Blocking Magic Internally - Help

[Lavecki121]

Ok so I am trying to figure out how to do this. I wanted to make do an attack that would temporarialy prevent a wizard from using thier magic. I talked this over with some people on here already and theorized that it could be made as a magic attack against their mental track and it wouldnt impose a lawbreaker because it only stands to prevent them from using those shifts as opposed to enthraling or entering thier mind.

Thoughts? Have I explained this well?

[Tedronai]

Whether or not something qualifies as Lawbreaking depends quite a lot on the narration of the event, and quite a lot less on the mechanical representation.
In other words, how does this 'attack' prevent their spellcasting narratively?

[Sanctaphrax]

A Block or an Aspect Compel would seem the easiest ways to do this, to me.

[Lavecki121]

Whether or not something qualifies as Lawbreaking depends quite a lot on the narration of the event, and quite a lot less on the mechanical representation.
In other words, how does this 'attack' prevent their spellcasting narratively?

Narratively, the end goal of the attack is to prevent their spellcasting. By dealing the stress to the Mental stress track it would innitially limit their attacks, since mechanically that is where spellcasters draw magic power from.

The narrative end goal is to stop their magic temporarially though. Yes.

[Sanctaphrax]

I don't think that's a good idea.

Not only are magical mental attacks dangerous balance-wise, they don't actually prevent spellcasting. They make Evocation more painful, but they don't actually make it un-usable. Thaumaturgy is almost completely unaffected.

And if the spellcasting is represented mechanically through a non-Spellcasting Power, this method will fail entirely.

[Mr. Death]

I'd go with a block. If the wizard can't beat it with a discipline roll, he can't use his magic.

[Lavecki121]

I'd go with a block. If the wizard can't beat it with a discipline roll, he can't use his magic.

That seems a consensus. Could a block be an over arcing thing? Could I put a block on someone that inhibits all actions or does it have to be specified to magic, movement or the like?

I am not very familiar with block rules.

[Mr. Death]

Most blocks don't inhibit all actions. A grapple is the exception. If you're not familiar with the block rules, I recommend reading them over.

[Lavecki121]

I shall be doing this

[Taran]

Whether or not something qualifies as Lawbreaking depends quite a lot on the narration of the event, and quite a lot less on the mechanical representation.
In other words, how does this 'attack' prevent their spellcasting narratively?

He would be using the equivalent of Pressure points/ misaligning chakra's etc.. to cut off a wizards access to his/her magic.  This may or may not have long term consequences (such as needing reiki to realign one's energies).

Mechanically, the easiest way to represent this is by doing mental stress.  I don't really see it as a Lawbreaker.

Obviously, blocks and Maneuvers work well but Blocks/aspects only last, at most, a scene...which doesn't carry the same narrative effects.

I'd suggested making it a spell that only affects wizards/those who can cast magic and thus not work against regular mortals, or other creatures that have toughness powers but no magic.  So you couldn't use it to take out a troll, for instance.

They would defend against this attack by whatever means they use to either control or call up their magic.  I'd probably make it whatever skill they use to Call up their magic...so Conviction, or if a magical creature uses Endurance instead of Conviction, they'd use Endurance to defend.  So they'd almost always be defending with one of their best spellcasting skills...

My 2 cents, anyways.

[Haru]

I think this is part of the "A wizard can do anything with enough preparation" thing. Judging from the books, shutting down a wizards power is a full time job. Harry does this to Kravos, Ebenezar does this to Mavra, both have to keep their full concentration on the other to make it work.

I think a good way to do this would be a thaumaturgy maneuver placed on the target before going into the scene (that can, of course, be resisted), and then tagging it to go into a discipline grapple (affecting magic in this case, not physical actions). Both the blocking wizard and the blocked wizard will be unable to cast any other spells, as long as the grapple is kept up, but if the blocked wizard can break free, you can't regrapple him, because the spell is broken.
It is not too powerful, I think, most wizards will have similar skill levels there. It is also not too weak, because it gets the job done. It is not too boring, because it keeps the struggle for power up throughout the scene, instead of shutting the wizard down with one spell.

Or you can go, of course with a simple thaumaturgy block, which will still get the job done, but I find rather boring. Plus, it has a fixed number of shifts, and is vulnerable against a good roll and some tags, while the above can be modified as need, too.

I don't really like the mental attack thing though, it seems much more drastic somehow.

[Tedronai]

I'm not convinced that the narrative provided by Taran would qualify as inflicting mental stress, and the narrative provided by Lavecki...well...wasn't narrative.

[Taran]

I'm not convinced that the narrative provided by Taran would qualify as inflicting mental stress, and the narrative provided by Lavecki...well...wasn't narrative.

Sorry, I don't get what you mean.  You don't think the narrative justifies making it a mental attack?  What would you suggest?

I like The grapple, but it's definitely a different feel. 

[Ellipsis]

I posted this in the other thread, but a simple offensive block vs spellcasting would work fine.  The control roll would have to beat the block before they could cast, effectively either preventing them from casting or gimping the spell.

[Sanctaphrax]

Mental stress represents your sanity, your sense of self, and your will.

Pressure points have nothing to do with any of that, and so pushing them should not inflict mental stress. Pushing them would be a good justification for using Fists for a Block against magic use, though.

Now that I think about it, pressure point stuff seems like good stunt territory.