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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Haru on August 30, 2010, 10:59:53 PM
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Well I've been working on a few characters to familiarise myself with the system. Now I have this one character, a focused practitioner (chloromancy), with both Channeling and Ritual, that I can not quite figure out. My idea was, that she will only be able to cast spells if there are some plants around that she can manipulate, which will make her pretty vulnurable in a purely urban setting, but that might just mean you have to get a little more creative pulling things of. I was thinking about putting "the Catch" on it, but I don't think it is that much of a deal to actually grant refresh. She also has contact to some of the more summerly wildfae, but she does not get power from them or anything, although one of them has been teaching her to use her magic, because she saved that wildfaes life (I haven't really thought out that part completely yet).
Anyhow, she is working in a tree nursery, being good with plants and all, and she has some space set aside to power up some acorns, which means she puts them in the ground, waters them etc., but instead of growing they save that energy inside them. The chloromancer always carries around some of those acorns to supercharge some of her spells. On that point I am not sure how to handle this.
They need to be some sort of focus or enchanted item I think. Focus item would not fit, because in my imagination, the acorn will rapidly wither after being used to supercharge a spell so it can not be used again. An enchanted item as I understand them can only be used ones, but they are permanent, also not what I am looking for. Best would probably be to tweak the potions rule. The next question would be, how many shifts (as in supercharging a spell) per enchanted item slot can I put into any of those acorns? And is there a limit as to how much I can put into any item? Could I for example have just one acorn at me with 4 enchanted item slots on it.
The spells will mostly be defensive and maneuvers, for example letting the trees in the area shed their leaves in order to block the direct sight of anyone following the chloromancer or blending in with the plants in the area in order to prevent being detected (sort of a veil). Rooting someone to the ground or having a tree grow around part of him to hold him might also be something she would do. But for the most part, actively attacking someone (that means a spell that is an attack in the rules) is probably something that will never happen.
So, how do I stat out my acorns, and how would you handle the spells I sketched out above?
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the acorns could easily be potions, but another thing you could look into would be the enchanted item rule, and just gloss over it with a thematic effect.
yes the power is useable 3 times per session and then it "recharges" however, in this case, they have 3 acorns on them.
My suggestion would to have the items perform a maneuver to apply the aspect "brimming with power" or something similar that can then be tagged for spells.
Thats just off the top of my head.
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Baron Hazard has already given the answers I would give on the Acorns. Treat the Acorns as enchanted items and give them a maneuver that places an Aspect that can be tagged for power on a roll. The fact that the character has a whole garden of them is enough justification to have them as an enchanted item even though they get withered and used up, since you can always harvest and plant more of them.
As for the spells they sound like pretty standard Veils, Blocks, and Maneuver spells with plant magic color so you should be good to go. Without knowing your character's skills coming up with the mechanics for the spells is a little hard. But there is nothing you've laid out that is so crazy that can't be done with the basic Evocation rules. So I'd just give the character Channeling (Chloromancy) and be done with it. No Catch needed, the fact that the magic only works on and around plants because it is the focus of the Channeling is enough.
Also I wouldn't worry about being hindered by lack of greenery in a city. Every city is teeming with plant life, on the streets there should always be some plants around. And even inside places you should be good, lots of big buildings have plants and even trees in the lobby, and there are lots of offices and homes that have small plants in them.
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also on this note, never underestimate moss, lichen and other tiny plant life.
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also on this note, never underestimate moss, lichen and other tiny plant life.
Especially if you can make it grow by pumping the power of a potential oak tree into it! ;)
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Although there could be some fun Compels in those situations, too. "Curses! Plastic!"
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Now I'm thinking about a wizard who makes plant monsters. Casting spell after spell on the same tree, shaping and changing it...
Richard
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And now I'm just envisioning a bonzai chlorofiend! Awww look at the cute little chlorofiend! ;D
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And now I'm just envisioning a bonzai chlorofiend! Awww look at the cute little chlorofiend! ;D
That's a hilarious mental image! ;D
"Awww, look at the cute little thing. Who's a precious widdle monster? OH GOD, it's eating my face! GET IT OFF ME!" LOL.
