Kidou General

Kidou is a form of combat utilized by the Shinigami, through the manipulation of their spirit energy to produce powerful or useful spells. These spells fall into two categories Hado (Way of destruction) which is used as direct attacks, or Bakudo (Way of Binding) which is seen used as Battle support and control. Kidou is part of Zankensoki, basic Shinigami combat skills. Hado and Bakudou Kidou are all numbered between 1 and 99, where 1 to the late thirties are considered generally accessible to most Shinigami and 80 or above is extremely advanced and rarely mastered.

Beyond the usual two ways there are a few subgroups of Kidou, these Kidou do not enter into the usual numbering system of ordinary Kidou. First there is Barriers, a sub group of Bakudo, these are powerful spells meant to and used to establish perimeters during combat to contain a situation or protect a particular place or person. Also under Bakudo we find the seals, this is a unique subgroup with considerably less utility, these are spells are focused on sealing items and individuals for the safety of others or themselves.

Rules
The rules governing Kidou is quite simple. At character creation, each character calculates their spellscore as you find under the character creation rules. This statistic works just like any other ability score, save it governs the use of spells particularly how difficult they are to resist.

To gain access to Kidou, a character has to pick up the Spellcaster feat which gives him access to all Kidou spells between grade 1 to 39, after which subsequent feats grants access to a higher grade. All Kidou, save grade 1 to 9, are considered a full-round action to cast as they generally include a lengthy incantation one has to speak. A Kidou can be prepared ahead of time, by speaking the incantation and holding the charge, this is a concentration action and can be held for 1 round per spellscore modifier. This penalty can be alleviated by picking up a few feats found under Themed feats then Kidou, each Kidou spell has a basic cost of 10 Reiatsu plus 20 for every 10th grade past 10. As such a grade 1 to 9 costs 10, a grade 4 costs 70 Reiatsu (10+60).

The rules for Kaidou differ slightly, in that a base Kaidou spell costs 20 and the increase per grade is 25 instead of 20, as forcing an opponents body to heal that quickly requires a lot on the part of the healer.