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Reduced Mana Cost

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In RPGs with a Mana Meter, it is possible that they may have an item (usually an accessory) that reduces the cost of the wearer's skills, usually by half, effectively doubling the caster's mana pool. This may or may not become a Game-Breaker, usually dependent on how powerful spells are in the game.

An inversion is something that increases skill cost, but usually adds other effects, such as increased damage.

Compare Cooldown Manipulation and Reduced Resource Cost.


Examples:

  • In BoxxyQuest: The Gathering Storm, there are a few accessories – the Lovely Crystal and Mega Love Crystal, plus Cornelia’s Jinx Drive - which says they reduce RP costs by half, but what they actually do is return half the cost of the skill after it's been cast. A skill that costs 100 RP still needs that RP, but after casting it, there's 50 RP remaining.
  • Changeling: The Lost: Every Changeling Contract has a "Catch" that waives the normal Glamour cost if the condition is met. For example, one luck-manipulation Contract works for free when it's used to cheat at cards.
  • Chrono Trigger has not only the Silver Stud, which cuts MP cost by half, but the Gold Stud, which cuts it to 25%. Advanced magic is incredibly powerful but balanced by its extremely high MP cost, making Golden Studs a complete Game-Breaker thanks to the Black Omen, from which you can farm enough to supply your entire roster. Luminare won't outright kill most enemies, but two uses will, and three uses will make bosses cringe.
    • In addition, the DS remake has the Champion's Badge, exclusive for Frog, which is basically a Silver Stud with the extra benefit of the Hero's Badge (ramping up the Masamune's Critical Hit ratio).
  • Conserve Power from City of Heroes.
    • Several powers will reduce endurance cost, or grant so much endurance recovery that you can spam costly powers without tiring out (Speed Boost, I choose you!) Electric attacks have a chance of restoring the endurance you used back, essentially giving you an attack at no cost.
    • The level 20 power in the Fitness power pool (which is available to everyone) adds a bonus to endurance restoration. Properly slotting it, and combining it with an endurance reduction ability, means the only thing stopping you from spamming your strongest powers is the cooldown on the powers themselves. And since there's a corresponding power to reduce cooldown times...
  • In Dark Souls III, the Farron Ring reduces the FP cost of weapon skills.
  • Deus Ex has the Power Recirculator, which reduces augmentation energy use by 10%-60% for a piddling 10 units/minute.
  • In Digimon World, you may get an "MP Consumption Bonus" after finishing a battle, which reduces the amount of MP required to use attacks. At least, that's what it does in the PAL versions - getting this bonus in the NTSC versions usually results in nothing more than your game crashing on the spot.
  • The second and third Disgaea games play this straight and invert it. The all-female Mage class can cast spells with less SP than any other character in the game, while the all-male Skulls require 50% more SP to use their spells, but they hit harder. Then again, considering how ridiculous the stats can get, it's pretty much impossible to run out of SP in the endgame, no matter how many level 100 spells and skills you spam.
  • Divinity: Original Sin II: The player character's allies pray for them during the Final Battle, granting a status effect that negates the Source Point cost of their powerful Source Skills. Ordinarily they're limited to three SP, which can be exhausted by a single top-tier Source Skill.
  • The Sage class in the Dragon Quest games often has this as a feature.
    • In Dragon Quest IX, the ultimate Sage skill reduces all spellcosts by 25%, no matter the current class. The Twocus Pocus ability lets you cast a spell twice for no extra cost (and it counts towards the combo system), the Mage's Limit Break lets him cast spells for 0 MP for a while, and applies it to the whole party if the Sage has a Limit Break active as well.
  • A Psionic in Dungeons & Dragons 3rd edition could purchase a Torc of Power Preservation to get this effect. While the actual amount of PP (mana) preserved was only 1 point, it could easily extend your pool of mana immensely (as you can manifest numerous powers each day in the mid-to-high levels). There are feats and prestige classes that have similar effects (major examples include the Anarchic Initiate PrC and the Midnight Augmentation feat). And the Wilder base class has one of these built in (but it has... issues).
