Fire-related sponsored magics

[nadia.skylark]

What do people think of these?

Stolen Tibicena Magic [-4]:
You have acquired the magic of a dog belonging to a Hawaiian volcano god--or at least, it used to belong to him. Now it's yours, and he probably isn't very happy about it. As such, instead of taking sponsor debt, you have a "stress track" three boxes long (it's not an actual stress track, because each box is only worth one point). Check off one of these boxes to do something you'd normally do by taking a point of sponsor debt. Clear one of these boxes for each scene you spend exposed to direct sunlight.

Tibicena magic allows you to cast spells that fit its essential nature: fire, earth, and hunting and chasing down prey.

Evothaum: You can use divination magic with the speed and methods of evocation. In addition, you can open portals to and from the Nevernever with the speed and methods of evocation, but only when you are in hot pursuit of someone, for the purpose of following them.

Extra benefits: You can utter a hunting cry, attacking everyone in hearing range with your intimidation. This inflicts mental stress and makes people who hear it want to run away in terror. However, this effects anyone besides you who hears it--you cannot shield allies or innocent bystanders.

Firebird Sponsored Magic [-4]:
By drawing on the magic of the firebirds, you can cast spells related to luck, concealment, fire, and creativity. This power comes with standard sponsored magic benefits.

Evothaum: You can use entropomancy with the speed and methods of evocation.

Extra benefits: Once per scene, you can either substitute your Conviction skill for your Performance skill for a roll, or boost the Performance roll of someone in the area by +2.

Phoenix Sponsored Magic [-4]:
By drawing on the magic of phoenixes, you can cast spells related to fire, purification, and healing. This power comes with standard sponsored magic benefits.

Evothaum:

Extra benefits: When you or someone else has a severe physical consequence, you can either give yourself the benefits of Supernatural Recovery for one scene or give someone else the benefits of Inhuman Recovery for one scene. However, to do so, either you become so hot that anything flammable that touches you catches fire, or you can't do anything else that scene (because you are too busy controlling the phoenix energy flowing through you, preventing it from setting things on fire).

[Sanctaphrax]

Stolen Tibicena Magic [-4]:
You have acquired the magic of a dog belonging to a Hawaiian volcano god--or at least, it used to belong to him. Now it's yours, and he probably isn't very happy about it. As such, instead of taking sponsor debt, you have a "stress track" three boxes long (it's not an actual stress track, because each box is only worth one point). Check off one of these boxes to do something you'd normally do by taking a point of sponsor debt. Clear one of these boxes for each scene you spend exposed to direct sunlight.

Tibicena magic allows you to cast spells that fit its essential nature: fire, earth, and hunting and chasing down prey.

Evothaum: You can use divination magic with the speed and methods of evocation. In addition, you can open portals to and from the Nevernever with the speed and methods of evocation, but only when you are in hot pursuit of someone, for the purpose of following them.

Extra benefits: You can utter a hunting cry, attacking everyone in hearing range with your intimidation. This inflicts mental stress and makes people who hear it want to run away in terror. However, this effects anyone besides you who hears it--you cannot shield allies or innocent bystanders.

I don't think replacing sponsor debt is a good idea. It's a major upgrade to the Power's strength, and it feels unnecessary; having the use of stolen power result in Compels is totally appropriate and should play well.

Mixed feelings on the extra benefit. Not sure it's likely to produce fun scenes; seems like it'll usually be too strong or too weak.

Firebird Sponsored Magic [-4]:
By drawing on the magic of the firebirds, you can cast spells related to luck, concealment, fire, and creativity. This power comes with standard sponsored magic benefits.

Evothaum: You can use entropomancy with the speed and methods of evocation.

Extra benefits: Once per scene, you can either substitute your Conviction skill for your Performance skill for a roll, or boost the Performance roll of someone in the area by +2.

Looks good to me.

Phoenix Sponsored Magic [-4]:
By drawing on the magic of phoenixes, you can cast spells related to fire, purification, and healing. This power comes with standard sponsored magic benefits.

Evothaum:

Extra benefits: When you or someone else has a severe physical consequence, you can either give yourself the benefits of Supernatural Recovery for one scene or give someone else the benefits of Inhuman Recovery for one scene. However, to do so, either you become so hot that anything flammable that touches you catches fire, or you can't do anything else that scene (because you are too busy controlling the phoenix energy flowing through you, preventing it from setting things on fire).

Evothaum could be healing magic, maybe. I could see that being useful when you're tight for time.

Extra benefit feels a little off. One-scene Recovery is kind of weird rules-wise, and I'm not totally sure how it's meant to work or what it's meant to do for the severe consequence that lets you use it. And the other moving parts are pretty weird too.

