Advanced Casting Techniques

The following page features all methods of spellcrafting that you unlock in later years, including when, how and their usages. For information on the basics of Merin, the spellcasting bot, return to Spell Casting & Learning.

Enchanting
Unlocks: Fifth Year Charms Class. Combat: Cannot be used in combat.

Enchanting is an advanced, artisan process. It requires an in-depth knowledge of the spell you’re intending to enchant into an object. When Enchanting, you create proper magical items.   
 * Enchanting follows the same rules and restrictions of the spell being used.
 * To Enchant a spell into an object, the individual spell must be mastered.
 *  Enchanted objects are considered of high value within The Wizarding World and creation of specialist Enchanted careers can be a career in its own right. Many other artistic jobs also use Enchanting to a degree.

What Can Be Enchanted?

 * Any Charm except for Dark Spells can theoretically be Enchanted into an object. Dark Spells are a more advanced process that is not taught in class and requires an app on an individual basis each time you wish to make a ‘Cursed Object’. These will likely cost tokens on top of the dark spell’s mastery.
 *  Almost all Transfiguration spells can be enchanted. Dark Transfiguration spells follow the same rules as Dark Charms. The ‘general transfigs’ cannot be used in Enchanting, this includes: 
 * Mutatifors
 * Vera Verto
 * Permutatio
 * Erigo
 * Integoficio
 * Antegoficio
 * Sublimatio
 * Desublimatio
 *  Non-spells in Merlin such as fly, apparate, Occlude or block cannot be used in Enchanting.
 * Exceptions to the 'any Charm' rule will be tagged with Cannot be Enchanted. in it's description. 

Creation

 *  When enchanting using a Transfiguration spell, you must have a clear and singular visualised object or creature in mind that is possible to produce with the spell during the Enchanting process. When used, the item always transforms itself or its target into the object or creature that was visualised during the initial Enchanting process. Through the placement of repeated enchantments on the same item, you can, however, produce an object that transforms into multiple variants of the same thing, e.g three different designs of handbag. 
 * Enchanting is a lengthy, difficult process that requires maintained focus. It can take upwards of several in character hours to enchant a spell onto an object. Whilst still getting used to the process this will take longer. It will, however, become easier and slightly shorter with practise. More advanced spells will take longer than simple ones, too. Advanced spells (20DC+) may take several weeks, accounting for breaks, and the most complex spells of all (25DC+), as well as the most ambitious uses of simpler spells (such as creating an object that can enlarge itself to truly immense sizes), can takes many months of concerted work to produce unless their descriptions state otherwise. 

Activation

 * Unless otherwise specified by a specific spell, enchanted objects can only be activated in one of two ways: by physical touch from a living and intelligent creature, or by wand at range. Once you learn wandless magic, you may activate at a distance without a wand, but will still require eye contact with the item. Specific physical components of an item, such as buttons, cranks or levers can be made the activator in place of general physical contact.
 *  In all instances you must be thinking about activating the object to make it happen - as a result you cannot accidentally activate an Enchanted item, nor can an item be weaponised on contact - this rule can only be broken when making a Cursed Object instead.
 *  Multiple Charms can be Enchanted onto a single object, but each one must be done individually, one at a time.

Disabling and Disenchanting

 *  Enchanted objects cannot be undone with general Counter-Spells, such as Finite Incantatem or Revelio. They can, however, be temporarily disabled with direct opposite Counter-Spells of equal level. E.g a door Enchanted with Furo Veto could still be unlocked by Aberto, but could not be unlocked by Alohomora. This is not roll based, any successful cast of Aberto - without spamming - would unlock a Furo Veto Enchanted door. However, the Enchantment would remain, reactivating once the door was closed again.
 *  Multiple Charms can be Enchanted onto a single object, but each one must be done individually, one at a time.
 *  Disenchanting an object is as complicated as the initial Enchanting process. It requires a similarly lengthy amount of time as well as mastery of the spell you’re removing from the object. If the object has multiple enchantments, they must be done one by one.
 *  Over a long period of time or after excessive use Enchantments will begin to fade, needing to be 'repaired' by going through the Enchanting process again. This process follows all the same rules as typical Enchanting, such as requiring mastery of the spells involved, as well as knowledge of the item itself. Regular maintenance and touch ups will decrease the need for more time consuming repairs.