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Ok, having the acorns put a maneuver on the scene is probably the way to go, although it will be quite expensive having to spend a fate point to invoke them, but on the other hand, there might be enough options to get them, so I should be good.
And now that you mention it, how would I go about and create a chlorofiend? Even and especially a bonzai chlorofiend would be amazing ;D
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Don't make things too complicated for yourself when you write up your spells. Imagining how they work and look is a good start but after that all you have to do is figure out which niche they fall into. If they're supposed to outright cause damage then they're an attack of some sort. If they protect you or in any way interfere with your enemy noticing you or affecting you, they're a block. Most other things would be a maneuver and place an aspect on a target or the scene. Counterspelling would be perhaps undoing someone else's plant magic or maybe forcing the energy of someone else's spell to ground out into a nearby plant. Although actually that gives me ideas for an enchanted item or item of power... Maybe a magic eating violet that goes all kudzu on spellpower.
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Ok, having the acorns put a maneuver on the scene is probably the way to go, although it will be quite expensive having to spend a fate point to invoke them, but on the other hand, there might be enough options to get them, so I should be good.
And now that you mention it, how would I go about and create a chlorofiend? Even and especially a bonzai chlorofiend would be amazing ;D
You get one "Free" (no fate point needed) tag per acorn.
As others said, this power is best emulated with potion slots (each focus item slot converts to 2 enchanted item slots, which can be dubbed "potion slots".
Thus, you'll by buying refinement to up strength and frequency.
If you set your lore to 5, then buying strength three times gets you a potion strength of 8.
The spell strength you need to create a sticky aspect on a scene is 4 (so lore 4 would allow you to do this with no refinement needed); 3 to create an aspect, and 1 to be "sticky" (have it hang around for the rest of the scene after you tag it for free, so you could use fate points if needed). Because this is on the scene, no one resists it at the time you use it (no strength goes to an opposed check), so it pretty much just happens. Someone could counter it, but... why?
If you set your default potion strength to 8, then each acorn could essentially put two aspects on a scene (2 at strength 4), giving you two free tags per acorn.
As other people can also use these aspects (though not for free), I'd actually avoid "brimming with power" and put something more directly plant-based like "brimming with chloromantic power". Not only does it make more sense for what you want, but it might avoid having your enemy tag your aspect to throw back hellfire at you.
This is a pretty basic bottled spell, and can be used as a formula to put all kinds of aspects on scenes... a "potion of cold" that doesn't hurt anyone but just makes the room chilly (aspect, "it's friggin' freezing in here, Mr. Bigglesworth") works identically to this.
Hrm, as this post specifically covers your acorns, I'll post other thoughts separately.
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Ok, having the acorns put a maneuver on the scene is probably the way to go, although it will be quite expensive having to spend a fate point to invoke them, but on the other hand, there might be enough options to get them, so I should be good.
If you have an enchanted item that does a maneuver which puts an aspect on a scene you do not have to spend a fate point on it to tag it, it works the same way as a normal maneuver magical or mundane you get to tag it for free the first time. Now since the acorns wither when you use them up the Aspect is obviously fragile and doesn't last longer than that first free tag, and wouldn't stick around long enough for you to actually use a fate point on it.
And now that you mention it, how would I go about and create a chlorofiend? Even and especially a bonzai chlorofiend would be amazing ;D
Creating a magical construct is the purview of Thaumaturgy, so if you want your very own tame chlorofiend done up in Japanese miniature you'll have to have Ritual (Chloromancy) at a bare minimum. But once you had that ability creating it would probably depend on how you want to model it, check out the Thaumaturgy section in Your Story and the Construct and Chlorofiend section of Our World. It would almost definitely have Diminutive Size as a power.
Really though such a creature is more color than useful, if you just want to have a bonsai chlorofiend living in a terrarium in your character's house that's not much more than saying your character has an exotic pet. Provided you have the magic to create and sustain such a thing in the first place. If you want it to be really useful to you in some way make it an aspect for your character something like "My Master's Old Bonsai Familiar". Such a thing might make an interesting Bob type for your character.