  • Elden Ring has multiple ways to reduce FP cost. The Glintstone Scarab, Incantation Scarab, and Ash-of-War Scarab helmets reduce the FP cost of sorceries, incantations, and weapon skills respectively, at the cost of making you take more damage. The Primal Glintstone Blade talisman reduces the FP cost of all spells at the cost of reducing your maximum HP. The Carian Filigreed Crest talisman reduces the FP cost of weapon skills with no downside, and the Cerulean Hidden Tear can be mixed into your Flask of Wondrous Physick to give you infinite FP for 15 seconds (which is approximately the time it takes to obliterate a boss's health bar with Comet Azur).
  • The Elder Scrolls:
    • In The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, magic costs decrease as your level in the associated skill increases. At skill level 100, spells only cost 20% of their base cost. Unlike Skyrim, magic costs cannot be decreased to zero, as boosting most skills over 100 doesn't have further effects. Since Oblivion has Spell Crafting, this limit is necessary for some semblance of balance.
    • The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has enchantments that reduce Magicka cost for specific schools. With a maxed out Enchanting skill and all the relevant perks, a single enchantment will reduce the cost of that school by 25%, so if you equip four pieces of gear with that enchantment, the cost will be reduced to zero. The final Enchanting perk allows you to put two enchantments on one piece of gear, meaning you can have two free schools of magic at once. And that's without abusing Alchemy to create a feedback loop of potions that boost your Enchanting and enchantments that boost your Alchemy to become a walking Game-Breaker.
  • Fable: Some Good- and Evil-themed spells, such as Heal Life and Berserk, cost proportionately fewer mana points to cast the closer the Hero is to the corresponding end of the Karma Meter.
  • Fabula Ultima:
    • It normally costs 40 MP for an Arcanist to summon a bound Arcanum. Their Emergency Arcanum class skill reduces that MP cost by up to 75% while the Arcanist is in Crisis.
    • The Elementalist's Cataclysm skill is an inversion. It lets them increase a damage-dealing spell's MP cost to make it inflict extra damage.
    • Some pieces of equipment reduce the MP cost of specific skills or spells when worn. For instance, the Desperado Coat halves the MP cost of using the Sharpshooter's Barrage skill.
    • The Commander can invert this trope with one application of the Bishop's Edict skill, which doubles the MP cost of everything, for everybody, until the start of their next turn.
    • The Symbol of Sorcery shaves 5 MP off the cost of any spell which targets the symbol's bearer. The effect is cumulative when casting a spell that targets multiple creatures marked with the symbol.
    • The Ceaseless Battlefield heroic skill, which can be obtained by mastering the Commander class, halves the MP cost of several of the Commander's skills.
    • Inverted by the Dancer's Follow My Lead skill, which lets them double the MP cost of a dance to share its effects with one of their allies. Played straight by the Paso Doble heroic skill, which negates this extra MP cost so the Dancer can share their dance's effects while paying its normal cost.
    • The Showstopper heroic skill allows a Dancer to spend a Fabula Point to perform up to three dances in a single turn without spending MP on any of them, with the caveat that they cannot dance again before the end of their next turn.
  • In Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, the Sorcerer class’s "Economy" passive reduces the MP cost of their abilities by one-third.
  • The Final Fantasy games love these. Every game after III has an accessory that halves MP cost, usually called the "Gold Hairpin".
    • In Final Fantasy VI, there's an accessory that reduces it to one, and once you have Ultima, it becomes ridiculously game breaking. Final Fantasy X also does this.
    • In Final Fantasy IX, there's an ability called "Half MP" that does exactly what it's titled and cuts all MP costs by half for the user's skills. Although this one has a description in which it "Cuts MP use by half in battle", meaning that outside of battle, using healing spells has this effect unapplied, but in full effect whilst in battle of course.
    • Final Fantasy X-2 has the Soul of Thamasa, which doubles the cost of spells and increases the damage they inflict, and the Ragnarok, which makes any skill or spell cost 0 MP. They are practically a Game-Breaker when equipped on the same character.