Additional Token Costs
 
 * If you want to Enchant an object of size equal to or greater than a small flat, then it may cost a token somewhere between Apprentice - Master depending on the specifics of the spell and object in question. This reflects the unusual difficulty of Enchanting on such a scale. The limit takes into account size-manipulation spells - it would be impossible to circumvent by enchanting a smaller object capable of growing in size past those limits.

Enchanting Specific Spells

 * Some Charms are so advanced that Enchanting is the only way to perform them. These spells are all tagged with the Is Enchanting. attribute. Currently, this includes:
 * Protos Akolouthos, Protean Charm. Unlocks Fifth Year Charms Class.
 * Capacious, Extension Charm. Unlocks GradA.
 * Capacious Extremis, Undetectable Extension Charm. Unlocks Post Grad 4 aka Adult. 
 * These follow all of the above rules, with the exception of requiring mastery. Instead, you can enchant effects based on the number of spell points you’ve invested. See the spell descriptions for more details on the specifics. 

Enchanted Object Trading Rules

 * When giving an Enchanted item to another player, whether that be as a gift or an in character purchase, you must follow these rules. 
 * You cannot trade Enchanted items that include a spell above the person your trading to's year, unless they pay an appropriate token cost for the item.


 * When trading an item that includes a spell of DC 21+ the person receiving the item must always pay the token cost for the item. The application expectations for these trades are incredibly brief.
 * To operate an item with a Dark Enchantment, you must have successfully applied for at least one Dark spell previously or apply be able to operate Dark magic items (one apprentice token), following the same rules as Dark magic app.

Group Casting
Unlocks: Fourth Year Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. Combat: Cannot be used in combat.

Group casting is the act of multiple wix banding together to empower a spell.
 * 1) To group cast at least one participant needs to have the spell in question mastered. The others participating in the cast need to be at least proficient in the spell.
 * 2) The person who has the spell mastered (or the person designated to focus the spell if multiple people have mastered it) rolls the spell as normal.
 * 3) Once the spell has been rolled add the participants learns and year mod to the dice roll.
 * 4) This sets the final rolled result for the spell.

Non-Verbal
Unlocks: Sixth Year Charms Class. Early Unlock: 1 Journeyman Token with an Apprentice Token refunded to you if you take your time mastering it across Year 4 and 5 (study theory in 4th year, practical begins in 5th), or 1 Journeyman Token outright if studied and learned in Year 5. More information Here. Combat: Unlocks in GradA, or seventh year with early access. Allows you to cast with the V modifier instead of the C modifier.

The ability to cast spells whilst eschewing incantations. Aids stealth and is useful in combat, but requires an experienced and powerful wizard to use successfully and reliably.

Recommended Learning Guideline

 * Start with more basic non-combat Charms, Lumos, etc. Ones your character knows personally (modifiers, ic history!) should be easier. Base the ease on DC and year - the lower the simpler.
 * Recommended roughly a term to get to grips with being able to cast reliably.
 * Some wands are better for non-verbal - others less so. Feel free to investigate yours to figure out how you want to RP that!
 * If looking to cast mechanically, it's recommend starting with !cast INCANTATION vc -4 Then reduce the negative modifier by 1 each OOC week. Remove the C modifier at the end of term. V must always be used for non-verbal.

Wandless
Unlocks: Can be researched and learnt independently for free in seventh year. Early Unlock: If studied independently over fifth year, can be used in sixth year for a Journeyman Token. More information here. Combat: You can cast spells without a wand, even in combat. However, you must still use the W modifier, as well as the V or C modifier depending on whether it's being cast verbally. Can be researched and learnt independently for free in seventh year.

The ability to cast spells without a wand. Aids stealth and allows for casting even when disarmed, but requires an experienced and powerful wizard to use successfully and reliably.

Warding
Unlocks: Fifth Year Defense Against the Dark Arts Class. Combat: Cannot be used in combat.

A ward is a spell that is anchored in a location and a few wards are multipurpose. Spells such as Protego Totalum and onwards from the Protego line still double as shields in combat. To cast a spell as a ward it needs to be anchored in a location in at least three places. The easiest way of doing this is walking around the location chanting the incantation locking the area down.
 * A ward requires full concentration to maintain unless the spell is mastered.
 * Wards are not combat applicable.
 * Wards can be group cast.
 * Ward Applicable spells will be tagged as Wardable. in their spell descriptions.