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{{trope}}
{{quote|'''Leeky Windstaff:''' You did not actually prepare any [[Kryptonite Factor|sonic energy spells]] today, did you?
'''Vaarsuvius:''' Not as such, no.
'''Leeky Windstaff:''' Truly, more wizards have been laid low by the writings of [[
'''Vaarsuvius:''' [[Blatant Lies|On an unrelated note]], would you consider a brief pause in the battle? Say, about eight hours or so?|''[[The Order of the Stick
'''Vancian Magic''' is a specific form of "[[Functional Magic|rule magic]]" that conforms to these functional rules (along with whatever other metaphysics the writer chooses):
# Magical effects are packaged into distinct spells; each spell has one fixed purpose. A spell that throws a ball of fire at an enemy ''just'' throws balls of fire, and generally cannot be "turned down" to light a cigarette, for instance.
# Spells represent a kind of "magic-bomb" which must be prepared in advance of actual use, and each prepared spell can be used only once before needing to be prepared again.
# Magicians have a finite capacity of prepared spells which is the de facto measure of their skill and/or power as magicians. A wizard using magic for combat is thus something like a living gun: he must be "loaded" with spells beforehand and can run out of magical "ammunition".
A frequently used fourth rule is a [[Naming Conventions|naming convention]]: Possessives and variations
This tends to create the problem that the mage must somehow ''know'' which spells will be most useful in the near future. If you are expecting combat, then you aren't going to prepare "talk with animals" that day. If you need to talk with an animal, you are then out of luck unless you wait until the next day. To work around this problem, some writers use a [[Mana]] or "spell points" system, where the mage can cast any spells they know at any time, using up some of a fixed pool of energy which then gets replenished later.
The name comes from [[
{{examples|Examples}}▼
== Anime & Manga ==▼
* In ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima (Manga)|Mahou Sensei Negima]]'', [[Weasel Mascot]] chamo often shows up to bring up concepts such as magical limits and exertion, [[Heroic Resolve|which Negi tends to push]]. Also, many wizards in the series like to subvert the "Magic-bomb" variety of spells by ''overpreparing them'': wizards who chant a spell -- depending on its power and complexity -- are said to be able to hold said spell for at least 20 seconds, effectively eliminating the weakness of enemies knowing what they're about to be attacked with (RPG-style interruption becomes a full-on plot-point when fighting speedy warriors because of this). For a good example of this in action, see the fight with {{spoiler|Takamichi and Rakan}}, but mainly the former.▼
* Certain scroll techniques seem to be used this way in ''[[Naruto (Anime)|Naruto]]'', most frequently paper-bombs.▼
== Card Games ==▼
* ''[[Magic the Gathering (Tabletop Game)|Magic the Gathering]]'', in that the "ammo" is represented by cards -- you can only cast a spell if you have a card for it, and each card is used up once its spell is cast. ''Magic'''s Vancian-ness comes into play in games more often than you'd think. Let's say you have a Fungusaur (2/2, gets bigger as it takes damage), and you want to Shock (does 2 damage) it to strengthen it. You'll kill it. On the other hand, X-cost spells can be "toned down" by just using less mana. And finally, some spells are nerfed just because the original was too powerful, or because the new spell has more options. Fire, for instance, just does two damage (divided any way you want), whereas its predecessor, Arc Lightning, did three, but Fire gives you the option of Ice, a more expensive form of Twiddle (tap or untap anything).▼
** Depending on the writer, this can turn up in the books: in one instance, Barrin is mentioned as having prepared only certain spells, though this is probably an attempt to explain one of the game mechanics within the universe.▼
▲* In ''[[
▲* Certain scroll techniques seem to be used this way in ''[[
== Comic Books ==
* Used by the White Witch, in the pre-boot ''[[Legion of Super-Heroes (
* In ''Comics Scene'' #9, Chuck Dixon noted that he wrote magic users in his [[Conan the Barbarian]] stories as having similarly restricted by stringent parameters for magic, with users required to make at times painful sacrifices and efforts.
== Literature ==
* As noted above, originated in [[
* Also used in [[Roger Zelazny]]'s ''[[Book of Amber|Amber]]'' mythos: Merlin, hero of the later novels, explicitly prepares and "hangs" spells to be used later. However, prepared spells decay over time and must be prepared again even if not used. There, it's a matter of pre-constructed spells allowing more efficiency, and a [properly trained] sorcerer can use magic anywhere on a spectrum from Vancian magic to realtime improvisation with the raw forces of the universe. It's not that a wizard ''can't'' come up with a spell in the middle of a battle, it's just that a wizard who comes prepared can spend less time worrying about the most elegant formulation of a spell and more time not getting fried by the opposition. The "hanging" spells take this a little further: if you want to use a highly complicated spell in battle, it saves everyone's time if you've already cast most of the spell in advance.
