Draining intellect with psychomancy

[fabulator]

Ok, so I'm whipping up a neuromancer for my DF campaign and I'm trying to put together some of his rote spells. So far he's a focused practitioner with Discipline at +5 and Conviction at +3. Here's what I've got so far:

Brain Drain! (lesser version)
Complexity: 8
Effect: target gets temporary aspect "Drained Intellect"
Duration: a few hours

The idea here is that the neuromancer (who's a highschool student btw) will drag some poor freshman into the locker room in the morning, do a quick ritual, and then tag the aspect later on in the day to improve his abilities on a test or class discussion.  Since most of the victims will have Average skills at best he only needs about 5 shifts to get the aspect and he adds a few for more time before he invokes the aspect.

Brain Drain! (greater version)
Complexity: 14
Effect: target gets mild mental consequence "Brain Drain!"; caster gets sticky aspect "Stolen Intellect" which last for 2 invokes (tag once for free o'course) and more shifts grant more uses.

This would be the more lasting effect that the neuromancer is looking for, something that will really beef up his smarts at the expense of someone else.  This ritual takes longer to set-up but it provides a much more lasting effect.



So, does that look right? Is there a different way to do it? I thought about messing withs skill points but aspects seem to be easier and more in keeping with the system. Any thoughts?

[babel2uk]

This is for a fledgeling bad guy right?

[Papa Gruff]

This is for a fledgeling bad guy right?

I surer hope so because the wardens would be all over this guy.

As for the rotes:

I'm almost certain that the greater version isn't totally in line with the rules. So this guy is using his stuff on his fellow class mates right? To inflict a mild consequence you have to do an outright attack ritual. It's save to say that the pupils wouldn't have a conviction above 3, if you wan't to be sure to inflict a mild consequence you'd have to invest at least 11 shifts of power (3 for approximated skill level + 4 to cover the possible defense roll + 4 to deplete the stress track).

Now the other part of the spell is a maneuver on the caster himself. He won't defend against it, so the base difficulty is 3/good. To make it sticky there is an extra shift needed, witch makes the difficulty 4. Depending on the desired duration of the effect the complexity would  have to go up +1 with every step on the time table (starting from 15 minutes as this is the average length of a scene). So far so good. The complexity of everything combined so far seems to be 15 shifts.

As a GM I would add an other +2 requirement on top of the spell to reflect the difficulty of combining the two effects you desire. That brings the complexity to at lest 17. The "Stolen Intellect" aspect holds for as long as you have designed in the construct of the spell and not only for two invokes (the first tag of cause is free). More shifts don't give you more uses. They just prolong the effect of the thaumaturgic spell.

17 Shifts isn't something you do easily. I doubt it could be done as a spur of the moment ritual in some shady high school restroom. Come to think of it. Even 14 shifts isn't something a newbe warlock could pull of easily without tapping into a lot of stuff.

[fabulator]

I surer hope so because the wardens would be all over this guy.

Ya he's a warlock in training and he's already got a Lawbreaker stunt, well on the way to full Bad Guy status.

As for the rotes:

I'm almost certain that the greater version isn't totally in line with the rules. So this guy is using his stuff on his fellow class mates right? To inflict a mild consequence you have to do an outright attack ritual. It's save to say that the pupils wouldn't have a conviction above 3, if you wan't to be sure to inflict a mild consequence you'd have to invest at least 11 shifts of power (3 for approximated skill level + 4 to cover the possible defense roll + 4 to deplete the stress track).

I was only giving his classmates a Conviction of +1 considering the area of town they're in which gave me 10 complexity. 1 for skill +4 for roll+ 1 to get past defense +4 for track/consequence

Now the other part of the spell is a maneuver on the caster himself. He won't defend against it, so the base difficulty is 3/good. To make it sticky there is an extra shift needed, witch makes the difficulty 4. Depending on the desired duration of the effect the complexity would  have to go up +1 with every step on the time table (starting from 15 minutes as this is the average length of a scene). So far so good. The complexity of everything combined so far seems to be 15 shifts.

I think you meant 16 shifts there if I followed you math correctly. But yeah, we're up to about 15 shifts

As a GM I would add an other +2 requirement on top of the spell to reflect the difficulty of combining the two effects you desire. That brings the complexity to at lest 17. The "Stolen Intellect" aspect holds for as long as you have designed in the construct of the spell and not only for two invokes (the first tag of cause is free). More shifts don't give you more uses. They just prolong the effect of the thaumaturgic spell.

17 Shifts isn't something you do easily. I doubt it could be done as a spur of the moment ritual in some shady high school restroom. Come to think of it. Even 14 shifts isn't something a newbe warlock could pull of easily without tapping into a lot of stuff.

I hadn't looked at the idea of making it a sticky aspect and just using the shifts to prolong the duration of its "sticky-ness" but that definitely works better. And yah, this greater version is not something done on the spur of the moment, he's going to be doing some prep and invoking aspects, all that stuff. That's why he's got the lesser version for when he needs some smarts now! Thanks for all the input

[Papa Gruff]

You're welcome. It was fun actually. I guess you arrived at 16 because of the +1 for each extra shift that lifts the spells duration one step up on the time table. That is strictly optional. If you don't care for a longer duration then the aspect will automatically be established for one scene a.k.a. 15 minutes. My calculations where based on the absolute minimum of shifts you have to raise for the effect that you described.

Granted that a conviction of average might be all you should be able to find in the average high school kid the minimum gets lowered of cause. Yet there might be the occasional religious pupil with a higher one... Well our warlock would probably be clever enough not to try his spell on those, so i guess the ritual could be done with a reduced complexity.

[fabulator]

You're welcome. It was fun actually. I guess you arrived at 16 because of the +1 for each extra shift that lifts the spells duration one step up on the time table. That is strictly optional. If you don't care for a longer duration then the aspect will automatically be established for one scene a.k.a. 15 minutes. My calculations where based on the absolute minimum of shifts you have to raise for the effect that you described.

Granted that a conviction of average might be all you should be able to find in the average high school kid the minimum gets lowered of cause. Yet there might be the occasional religious pupil with a higher one... Well our warlock would probably be clever enough not to try his spell on those, so i guess the ritual could be done with a reduced complexity.

Well I was putting extra shifts in for increased duration but don't you have to get at least one shift past whatever block or defense the target rolls to do anything? If the student has a conviction of +1 and rolls +4 then he has a total defense of +5 so I need at least 6 shifts to do anything to him yes? That's what I was calculating

[Papa Gruff]

Well I was putting extra shifts in for increased duration but don't you have to get at least one shift past whatever block or defense the target rolls to do anything? If the student has a conviction of +1 and rolls +4 then he has a total defense of +5 so I need at least 6 shifts to do anything to him yes? That's what I was calculating

Ah ok. You are wrong there. I'll go along with your example. On the rare occasion where the defender is able to roll +4 he matches the effort of the caster and in accordance to the rules the spell "connects" and places the desired aspect on the target. However as no extra shifts are created the aspect doesn't get sticky and will only stay for one single exchange. I hope that clears it up.

[fabulator]

Ahhh ok, I thought that might be the case. I'm flipping between DF and Pathfinder for our group so I get systems confused sometimes.  Thanks for clearing that up