Pseudohistorical Magic

 Bending the laws of the universe is not easy! Unless this is very poorly balanced.

SPELL DIFICULTY: DC
EASY: 6
HARD: 10 

Easy spells take 4 hours to memorize. Medium spells take a full 8 hour day to memorize. Hard spells take a week of study to memorize. 

I quite like the idea of very powerful magic users having to retreat to their towers to study for long periods of time to have their most powerful spells prepared. I don't like it when the standard dnd stile magic user can rest overnight, spend a quick hour skimming their spellbook, and have upwards of 10 spells memorized.

Roll 1d12 + modifiers:

2 or more above DC: Memorized! Take 1 fatigue
Within 1 of DC: Memorized, but take 2 fatigue
2-3 Below DC: take 2 fatigue, spell may fizzle/misfire
4 or more below DC: take 2 fatigue spell likely fizzles/misfires (roll misfire table twice and take the worse result) 

Drained counts as an injury, granting +2 to further injury checks. A drained character lacks the mental capacity to attempt to study any more spells. The drained condition clears overnight with a good meal and warm place to rest.

Fatigue takes encumbrance, impacting how much gear can be carried and how fast the character can flee. It also makes it harder to memorize further spells.

Modifiers:

• +1 for doubling time spent in study
• +1 for lavish and well stocked laboratory
• +1 for splurging on expensive materials (500gp/1000gp?)
• +1 for "spell mastery" (spending 10x the mem time researching the spell & spending 1000gp/1500gp? Could be repeated multiple times?)
• -1 per point of fatigue
• -1 if no dedicated study space (in a private space, but the space is not set up as a study. e.g. private room at an inn.)
• -1 halved study time 
• -1 poor understanding of the language/using a translator 

The price guidelines here are very rough and based on nothing but vibe-based instinct. They are very much so subject to change. 

Fizzle/Misfire Table:

1. Spell has reduced effect (allows save, save is easier, shorter duration, or similar effect)
2. Spell has reduced effect
3. Spell fizzles
4. Spell fizzles
5. Spell misfires (inverse effect)
6. Spell misfires (unintended target)

Spells:

Single target spells do not usually allow for saves, unless target has special magical protection of some sort. Group target spells do generally allow for saves. Memorized spells stay in the spellcaster's mind as long as they would like. Casting a spell requires one hand free and to be able to speak.

Spellbooks are large, rare, and expensive tomes. They are often written in old and/or dead languages. Many of the greatest spells were created long ago by arch-magi of the past, though contemporary practitioners modifying or creating new spells is not unheard of (though it certainly comes at great cost). Copies can be made with much effort, but without great expense they will still pale in comparison to the original (-1 to memorization checks). Making copies of copies increases this penalty.

Some example spells:

Easy:

• Magic missile (treat as missile that auto-hits and ignores non-magical armour)
• Charm
• Sleep
• Shield
• Hold Person 

Medium

• Fireball (just use grenade rules from violence?)
• Fly
• Stone shape
• Polymorph (willing target) 
• Permanent illusion

Hard

• Control weather
• Invisible Stalker 
• Create undead
• Polymorph (unwilling target) 
• Create construct (homunculi, golems, etc.) 
• Geas 

My idea is that magic users will start with a spellbook which they have mastery with and can understand the language. Magic users will also probably know more languages than normal so that they can use the spellbooks they find. Preferably, spellcasting won't be gatekeeped behind a certain background because I like it when anyone can cast spells.