* In the ''[[
* Joel Rosenberg's ''[[Guardians of the Flame]]'' series, which features a set of ''D&D''-playing college students who are transported into
* Witches in Kim Harrison's ''[[The Hollows]]'' series usually make spells in advance. Spells are made in small batches, and only last for a couple of days before they won't work. And one can only carry as many as one has space for on one's person or in one's handbag, or car, or... More accurately, they prepare spells as potions, making this more [[Functional Magic|Device Magic]].
* Used heavily, with well-defined parameters, in Lawrence Watt-Evans' ''[[Ethshar]]''. There are many different forms of magic, the Vancian one being Wizardry. This is fire-and-forget, heavily dependent on ritual and materials or foci, uses the naming convention almost universally, and most significantly, structured into levels: spell "orders", a second-order spell being eight to ten times as hard as as a first order spell, and so on. There are at least twelve orders referenced, so small wonder that major wizards use an eternal youth spell so they have studying time.
* In Matthew Stover's ''[[
* In Diane Duane's ''[[Young Wizards]]'' series, Kit and Nita often use this method of spellcasting, and even sometimes "pre-load" their spells (i.e., "writing" all but the last word of the spell so that it can be used at a moment's notice.) Of course, Kit and Nita have favorite spells, so presumably it's easier for them to remember those words. And of course, at one point Nita actually carries a ''utility bracelet'' of spells.
* In Patricia C. Wrede's ''[[Enchanted Forest Chronicles]]'' the Society of Wizards has a magic system that is very similar, though not identical, to Vancian Magic. Some of the other magic users in the same world use a similar system; spells must be prepared through ritual beforehand, and cast on the spot through the use of a magic word which is set up during the ritual as a trigger. ("Argelfraster" is the one that shows up over and over.)
* In ''[[
* The allomancers in Brandon Sanderson's ''[[Mistborn]]'' are all about this. They only have a set amount of metal reserves to draw from for very specific effects. Once those are used up, they're the same as anyone else.
** It looks like vancian magic, but has more in common with the [[Mana|spell point]] system - you can use the same magical ability as many times as you want until your metal reserves run out, and only need to drink what is essentially a "mana potion" - a tincture of metal particles - to refill your reserves.
* Mages in the ''[[
== Tabletop Games ==
▲=== Card Games ===
▲* ''[[Magic:
▲** Depending on the writer, this can turn up in the books: in one instance, Barrin is mentioned as having prepared only certain spells, though this is probably an attempt to explain one of the game mechanics within the universe.
=== Tabletop
* The original ''[[Dungeons
** [[Psychic Powers|Psionics]] existing alongside the magic optional used <s>[[Mana]]</s> Psionic Strength Points from the very beginning in ''AD&D''.
** AD&D 2nd Edition rulebooks has enough metamagic spells to compose a (semi-official) "school", allowing more flexibility in
** [[Mana|Spell-point]] systems of all official products were used only in [[Forgotten Realms|Netheril]] setting <ref>where arcanists were ''supposed to be'' quite powerful</ref> and Players Options
** In 3rd Edition, a spell's effects can be fine-tuned with "metamagic feats", and sorcerers, a separate class from wizards, don't have to prepare spells ([[Competitive Balance|but can only know a very limited number of them]]).
*** 3rd Edition also changed the default in-story explanation from "forget the spell when cast"(as mentioned with Dragonlance Chronicles, also used by Vance himself and mocked by Pratchett) to "finish a nearly completed ritual", more akin to the Amber example.
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** Many of the late 3.5e variant mechanics, from the Warlock on, were playtests for a new system to appear in 4e. The 3.5e ''Book of Nine Swords'' moved Vancian encounter powers onto non-magical characters, and at least 4E arrived which ironically both weakened and strengthened Vancian rules.
** 4th Edition gave characters of every class, magic or not, "at-will powers," similar to the 3.5e Warlock's invocations, that can be used as much as a character wants with no penalty. At the same time, the new edition gave ''every character class'' Vancian abilities, from Cleric prayers to Fighter exploits. The encounter power mechanic sort of splits the difference between Vancian powers and at-will one by having the encounter powers only refresh after a brief rest. The game still uses the Daily Power mechanic though; like the other two mechanics, it is used with every class (a point of contention amongst some fans – Fighters and Rangers who forget their best exploits after using them – but one that has been elaborated on and explained as the edition has advanced with new books such as ''Martial Power 2'').
