Mantle (spell)

Mantle was an advanced, complex and powerful protective spell. It created a defensive field centered on and moving with the caster, which combined a staggering amount of effects in a single spell.

Description
Once cast, which took about two minutes, the mantle moved with the caster, persisting on all parts of their body and equipment- even the ones that were separated. A mantle lasted until the caster either died, willed it to collapse, or ran out of lifeforce: it sapped a small amount of vitality from the caster on creation, and every 24 hours thereafter. A mantle that stayed on for more than two days would begin to run an exponentially increasing risk of permanently draining the wizard's vitality.

A wizard who cast a mantle gained a number of protective effects. The basic mantle conferred feather fall, protection from normal missiles, and immunity to repulsion. The spell could also absorb one spell chosen by the caster, which would add to its endurance against dispel attempts. Finally, it granted resistance against most spells, and additional resistance against enchantment and illusion spells, going so far as to continuously contest such spells that took effect, making it almost a certainty that they would be broken. Finally, the basic version of the spell also granted the ability to control the temperature around the mantle slightly, to quell gusts inside the mantle area, and to unleash a single spell of the caster's choice at maximum possible effects.

Stronger versions of the mantle could be cast, at the cost of additional spell slots of higher level. Curiously, wizards were not capable of casting mantles of intermediate strength; a wizard could only choose their strongest mantle, or the basic version. The caster gained new powers as their art progressed in power: they progressively gained the ability to, while the mantle was active, levitate themselves, use telekinesis, a boosted resistance against all spells, fly, dimension door, teleport, teleport without error, and shapechange.

Along with each set of powers, the wizard gained the ability to boost one spell to maximum possible effect and to designate another spell for the mantle to negate, the mantle's resistance to dispelling being bolstered in the process. Additional powers for the mantle were as follows: together with telekinesis, the mantle could be made to glow with faerie fire; along with dimension door, the mantle began to burn undead by touch; along with teleport, the mantle expanded to cover one more person in contact with the caster; along with teleport without error, the mantle could be used to hold a spell of slightly lower level than its own, to be released either on command or on a given set of conditions. At the pinnacle of conventional sorcery, it could expand to cover two people in contact with the caster.

Mantles could continue to gain in power beyond the ken of conventional magic, if used by a powerful enough magician. Those began with the ability to transfer the mantle to another person, who did not need the ability to cast spells in order to unleash them; then, as they continued to progress, they gained the ability to split into three basic mantles for three different targets, wraithform which could be activated and deactivated at will through the duration, spell reflection against all spells from a selected school, the ability to instantly break wall of force or minor globe of invulnerability spells on contact without harm to the mantle, then globe of invulnerability and antimagic field in addition to that, then prismatic wall and prismatic sphere, immunity to reverse gravity and limited wish, imprisonment and time stop, and finally weird and wish. The version known as of  had no known augmentations past this point.

On exceeding the levels of conventional sorcery, the mantle could hold two different spells instead of one. As progress continued, the user became capable of sacrificing spells in order to heal themselves, whether hung or memorized; along with the ability to cast wraithform, the caster gained the ability to hang a spell as powerful as a base mantle. Together with spell reflection, the caster gained the ability to hang a second spell of the power of a base mantle. Together with each cleaving ability of the mantle against wall of force and minor globe of invulnerability or globe of invulnerability and antimagic field, the wizard gained the ability to hold spells more powerful than the base mantle. Together with the immunities against limited wish and reverse gravity, and with the immunities against imprisonment and time stop, they gained the ability to hang spells just slightly less powerful than the pinnacle of mortal magic.

All mantles could endure without danger up to nine attempts to dispel it. If they absorbed other spells, they gained greater ablative immunity against more attempts at breaking them down. If enough such attempts struck the mantle and there were hung spells within, each augmentation became a source of danger, as the spells held by the mantle were randomly unleashed. A caster could use the hung spells to heal themselves, or even to bolster their own vitality beyond their limits. This ability could even be used to heal others, though a single spell could not have its resulting power split between two or more targets. It could also be used aggressively, in a way that even affected intangible creatures, to damage undead. The caster could also dismiss the spell effects, or use them to power a wild surge.

Though a mantle could be hung inside another mantle, there was a limit of two mantles hung inside a mantle; if a fourth mantle was hung inside the mantle, the lot of them collapsed, generating a wild surge.

History
The spell had existed in some form since the times of Imaskar, and a dozen different versions were available during the times of Netheril, with each archmage devising their own. Mantles from Cormanthyr and Netheril diferred in that Netherese mantles were not centered on a gem. The spell that had survived to required an empty coccoon casing, a drop of the caster's blood, and nine gems or minerals of different substances, each of which had been changed by a spell of a different level. It was originally common throughout Netheril.

Some wizards had observed that a mantle breakdown could in some cases revitalize old magic, but all attempts to control the process to intentionally recharge a magical item had failed so far.

As of, the spell version of the mantle had fallen out of favor, and a different version became more popular even amongst ancient arcanists. This other version, which was originally from Cormanthyr, was considered an intangible magical item. It dispensed with all the other functions of a mantle, instead simply storing spells for use.

Variants
A variant encountered by Gorion's Ward in, while similar in name, was geared towards guarding against magical weapons: it would prevent all damage from nonmagical weapons, and even from some magical weapons, for a relatively short time.

Appearances

 * Video Games
 * Baldur's Gate series (Shadows of Amn • Throne of Bhaal)