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Spell: Detoxification
Type: Ritual
Complexity: 4 + size, or more based on difficulty to resist environmental hazard
This spell can only be used when plants of some kind exist in an area (by assessing or declaring, which earns you a free tag for the spell). The caster first lays down a circle that uses leaves, vines, limbs, or other plant parts (btw this also gets you a free tag), and then pushes magic into the circle. All plants in the circle immediately begin to rapidly convert all air and air-born substances to clean, fresh oxygen. The spell lasts for 24 hours, or until the circle is broken, whichever comes first. Afterwards, all plant-life in the circle dies (and remains poisonous if eaten, if it took on any toxins), and the area will grow nothing else for a year. Re-soiling and re-seeding the area will also restore growth to the area.
The spell's effect is powerful enough to counter any air-born toxin, magical or non-magical, as long as the spell's complexity exceeds whatever check a target would need to survive the toxin (usually endurance).
Casters should be warned that, while the oxygen will expand past the circle, only the area inside the circle will protect from air-born toxins, and that this area should be treated as an oxygen tent. (I personally would emulate this by giving any fire effect on the area a free tag).
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I would suggest the acorns place the aspect on you or on themselves (and not on the scene), providing only yourself (or one holding the acorn) can tag the aspect.
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Ah, now I get it, I am new to the system, so I didn't get the aspects thing completely. After reading that chapter again, I think it is exactly what I was thinking of. The acorns will place the WILD GROWTH aspect on the scene, which is the kind of thing I had in mind, using whatever stored growing energy is inside them on every plantlike life in the vicinity making them grow and the chloromancer can now tag that growth and shape it. I like it.
Lore will possibly start at 4 or 5, not sure yet. Either way, I think WILD GROWTH would qualify as a sticky aspect, so I am going with it.
As for the oxygen idea, I really really like it, I haven't even thought of that one. Another idea in that direction: how would it work, if I wanted to enrich the area with oxygen, so an unsuspecting sorcerer might throw around his fire and have it blow up in his face, because it is overpowered due to the oxygen overdose?
Ritual (Chloromancy) is already on the charactersheet, as I thought most things involving plant magic might take a while, so thaumaturgy would be the way to go. The Bonzai-Bob was something I was considering, but also things like letting the bonzai behind a window come to life and open that window or something similiar. Hell, you could do all kinds of fun things with a bonzaifiend.
Now all I have to do is get my friends to play, which would mean getting them into dresden first...
To the geek-mobil!!!
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Awesome I'm glad it clicked, those ah-ha moments when you see people figure out how aspects work is one of the best things about FATE.
For flooding an area with oxygen you'd be casting a spell that is a maneuver that would place something like "OXYGEN RICH ENVIRONMENT" on the scene now when Mr. Fire Wizard lights up you could tag it for effect and give him or the zone he's in the ever popular "ON FIRE" aspect, as he lights himself up. Now the thing that takes a little getting used to is that even though there is now fictionally a fire it doesn't actually cause him any stress or consequences until you tag it to have an effect. But usually he's going to spend a round to get rid of that aspect, rather then stand around and let himself continue to burn.
As for the opening the locked window with a houseplant idea that's totally a great use of Chloromancy, but I wouldn't worry about creating a whole mini chlorofiend every time you want to do something like that. Animating houseplants to do simple actions is probably a lot easier to do than creating a brand new plant matter homunculus for something that could just as easily be solved with a brick through the window, or a glass cutter.
I was wondering though since you have Ritual (Chloromancy), do you also have Channeling (Chloromancy)? A lot of the effects you were talking about using in your initial posts would be pretty hard to pull off quickly enough to be useful in stressful situations if you don't have the ability to use Evocation. Of course with both of those powers you are becoming something of a Chloromancer Supreme but it sounds like that's what you want your character to be which is also very cool.
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Essentially, the same spell would "oxygenate" an area. As a ritual though, you're casting it ahead of time... hard to do if he's about to cast fire and you want to cause it to blow up in his face. Easy to do if you know he's a fire-guy and place it early.
I like the aspect on the scene (instead of yourself) because the free tag can be transferred *at your discretion* to someone else in the party, if need be.
Other ideas:
Hedge Maze (as thaumaturgy)
complexity: varies, usually 7-9, plus extra for size or duration; fairy tale castles may exceed 30 or more!
