Reflecting or redirecting a spell with a weapon

[Ghostfreak]

Outside of wizards who can counterspells and do other weird and crazy things with magic, is it possible for a character to deflect or redirect said spell through a weapon?

Example. Wizard A is fighting against an Emissary of Power. Said wizard casts an evocation at his opponent but his opponent is able to send it back by beating the attack with a weapon or something if that nature. How would be expressed through a stunt? I asked because I am trying to see what a stunt made for this purpose would be able to do and how would it he worded.

[Mr. Death]

I'd think it would need to be a supernatural power. Making it a mortal stunt implies that it's something that mortals can do with training and expertise.

I had a custom stunt on here that might fit if reflavored:

Redirect Attack: After a successful defense against a melee attack, you can skip your next turn to attack another target using the Weapon rating of your attacker.

That one was more along the lines of, say, dodging at just the right time to make your opponent miss you and hit someone else. Reflecting magic with a weapon would have to be a little different -- either the weapon itself would need to be enchanted for the purpose, or the person doing the reflecting would have to work power through it.

[Ghostfreak]

Hmmm. That is an interesting take on it. I am definitely going to note that down in a file. I think I recall seeing something called might over magic something to that effect. But I cannot find it for the life of me. I am going to put this stunt you have shown on a martial artist.

[Taran]

Redirect Attack: After a successful defense against a melee attack, you can skip your next turn to attack another target using the Weapon rating of your attacker.

Which is roughly based on these stunts which I'd use as templates as well

Riposte: On a successful defense with Weapons,
you may sacrifice your next action to turn that
defense into an immediate and automatically
successful attack.

Just add an additional line:  'and use the weapon value of the attacker'

For an additional refresh, I'd let you make it deflect missile weapons into adjacent zones. I think thrown weapons are 2 zones?  Maybe, if it was a supernatural power, it wouldn't cost anything extra.

Or this one:

Redirected Force: Requires Martial Artist.
You’re an expert at turning close-combat attacks
(swung fists, thrust knives) against themselves.
On a successful defense roll using Fists against
such an attack, you may sacrifice your next
action (giving this an effective limit of one per
exchange) to treat the defense as a successful
maneuver on your part (requiring no additional
rolling), placing a maneuver aspect like
Thrown to the Ground or Taken Off
Balance on your attacker.

You could leave this one as-is.  I absolutely love this stunt and used it to great effect in a game.  Upgrading it to work on missile attacks would be fun: Dodging an attack from a wizard and, suddenly, your opponent is unarmed(loses his foci) or; blinded (because you redirected that blast of fire), or; 'unbalanced' because you redirected his kinetic attack and knocked him down.

Once again, I'm not sure what the refresh cost of this would be to do it at range.  Because the original has a prerequisite stunt, it should probably cost 2 refresh...

[Sanctaphrax]

Even without a stunt, I'd allow it as attack/defence narration. If you successfully defend against a fireball and then make an attack, go ahead and say that the attack takes the form of deflecting the fireball.

Hmmm. That is an interesting take on it. I am definitely going to note that down in a file. I think I recall seeing something called might over magic something to that effect. But I cannot find it for the life of me.

The author requested that it be removed from the wiki. I don't remember why. But it's still on the forum. Looks like this:

MIGHT OVER MAGIC [-2]
Description: You can shatter magical effects through physical force.
Skills Affected: Might, Fists, Weapons.
Effects:
Disruptive Strikes. You destroy ongoing spells by hitting them. Doing so requires you to roll your Might skill plus the weapon rating of your melee attacks (including Strength bonuses) against a difficulty equal to the spell's strength or complexity. If you succeed, the spell ends.
Parry Magic. You may use your Might skill plus half of any stress bonus you have from Strength Powers in place of your Athletics skill to defend against magical attacks and maneuvers.
Anti-Magic Attacks. You may use Fists in place of Might with this Power, but you receive no benefit from weapons while doing so unless you can wield them with Fists. You may also use Weapons in place of Might with this Power, but only if you are armed with a weapon suitable for use with Weapons.
Skill Over Magic [-0]. When you use your Might (or Fists, or Weapons) skill to defend against a magical attack with multiple targets, you may allow any number of other characters targeted by the same effect to use your defence roll in place of their own. However, you do not benefit from Strength or weapon ratings when using this Power.
Living Counterspell [-1]. When you use your Might (or Fists, or Weapons) skill to defend against a magical attack with multiple targets, you may allow any number of other characters targeted by the same effect to use your defence roll in place of their own.
Superior Might Over Magic [-2]. Add four to your Might (or Fists, or Weapons) skill when using it with this Power.

