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.

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	Active or true rest under Rest and Recovery
Human red mana converted by cerebriles	The same active or true rest as any human source
Natural drow Psychic anatomy	Meditation, with different rates above and below ground
Valerium implant	Meditation under the Monk's progression
Divine distribution	Ordinary rest unless the Partage or a spell says otherwise
Creature anatomy	The creature template

A Cerberan Psychic does not meditate to recover converted blue slots. The slots return as the human source rests because conversion changes their color at use, not their origin.

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