Spellform Feats
If you have the pieces, it's only natural to try to put them together, even if you end up with something completely different than what the pieces came from. So it is with the pieces of spells that form the basis for Remnant Magic. As casters experiment with the remnants that they learn, they find that they can piece them together into familiar spells and other, more unique, spell-like effects. All of these represent a very different type of magic than what remnant casters are used to. Collectively, these strange constructions of magical energy are known as spellforms.
Spellforms are presented here as a supplemental game mechanic that can be used to increase the power and versatility of remnant casters. Without them, remnant casting is atypical for a magic-like system of abilities in that it grows in power strictly linearly, like in the case of fighters and rogues, rather than quadratically like with wizards and psions. Though they are not necessary for a campaign that includes remnant magic, they can add a lot of depth to the strategies used by remnant casters.
About Spellforms
A spellform is treated like a spell for all practical purposes besides fulfilling prerequisites for prestige classes. Each has an effective level, which is treated as the level of the spell effect for those same purposes. Casting a spellform is always a standard action, always requires verbal and somatic components, and never requires material or XP components (or divine foci for divine remnant casters). Spellforms are treated as arcane when cast by casters of arcane remnants, and are subject to arcane spell failure chances in those cases. Likewise, they are treated as divine when cast by divine casters.
A remnant caster who knows spellforms can use feats, including metamagic feats, on them. Metamagic feats are be used on spellforms at the time of casting; to use one, the caster must expend an additional number of uses of that spellform equal to the amount by which the metamagic feat raises the spell slot level needed. If she does not have enough daily uses of the spellform remaining to accomplish this, she cannot use the metamagic feat at that time.
Learning Spellforms
Spellforms are generally learned through spellform feats, a new subclass of feats that counts as remnant feats for the purpose of remnant casting class bonus feats. Each spellform feat teaches 3 spellforms of different effective levels, but it is not necessary to be able to cast any of them at the time of learning the feat in order to qualify for it. Any remnant caster may take a spellform feat in place of a general or remnant feat at any time.
Spellform feats are categorized by the school of magic shared by all of the spellforms they teach. There are two spellform feats for each school, each indicated by a "I" or a "II." The numerals do not signify any hierarchy, but merely serve to differentiate the feats from each other. A remnant caster may select either or neither or both of the spellform feats corresponding to a given school, and each must be obtained individually through a means that grants a general or remnant feat.
When playing with spellforms, all remnant casting classes gain a bonus spellform feat at each level divisible by 6. This is in addition to remnant casters' ability to gain spellforms by taking a feat. As with all variants, the rules governing the presence of spellforms in a campaign are at the discretion of the GM.
Casting Spellforms
Each spellform is composed of a number of component remnants, spell remnants which must be fit together to produce the spellform. In order to cast a spellform, a remnant caster must first cast (as a free action with her normal remnant casting for that round) all of the component remnants, which produce no effect other than to allow the casting of the resultant spellform. This means that the caster must know or have prepared every component remnant to be able to produce a spellform effect. All component remnants for a given spellform must be cast from the same remnant casting class, and her primary casting modifier and CL for that class act as those attributes for the cast spellform. The save for a spellform is 10 + the effective spell level + the caster's primary casting modifier.
A remnant caster can only cast a certain number of each type of spellform each day. For any given caster of character level L and spellform of effective spell level SL, this amount is equal to (L/2-SL)/2. Round up both times when dividing by 2, making sure to round the value in the parentheses before making the second division. If this formula would yield a value of at least 1 per day, the caster may cast that spellform. Unlike spells, multiple spellforms of the same effective level stack with respect to the number of times per day they can be used. Thus, a level 10 Remnant Mage who had taken Form Evocation I and Form Illusion I would be able to cast Apparent Strength 2 times a day, Invisibility Purge 2 times a day, Fire Snow once a day, and Illusory Wall once a day. She would not be able to cast Force Cube or Project Image until she reached level 15, despite having the feat from an earlier level.