*** In addition, 4th Edition has added a ritual system based in [[Hermetic Magic]] rather than Vancian, adapting some of the larger and more potent spells from earlier editions into something anybody can use if they take the feat to perform rituals and have the appropriate skill for the ritual (with the exception of Bardic Rituals, which require being a ''Bard''). The irony here is that most of the ''fourth rule'' spells of earlier editions, like ''Tenser's Floating Disk'' or ''Bigby's Giant Hand,'' have been turned into Rituals rather than remaining as Vancian spells amongst one or more of the class powers. This is likely due to Rituals being a broader access, while each class has it's own, personalised power list, rather than drawing from a general exploit, spell, prayer, evocation, discipline, or hex list (corresponding to Martial, Arcane, Divine, Primal, Psionic, and Shadow Power Sources, respectively).
*** As a corollary, ''Psionic'' powers, previously completely different from the Vancian system and power point based, have now been pulled somewhat closer in. Outside of the Monk's disciplines, the disciplines of the other Psionic classes are a mixture of at-will and daily
** ''[[
** The Vancian system was completely scrapped for the D20 ''[[Star Wars]]'' game. Force powers have no limit on uses and are used by making a skill check, though your character does have a limited supply of Force Points you can use to make them more powerful or give yourself bonuses, and the powers themselves [[Cast
** Also scrapped for the d20 ''[[
** However, retained for ''[[
* Many such lesser spells from ''Warhammer Fantasy Battle'' show up in ''[[
* Played with in ''[[Warhammer (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer]]'': Battle Wizards (and sorcerers, shamans etc.) can have up to four "levels" of magic, each level representing a spell and a die to cast spells with. No normal wizard can then cast each spell they know more than once, so even the most powerful archmage is limited to 4 spells. However this limit refreshes each 'turn' rather than each 'day' as is common in other tabletop systems. Wizards can also opt to have a better chance of casting a given spell by neglecting to cast one or more of their others and using the power thus saved on their big kill-everything-within-fifty-feet spell. Of course this is still ''Warhammer''; using more dice on a spell in this way increases the risk of mis-casting and something horrible happening.<br />It's also worth noting that the "Battle Magic" spells featured are simply the most powerful spells known to those schools of magic, wizards technically know a host of lesser spells as well, but these lesser magics are more the province of roleplaying games than wargames focusing on clashing armies.▼
* ''[[
▲* Many such lesser spells show up in ''[[Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay (Tabletop Game)|Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay]]'', which obeys the first law but not the second and third. Wizards know a certain number of predefined spells, but can use them as often as they dare. In some editions, certain types of magic (mostly necromancy) can bypass these limits.
* Slightly subverted, and then averted, in ''[[
▲* ''[[GURPS (Tabletop Game)|GURPS]]: Thaumatology'' spends a few pages discussing how to make Vancian magic work with its system. The default magic is based more on [[Larry Niven]] than Vance, however, and ''Thaumatology'' consists mostly of a toolbox for inventing any magic system you want.
* ''[[TORG]]'' mostly uses more Hermetic magic, but in the more magical realms, mages can also learn Imprinted spells, which allows them to do the long prep of a spell beforehand, and then at some point later perform the one gesture final part of the spell to invoke it instantly.▼
▲* Slightly subverted, and then averted, in ''[[Unknown Armies (Tabletop Game)|Unknown Armies]]''. Adepts have to have charges to cast spells, but you can use one or more charges for one of a number of different effects (depending on the charge size), and, when all else fails, use it for a Random Magic effect, which is (mostly) determined by the GM. Meanwhile, Avatars don't have any kind of charge system: they just choose to do it, and they do (if they pass the roll, of course).
* ''[[
▲* ''TORG'' mostly uses more Hermetic magic, but in the more magical realms, mages can also learn Imprinted spells, which allows them to do the long prep of a spell beforehand, and then at some point later perform the one gesture final part of the spell to invoke it instantly.
▲* ''[[Tabletop Game]]/Rolemaster'' has a "power points" system. A character has, regardless of profession, power points according to their level, spellcaster professions tend to have good attributes for their respective magic types (intuition for channeling, empathy for essence, presence for mentalism), resulting in more power points than a fighter (although each character has to choose their magic domain when creating the character so that if they decide, for some reason, at some point, to try to learn spells they can't just [[Ass Pull|pull it out of their arses]]).
* The Swedish RPG ''Chronopia'' has Librumages (who stores their spells as pages in giant tomes) as well as the powder based Cranemorts (essentially Vodoo priests) and Witchbarons (who use more standard spells). While both types require quite exotic ingredients to mix the ink/powder as well as much time and energy to prepare their spells, once they're loaded up however, the only real limit to their stored spells is their carrying capacity (and you can bet that they always keep more at home).
* Naturally, ''[[Amber Diceless Roleplaying]]'', following its source material, includes "hanging" spells, Vance-style, in its magic systems.
