Sponsored Magic Master List

[Hick Jr]

It does remove the need to take Consequences, yes. It's why it's priced at [-5]. Is it still too unbalancing?


Actually, I have a question about the whole "fake high concept" thing for Power-granting rituals- what if your High Concept already fits the powers you're granting yourself?

I don't see why not.

[dragoonbuster]

It does remove the need to take Consequences, yes. It's why it's priced at [-5]. Is it still too unbalancing?


Actually, I have a question about the whole "fake high concept" thing for Power-granting rituals- what if your High Concept already fits the powers you're granting yourself?

I don't see why not.

My two cents, at that price and considering it's an IoP--so it can  be taken away from you--it's balanced enough.

[Sanctaphrax]

It does remove the need to take Consequences, yes. It's why it's priced at [-5]. Is it still too unbalancing?

Yes. Exchanging a temporary and trivial resource like shifts for something like Refresh is rarely fair.

Suppose you've got 7 shifts of no-prep thaumaturgy or evothaum. You can give yourself 2 Refresh of Powers on short notice, at no significant cost, and get a taggable Aspect to boot. And you can do it over and over again. Casting four evocations takes like ten seconds and gives you 8 Refresh of stuff. And since it's 8 (or 2, or whatever) Refresh of your choice of stuff, it can perfectly suit whatever problem you have.

That's actually a pretty mild example. Better casters, or people who take the time to cast a serious ritual, can easily make that 5 Refresh pay for itself many times over.

Actually, I have a question about the whole "fake high concept" thing for Power-granting rituals- what if your High Concept already fits the powers you're granting yourself?

No idea.

[Hick Jr]

If it was priced at like [-8] and limited to only one treasure at a time, would you be okay with it? The character it's designed for can afford the Refresh hit and it's basically only for this character.



Do you feel like you should still have to pay for the false High Concept if you're granting yourself powers that fit your actual High Concept? I feel like you shouldn't.

[Sanctaphrax]

The PP temporary power rules already look kind of abusable to me, and I'm not keen to make them stronger. So if I used them  I'd probably insist on the maneuver regardless.

Even for 8 Refresh, I don't think that'd be fair. I'm not even sure it's possible to put a fair price on the ability to acquire a point of Refresh for 2 shifts; how heavily you try to exploit the Power has such a huge effect on its effectiveness that any cost is going to be unfair to someone.

And a lot of the Power's strength depends on how strictly rituals are adjudicated, which varies wildly from table to table.

If you're really attached to the idea of temporary Items of Power, my advice is to make a new Power which lets you spend any amount of Refresh on "permission" to have that amount of temporary Powers. Then you can be granted new Powers with thaumaturgy up to your limit without taking consequences, and be granted new Powers by sponsors up to your limit without taking debt. Give one or two points of that power as the extra benefit of this magic.

[Hick Jr]

The PP temporary power rules already look kind of abusable to me, and I'm not keen to make them stronger. So if I used them  I'd probably insist on the maneuver regardless.

Even for 8 Refresh, I don't think that'd be fair. I'm not even sure it's possible to put a fair price on the ability to acquire a point of Refresh for 2 shifts; how heavily you try to exploit the Power has such a huge effect on its effectiveness that any cost is going to be unfair to someone.

And a lot of the Power's strength depends on how strictly rituals are adjudicated, which varies wildly from table to table.

If you're really attached to the idea of temporary Items of Power, my advice is to make a new Power which lets you spend any amount of Refresh on "permission" to have that amount of temporary Powers. Then you can be granted new Powers with thaumaturgy up to your limit without taking consequences, and be granted new Powers by sponsors up to your limit without taking debt. Give one or two points of that power as the extra benefit of this magic.

Do you think raising the number shifts needed to grant a single Refresh could balance it out, or does the nature of shifts make it too easy?

That is an excellent idea. I'll get cracking once I'm not on mobile. 

[Sanctaphrax]

Raising the number of shifts per Refresh point would help, but I don't think it would be a real solution.

[dragoonbuster]

At this rate, you might want to just model the IoP-on-the-go thing as Modular Abilities, possibly with a little modification.

[Hick Jr]

What if Gate of Babylon's extra benefit was giving you a variable abilities list that represented the treasures and their powers, and giving you form points equal to your Resources, with the Limitation of having to cast a spell equal to the amount of form points you want to access, and it only lasts one scene? It'd still be a [-5] or [-6] Magic.


Edit: Changed it to Resources. Ritual complexity is too easy to pump. Here's the revised version.


Gate of Babylon [-5]
Description: You have access to the infinite treasures contained in the vault of Gilgamesh the God-King, allowing you to call forth legendary objects from throughout history.
Sponsor:Gilgamesh.
Agenda: Gilgamesh’s agenda. Rulership. Kingly pride. The collection of more treasures.
Evocation: Gate of Babylon evocations typically involve calling forth a treasure from the vault.
Thaumaturgy: Gate of Babylon rituals typically involve displays of wealth, summoning treasures, kingship, and pride.
Evothaum: You can employ Gate of Babylon rituals that summon treasures with Evocation’s speed and methods.
Extra Benefit: You can use Gate of Babylon rituals to summon Items of Power. You can summon Items of Power of a Refresh cost up to your Resources skill by casting a Gate of Babylon evocation of complexity equal to that item’s Refresh. You may spend additional Refresh on this Sponsored Magic to increase the Refresh cap for you summoned treasures on a 1:1 basis.

