The Mental On/Off Switch - Psychomancy

[KOFFEYKID]

So I'm digging more and more into some of the thematic thaumaturgy types, and self-targeted psychomancy just pinged on my radar, and I think you can probably pull off some really cool things with it.

Examples:

A mechanism by which you can completely turn off emotion = The Logic Obsessed Wizard. This would be useful for a few reasons:

• White Court Vampires should be Very Afraid.
• Gets rid of issues with accidental Hexing.

Any other ideas for uses of internal psychomancy?

How far can you go before you can be considered "inhuman"?

I can even see this as a legitimate way to (and I hesitate to use this word since it implies powergaming) justify "Inhuman Resolve" types of abilities (longer mental stress tracks).

[Dr.FunLove]

There are a few good examples that are already in the source material. I myself and adapting the Mind Palace concept from BBC's Sherlock as a spell to aid in storing and recalling information. I also like the idea of a psychic filing system for wizards on the Council as showcased in the Sci-Fi Network tv show for The Dresden Files.

Psychomancy can go in just a ton of directions, many of them not harmful at all. Butcher, in his writing, has chosen to mostly show the ill it can do (and this is really true of magic in general). We as the players running around in that sandbox just have to use our own imaginations to make up the difference!

[Mrmdubois]

Depending on how much you believe psychomancy can alter physical states of the brain you could (drop your consciousness into a trance which slows your heart rate and breathing or something similar) then you could also use internal psychomancy to justify doing things to your own body to promote healing, slow down poisons or eradicate diseases, etc.

Internal psychomancy could also split your consciousness, leaving you the ability to concentrate on more than one thing at once.  Depending how effectively you split it you could literally have your left hand not knowing what your right hand was up to.

Psychomancy also seems like a good way to justify getting smarter, so mental and maybe social skill spells are available.  At the very least you can jack up your perceptions and processing power even if you can't pull facts out of thin air (Though depending on your paradigm maybe you could).  I imagine that's also the realm were you start to be able to control your dreams, so ramp up the power of your dreams and go ahead and create a demesne in the Nevernever.  Since your dream self is in the Nevernever at that point you could also go exploring the whole place at large via astral projection essentially.  Just don't die, but even if it looks like you're about too then just snap yourself awake.  Depending how you did it, you could potentially leave the Nevernever and scout out the real world via this disembodied dream self too.  Of course there's also the Inception route.

Summoning.  Okay, essentially a theme allows you to perform all the functions in a specialized way.  So that means that you could summon up your vices or virtues, depending on the amount of power in the spell you might be able to justify them manifesting.  Even if you can only call them up in your mind though there have to be some decent uses for that.  It would also give you pretty much unlimited access to your subconscious, but he might be kind of a jerk like Harry's.  I don't see why you couldn't alter your subconscious' primal drives.  Rather than survival and propagation maybe rewire it to focus largely on some other purpose

I'm curious how the mental constructs that get created in a mental battle work.  Molly was able to have hordes of them ready and it seemed to be implied that she was building them in her spare time.

If you extend beyond internal psychomancy then you also get the option to work with animals on a pretty much unparalleled level. Either get them to perform tasks for you or tap into their heads and take a ride along to do scouting.  You don't have to take over people's minds to get them to work with you either, use suggestions on them. Tap into Jung's collective unconscious, or maybe the Akashic records.  Run roughshod over the wills and minds of supernatual critters.  Mess with people's perceptions.  Build panic inducing wards...

[JDK002]

Neat ideas for sure.  Though I would be very careful about allowing extended mental stress.  A player will absolutely take advantage of it every single change they get.  As a thaumaturgy ritual, raising the mental track probably wouldn't have a terribly high complexity.  Maybe 20 to max out the track.

One of my players came up with a potion that clears mental stress.  I allowed it and had to severly revise it because he was never taking consequences for excessive casting.

[Dr.FunLove]

@Mrmdubois:
I would play them as pyshomantic wards myself where as Harry's mental defense against Corpstaker in Dead Beat was a pyschomantic block evocation.

@JDK002:
Did you play it like the fatigue belt in Fool Moon? All it did was TEMPORARILY clear the track and then...all of a sudden...Harry was hammered again. I'd say that'd be a fair way of getting a little more mileage out of a potion like that (and ones casting) while not breaking the game.

[Dougansf]

Butcher, in his writing, has chosen to mostly show the ill it can do (and this is really true of magic in general). We as the players running around in that sandbox just have to use our own imaginations to make up the difference!

I found this to be a mental hurdle in the way the DFRPG rules are written up as well.  Many of the various Thaumaturgy effects only have negative or Lawbreaking examples given.

[Dr.FunLove]

I concur. I understanding that there are bad things in the setting (though I wouldn't call the setting dark), most people tend to be morally...grey? Relative? However you want to call it.