Perhaps you could borrow the supplemental-action consequence-erasure from Inhuman Recovery?

[nadia.skylark]

I don't think replacing sponsor debt is a good idea. It's a major upgrade to the Power's strength, and it feels unnecessary; having the use of stolen power result in Compels is totally appropriate and should play well.

Oops. It wasn't meant to make the power stronger. This power comes from the Mercy Thomson series, where severing the connection between a volcano god and his tibicena is partially how they defeat the volcano god. Given that the tibicena is explicitly not connected to the volcano god anymore, I hadn't thought it was appropriate to represent this power as drawing upon a sponsor, since that sponsor would have been the volcano god. Does that not matter? What kind of compels should this power generate, given that it's not supposed to be connected to the volcano god?

Mixed feelings on the extra benefit. Not sure it's likely to produce fun scenes; seems like it'll usually be too strong or too weak.

Yeah, not sure about this either. It's something the tibicena had in the books, but I'm not sure how well it fits into a sponsored magic.

Looks good to me.

Thanks!

Evothaum could be healing magic, maybe. I could see that being useful when you're tight for time.

That could work.

Extra benefit feels a little off. One-scene Recovery is kind of weird rules-wise, and I'm not totally sure how it's meant to work or what it's meant to do for the severe consequence that lets you use it. And the other moving parts are pretty weird too.

Perhaps you could borrow the supplemental-action consequence-erasure from Inhuman Recovery?

Yeah. Re-reading it, I'm not sure why I wrote it that way. It's supposed to represent the ability to heal dire wounds based on the whole "bursting into flame and being reborn" thing that phoenixes are known for, but the one-scene recovery power thing doesn't make sense to me either, now I'm thinking about it. What about something that lets you reduce a severe consequence to mild, provided you skip a scene?

[Mr. Death]

I wrote up a Phoenix-based Item of Power once. The recovery thing works better as, well, a trapping of the Recovery powers:

AMULET OF THE PHOENIX [-2]
Description: An amulet of bright orange, yellow, and red in the shape of a bird taking flight, with a ruby set in the centre. It contains some of the power of the Phoenix.
Musts: You must have an aspect justifying your possession of the item, such as EMISSARY OF THE PHOENIX, or THROUGH FIRE I LIVE AGAIN.
Skills Affected: Endurance
Effects:
[-0] Purpose. The amulet is given to those who have gained the favor of the Phoenix, and protects them from death.
[-0] It Is What It Is. It is a fashionable amulet, worn around the neck.
[-0] Unbreakable. As an Item of Power, this item cannot be broken except with a magical ritual predicated upon perverting its purpose.
[+1] One-Time Discount. As a small item, the amulet can be hidden. However, it is clearly special to those who see it.
[+1] Through Flames Reborn (based on Human Form): The healing abilities of the amulet will only activate when the bearer is bathed in natural flame. Direct magical flames will not trigger the effects (though a fire set through magic may), and the amount of fire needed scales with the severity of the consequence: a Mild Consequence may require little more than sticking your hand into a fireplace, while a Severe Consequence might require total immersion for a significant duration of time. Recovering from death will almost certainly require total immolation.
[-4] Really Amazingly Fast Recovery: You may recover from all physical consequences before the beginning of the next scene after proper treatment (sustained flame) is applied.

[nadia.skylark]

Thanks! The "through flames reborn" thing looks perfect!

[Sanctaphrax]

Oops. It wasn't meant to make the power stronger. This power comes from the Mercy Thomson series, where severing the connection between a volcano god and his tibicena is partially how they defeat the volcano god. Given that the tibicena is explicitly not connected to the volcano god anymore, I hadn't thought it was appropriate to represent this power as drawing upon a sponsor, since that sponsor would have been the volcano god. Does that not matter? What kind of compels should this power generate, given that it's not supposed to be connected to the volcano god?

Presumably stealing from a god has consequences; those consequences seem like fertile ground for Compels.

[nadia.skylark]

Resurrecting this thread (yes, another one) because I've thought of a way to re-write the Tibicena magic.

Stolen Tibicena Magic [-4]:
You have acquired the magic of a dog belonging to a Hawaiian volcano god--or at least, it used to belong to him. Now it's yours, and he probably isn't very happy about it. Sponsor debt should revolve around either the fact that the magic's stolen or around really loving sunlight (ex. being inappropriately happy when in sunlight, snapping at people for no reason when it's dark out, rushing your investigation of a house so that you can get outside quicker).

Tibicena magic allows you to cast spells that fit its essential nature: fire, earth, fear, and hunting and chasing down prey.

