Spellcraft
Spellcraft: Academic Preparation and Formulaic Power
Spells are the core of Spellweaver magic. Each spell is a complicated ritual the caster must learn as a Maneuver which requires long minutes of uninterrupted concentration, chanting, a secret sign language and special reagents. Most require diagrams in chalk or salt, incense, ceremonial robes, rare and/or expensive materials, etc. Without these things the ritual will be at a significant difficulty modifier, or maybe just impossible.
What? Useless, you say? Not at all! Perhaps it would be, if you had to do all this every time you wanted to use the spell, but of course you do not! These elaborate rituals allow the Spellweaver to gather and bind power to be released later. Once a spell is so bound, the caster can release it at a moment's notice with no more than a focused thought and the smallest gesture, but doing so unbinds the gathered power and removes it from availability. Releasing a spell this way is blindingly fast, but limited; it has only the power bound into it, and doesn't get a new roll to improve it, though the target likely still gets their roll to resist. Still useless, you think?
Fortunately the sages of the art have mastered another way to use it. When a spell is bound, a trained Spellweaver can channel similar energies through it when they choose. The construct shapes and focuses the power into a likeness of itself, but it requires skill and concentration, and a careless or unlucky caster might destabilize the bound spell and lose it until he successfully performs the ritual again.
The Mechanics
In the simplest case, the mage can simply cast a spell by performing the long ritual. For some spells this even makes sense, but most of the time they will select spells to bind.
Binding Spells
To do this, the ritual of casting dedicates at least one rank of their Spellweaver Role. Ranks bound this way are no longer available for other uses; they apply when casting this spell, or when counterspelling this spell or any effect the GM rules sufficiently similar. This sets an absolute maximum number of spells the character can bind.
Simple, common spells are generally DL0. The ritual of binding for the spell creates potential effect, but unless they immediately release it they must decide how many points of the generated effect they want bound. If they have extra Maneuver ranks in the spell, they can choose to bind those as well, but at least one actual Role rank must always be included, and either a Role or Maneuver rank for every point of effect they choose to keep.
All points bound into a spell are always available for the casting or countering of that spell, but now they are unavailable for anything else. This is no loss for Maneuver ranks, but unbound Role ranks can always be used when casting or countering any spell, so it reduces the mage's flexibility. The only reason to bind more than one Role rank into a spell is for more effective fast-casting.
Three Ways To Cast Spells
In some worlds only one or two of these are viable. Each way to do it can be the only way magic is cast, though the default is to use all three.
Full Ritual
This was already detailed above. In worlds where this is the only way to cast magic the spells are not cast in combat, but they can still be quite useful if your setting is designed for it.
Releasing The Spell
This is "fast-casting". The energy stored in the spell is unwound and directed as the effect. This can be done as a free action, which makes it very useful!
There are two major downsides to this, however. The first is that you can't add any skill that wasn't already bound into it. You already rolled when the spell was bound, and any unbound effect bled away, wasted. The other is that when a spell is released the energy is spent, so it is no longer bound. It removes the spell from your repertoire until you can rebind it.
If this is the only way to cast a spell, bind some with more effect, even at the cost of a wider selection. As an alchemist, this is a great way to implement potions, but if you were planning to sell them you should remember that you have ranks of your Role in those bottles…
Recasting
Once a spell is bound the mage can channel energy through it in an attempt to replicate its effect in real time. This means she spends a turn and makes a roll, just as if she were performing any other task. All unbound Role ranks apply, as do any bound in the spell, and all of the Maneuver ranks for it, bound or not. If the spell is successfully cloned this way all bound ranks are preserved, and the spell can be recast again and again until the roll fails. Going over or rolling a zero always destabilizes the spell, and it is lost until it can be rebound. The good news is that any Role ranks bound in it become available for other spells.
Recasting this way is fast enough to do in a fight, but it isn't a free action. The character must be able to gesture broadly, and strongly invoke key words of power. If that attracts unwanted attention, it's the cost of keeping your spell bound.
Counterspells
A master of spellcraft understands the workings and underpinnings of magic in ways few other practitioners do, and is able to disrupt hostile spells and other magics at the source — unbound spellcraft and relevant Maneuver ranks always apply, as do any bound to spells that are directly relevant. This is a direct opposition roll to suppress the targeted effect, or can be a free action resistance roll if it doesn't help anyone else.
