Biomancy Ideas

[kurtpotts]

Looking for some super cool biomancy rituals

I'm planning on doing a bit of shapeshifting. For the most part it will be how I describe sprinting and skill replacement rituals, but what other cool stuff can I do with biomancy?

Side question: which element would biomantic evocations fall under?

[MadAlchemist]

Side question: which element would biomantic evocations fall under?

None. You want Seelie Magic or some other sponsor that will give it to you.

Life sensing is always useful. Could also be reversed to detect the once living.
You could do simple Maneuvers on yourself or your friends to grant tag-able/invoke-able aspects like "Super-charged metabolism", "Uncanny flexibility" or "Magically resilient".
Healing is possible but difficult, consult your GM.
You could borrow some of summoning's coolness by creating your own army of monsters out of base animals.
Effecting emotions and other more subtle biologically driven systems. Mind control is badness but some super-sexy pheromones can go a long way.   

[Cadd]

Element: Depending on how advanced evocations your game allows, biomancy-flavoured evocation is either off the table or most likely under the Water element.

There is actually a somewhat (loosely) biomantic evocation seen in the novels, translated in the RPG - Warden Yoshimo makes a tree grab a zombie in Dead Beat, YS turns this into a Water evocation invoking a scene aspect.

[Haru]

Enhanced senses, natural camouflage, change your metabolism to break down a poison or disease, grow taller/smaller, insulate yourself from cold/heat, etc. If you go for animal characteristics, there are some real superheroes among them.

Biomancy doesn't really have an equivalent in evocation. Depending on what you want to do, it can be any of the elements. Channeling (biomancy) or a sponsored magic would make that easier.

Though I would probably not create a character like that with regular magic abilities. Instead, take the big shapeshifting power and modular abilities, and you can switch your powers around. Far more effective and there's no hassle with the magic-math. You can still call it doing magic from a narrative point of view, of course.

[Quantus]

I would assume Biomancy is Water Magic, I dont see why it would be blanket off the table.  Both plant manipulation and shapeshifting are both Water magic. 

As far as what you could do with it, just spit-balling here:

-Healing (self or others)
-Physical and/or sensory augmentation
-More selective/unnatural shapeshifting (ie elongate arms for reach, etc.  rather than mimic animal forms)
-Animal control/manipulation via biological means (ie pharamones to control a bee swarm)
-Animal control/manipulation via neuromantic means (ie mind-link to control a pack of wolves) Maybe not pure Water magic?
-Group Shapesifting (Violates 2nd law if they are not willing)
-Magical manufacture of anything normally possible/plausible via scientific biological lab-work, including poisons
-pet Slime/Mold Monsters
-Melt into a liquid slime form
-mimic most things you could do with physical/zombie based Necromancy, Laws allowing
-Clones
-Synesthesia (ie. You receive one kind of sense when another sense is stimulated)
-Increase/decrease size
-skin pigment camouflage
-biologically oriented Alchemy
-Selective metabolic manipulation (ie reduced need for food/air/sleep, or offensively induced hypoglycemia/hypoxia as an attack)

[Sanctaphrax]

I would assume Biomancy is Water Magic, I dont see why it would be blanket off the table.

Most biomantic effects, including shapeshifting, are too complex for Evocation. I agree that the effects which are possible probably fit under Water, though.

[narphoenix]

*crack*

Let's get to work.

Attacks:

Activate all pain neurons in someone to fire at the same time.
Flood someone with hormones that indicate sleep time.
"Heal" someone's ribs to grow spikes.
Mess up someone's natural pacemaker in the heart.
Grow vines which enter someone skin and cause massive damage.
One word. Hydrocephaly.
Explode someone's eyeballs by making lots of vitreous humor too quickly.
Make the liver release the toxins it's purifying. All at once.
Suddenly, your opponent's neurons are growing /outside/ their body.
Your opponent's carbonic anhydrase suddenly doesn't work, reducing the amount of oxygen that their tissues get.
Brain proteins => prions.
Mass apoptosis.
Conversely, suddenly CANCER.

Blocks

Bye bye skin elasticity.
No more working calcium in skeletal muscle, ie no movement.
Massive amounts of adrenaline fill your opponent and cause a panic attack.
Suddenly, SICKLE CELL ANEMIA.
The bones in your opponent's feet root them to the ground.
Fuck up your opponent's cones and rods for a(n obvious) perception block.
Veil by filling your opponents with sex hormones, making them more focused on their lust than on trying to find you.
Muscles compress neurons very tightly when they're contracted, causing debilitating pain anytime "movement" is considered.

I'm sure I have more of these. This is just what I threw out at no notice.

[kurtpotts]

Wow those are awesome.

Quick question, Can you do skill replacements at the speed of evocation if the complexity is below your lore?
What do skill replacements cost? 1 shift per +1 skill, is the scene the default duration?

Say I want to boost my fists by growing bear arms. Would it be better to do a skill replacement or should it just be a maneuver that gives me the aspect "Right to bear arms."
The maneuver costs 3 shifts so that's pretty easy. Are bonus free tags on aspects if you "succeed with style" just a fate core thing?

Can rituals apply multiple affects like for instance giving someone +3 fists, +4 might and an aspect "right to bear arms" for a total of 10 shifts? or would that need the additional 5 shifts to take out a willing target?

I may be looking into a self sponsored biomancy as the game progresses for evothaum.

[Cadd]

Actually, magic never really gives "+X" to a skill. The spell is used instead of doing the skill check.

What's commonly refered to as "skill replacement" is the use of magic to "solve impossible problems". Harry's Tracking spellis a "skill replacement" with the spell standing in for an Investigation check.

[kurtpotts]

Actually, magic never really gives "+X" to a skill. The spell is used instead of doing the skill check.

What's commonly refered to as "skill replacement" is the use of magic to "solve impossible problems". Harry's Tracking spellis a "skill replacement" with the spell standing in for an Investigation check.

I know this is off topic but...
For something like the fairy ointment potion it would be 6 alertness not +6 to your alertness skill. I ask because I plan on using an enchanted item on fairy specs +4 alertness to see through fairy glamours and illusions.

[Taran]

That item is wrong(one of the many in YS).  For your item it should be 6 total - not +6

[kurtpotts]

Would animating a taxidermied animal be covered under biomancy?
Say I want a ward in the form of a large animal that patrols the outer perimeter of my house. Can biomancy cover that or would it be something like binding and summoning or necromancy.

[Taran]

I can see all of the above.

Biomancy to animate the flesh.
Summoning to bind a spirit to the animal
Necromancy to raise it from the dead.

[Haru]

Doesn't feel like there is much bio left. As far as I understand it, the animal gets hollowed out, dried and stuffed with material that won't smell as much like dead animal flesh as dead animal flesh. Necromancy would probably fit better, or having some non-ghost spirit animate the thing.

Then again, you might be turning the stuffing into temporary organs and muscles, which would be biomancy again.

[kurtpotts]

Could you take a living animal and put it in a hibernation/cryo state. Alive but inactive.

Sounds like a ritual to take the creature out. Not sure how you would then train/compel it to patrol the grounds when triggered.
Another thought if you didn't have any magical compulsion on the creature when it awoke would you be breaking the first law if it killed someone?