Help Evaluate this Sponsored Magic

[SunJester]

I have looked through the sponsored magic in Your Story and the examples given here, but didn't find what I was looking for.  A player in my upcoming game is considering playing a practitioner with sponsored magic.  Please let me know what you think:

Instrument of the Archangel Phanuel [-4]
Description:  The character has been chosen by the Archangel Phanuel to act as its instrument on Earth.
Sponsor:  Phanuel is the fourth archangel, after Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel.  Phanuel is the face of God and an angel of repentance, hope, and exorcism.  He is a protector of mortals against demons.
Agenda:  Phanuel is the leader of the Ophanim and thus charged with the protection of God’s throne in heaven.  Since he is also the protector of mortals against demons and the angel of exorcism, however, when the need is great, he will choose an instrument, a mortal, to grant a small portion of his power.  This instrument is to trusted to carry out the work of Phanuel on Earth.
Evocation:  Evocation powered by Phanuel is a blazing blue spiritual light.  Because they are powered by angelic magic, such evocations wielded by a mortal practitioner cannot have a direct effect on a mortal.  Only creatures without free will such as demons, spirits, Red Court and Black Court vampires, fairies, etc. are affected.
Thaumaturgy:  Rituals powered by the holy power of the Archangel Phanuel still cannot negatively affect pure mortals or other beings with free will, however, Divination related to such targets is allowed.
Evothaum:  Any exorcism ritual may be cast with the speed and methods of Evocation.
Extra Benefits:  Magic granted by the Archangel Phanuel is particularly potent against demons.  Downgrade the effectiveness of any Toughness ability the target has by one step when using this magic against a demon.  For creatures vulnerable to “holy” magic, Phanuel’s magic may satisfy the Catch.

Thanks.

[Tedronai]

Need more clarity as to the sorts of effects this Sponsored Magic produces.
I really have no idea what sorts of effects the evocation component is meant to produce other than blinding/illuminating/etc.
Is it's thaumaturgical component limited to Divination?

[InFerrumVeritas]

This downgrades the toughness of Demons, but also satisfies their catch, thus negating their toughness entirely.  So it downgrading toughness is pointless.

It seems to provide almost no benefit.  It cannot be used against mortals (which is ambiguous and should be treated as a compel).  The evocation listed is very unclear as Tedronai stated above.  And the thaumaturgical component is equally unclear, possibly ineffective.

So: What ritual can it perform?  I think if you're limiting the magic almost entirely to "non-mortals", especially the evocation, then all of thaumaturgy would be reasonable.  If you open evocation up to be used on mortals, then it is not.

One of my big questions is, why not just use Soulfire?  It is, canonically, the sponsored magic granted by angels, and we have no reason to believe that it would be different depending on the angel.  You could easily change the "fire" to "light" and it be practically the same, albeit more versitile and effective.  Sure, it would cost -5 refresh instead of -4, but even at feet in the water it's doable.

If you'd like to modify Soulfire, limit its thaumaturgical applications to Diabloism, have its magic not affect mortals, and grant exorcism with evocation's methods and speed.  -4 refresh should be fair there.

[SunJester]

Thanks for the feedback.  The intent was that evocation was broad and could do everything that normal evocation could do, but could not effect mortals at all.  I think it would be reasonable to limit it to Spirit magic.  I was not planning on treating it as a compel since the magic simply could not touch mortals.  For example, the practitioner puts up a spirit shield and bullets fired by Red Court Vampires bounce off it, but their paid mortal mercenary's weapon fires through the shield as if it isn't even there.  The effects don't exist for the mortal.

Thaumaturgy was likewise supposed to grant access to most aspects of the power, but it would only be useable in pursuit of good objectives (should have specified that) and still could not directly harm mortals.  I agree this should have been more explicitly stated and given more development.

The point about downgrading toughness and then also satisfying the Catch is great.  I had not thought that through.

I gather from both your comments that I need to be much more specific in the description. Point taken.  I will clean it up and resubmit.

I didn't want to use Soulfire because the character was specifically focused on being an exorcist.  Soulfire didn't seem to fit the concept very well.  I could start with Soulfire and modify it, but I feel that I am going to end up at about the same place as what I intended this sponsored magic to represent.  I also like the flavor that different angels with different agendas and different areas of focus may grant different types or flavors of magic.  Possibly all angels can give access to Soulfire, but in this case Phanuel is investing a bit of his personal power with a mortal.