The caster first outlines an area with grains and fruits, flowers, or seeds of common shrubs or bushes. Once enclosed, the caster places a few more lines completely across the area, making random intersections, and then closes the spell. The caster can draw an "inner circle" of an area to remain clear and surrounded, if desired. If a building is to be surrounded, then all of the zones adjacent to the building must be included in the complexity. If the building is to be covered inside the maze, then all of the zones that the building contains must also be included. The shrubs and bushes then grow to great height, forming a hedge maze around the area. The maze does not necessarily follow the pattern drawn by the maze, but the caster must specify two openings (either two on the outside or one outside, and one on the inner circle), and whether or not the maze is open at the top or if the hedges form true tunnels. The caster instantly knows the way through the maze, as well as anyone that meets a condition set by the caster according to the rules for ward recognition.
All other people must surpass a barrier strength equal to the complexity of the spell, minus any shifts spent on size or duration, to pass through the maze. To overcome the barrier, a person can use might (to break through a section), weapons (to hack through) or academics (to solve the puzzle) for each zone that they pass through. For high complexity mazes, this could be treated as accumulated successes... however, the maze shifts and regrows any damage every few minutes, making such a trip a one-time deal.
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Also, props if you avoid the "gnarled staff" motif and instead get yerself a magical watering can as your focus item.
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Well yeah, it does need getting used to, though the best way probably is a practice game. But that is exactly why I started doing the characters, so I can run into problems like these and get them out of the way early :)
To see if I got it: The sorcerer is ON FIRE, and because it is an aspect I just placed on him, I can tag it for free. Now I go and use some roots from the trees to grab him and put ROOTED on top of it. Now I have 2 aspects I can tag to entangle him even further, meaning I cast another rooting spell as an attack. At power 5 it becomes a weapon:5, discipline +4 plus 2 tags are +8 shifts without even rolling. Assuming a roll of 0, the sorcerer gets 13 stress, so the heat together with the roots wrapping around his body will be enough to take him out (or at least hurt like hell) and I can get away. With conviction at 5 this would give me 1 shift of mental stress (2 actually, counting the first rooting spell).
As for the opening the locked window with a houseplant idea that's totally a great use of Chloromancy, but I wouldn't worry about creating a whole mini chlorofiend every time you want to do something like that. Animating houseplants to do simple actions is probably a lot easier to do than creating a brand new plant matter homunculus for something that could just as easily be solved with a brick through the window, or a glass cutter.
I can't help but imagine the face of someone minding his own business, when suddenly one of his plants gets up to carry stuff around. Priceless ;D
I was never going to give her a gnarled staff, because, well... it has been done to death. I was going to go with a shovel or a spade as a ritual focus item. I realise it is still stafflike, but it fits the character. Plus most rituals will probably involve a lot of preperation in the form of gardening, so it is not only for magical use. For evocation I was going to go without a focus, but that's where the acorns come in, if I really need the extra power.
The Maze is a great idea. How long in advance would I be able to prepare such a thing? I am thinking of a kind of thing like Harry has around his apartment, when he lights that one candle. Seeing as the chloromancer lives in a shed in the tree nursery she works in, it wouldn't be a problem to set it up in advance all the way around her home.
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I like the plant motif. Remember fungus, molds, and algae are all plants. Not sure what I'd do with that (grow algae to walk on water perhaps?) but good to know.
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The Maze is a great idea. How long in advance would I be able to prepare such a thing? I am thinking of a kind of thing like Harry has around his apartment, when he lights that one candle. Seeing as the chloromancer lives in a shed in the tree nursery she works in, it wouldn't be a problem to set it up in advance all the way around her home.
The duration of thaumaturgy is 1 day, with 1 extra complexity per time shift on the time chart. So, technically you can set it up "several lifetimes" in advance (for +13 difficulty)... though it probably makes more sense to redo it every season or year (lower difficulty, plus, better fits the gardener motif). I forget the scale there, but that's probably only 5 or 6 extra shifts. Which you can easily pick up with declarations (resources: excellent quality seeds; scholarship: thought-out puzzle; endurance: cast completely through without stopping (as it will take several hours minimum to draw the lines of seeds around a structure)... that gets you 6 right there (each declaration is an aspect that you tag for 2 shifts of power; look up declarations in the book for more info).