    • Final Fantasy VII Crisis Core has many items that do this like the Soul of Thamasa which reduces all MP costs to 0. The Genji helm also does this and while it is useful, it is not as useful sometimes as say the Ziedrich, an item that increases all stats by 100.
    • In Final Fantasy XII, the Sage's Ring fullfills this role, with an added inversion of Holy damage.
    • Final Fantasy VIII and Final Fantasy XIII, lacking traditional MP, has other ways to accomplish this. VIII has the "Expend2x1" and "Expend3x1" that allow you to cast two or three times at the expense of one spell stock. XIII has various weapon modifications that charge your ATB rate, effectively allowing you to cast faster.
    • While Final Fantasy XI lacks a straight example of this trope, as everyone would be required to have one and therefore no one could afford one, some pieces of mage gear have a degree of the Conserve MP trait, which confers a small chance of halving the MP spent on a spell.
    • Final Fantasy XIV has many status buffs and passive traits that reduce or remove the MP cost for certain spells, such as the White Mage’s “Thin Air”note  or the Astrologian’s “Lightspeed”note . The Black Mage simultaneously plays this straight and inverts this. In Astral Fire stance the cost and power of fire spells are doubled, but Ice spells will have a reduction to their cost and power instead. Meanwhile Umbral Ice stance decreases the cost of both Ice and Fire spells.
  • Sufficient skill with a spell GURPS lets you cut its cost by a point of energy every few levels. With enough skill a casting may cost nothing at all.
  • In Heroes of Might and Magic 5, heroes can learn a skill "Arcane Training" to permanently cut the mana cost of all his spells by 20% and then another one, "Erratic Mana", to randomly cut the cost of each cast cast by up to 50% more.
    • Mage units also reduce the costs of their masters spells by 25% and the Week of Might and Magic halves mana costs for everyone.
  • Honkai Impact 3rd: socketing your Stigma with a certain material will give it various extra traits, one of them being the reduction of SP cost (whether for weapon skills or Ultimate skills). Note that you still need to reach the required amount of SP to be able to use said skills, just that when you do use them, you'll use less SP than normal.
  • Jay's Journey has the Gold Hairpin. Like in Final Fantasy, (which it's probably a Shout-Out to) it halves MP cost.
  • Gojo's Six Eyes in Jujutsu Kaisen ensures that the amount of cursed energy he burns when activating a cursed technique is "infinitesimally close to zero." There are sorcerers with even greater cursed energy than Gojo, like Yuta, but thanks to Gojo's efficiency, a battle of attrition against him is pretty much impossible.
  • Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning's implementation of this trope is the major reason why the Sorcery skill tree is so overpowered. With the right equipment (that is easy to acquire via the mage faction quests), Destinies and a specific Sorcery skill, it is possible to achieve more than 85% mana cost reduction. Since magic powers are balanced purely through casting cost, not their cooldowns (which are all pretty negligible), one can soon spam the most powerful magics more or less ad infinitum.
  • Kingdom of Loathing has a few of these, including a recurring in-game holiday. Most of them will only stack to -3 MP per casting. A few do ignore that limit, including the aforementioned holiday, so you could theoretically get a reduction of 9 MP off every skill you cast, or 14 if you're a Pastamancer. This would be a Game-Breaker if the most useful non-combat skills weren't also limited to a certain number of uses per day.
    • Subverted in the Avatar of Jarlsberg challenge path, where a spell's power is capped based on the number of MP it costs, so reducing their MP cost weakens them. This was, shall we say, not very popular with the player base, so Jick's plans to introduce it as a game-wide mechanic were put on hold.
  • KonoSuba: In theory, the Explosion spell's ridiculous mana cost can be reduced by taking certain prerequisites so that the caster can at least remain conscious after using it. Megumin, as you would expect given the general competence of Konosuba main characters, has not bothered to pick up any of them.
  • The Lord-Sorcerer's Gown in Last Scenario halves all mana costs. Also inverted with the Spellcard Mod, which doubles MP cost but multiplies damage by 1.5.
