell lists in Appendix 1 of this book.

The process of setting a spell to a scroll inherently strips the spell of defiler or preserver characteristics. Thus, spells cast from scrolls do not cause defiler destruction.

[^] Rings, Rods, Staves, Wands, and Miscellaneous Magic:

These items function just as described in the DMG.Such items rarely consist of metal, but rather are fashioned from the finest alternate materials available. Substitute the following table for its counterpart in Appendix 2 of theDMG.

[^] ARMOR TYPE

d20 RollArmor
1Brigandine
2-5Hide
6-8Leather
9Padded
10Ring Mail
11-12Scale Mail
13-17Shield
18Studded Leather
19-20Metal Armor
00Special

[^] METAL ARMOR

d100 RollArmor
01-15Banded Mail
16-23Bronze Plate Mail
24-45Chain Mail
46-50Field Plate
51-55Full Plate
56-65Plate Mail
66-75Splint Mail
76-99Metal Shield
00Special

Magical adjustment to Armor Class is determined normally. Special armor is also determined normally, but elven chain mail does not exist on Athas; reroll if necessary.

[^] Weapons:

All magical weapons found as part of a treasure are metal or have metal components. Nonmetal weapons can be enchanted as well, but magical adjustments must still take into account the inherently poorer quality of the material used. Weapons are determined as in theDMG.Weapons can have intelligence, and those with intelligence 15 or greater can have a psionic wild talent (25% chance).