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I've been thinking about some thaumaturgy spells for my chloromancer:
Rampage Growth
Complexity: 23 (21 to reduce time from "a mortal lifetime" to "a few moments" + 2 to cover a zone)
Duration: a few moments
Effect: The plants in the zone start growing extremely fast, creating cover and obstacles, growing in and over houses, cars, everything.
Variations: reduce shifts for a slower growth (14 would take a whole day to grow), making it more of a reforestation spell, but it would also be a lot easier to do.
The time chart is usually used to increase the duration of the spell, I used it to lower the growing time of the plants, did I still count the complexity right?
Banana phone (yeah, that's right)
Complexity: 2 for duration +1 for each banana over the first two, that is connected to the "network"
Duration: 1 hour
Effect: The chloromancer takes a bundle of bananas and creates a link between them. For the duration of the spell the bananas will act as a radio to communicate. It is important, that the bananas are still connected before the spell is cast.
Variations: add shifts to increase duration.
I know, this one is kind of silly, but I really like it. Bananas are plants (or parts of), so as a chloromancer I should be good to go. For complexity I took the advise from iago from another thread, where he suggested the complexity of a water breathing spell at a level equal to a resource roll for buying scuba gear. Radios are not really expensive, so a roll of mediocre should be enough, so the spells complexity is only made up of duration and the number of "phones".
As a matter of fact, you could use pretty much anything to create short term radio communication for your group. Take some playdo, put a little piece in everyone's ear and you got the full blown wizard version of it (and the less silly/fun one). Of course, the range is limited, maybe a block or two, but if you use it to storm a house from opposite directions or something similar, it is extremely useful. And it is hexing resistant as well.
There are some other spells, but with those two I was not sure if they should be able to work like that.
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I like the oxygen creating spell, but you could also do more dangerous things; like if I recall correctly the gas inside the "bladders" that keep kelp afloat is actually CO2, and if you pump enough of that into the air, you can suffocate folks. As a possible "block" to this effect, you could empower something that would look like a flower in the buttonhole or some such; enough locally created O2 to protect against the effects.
How about some sort of shaping thing, to allow accelerated growth of a tree to allow a branch/ladder to be formed where/to needed.
Think about carnivourous plants - a huge sized venus flytrap.
Extra-poisonous Ivy (or maybe oozing the irritating oil?).
Dian
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For some reason, my mind keeps insisting that Chloromancer needs the Trouble Aspect "Goddamn Batman"...
Oh, and fungus and mold is technically not plant, but a category of its own. Difference between botany and mycology.
Also, consider all the fun plant toxins you could extricate from specialized flora... Like, say, almonds carrying a deadly dose of cyanide... Or maybe a plant which draws a specific mineral from the soil and stores it in its leaves or something? (Like an Aluminium Flower, for example.)
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I've been thinking about some thaumaturgy spells for my chloromancer:
Rampage Growth
Complexity: 23 (21 to reduce time from "a mortal lifetime" to "a few moments" + 2 to cover a zone)
Duration: a few moments
[...]
The time chart is usually used to increase the duration of the spell, I used it to lower the growing time of the plants, did I still count the complexity right?
First, you need to allocate power for the base effect (usually around 3). Then, you want time. As your base time will be '1 day', going up 13 steps on the time chart (assuming I've counted right) to 'several mortal lifetimes' adds another 13 complexity. Then at least 2 complexity to effect a single zone. So you are only looking at complexity 18, +2 for every zone after the first.
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For the banana phone, remember to add extra power if you want to be able to use them inside the house, as you'll have to beat the threshold scores.
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Difference between botany and mycology.
Mycomancer!
Creating animated mushroom homunculi (D&D's Myconid race).
Casting hallucinogenic spores!
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Mycomancer!
Creating animated mushroom homunculi (D&D's Myconid race).
Casting hallucinogenic spores!
Sounds like a fun guy.
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Sounds like a fun guy.
Not really, but he grows on you.
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Also consider using the Asian elemental system, to make magic more focused. Channeling/Ritual would keep the refresh down. Typically, catches are reserved for sponsored magic (like Fae), so rely on compels to make situations interesting.
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"Oh, and fungus and mold is technically not plant, but a category of its own. Difference between botany and mycology."
