Reserves and Recovery

What a Spell Slot Measures

Mana may fill a body, an implant, or a divine network, but a mind can organize only so much of it at once. Spell slots measure that concentration capacity. Casting spends the slot of the spell's level; Ki points are the same unit under another name.

A spell slot represents two linked things: a quantity of mana shaped into a spell and the mental strain required to organize it. When a casting requires additional slots, it draws more mana and consumes more of the caster's remaining concentration. Metamagic such as Quicken Spell accelerates or reshapes a spell by paying that greater cost.

The complete rules for slot formulas, caster level, and spell actions remain in Magic. Classes and creature templates replace the human baseline when their source works differently.

Spent and Reserved Slots

A spent slot is empty until it recovers. A reserved slot remains occupied by an ongoing effect and lowers the maximum currently available to the caster. Ending that effect frees the capacity, but does not fill it.

For example, a sorcerer with nine Level 10 slots and nine Level 9 slots maintains two Level 10 summons and four Level 9 summons. The usable maxima become seven and five. If the Level 9 reserve is empty, rest can recover only five usable slots while the four summons remain.

Recovery is still calculated from the base maximum, including reserved slots. A dedicated summoner therefore restores the few remaining usable slots at the same rate as another sorcerer with the same biological reserve. See Summon for its daily maintenance and release rules.

Recovery by Source

Recovery follows the source rather than the color currently being cast.

Source	Recovery
Living human body	Constant regeneration, accelerated by true rest
Human red mana converted by cerebriles	The same regeneration as any human source
Blue mana of drows, Jax, and monsters	The race or creature profile
Valerium	Constant regeneration; an implanted trace responds strongly to meditation
Divine distribution	Constant supply from the Partage, accelerated by true rest and immersion in a Bassin
Creature anatomy	The creature template

A Cerberan Psychic does not meditate to recover converted blue slots. The slots return as the human source regenerates because conversion changes their color at use, not their origin. Exact rates and daily limits are given in Rest and Recovery.

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