  • League of Legends has the item 'Tear of the Goddess', which has the peculiar property of increasing your maximum mana pool by 4 every time you spend mana. The weird element is how the game understands Maximum Mana increases to include both sides of the Mana stat, meaning that you go from 150/200 to 154/204. The Tear of the Goddess' bonus mana from this effect caps at 750, but for some strange reason, it will continue "refunding" 4 mana every time you use mana, effectively cutting the cost of of your abilities.
    • This can have particular comical effect with champions whose mana costs are low, or with periodic mana costs for toggled abilites such as Singed's Poison Trail ability. It drains 13 Mana per second, and then refunds you 4 mana every time it drains 13, meaning it actually costs 9 per second. Ezreal's Mystic Shot ability also has an interesting effect; the Manamune, an upgrade of the Tear of the Goddess, also grants the Mana bonus every time an auto attack hits. Ezreal's Mystic Shot counts AS an autoattack, so it refunds twice the mana due to casting and then hitting.
  • The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past has a very confused bat that alternately berates and thanks Link for awakening it from its slumber. It then zaps him and declares that it has cursed him by cutting his magic power in half. Actually, it has cut the cost of his magic in half while keeping his Mana Meter and the effects of items that use it exactly the same, effectively doubling his magical power.
  • The Logomancer: The "Reduced Erudition Cost" stat, where Erudition is Mana. It can be increased one percent at a time through inspiration points, and its also a passive skill learned from one of the books.
  • Mage: The Awakening: Hallows have enough ambient magic to automatically provide one point of mana towards every spell that's cast nearby.
  • Lots of items in Mario & Luigi: Bowser's Inside Story: The Budget Charm, the Thrift Charm, the Tight Belt, the Economy Ring and the Cheap Ring. Inverted with the Luxury Patch and Heroic Patch, which raise SP cost in return for added power for the attacks as does the Heroic Ring. Some even auto restore the amount once per turn.
  • Mega Man series:
  • The "Channel" buff in Monster Sanctuary reduces the mana cost of all of a monster's abilities.
  • The Energy Saver and its analogues in the Mega Man series is essentially a technological version of this, allowing Mega Man to fire Special Weapons for half the cost. The Head Parts in Mega Man X4 goes one better, allowing X to fire infinite Special Weapon shots, as long as they’re not a Charged Attack.
  • Path of Exile has both this and the inversion listed in the trope description. Active skills come in the form of Virtue Gems that are socketed into your equipment. Active skills can be linked to support gems that add extra effects (for example, extra melee damage against bleeding enemies or causing projectile skills to chain to other enemies) but increase the mana cost multiplier. There are many different sources that reduce mana cost by a percentage or by a flat amount (which doesn't work on mana reservation, which is determined purely by the mana multiplier). There are also many effects that are better the less or more mana is spent. For example, the Inspiration support gem grants a stacking elemental damage and crit chance boost which resets after spending a certain amount of mana, and the Archmage support gem grants bonus lightning damage based on how much mana you used to cast the spell.
  • The "Pressure" ability from the Pokémon series is an inversion of sorts - the ability doubles the PP consumption for any Pokemon engaged against the ability's user.
  • In Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, the PP Saver IQ skill occasionally allows a Pokémon to use an attack without using up PP.
  • Role Master and MERP invert this by having items that either allow you to cast X spells per day at zero cost, or multiply your available mana pool by a factor of 2, 3 or even more - naturally this can easily lead to Linear Warriors, Quadratic Wizards at higher levels.
  • In Rune Factory 3, the Fluffy Scarf accessory cuts Rune Point use to zero for most activities.
  • Shin Megami Tensei Devil Survivor has a skill called Magical Yang that halves MP costs for both the user's party and the enemy party they're currently fighting against, and inverts it with Magical Yin that makes the spells cost double the MP but giving them a 50% power boost. Despite the lack of any MP-restoring items, the latter is a far better option most of the time thanks to the Mana Drain spell's effectiveness in both crippling the enemies and giving their MP to you and because of a racial skill that restores a set amount of MP to all your characters after combat depending on how much damage you do to your enemies.
