Mana
Mana is your second pool, beside your hit points, and it works the same way. You have a maximum, you spend it, and it comes back by itself over time.
Spells spend it: those your class gives (see Classes) and those you learn from scrolls. Rods spend it too. Each costs its mana, and with too little you cannot cast it until enough has come back.
The status bar shows your mana right after your hit points, as
MP 5/12: what you have left out of your maximum. The character screen (@)
shows it beside your hit points.
Creatures may have mana too, but you never see theirs. Magic items work for a creature exactly as they do for you. One that wears or wields a “+5 to maximum mana” ring has 5 more mana (and starts with all of it). One whose amulet makes “mana come back 50% faster” regains it half again as fast. A summoner pays for its summons from that larger pool.
How much mana you have
Your maximum mana is what your race and your class give, plus what your Intelligence, Willpower, and Presence add. High scores add to it and low ones take from it, but it never goes below zero.
Wizards and witches have the most, and aristocrats a surprising amount. Every class gives at least 1, and warriors, berserkers, thieves, commoners, and craftspeople give no more than that. Only elves, gnomes, half-elves, halflings, and humans get any mana from their race.
| Race | Mana |
|---|---|
| Elf | 3 |
| Gnome | 3 |
| Half-elf | 2 |
| Halfling | 1 |
| Human | 1 |
| Drow | 0 |
| Duergar | 0 |
| Dwarf | 0 |
| Goblin | 0 |
| Half-orc | 0 |
| Kobold | 0 |
| Lizardfolk | 0 |
| Ratfolk | 0 |
| Class | Mana |
|---|---|
| Wizard | 12 |
| Witch | 10 |
| Druid | 9 |
| Priest | 9 |
| Aristocrat | 7 |
| Bard | 5 |
| Ascetic | 4 |
| Paladin | 3 |
| Merchant | 2 |
| Ranger | 2 |
| Berserker | 1 |
| Commoner | 1 |
| Craftsperson | 1 |
| Thief | 1 |
| Warrior | 1 |
Each level up to 60 raises your maximum, and the mana you have now, by half your class’s mana plus what the better of your Intelligence and Willpower adds (see Experience). So a wizard keeps growing their mana after hit points stop at level 50, while a warrior with ordinary wits gains none.
Magic items that add to it (“+5 to maximum mana”) raise your maximum, not what you have now. The talent Deep well raises both: by 1 for every 4 character levels, at least 2, when you take it and again as each later level comes (see Talents).
The skill Concentration, once you are trained in it, deepens your pool a little: +1 mana at 25, +5 at 100, +8 at 200. It never adds more than a fifth of what your pool would be without it, so a pool under 5 gains nothing. Untrained, it gives nothing, even when an item raises it (see Skills for the table by value).
Example: an elf wizard’s mana. Tathren, a level 1 elf wizard, has Intelligence 15 (+2), Willpower 12 (+1), and Presence 10 (+0) (modifiers).
- Her maximum: 3 (elf) + 12 (wizard) + 2 + 1 + 0 = 18 mana: three casts of Burning hands at 6 mana each.
- Each level: half the wizard’s 12, plus the better of her Intelligence and Willpower modifiers: 6 + 2 = 8 more.
- Coming back: with Willpower 12, a point every 360 − 12 × 12 = 216 seconds (3 minutes and 36 seconds) at the usual pace, so an empty pool fills in about an hour.