Evothaum: You can use divination magic with the speed and methods of evocation. In addition, you can open portals to and from the Nevernever with the speed and methods of evocation, but only when you are in hot pursuit of someone, for the purpose of following them.

Extra benefits: You can make a zone-wide intimidation attack as a supplemental action any time you use this magic, without the normal -2 for zone-wide attacks.

[g33k]

... Tibicena magic allows you to cast spells that fit its essential nature: fire, earth, fear, and hunting and chasing down prey. 

I find myself a bit worried about giving all forms of pyromancy & geomancy, + fear-based psychomancy.  Thats kind of a LOT of very different combat modes available in one bundle, IMHO; I know "balance" isn't a key issue in Fate mechanics, but neither is it a non-issue.

In the story you're looking to emulate, does the Tibicena have limits on the fire & earth powers?  Any way you can specify some bounds or limits on the powers -- or a specific extent/subset, rather than all "fire" + all "earth" -- would help.  For example, in the Dresdenverse, Harry can produce some overpowering gravity-based attacks via geomancy.

Also, I'd probably put in some specific clauses about the Wild Hunt -- it should be VERY hard to avoid joining it!!!

[nadia.skylark]

In the story you're looking to emulate, does the Tibicena have limits on the fire & earth powers?

In the story, getting tibicena powers means being forcibly transformed into a giant dog made out of lava who can chase people through a dreamworld and whose howls terrify everyone who hears them uncontrollably. It has incredibly fast healing, and is really fast and strong. When it's in full tibicena form, it can't be killed by mundane means; when in weaker tibicena form, it can be temporarily killed but will come back; and as a human, it can be killed. Every time it takes tibicena form, it looks slightly different. The tibicena's mind tends to overwhelm the human's, and as a result the human can't stay in human form very long.

In the book, a person gets turned into a tibicena by an evil rapist volcano god and, in order to get rid of the god, ends up bound to a werewolf pack. My idea is to bind the tibicena to a wizard instead, and have the wizard draw off some of its power so that the human can be more in control. The wizard gets tibicena sponsored magic because of this.

[g33k]

In the story, getting tibicena powers means being forcibly transformed into a giant dog made out of lava who can chase people through a dreamworld and whose howls terrify everyone who hears them uncontrollably. It has incredibly fast healing, and is really fast and strong. When it's in full tibicena form, it can't be killed by mundane means; when in weaker tibicena form, it can be temporarily killed but will come back; and as a human, it can be killed. Every time it takes tibicena form, it looks slightly different. The tibicena's mind tends to overwhelm the human's, and as a result the human can't stay in human form very long ...

Hmm.  Not seeing any general-purpose "fire magic" or "earth magic" in this.  Can the tibicena cast fireball's or ray-of-fire, etc?  Manipulate gravity, or find stuff hidden underground, know stuff in contact with the ground, etc?

When you say "dreamworld" ...  can it literally invade people's dreams?

And I'm also seeing a shapeshift, a sort of "lava golem" or "lava elemental" form.  I'm picturing a thick black crust, continuously cracking-open to reveal molten red-hot lava underneath, cooling back to black but cracking-open other places.  Maybe the wizard tries to keep a humanoid form, the tibicena pushes toward canine (both lava-monster)... sometimes it's just flowing between one form and the other, as they fight for control (but the tibicena is the boss of what they do in canine-form, the wizard is the boss in humanoid form).  Dunno... maybe?

[nadia.skylark]

Hmm.  Not seeing any general-purpose "fire magic" or "earth magic" in this.  Can the tibicena cast fireball's or ray-of-fire, etc?  Manipulate gravity, or find stuff hidden underground, know stuff in contact with the ground, etc?

The books describe the tibicena as a creature of fire, but lava in the Dresden books is earth magic, and both the tibicenas and the god that created them live underground, so that's where I got the earth magic. I mostly meant it as "earth and lava stuff, but no gravity, magnetism, or other earth-type magic that gets lumped under earth magic," but I'm not sure how to say that clearly.

Also, the tibicena can't really do magic per say--it's more like a volcanic loup garou which is around a lot more often and with somewhat less rampaging. However, the wizard is supposed to be drawing a bunch of "tibicena energy" into herself so that the person can more easily control the tibicena spirit inside them, so I thought that that energy should be more wizard-y.

When you say "dreamworld" ...  can it literally invade people's dreams?

Unclear. The situation was that a descendent of Coyote was asleep and dreaming, and then Coyote showed up in her dreams along with her cousin (another Coyote descendent) and took them both somewhere to show them something (which was sort of in the real world but not) and then the tibicenas saw them and chased them and then Coyote did something to distract the tibicenas and then both of them ended up in the real world somewhere else. I think. I'll re-read the scene when I have a chance. Coyote makes things complicated.