The GM may tighten or broaden the applicability of spells to tune the game; if any fire spell allows countering any fire effect, such as the attacks of a fire elemental, the Spellweaver will be considerably more powerful; if the Firebolt spell only counts against another Firebolt spell, he will still be able to use his base level. He could use a Maneuver to learn the ability to apply certain spells more broadly: Fire Counter is a perfectly valid Maneuver.
So what IS a "Spell"?
We could say it's just a Maneuver, or a mechanic, but how is that putting story first?
A spell is a very complicated and particular skill that Spellweavers learn. Until you learn to do it for yourself, you'll never really understand it; that's no different from calculus, or alchemy, or a good riposte. You start by following the formula, and eventually you start to get it.
Structurally, a spell is a construct in the Borderlands, a bit of clockwork engineering made entirely out of energy, aether, wonder and will, with specific symbolic correspondences based on both personal and widely common concepts, usually represented in idioms, axioms, and similar sayings, that cause harmonic transference into the physical world when triggered through a suitable medium.
What really matters is what you can do with it.
Limitations
Spells do not perceive or think. A spell cannot make a decision. They have no sensors, though they can have triggers; this is more like setting tripwires and levers than eyes and ears. Keep that clockwork image in mind! The triggers might be complex, but they are always mechanistic.
This is why scrying spells are actually just a framework for the caster to astrally project. The caster can then travel at the speed of thought through stone and sky to seek out what they want, but spells don't just create true information. They can do wonders with anchors, however — blood of a creature is always connected to blood of that creature, though the threads fade and get weaker with time…
Practical Implementation
In practice, spells work just like anything else. A Warrior's damage is determined by his roll. A Sniper's can be applied at range, but the range reduces precision, and so damage as well. A Sneak's ability to disappear around a corner, a Performer's gift for changing a merchant's sour mood… everything a character does is rolled and resisted, and the effect is always the difference. Spells are mostly the same.
The trick is that spells can theoretically do anything, so you'll have to learn to think of them in terms of numbers rolled on dice. For some spells that's easy. POOF, FireBolt! You grit your teeth and squeeze your eyes shut, you interpose a shield, and you roll to see how much of the effect you managed to ameliorate. For some it takes a little more thinking. What if someone devises a spell to "charm" someone? Are they suddenly mind controlled? How does that work? When designing spells, always keep one eye on implementation details. Story first, but for spells, mechanics are a close second.
The good news is that the mechanics are usually not hard at all once you get the hang of it. The vast flexibility is counterbalanced by the binding mechanic that makes Role ranks unavailable to other tasks. This is intentional.
Spell Design
The most important element of a spell is its Manifestation. What does it do? What does that look like? Thorn Dart, Flame Lance, Douse, and Mind Spike are all very different spells even though they are all rolled very much the same way. Which would you use against a fire elemental? Douse seems pretty obvious, and that's the point. Against an armored knight it might be the least effective — water just splashes off steel — but a Mind Spike would bypass all his armor. A spell's Manifestation is purely a part of its description, but it matters.
Damage Spells
Most harmful spells work like Sniper attacks, with manifestation determining how they can be resisted. A Flame Lance creates a physical thrust of piercing, burning force — targets can dodge or block, and armor applies normally, as would any heat resistance. Balefire assaults the spirit directly; it can ONLY affect supernatural targets, though that does include other active wielders of magic… Mind Spike strikes the psyche, and victims can only roll base Level plus supernatural Role ranks for resistance, but it inflicts explicit Complication damage by default rather than true Injury. Tanglebones applies a Hindrance rather than actual damage, but slows victims to the point of paralysis if the unresisted effect is enough!
Defensive Spells
These typically create Boosts for resisting specific types of defense, and are often fast-cast. A Gale Shield might save you from incoming arrows, applied to your free action resistance roll. Flicker offers effective if indirect defense by teleporting you away from danger entirely.
Enhancement Spells
Many spells function as Boosts for specific activities. Might grants supernatural strength; Fleet Foot makes you swift as a coursing hare. Wind Steed grants flight.
Utility Spells
Environmental and convenience magic can solve problems mundane skills cannot. Light creates illumination. LongArm grants telekinesis, allowing the mage to manipulate items at distance. Various scrying spells relocate the caster's senses to distant locales. The manifestation determines what problems each spell can solve.