Quick question. We were discussing reactive Evocation Blocks in another thread, and it's already stated in the book (YS280) that defensive enchanted items definitely are a reactive Block. But one question that sticks in my mind is this: I'd rule that you can't cast an Evocation Block if you're caught by surprise ... but would a defensive enchanted item be able to reactively Block an attack if caught unawares?
While it seems possibly overpowered, there are few instances in the novels where Harry gets shot in the back from an unseen enemy and walks away from it because his trenchcoat stopped the bullets.
Moriden, I take issue with your Sponsored uber-caster. Here's why:
Fair concerns let me walk you through how it works under RAW.
Items of Power are often not allowed to grant Refinement.
"Abilities outside of the Minor Abilities, Strength, Toughness, and Speed categories must be examined closely by the GM and may be disallowed." pg 167 your story. emphasis mine. the frequency of this being allowed or not is impossible to quantify.
Block or armour rituals are generally considered broken (and with good reason).
Most likely, though i was in no way addressing weather or not this build should be allowed in a game, merely showing that the artificer is in no way the most broken thing in the system
Lawbreaker only adds to control by the RAW.
What else could we possibly be talking about but the RAW? i have no way of knowing what any given person may like or dislike about the rules, so i must always assume that the book as written is the standard.
I don't think you can stack Lawbreaker (although I could be wrong).
"Trouble Comes in Threes. Increase the spellcasting bonus by one if you have three or more Lawbreaker abilities in any combination (i.e., if you’ve broken three or more Laws of Magic, sporting a Lawbreaker ability for each one), making the maximum possible bonus +3." pg 182 your story. so hes just taking the +3 from lawbreaker second, or the +2 from lawbreaker first. switch as desired for your particular character.
There's no such thing as a "biomancy" focus, it has to be "biomancy control" or something else like that.
and You can't stack foci.
it is a thaumaturgical bonus to complexity for biomancy, which is one of the sample thaumaturgical fields in the book. see below for why i mistakenly listed it.
Allowing a thaumaturgy focus to boost all uses of Sponsored Magic is probably not reasonable.
Got me there, you need kemlerian necromancy to be able to do that and with necromancy not biomancy. im using autumn magic in my game which gives me the ability to use the complexity bonus of your biomancy as a control bonus for certain spells. So i apologize for forgetting that its not a part of printed summer magic. so instead we change the focus items to. a single one that has +4 summer magic control offensive, and +2 summer magic power: offensive. resulting in 9 shift offensive evocations with a control base of 12, mix and match as needed if you want better rotes for defense. im sure i could make a version using kemlerian that worked similarly but i don't see the need.
Not to mention that Wards are fixed location spells and not something that can be carried with you. Otherwise, every wizard in the novels would be utterly un-touchable.
Wards certainly are. Veils however which i believe use a similar or identical system however are not. And what we are talking about is using biomancy to enhance a body to withstand damage. So much like a ward being limited to a threshold or circle of power this is limited to a person. normally you'd have a really hard time doing this since your understanding of biology probably isn't sufficient, but thats not a problem with summer magic.
The reason you don't see any of the wizards in the book doing this is very simple, none of them have either summer magic or the willingness to experiment with biomancy, rightly fearing the consequences to themselves and from the law. I'm sure you'll then ask well why don't the summer court/knight do this?
To which i can easily respond how do we know they don't? the "ogre" that harry fights in summer knight was essentially immune to anything he did to him that didn't involve cold iron, which i would argue would bypass any spell cast by summer magic.
fights someone who he basically cant hurt with direct magic attacks.
Wards certainly are. Veils however which i believe use a similar or identical system however are not. And what we are talking about is using biomancy to enhance a body to withstand damage. So much like a ward being limited to a threshold or circle of power this is limited to a person. normally you'd have a really hard time doing this since your understanding of biology probably isn't sufficient, but thats not a problem with summer magic.
The reason you don't see any of the wizards in the book doing this is very simple, none of them have either summer magic or the willingness to experiment with biomancy, rightly fearing the consequences to themselves and from the law. I'm sure you'll then ask well why don't the summer court/knight do this?
To which i can easily respond how do we know they don't? the "ogre" that harry fights in summer knight was essentially immune to anything he did to him that didn't involve cold iron, which i would argue would bypass any spell cast by summer magic.
fights someone who he basically cant hurt with direct magic attacks.
First off, Ogres have straight out resistance to magic specifically. It's not a magical block but an actual inherent Toughness power. In fact, many of the creatures have Toughness powers, most of which are general ones with a regular catch, but some that are specific to certain attacks like that of Ogres. Check Our World, the stats are in there.
Moving forward into the difference between a magical Block and a Toughness power, there is one huge notable example where a very powerful Summer Magic character bit the dust when they wouldn't have needed to: Aurora, the first Summer Lady, a character that, while certainly not as powerful as Titania, was still way more powerful than Harry was at the time, and no doubt a master of Summer Magic and all it could do. Yet, she was cut down by a bunch of sprites with steel box cutters! She could have easily have cast what you're describing to make up for her vulnerability to Iron, but didn't.
Take into consideration that using Biomancy to use your own body's bones, muscles, and skin to create that powerful an armor would require massively reconfiguring how your body works to a vastly traumatic degree. It even says that most uses of Biomancy to supercharge you can cause Consequences due to the strain you're putting on your body. And those are short term effects! The kind of change that would turn your body into something as rigid as steel for several HOURS would definitely kill you. Not maybe. Not probably. Absolute kill you dead!
as devonapple said, summer magic clearly says that it takes care of the problems of using biomancy.
I personally don't put a lot of faith in the stats in our world. i was providing examples in the novels which could have supported this mechanical method.
I actually already responded to your spoiler-ed comment I don't believe that any level of fae magic will work against iron. doesn't matter if its a block 1 or 1 million.
2. Your character only has two Lawbreaker powers and so does not benefit from Trouble Comes In Threes.
Depends on interpretation i suppose, i view each level of lawbreaker to count. but what i put up as ive said was a five minute example, if you'd like i could make a character who does the same or similar things with no flaws, personally i don't think its really worth the time for a character id never actually play.
3. The stats as you have written them apply multiple foci to both power and control. You can't do that. Unless one of the bonuses is meant to be a specialization, in which case you can't have those with Sponsored Magic alone.
I would be much obliged if you could cite the rule that says you cant get refinement specializations with sponsored magic? the focus items and specializations where mistaken as i addressed a few posts up.
4. As far as I know Summer Magic works just fine against cold iron. The book does not say that it doesn't in the entry for Summer Magic, at least.
When it comes up i side with the novels over the rpg. it is not listed in summer magic it is shown that fae magic cannot stand up to iron. as we saw in changes when susans protections where ignored by martens sword. harry knew it wouldn't stop the blade. Think of it as harry making a lore assessment on susans armor, which he gave to marten to invoke for effect. causing a compel against lea's high concept. Lea gets a fate point susan dies and everyones happy.