How fast it comes back
At the usual pace, a point of mana comes back every so often. The stronger your Willpower, the faster it comes:
| Willpower | A point of mana back every |
|---|---|
| 3 | 5 minutes and 24 seconds |
| 6 | 4 minutes and 48 seconds |
| 8 | 4 minutes and 24 seconds |
| 10 | 4 minutes |
| 12 | 3 minutes and 36 seconds |
| 14 | 3 minutes and 12 seconds |
| 16 | 2 minutes and 48 seconds |
| 18 | 2 minutes and 24 seconds |
| 20 | 2 minutes |
| 22 | 1 minute and 36 seconds |
| 25 or more | 1 minute |
Resting, some status effects and diseases, starving, and special rooms change the pace:
| While | Mana comes back |
|---|---|
Resting (R) | twice as fast |
| Poisoned | half as fast |
| Diseased | half as fast |
| Ebbing | not at all; it drains 1 mana every 20 seconds |
| Worn thin | half as fast |
| Diseased with brain fever | a quarter as fast |
| Starving | not at all |
| In a sanctuary | three times as fast |
When several things change the pace at once:
- If several status effects slow it, only the slowest counts.
- A disease that slows it more than being Diseased does counts too.
- Resting makes up for some of the slowing, as it does for healing, and so does a sanctuary.
- These speed it up on top of all that, their percents added together:
- magic items that speed it (“mana comes back 50% faster”);
- being born under Water, whose gift Tidal makes mana come back 25 % faster (see Horoscope);
- the talent Clear mind, 25 % faster;
- trained Concentration: 5 % faster at 20, 40 % at 100, 60 % at 200 (see Skills).
- The talent Meditation makes resting bring mana back half again as fast (resting’s pace times 1.5).
Nothing else changes it: not your burden, not the cold, and not your combat stance. Spending mana now and then trains Concentration.
Spending it
Anything that costs mana is refused when you have too little, and then spends nothing. Spending any mana trains your Willpower: each time is a chance at a training mark (see Stats).
The talent Frugal caster makes abilities cost a fifth less mana, rounded to the nearest point and never below 1: 5 becomes 4, 6 becomes 5, 10 becomes 8. Magic items of Thrift make abilities cheaper in the same way, by their percent.
The talent and everything you wear are added up first, then rounded once. Together they never take off more than half. For example, Frugal caster (20 %) and a 10 % ring take 30 % off, so 7 becomes 5. Three 20 % items and the talent still take off only 50 %, so 10 becomes 5. An item of Thrift works even before you have identified it, and stops when you take it off.
This cut comes last, after everything else that changes the cost of a spell or a rod (see What a spell costs). It applies to every ability that costs mana: spells, rods, and summoning.
The talent Blood magic gives you an ability (in the abilities menu) that turns 5 of your hit points into 3 mana at once. It takes as long as a wait. It never takes your last hit point, so with 5 or fewer it refuses. It never brings your mana above your maximum, and does nothing while your mana is full. It is not a wound: nothing soaks it, and it trains nothing.
Mana on a kill
Magic items of Siphoning give you some mana when you kill something close by, never above your maximum. Only your own kills count, by your blow, your shot or throw, or your spell, and the one you killed must stand within 3 cells of you.
Distance is measured round, as for every radius: 3 cells in a straight line, 3 across and 1 aside, or 2 diagonally, but not 3 across and 2 aside.
You get nothing for a creature that dies of poison or bleeding you caused, one a trap kills, or one your summoned creature kills, nor for a kill farther off. Two such items add up, identified or not. A creature wearing one refills its own mana the same way when it kills.
A witch’s Malison (from level 18) pays her mana for every death under one of her hexes, however it died, whoever killed it, and at any distance. She gets half the creature’s level (rounded down, at least 1), never above her maximum. This adds to what an item of Siphoning gives.
When the most falls
- Taking off a magic item that raised your maximum lowers the mana you have to the new maximum, if need be.
- A disease that damages your Intelligence, Willpower, or Presence lowers your maximum, and the mana you have with it.
- A status effect that lowers one of those stats lowers your maximum only while it lasts. You keep the mana you had, but none comes back above the lower maximum until the effect passes.
The fine print
- Mana comes back on game time, like hit points, whatever you are doing: waiting, walking, fighting, or making a long journey. Only the total time counts, not how it is split up.
- Progress toward the next point carries over from turn to turn. It is lost once you are full.
- You never see how fast it comes back as a number, only your mana rising.