Bah I say. After all, chlorophyll is found "in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria." Which implies that some actual plants don't have it and some non-plants do. But really that's not the point. I'm just liking the idea of magic based in/of plant-y type things, and I'll include fungus & lichens in there because in my head they are all in "a group" - and how I think is how my character's magic would play out.
Dian
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"Oh, and fungus and mold is technically not plant, but a category of its own. Difference between botany and mycology."
Bah I say. After all, chlorophyll is found "in almost all plants, algae, and cyanobacteria." Which implies that some actual plants don't have it and some non-plants do. But really that's not the point. I'm just liking the idea of magic based in/of plant-y type things, and I'll include fungus & lichens in there because in my head they are all in "a group" - and how I think is how my character's magic would play out.
Dian
Just be sure to give your character a low Scholarship ;)
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The thread lives!!!
ahm anyways...
Not really, but he grows on you.
nice one ;D
I like the Mycomancer idea, would fit perfectly as the evil twin version to the chloromancer, I think. I tend to create evil versions of the characters for them to fight during a game, if I happen to be the GM. It tends to give each player a time to shine, when "their" villain is up. Plus less need to pull up lots of nameless NPCs to keep 'em busy.
I've been thinking about a stunt for the chloromancer, maybe you can help me out there.
She is going to have an aspect like "at natures pace", which basically describes her use of the art: slow but powerful and in line with the seasons.
To reflect that even better I thought about giving her a stunt that would give her a bonus of +1 to the power of spells to let plants grow in spring and summer and +1 to the power of spells to let any vegetation wither in fall and winter and have a -1 on the adverse type of spells.
Then I thought, that this could also be done by the aspect described above, collecting compels anytime you try casting a spell that does not fit the season and in return using those to boost the spells that do fit.
First, you need to allocate power for the base effect (usually around 3). Then, you want time. As your base time will be '1 day', going up 13 steps on the time chart (assuming I've counted right) to 'several mortal lifetimes' adds another 13 complexity. Then at least 2 complexity to effect a single zone. So you are only looking at complexity 18, +2 for every zone after the first.
Well that would be a spell to have a zone grow in a day, I wanted it to grow in a matter of minutes. You could prepare stuff like special seeds etc. to get the complexity and once you need it to go it would only take you like 15 minutes to pull it of.
Channeling/Ritual would keep the refresh down. Typically, catches are reserved for sponsored magic (like Fae), so rely on compels to make situations interesting.
The idea was for this character to be a focused practitioner, so it definitely is channeling and ritual. I don't think updating at any time would fit the characters theme, so she would probably just get refinement for more focus and enchanted item slots.
I think I like focused practitioners better for that particular reason. They are only good at a single type of spells, but those they do with a lot more style than your average White Council Wizard, I think. Also got a sartoryomncer in the stables, sort of an assassin with a knack for spells involving clothes (sort of a Binder type, walking the line of the lawbreaker, never crossing it). You can't do much if your clothes block your movement. Of course you can easily get around this if you know what you're up against, but... how do you explain that one to the cops? ;D
should stop babbling on now. need sleep...
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"I like the Mycomancer idea, would fit perfectly as the evil twin version to the chloromancer, I think. I tend to create evil versions of the characters for them to fight during a game, if I happen to be the GM. It tends to give each player a time to shine, when "their" villain is up. Plus less need to pull up lots of nameless NPCs to keep 'em busy."
That is totally cool! I have (well had) a habit of keeping all my old NPCs and such from various campaigns and re-using them in new places. Depending on which Players were present, sometimes I didn't even have to rename them.
On the "rapid growth" idea, maybe it could be stored in a potion, and sprinkled from a watering can.
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Four words: Giant Venus Fly Trap.
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Okay, how about this: Intelligent Giant Slime Mold
http://discovermagazine.com/2009/jan/071
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"I like the Mycomancer idea, would fit perfectly as the evil twin version to the chloromancer, I think. I tend to create evil versions of the characters for them to fight during a game, if I happen to be the GM. It tends to give each player a time to shine, when "their" villain is up. Plus less need to pull up lots of nameless NPCs to keep 'em busy."
I love this. it's just the kind of warped, evil and totally time saving device that I want as a DM.