How Enchantech works

Gentlemage Davion is planning to go to the Midnight Floors. This is normally a place unbecoming of his stature, but there are...reasons. To prepare for his trip, he makes sure his Neil & Terry Host 9 Caster is ready, topping off the manaite tank and making sure his Ifrit is ready. His caster has four slots free for discs--one is taken up by his attache, and he loads a physical and metaphysical ward disc, both made of quartz, into their slots. Next, he makes sure to adjust the keypad on his belt so it's in a comfortable, reflexive position for him. The keyboard is in a small piano motif, roughly an octave and a half of keys, going from A to second D sharp. Next, his hexlock pistol--five pounds of mithril and oak, armed with a low-level curse--Davion doesn't plan on killing anybody, and boils all over one's body does tend to limit one's effectiveness. Also, a less lethal curse means a quicker pennance, and since he's not carrying a brace of pistols, faster recharge time means more shots.

His dueling saber is next--a fine blade imbued with Storm sigils. Finally, a few trinkets--a whisp-light, some spectacles with superior night vision, and his normal pocketwatch, et al. Davion is ready to go, and takes the Lift down to the places that never see light...

A few hours into his journey, and Davion is walking the streets of Midnight, trying his best to not draw any attention. Davion is quiet, but his fine long coat is too good for this part of town. Davion realizes he's in trouble when a crackle of black magic slams against his wards. Someone just tried to shoot him!!  He draws his saber with one hand while tapping a few keys on his keypad--suddenly, the blade crackles with purple lightening. A swarm of thugs and thieves comes down the street, ready to attack him. It appears they are desperate indeed, for none of them have wards or casters, and their weapons appear to be vicious-looking farm tools and improvised clubs. Davion draws his hexlock and fires--sweet black smoke pours out of the weapon, and the closest man to Davion suddenly screams as head to toe is wracked with blisters instantly. The hexlock whirs quietly as the penance is performed by the pistol, and Davion scans the remaning six men charging him. With only a few seconds to spare, Davion, taps off a riff of chord strokes on the keypad, changing his warding from metaphysical to physical--he's leaving himself open to hexlock fire, but he's hoping whoever shot at him before only has one and isn't quite ready to hit his friends...

So, that's the bad game fiction part of the story. What did Eric, Gentlemage Davion's player, do?

First, Davion has a level 3 (out of probably 1-5 range) for his caster. That gives him 3 "stones" of spells to play with. His caster also has 5 slots of discs, which are spells directly cast on the user of the caster--normally wards and enhancements. In this case, Davion has a Physical ward, a Metaphysical ward, an Attache (office programs, calendars, etc), and a temperature ward to protect him from the cold halls of Midnight Street. He's got his hexlock, his sword (with Storm sigils), and a few other pieces of equipment--a whisperlight (lighter/lamp combo), some glasses of night vision, etc. 

Eric announces he's going to turn on the Metaphysical ward when he gets down to the streets. He uses one Stone to power the Metaphysical Ward in his caster. 

When combat starts, Davion is surprised, but lucky for him his wards are up. The shot doesn't get a critical, hence Davion isn't hit. He draws his Hexlock and pushes a second stone to power it. He fires and hits, causing one of his attackers to collapse in agony. This also activates his pistol's Penance, the time it takes for the weapon to shake off any bad mojo for using black magic, and making the weapon safe to fire again. The curse Davion's firing has a recast rate of 4--Davion has four rounds before he's gonig to be able to safely fire that weapon again. So--melee! He draws his saber, and puts the stone that was in the hexlock into his saber. The blade has the trait Storm on it, so he can charge it with electrical power, upping damage, increasing odds that the can pass through a ward if he needs to, and making cool "zzzzip" noises when he swings the blade.

The GM tells him he's got six guys coming at him with a variety of crude instruments, and none of them appear warded. He's in melee now, the guy who shot at him has at least a few more rounds before the gun works again, and Davion isn't that great of a fighter. Eric takes the stone powering his metaphysical ward and moves it over to his physical ward slot (sadly you can only have one ward up at a time)--now Davion has some magical armor, and all he has to do is kill six vicious thugs and hope the sniper doesn't get another shot in before he can switch back to metaphyiscal... 

So that's what I'm thinking for the Casters and how they work. Basically, you'll have slotted spells to enhance/defend yourself, tools that will require power from your caster, and the game of dancing back and forth on your cool toys. Did that make sense? Any questions?