[Ghostfreak]

Please share your thoughts on these stunts.

Absorption: you can will your shield to roll a weapons vs the shifts of power in a spell effect,and absorb that much. As a subsequent action. If your beat it, the entire spell's energy absorbed. If not, subtract it from the total and the spell hast that many shifts of power left.


Example: Wizard places a maneuver on you using a spell that caused the vines in the area to grab you. He summoned 10 shifts to do it, rolled a discipline of 8. You defend with a 4. On your turn, as a subsequent action, you allow the weapon(obviously it needs to be magical) to absorb the magic. You roll a weapons and get a 7. Out of the 10 shifts used to animate the vines to hold you, you absorb 7 and 3 remain, so on the next exchange you can absorb the remaining 3 and spell falls apart.


Deflect magic: this allows you to deflect magic evocations that are either a beam or a ball of energy, rolling weapons with a +2.

[Mr. Death]

The first sounds more like an on-the-fly counterspell. I'd allow that without a stunt, provided you have Evocation or Channeling.

But define "absorbed." How does that work mechanically?

I'm not sure why the second one needs a +2 on top of a pretty solid benefit of defending against magic with Weapons. I'd still say you need to justify it with a power or an enchantment, since just swatting a spell away is not something possible with mundane abilities and equipment.

[Ghostfreak]

The second is given a +2 because I figured because it was narrowed down to beams or balls of energy. The first is a stunt because not all characters would be able to fit channeling or evocation in a build tight on space.

[Mr. Death]

How are they putting up a shield capable of absorbing magical energy if they can't cast magic themselves?

And the +2 on top of being able to do something normally impossible isn't really balanced.

[Ghostfreak]

The shield is an example because it would more than likely an item of power, should've added that. My apologies. A magical shield or sword can work, but I chose a shield because a shield gives much more options than a sword. An maybe for the +2 the cost of the stunt would be a 2 refresh cost rather than one, or the +2 can be taken out entirely. I only added that in because I know wizards are capable of casually drumming up so much power with little to almost no trouble; save for bad dice rolls. So being able to meet or beat the attack would be preferable, or if the wizard catches you in the maneuver. Then you would have an opportunity to try and siphon off a bit of the magical energies placed in the maneuver to make getting out a bit easier.

Again as I said, it is an idea that I needed council on to make sure its strong; but not overly so. I am open to suggestions.

[Mr. Death]

I get what you're saying, but that's just not how the stunt pricing works -- for 1 refresh, you'd get either a new trapping or a bonus to the roll, not usually both, and if you did, it wouldn't be a +2.

I'd feel more comfortable about that as a 2 or more refresh power attached to the item than as a stunt (I still maintain you need a supernatural power to redirect a magic spell -- or any projectile, for that matter; it's just not something normally possible without supernatural ability).

[g33k]

The shield is an example because it would more than likely an item of power, should've added that. My apologies. A magical shield or sword can work, but I chose a shield because a shield gives much more options than a sword. An maybe for the +2 the cost of the stunt would be a 2 refresh cost rather than one, or the +2 can be taken out entirely. I only added that in because I know wizards are capable of casually drumming up so much power with little to almost no trouble; save for bad dice rolls. So being able to meet or beat the attack would be preferable, or if the wizard catches you in the maneuver. Then you would have an opportunity to try and siphon off a bit of the magical energies placed in the maneuver to make getting out a bit easier.

Again as I said, it is an idea that I needed council on to make sure its strong; but not overly so. I am open to suggestions.

So an IoP, that's good.  I get a kind of "Cap'n America" (but vs supernatural instead of Nazis) vibe.  Makes me think maybe a Venator (or works with them a lot) ... ?   Cap is a super even without his shield, of course... Will your guy be buffed for speed, stength, toughness, etc?  Or are you hanging everything off the shield?

The IoP itself has some potent magic to do with counterspelling, then you Stunt up to use the shield in extra, interesting ways?

I'm unsure of that "siphon off power" bit, though... Been a while since I delved into the rulebooks... does this work like any other powers do?

Were you to one looking to play an Emissary of Lady Liberty?  This "magical Cap'n" looks to play interestingly with that notion, IMHO ... (edit:  I see that you weren't; I still find the idea charming!)