Magic itself can't have a moral judgement placed on it. Sometimes I feel that it does in the source material but I feel magic acts more as a reflection. Murder with magic? It's reflecting back your dark murderous desires. Heal the sick with magic? It's reflecting back your postive state and desire to help others. It's karma baby.

[JDK002]

@Mrmdubois:
I would play them as pyshomantic wards myself where as Harry's mental defense against Corpstaker in Dead Beat was a pyschomantic block evocation.

@JDK002:
Did you play it like the fatigue belt in Fool Moon? All it did was TEMPORARILY clear the track and then...all of a sudden...Harry was hammered again. I'd say that'd be a fair way of getting a little more mileage out of a potion like that (and ones casting) while not breaking the game.

not initially, though when we start playing again I'll probably do something like that.  Power of the potion = number of exchanges it lasts for.  Being able to cast up to your conviction without taking mental stress.  But when it wears off the stress track fills and maybe have to take a mild consequence if you don't have one already.

[Mrmdubois]

Well, say his mental stress track is full, so he downs this potion to clear the mental stress track.  In X number of turns it wears off, all his old mental stress comes back plus any new mental stress he's accumulated.  That seems to me to model the books best, and you don't have to say "taking the potion will leave you with a mild" because chances are that's exactly what he'll get or worse.

[Dr.FunLove]

The way it is modeled there is how it was modeled in an Enchanted Item from the novels (the belt). Since it's potions, perhaps you could allow for a more lasting effects and prevent abuse with potion sickness/overdose (such as seen in Storm Front). It fits thematically with potions and makes them a double-edged sword: potent, but if you're not careful...

Just another suggestion, otherwise what you says works just fine JDK002.

[Mrmdubois]

Oh, obviously but it hasn't been said yet, external Psychomancy could be used to set up mind links.  Do it often enough and it could certainly justify a party picking up Pack Instincts or something similar.

@Mrmdubois:
I would play them as pyshomantic wards myself where as Harry's mental defense against Corpstaker in Dead Beat was a pyschomantic block evocation.

I'm not sure that works, first off, no Thresh hold to build them on, secondly they were clearly proactive in attacking Corpsetaker's mind and not just reacting.  Although on second thought that would be why Molly dragged her in, she initiates an invasion into her own mind (Thus no Lawbreaking because it's to herself) and then her constructs react defensively like an immune system to eradicate the invasive entity.  If Corpsetaker had been human and Molly had won it probably would have looked bad though, even if you tried to play the "self defense" clause.

Still, the lack of a thresh hold and the fact that they can be externally mobile (her and Harry would take turns attacking each other's minds, implying she can send her constructs into his head) seem to disqualify a Ward build as a possibility.

The way it is modeled there is how it was modeled in an Enchanted Item from the novels (the belt). Since it's potions, perhaps you could allow for a more lasting effects and prevent abuse with potion sickness/overdose (such as seen in Storm Front). It fits thematically with potions and makes them a double-edged sword: potent, but if you're not careful...

Just another suggestion, otherwise what you says works just fine JDK002.

Actually Harry does this twice, the first time is with a potion in Fool Moon against the lycanthropes, the second time is in Blood Rites with the belt.  In both instances it recharged him temporarily but then he had a major crash shortly after.  Actually the belt arguably worked better since he was able to actually make a get away and all the way to the Raith mansion before collapsing.

Ooo, the potion sickness is a good idea.

[Dr.FunLove]

@Mrmdubois:
Threshold is just an anchor in the physical world for the ward to be placed on...spellwork can use other types of anchors. In this case...Molly would be the anchor (more specifically her psyche). If you had to think of it as a threshold, then just say that every mind has a threshold of entrance that gets stronger as the mind ages (which syncs with how wizards become immune/highly resistant to mind control as they age).

EDIT: Really though, as long as someone is using Thaumaturgy in game to explain this, it works - wards make the most sense in this case as it was a psychomantic defense (mind fortress!).

The fact that mental defense can be applied to others can be played as an Evocation (like I mentioned) with extension (like an extended quick veil). This again jives well, such as in the example with Harry duking it out with Corpsetaker in Dead Beat.

If they were sparring mentally, then that means they were using mental (probably Spirit-based) attacks against each other - so Evocation. Since it's a mental attack though, I don't see why it wouldn't play out like armies of Red-shirt Molly's attacking Harry's mind (I see Harry attacking with dinosaurs while he's riding Sue...but that's just me!) narratively.

I totally forget about the pick-me-up potion. Potions being what they are, very mutable things with lots of recipies (like spells), I am sure that the player in JDK002's example could modify his potion if he didn't like being slapped with stress after the effect wore off. Just stick him with the potion sickness if it gets abusive. Easy-peasy.

Glad you liked the potion sickness...it is something I will inculde when I feel prepared to run a game myself.