[Sanctaphrax]

That's even less fair. It's actually better than free Refresh equal to your Resources because you can re-assign it at will.

I still think your best bet is to pre-pay Refresh for a temporary Power budget.

[Hick Jr]

okay this is what I get for having ideas after not sleeping for a day and a half


So, the Extra Benefit is that you can pre-pay Refresh to gain that many Refresh worth of IoP's by casting an evocation of complexity equal to that item's Refresh. Should you not get any "form points" right out of the gate (unintended pun is unintended), or should the EB come with one or two?

[Sanctaphrax]

Up to you, really.

I was thinking a 4-Refresh magic would come with 1 temporary power point, but that you'd have to use a ritual of the normal complexity to justify using that point. If you want to make power-granting rituals easier for people with this magic, it might be better to do without the free temporary power point.

[EndlessKng]

I'm working this one out, based on Bayonetta.  There would be a parallel form for Lumen Sages, as well, though there may be a few changes in between the two.  I'm not sure of the power level though.

Umbran Magic
Description: Being bound to a demonic power of Inferno, the Umbra Witch is capable of summoning demons and slowing subjective time in combat
Agenda: Destroy the angels of Paradiso (up to the GM if this means the actual angels of the Dresdenverse or a separate form of Nevernever spirit, akin to the difference between a Fallen and the frog demon).
Evocation: Umbra Witches are able to use Chronomancy to a limited extent; they cannot travel through time, but are able to slow it down when threatened.  They also are able to use their Hair as an element of magic, akin to Air or Spirit in function.
Thaumaturgy: Demon Summoning
Evothaum: Umbra Witches can use summoning magic and alchemy with the speed and methods of evocation (for the latter, this still requires ingredients and appropriate recipes).
Extra Benefits: 

Any suggestions or alterations welcome!

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't know much about Bayonetta, but Chronomancy seems more like thaumaturgy than evocation to me. As for the extra benefit...maybe an anti-angel effect similar to the extra benefits of Seelie and Unseelie Magic. Or maybe some kind of special time-slowing spell option.

[dragoonbuster]

I thought it was high-time to have some kind of magic available for Champions of God. You can model what Michael does in combat as invocations and maneuvers and whatnot if you like...but you can also model it as special kind of magic, whether Michael sees it that way or not. Maybe this is counter to the idea of Michael merely being a Vessel for the White God to act through, but that's for you to decide. This is sort of what I think they were trying to get out of Soulfire in Your Story; this is intended to replace it and provide justification for CoG's to have a Soulfire-like effect or to justify them knowing enough magic to actually take the PP Soulfire power. Which, with some clarification of how stress can be taken to invoke Soulfire, is a better power than I originally gave it credit.

SPONSORED MAGIC: TRUE FAITH [-5]
Description: Through a combination of training, practice, talent, and divine inspiration, you are capable of channeling your faith and conviction into achieving some miraculous effects that mimic magic; generally more experienced Champions of God or particularly devout True Believers are who are capable of this.
Sponsor: A Higher Power; one in which you have True Faith in.
Agenda: This varies, but for the traditional Champions of the White God this Agenda (and most of these Sponsor's in general) has to do with fighting agents of darkness/evil, and opposing anything that attempts to affect the free will of, kill, or enslave mortals.
Evocation: You are capable of expressing True Faith with evocation-like effects; these generally appear as white light and/or cleansing fire.
Thaumaturgy: With the power of your faith it is possible perform Thaumaturgy related to combating the enemies to free will. As such it may be possible to divine information related to a Righteous cause, banish/exorcise/bind/erect wards against the Unholy, worldwalk in pursuit of your Calling, and disrupt magic or the links between a mortal and its source of power, etc. Psychomancy in the form of inciting awe in the Unholy is also possible.
Evothaum: All Thaumaturgy granted by True Faith magic can be case with Evocation's methods and speed.
Extra Benefits: All spells cast with True Faith magic automatically meet the criteria for the Catch on anything vulnerable to Holy or True Faith. You gain a +1 to the power/complexity/control of any spell that is defensive/protective in nature, and the toughness of all creatures--whether vulnerable to Holy or not--is downgraded by one rank.
Note: If you also take Soulfire, this power's cost is reduced to -4 only. Like other Sponsored Magics, this one provides 4 Focus Item slots. If you have Evocation or Thaumaturgy, you get a +1 rebate to this power for each of them you have. When appropriate, this ability's +1 bonus to defensive spells may stack with Soulfire's +1 power bonus to Making Things.

Thoughts?