[SunJester]

A quick revision that hopefully addresses some of the points raised.  Thanks again for the feedback and I appreciate any comments on this revised version.

Instrument of the Archangel Phanuel [-4]
Description:  The character has been chosen by the Archangel Phanuel to act as its instrument on Earth.
Sponsor:  Phanuel is the fourth archangel, after Michael, Raphael, and Gabriel.  Phanuel is the face of God and an angel of repentance, hope, and exorcism.  He is a protector of mortals against demons.
Agenda:  Phanuel is the leader of the Ophanim and thus charged with the protection of God’s throne in heaven.  Since it is also the protector of mortals against demons and the angel of exorcism, however, when the need is great, it will choose an instrument, a mortal, to grant a small portion of his power.  This instrument is trusted to carry out the work of Phanuel on Earth.
Evocation:  Evocation powered by Phanuel is a blazing blue spiritual light.  Because they are powered by angelic magic, such evocations wielded by a mortal practitioner cannot have a direct effect on a mortal or on the physical world.  The effects of the instrument’s power are invisible to non-supernatural beings.  Only creatures without free will such as demons, spirits, Red Court and Black Court vampires, fairies, etc. are affected.  Spirit magic is the only element to which Phanuel grants access.  Against supernatural foes, the full range of evocation effects that are in line with the intent of Phanuel and can be powered by Spirit magic are available.
Thaumaturgy:  Rituals powered by the holy power of the Archangel Phanuel still cannot negatively affect pure mortals or other beings with free will, however, Divination related to such targets is allowed.  Phanuel’s power can naturally be used for exorcism, but can never be used for summoning a demon or spirit or binding it to the will of the instrument.  Conjuration is outside the province of Phanuel’s granted abilities.  Veils, wards, and rituals related to transformation and disruption can be cast but only affect supernatural entities.  Phanuel’s magic does allow transportation and worldwalking by the instrument to give access to places where they are needed.
Evothaum:   Any exorcism ritual may be cast with the speed and methods of Evocation.
Extra Benefits:  Magic granted by the Archangel Phanuel is particularly potent against demons.  For creatures vulnerable to “holy” magic, Phanuel’s magic may satisfy the Catch and it always does so against demons.

[Tedronai]

With respect to this magic 'ignoring' mortals, keep in mind that this will not always be a detriment to the character.  In fact, it may quite often be a benefit, allowing the practitioner to lay waste to entire zones without risking their (free-willed) allies, or even themselves, in the least.  That is quite a substantial benefit.

(it is my personal view that Soulfire is not so much 'granted' by the servants of the White God as it is already potentially available, and merely 'unlocked', but that's another thread)


The thaumaturgy effects still seem a little bit broad.
Dvination, veils, wards, transformation&disruption, transportation&worldwalking, portions of ectomancy and diabolism.
The list is a bit long.

Try describing your own thematic group from scratch to produce a better and more reasonable result.

[JDK002]

On your example of being shot at by a vamp andshot at by a mortal and trying to pull up a magic shield.  For your own sanity as a GM do NOT get that specifically restrictive on a fundamental.  Preventing your player from being able to defend himself from mortals will get frustrating I think. 

It makes sense that the magic can't harm mortal humans.  It doesn't make sense that the sponsor wouldn't allow the player to protect himself againts misguided humans looking to do harm.  In the specific example I have to agree with the RAW sidebar "A block, is a block, is a block."

[Tedronai]

I would strongly advise handling the 'no mortals' clause as a combination of invokes and compels.

[JDK002]

I would strongly advise handling the 'no mortals' clause as a combination of invokes and compels.

Agreed, like most sponsored magic, require the player to have an aspect that in some way states his magic cannot harm mortal humans.  That way you can fit it into an already existing game mechanic.  Instead of constantly having to micromanage his character and your play session around him not being able to do diddly squat to humans.

[Taran]

I agree.  Besides, Angels are about free choice.  He should be able to have the Choice to use his magic on mortals.  Of course this would make complications for the character later on...maybe losing access to powers etc...

All done through compels...