    • The Persona series has Spell Master, which cuts that Persona's MP costs in half. Very dangerous if you fuse it onto something like Satan (Black Viper) or Helel (Morning Star). Flat out broken when you combine Victory Cry (restore all HP/MP post combat) and Alpha and Omega/Armageddon (instantly kill anything short of the bonus boss, 100% of the time but costs 100% of MP).
    • Persona 4 also has a ring that gives Spell Master to whoever wears it. (Un)Fortunately, it doesn't stack with the actual Spell Master ability. It goes great on Naoto, though, whose spell selection includes very expensive One-Hit Kill spells and the even more expensive Megido spell line.
    • Persona 5 Royal adds traits to Personas, and Lucifer, the ultimate Persona of the Star confidante, has "Allure of Wisdom", which reduces the cost of spells by 75%. When combined with Spell Master (as skill he learns automatically), it drops the cost of all of his end-game spells down to a tiny fraction of their normal casting cost, letting him spam the otherwise costly Morning Star with impunity.
  • Prayer of the Faithless: Trill's Traces can give her SP cost alterations to 0% or 50%.
  • RemiLore: Lost Girl in the Lands of Lore: An effect called "+Mana Cost Decrease" that applies to some weapons such as the Sewing Needle or Balloon Sword.
  • RuneScape: Elemental Staves act as an unlimited source of one or more rune types for the wielder's spellcasting. Otherwise, spells are limited by the quantity and type of runes in a character's inventory.
  • Shantae and the Seven Sirens:
    • The MP Saver Relic: "Reduces your MAGIC consumption."
    • Some Monster Cards give for certain abilities:
      • Bat: "The Boomerang consumes less magic when used!"
      • Jumping Frog: "The Shield consumes less magic when used!"
  • Super Mario RPG has an accessory that cuts Flower Point costs in half.
  • The Tales Series has the Emerald Ring and Fairy Ring, which reduce TP costs by one-third and one-half respectively. Some games also have the Risky Ring, which reduces TP costs to one, but has the drawback of making you take doubled damage.
  • Terraria:
    • This is common with most sets of mage armor, which helps make up for their lack of defense. For example, wearing the entire set of Jungle Armor will reduce the mana cost of all magic items by 16%. This stacks with the Nature's Gift accessory, which reduces mana costs by 6%.
    • In addition, the Space Gun uses mana instead of ammo, unless you're wearing the full set of Meteor Armor, in which case the gun uses neither ammo nor mana. The gun makes for quite an efficient long-range weapon, so even though there are higher-tier armors than the Meteor Armor, you might find it worthwhile to stick with it.
    • The Crystal Ball furniture item can grant you a buff that overall boosts your magic ability, including a discount to mana costs.
  • The Trails Series has the EP Cut Quartz, which reduces the EP cost of Arts. Starting in the Erebonia Arc there is also a random turn bonus that grants 100% EP reduction for a single turn, plus some ways to munchkin the casters so that casting an attack spell can potentially return more EP than it cost. There is also a Master Quartz that doubles the EP cost of Arts in exchange for a damage multiplier.
  • Warframe:
    • The Efficiency stat reduces a Warframe's energy consumption if it's above the base of 100%, though it also increases it if the stat is reduced below that value. For energy-hungry Warframes, efficiency-boosting mods like Streamline and Fleeting Expertise could be a handy way to keep casting your abilities.
    • The Zenurik Focus school has the "Inner Might" node, which lets your Warframe cast an ability at no energy cost when it's off-cooldown.
  • Inverted in World of Warcraft, the curse of Lucifron makes every ability cost double its initial cost, and even works on the Death Knight class which uses "Runes", which wasn't invented when Lucifron was made.
    • Discipline Priests have a straight example with Power Infusion, reducing mana costs of the target.The amount of talents available to classes with similiar effects are too numerous to mention.


Alternative Title(s): Reduced MP Cost

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