=== War Games ===
▲* Played with in ''[[Warhammer
== Video Games ==
* Unsurprisingly, pretty much every video game based on ''[[Dungeons
** With the sole exception of ''[[
** And ''[[
* Used extensively in the ''[[
** Also part of gameplay in [[Fighting Game
* Every technique in ''[[Pokémon]]'' has a set amount of PP that determines how many times a Pokémon can use it. The only exception is Struggle, the default attack every Pokémon knows but can only use after all other moves have been exhausted, and the user experiences recoil damage when its used.
* The BattleChips in ''[[
* Magic works just like this in ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[
* ''[[Suikoden I]]'' used a magic system similar to ''[[
* ''[[
* Japanese [[Roguelike]] ''[https://web.archive.org/web/20100529041656/http://homepage3.nifty.com/rfish/index_e.html Elona]'' follows this to the letter. Quite unfortunate considering how easy it is to fail most high-end spells, and how rare their books are.
* Similarly, the roguelike ''[[Ancient Domains of Mystery]]'' uses the same system, Vancian Casting from MP. [[Nintendo Hard|Somehow]], ''ADOM'' is somewhat more forgiving than ''Elona'' about spells. Some of the best books are extremely rare, but reading an entire spellbook grants hundreds of castings.
* The ''[[Enchanter]]'' trilogy from [[Infocom]] plays this almost completely straight. The spells themselves are very tongue in cheek with "fold dough 13 times", "balance checkbook", and "turn original into triplicate" being several examples. Or, for that matter, "turn purple things invisible".
** There was a book written in the ''Enchanter'' universe, which added a few points to the system along reasonable lines. It's possible though difficult to memorize a spell permanently (depending on the spell and caster, this can take months to years of effort), and the enchanter's school mentioned trains every student to 'lock up' Gnusto, which copies a spell from a scroll into a spellbook. Spells can be cast directly from a spellbook rather than memorized, although it means you actually have to read and speak the spell rather than simply release it from your mind. And a spell's exact effects (and appearance written in a spellbook) are dependent on the personality of the caster or the book's owner. The last is used to explain why all the best magic-users tend towards the [[Bunny Ears Lawyer]] type.
* ''[[The Spellcasting Series]]'', written in part by the same people, does the same thing, and ups the ante by including a spell that transforms other spells. "Enlarge Tree Root" -> "Enlarge Wee Fruit", and so forth.
* The game ''Balances'' by Graham Nelson was written as a demonstration of how to write Vancian magic in the [http://www.inform-fiction.org Inform programming language], and is explicitly based on the ''Enchanter'' series. As befits its status as a demo program and source of code snippets, it takes Vancian magic [[Up to Eleven]]
* In ''[[
* ''[[Legend of Dragoon]]'' features spells as buyable, boostable combat items. This would be useful, were they not [[Inventory Management Puzzle|forced to share the same limited inventory space as your healing items]]. It does have a few reuseable spell items though.
* The panel system in ''[[Kingdom Hearts|Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days]]'' works this way. On a grid, you select which items, weapons, abilities, and magic spells you have before you take on a mission. During the mission, you are limited only to the amount of casts that you've set up for your spells.
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* ''[[Kings Bounty]]'' (the original one). The hero has a finite number of spell slots (determined by class, level, and gained artifacts). Spells can be bought in towns or found as treasure, and to be able to buy spells hero must have free spell slots (when found, spells may go over the limit number, though). Each spell is one-shot.
* In ''[[Wandering Hamster]]'', Bob the Hamster, who is a [[Cute Bruiser]] [[Magic Knight]], uses this type of magic in the form of his Magic Smite spells.
* In ''[[
* Magic in ''[[Dark Souls]]'' consists of putting spells in attunement slots giving a certain number of uses before needing to rest at the bonfire. And if you find multiple scrolls of the same spell, you can double up on it.
* Alchemy in ''[[Mabinogi (
* This is how [[Boom Stick|staves]] and enchantments work in ''[[The Elder Scrolls]]'' series, though the magical item in question generally has several "uses" before it runs out of energy. Alchemy also works like this. You gather ingredients with different effects throughout your travels, then "prepare" single-use potions (for yourself) or poisons (for enemies) when you're not in the middle of a battle. The effects of said potions and poisons are typically stronger than spells of the same skill level, but are limited by the fact that you can only use them once (and in the case of poisons, on single targets only, rather than groups).
=== Visual Novels ===▼
* Rin Tohsaka from ''[[Fate/stay
▲== Visual Novels ==
▲* Rin Tohsaka from ''[[Fate Stay Night (Visual Novel)|Fate Stay Night]]'' uses gems which store prana in them. They act as prana bombs and are an equivalent of an A-rank spell.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
▲[[Category:Vancian Magic]]
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