RPG/Facets

Facets

Student: Studious learners who work to fill the gaps in training that their specialties leave. They can excel at tasks by studying ahead of time and apply their MP to concentration rolls, and gain general bonuses that they can choose where to apply.

Mage: Pure magic casters with classic spellbooks. They have access to all spells at a standard gain, but lack mundane combat options.

Warrior: Fighters with magically-imbued weapons and armor. Their spells come in the form of specialized attacks that can be combined with other warrior attacks to make powerful dual-techs.

Scientist: Brilliant inventors that create devices that cause spell-like effects. Their devices can be used by anyone, but run on batteries that are expensive for anyone but the scientist.

Priest: Healing mages that get additional spells based on the deity of their choice. They have powerful spells, but are limited to only a couple elements.

Martial Artist: Fighters that use their bare hands and hardened bodies to deal quick, massive damage. Their spells draw from a personal Chi pool rather than their own MP.

Idol: Talented performers with magic spells that are expensive to cast but have AoE effects applied automatically. They have a higher income than other facets.

Artist: Skilled craftspeople with enhanced summoning abilities and the power to scale their spells to make them more damaging but easier to avoid, or vice-versa.

Nerd: Highly specialized mages that can only cast counterspells, but do so at no material cost. Counterspells are spells of the opposite element of the spell most recently cast in an area.

Maid/Butler: Alchemists that cook their spells into food that can be preserved and used as needed. They also gain bonuses to protect their group of friends.

Mystic: More powerful mages that must prepare their spells in advance and at greater cost. Casting spells with this facet requires destroying a spell crafted with magical ink.

Buying Facet Levels

Upon gaining XP, your character can use it to buy levels in facets. There are eleven facets, noted on the second page of your character sheet. Here are the costs for each level of any facet:

Facet Level	XP Cost (Total)	XP Cost (Per Level)
1	500	5000
2	1500	1000
3	3000	1500
4	5000	2000
5	7500	2500
6	10500	3000
7	14000	3500
8	18000	4000
9	22500	4500
10	27500	5000

This is the price per facet. Each facet’s levels are bought separately, and the XP cost remains constant for the Nth level of each class.

Example: A level 4 mage would pay 500 XP for the first level in idol.

Once again, these are total costs, not costs for the next level. To find the cost of your desired level, take its cost and subtract your current level’s cost.

Example: That same level 4 mage would pay 2500(7500-5000) for his fifth level in mage.

When buying a level in a facet that shares the 'specialty' skill of another facet you already have levels in, that level will cost the same amount of XP that a new level in the other facet would cost. XP costs for same-specialty facet levels are cumulative. Facets with no specialty share a specialty of "none" for the purposes of determining their XP costs and should be figured accordingly.

Example: A level 3 artist wants to by a 1st level of artificer. That level would cost 2000 XP, because a 4th level of artist would cost that much. A subsequent 2nd level of artificer or 4th level of artist would cost 2500 XP, and so on.

Now, just because a character has levels in a facet doesn't necessarily mean they can use them. Beings of this universe, by nature, have a very small capacity to use facets that differs by race. This is represented by the bonus facet rating on the racial section of your character sheet. These bonus facets may be applied in any combination to the facet or facets of your choice, and may be reassigned each time your character changes clothing.

Example: A character has 4 levels in mage and 1 level in idol has a racial bonus facet rating of 2. He may choose to use two levels in mage or one level in mage and one level in idol. If he uses both levels in mage, he may change the setup to one level in each when he changes his clothes.

When your character is using a facet, it grants them access to magic, special abilities, increased skill usage, weapon stances, and extra HP and MP as listed in the appropriate level. Note that the HP and MP bonuses on each level’s line are the total, and are not cumulative with previous levels in that facet, though they do stack with the bonuses from other facets and the HP and MP they normally receive from their racial levels. Likewise, only the highest of any special abilities are used, and the bonuses they had in earlier levels are not added to the current ones.

Example: A level 5 Maid would get 65 HP, 35 MP, Loyalty +6, Cook(3 servings) and Magic 30MP (Cooking). If they were also a level 3 human, they would get 30 additional HP and 30 additional MP for a total of 95 HP and 65 MP.

The special abilities your character gets for their facet levels are described on that particular facet’s second page.

Each facet also has a “specialty” and “subjects” rating. For every level you have in a facet, you get a +1 to all rolls made with that facet’s specialty skill. If you have multiple facets with the same specialty, you add the levels together for the skill bonus.

Example: A level 5 warrior rolling their Gym skill of 4 with their Strength die of d10 would roll 4d10+5. If the dice came up as 2, 3, 6, and 9, they would take the highest die of 9 and add 5, for a total of 14.

In addition, to score critical hits with a weapon, your character must have at least one level active in a facet that has one of that weapon’s skills as a specialty or subject. If they do not, and use the weapon anyways, they cannot get critical hits.

Magical Clothing

Bonus facet levels are good enough for most people in the universe, but MSF High trains elite students who are able to quickly master magic, technology, and all other facets of their education. In fact, these students are instructed so well that their bodies are unable to properly reflect their true level of experience. For this reason, magical outfits were created to channel facets of the student’s power. These outfits are the primary method of using power for a student.

Magical outfits are sold in many shops near MSF High, and prices range based on the power of the item as well as the article of clothing itself. Students may choose to purchase outfits that concentrate on a particular facet, or instead piece together outfits from different magical articles of clothing that reflect their style and abilities. In addition, each student is given a free personalized school outfit that allows them to use as many levels of their student facet as they have.

The facets that outfits provide are added to each other.

Example: A character wearing a magical pair of gloves that allows the use of 3 levels of Warrior and a headband that allows the use of 2 levels of Warrior may use 5 levels of Warrior. If the same character puts on a jacket that allows them to use 4 levels of mage, they then have access to 5 levels of warrior and 4 levels of mage, in addition to any bonus facet levels granted to them by their race.

The one restriction to magical outfits is that no two magical pieces of clothing may cover the same part of the body. There are eight sections which clothing may cover: Head, Eyes, Neck, Shoulders, Torso, Arms, Legs, and Feet. Next to the listings of the outfits are one or more letters that represent the parts of the body that the outfit covers. An outfit that uses every slot on the body, like a warrior’s magic armor, is represented by HENSTALF. The list of magical clothing can be found here.

Using Facets

When a character wishes to switch which facets they use, they must usually change magical outfits in the process. If they instead wish to shuffle facets around, they must still take the same amount of time, about a minute of uninterrupted concentration as they mentally shift gears. When a facet that was being used is no longer used, the HP and MP bonuses that the facets added are subtracted from the character’s total HP and MP and their current HP and MP. This can, on occasion, knock a character out. After the loss in HP and MP is resolved, add the HP and MP bonuses from the newly-added facets to the current and total HP and MP of the player. The end result should have them short the same amount of HP and MP that they were before they switched facets.

Alternative Facets

The facets listed on this page are considered basic facets particular to the MSF High setting. Alternative facets with other origins are available for characters at MSF High. They are detailed in the lists below.

Special MSF High Facets - These facets are considered to be more advanced than the regular facets. They have unusual abilities and usually have special entry requirements.

Mahou Galaxy Facets - These facets originate from the galactic factions and have abilities based on the themes of those factions.

Other Facets - These facets are considered miscellaneous. They typically originate from worlds with rare attributes.