Sponsored Magic (and my Autumn Knight)

[FishStampede]

This came up in another thread, and I decided to continue it here. One of my players is the Autumn Knight. She wanted to play a spellcaster but doesn't have any experience with the system or much of the setting, so I figured her as the Forgotten Knight of Autumn would work well. She's got low lore, no training, and is kinda just winging it with what she thinks she can do. So far it's working fairly well and seems to be evolving organically, but I want to make sure I don't start stepping outside the rules as she becomes more comfortable.

So, the question is, for someone with Sponsored Magic, how are Elements handled? It says in the book that it's like Channeling, and on Harry's staff Hellfire is itself treated as an "element," but what about the standard five?

Each sponsored magic discusses how it can apply to certain elements. Hellfire obviously lends itself strongly to fire magic, but can also be done with Spirit (Force), while Soulfire seems the exact reverse. Then again, that's just when Harry uses it, and he's kinda a doofus when it comes to these things. He also uses Winter magic through fire of all things, treating it as the absence of heat, when it may be easier to do it with water magic (which he sucks at).

The way I'm treating it is that Autumn Magic (without Evocation) gives technical access to all elements, if you are creative. The effects she has seemed to favor so far were mostly fire (in the form of burning leaves or an exploding pumpkin) or bitter autumn wind, but she has also used an effect that was either Water or Spirit to dissolve a monster's feathers and keep it from flying. All of this really fits in with Autumn's purview, but I want to make sure I don't go too far with this, so should I limit it to three "wizarding" elements unless she also takes Evocation?

Another issue is focus items. When someone with Sponsored Magic takes focus items, do they use the wizardly elements to decide which one they give bonuses to? Like, if she made her dagger into a focus item, would it give bonuses to Fire evocation, to Autumn evocation, or to Autumn (Fire)?

Finally, rituals. Obviously, any rituals must be flavored within the purview of autumn. Mostly, due to her previous occupation as a baker, she favors potion crafting, though she has also used some necro/ectomancy to deal with spirits. Should I restrict her to that, or does she technically have the full range of Ritual/Thaumaturgical abilities? I'd hate to tell her she can't do things she previously did, and like the slow evolution of her abilities as she feels out her powers more.

As a final note, thanks to her using baked goods as sleeping potions more than once (we call them Roofy Cupcakes..among less delicate things), I let her take a unique stunt that allows Craftsmanship to sub for Lore when making potions, only the potions gain the Perishable aspect. "Magically Delicious" is the stunt name. Only question here is, should you use Craftsmanship or Performance for baked goods?

I'm new at this so I'm probably being a little lenient.

[Praxidicae]

The way I understand it, and the way I've used it, is that a sponsored magic "element" will allow the user access to any effects justifiable by that element, so for your Autumn Knight the "Autumn" element will likely allow access to entropic or decay spells, spells to control or manipulate nature, possibly localised weather manipulation etc. On the other hand unless there is a justifiable reason, that same character would have difficulty with spells of birth, regrowth or healing, spells of creation etc as these would more likely fall under the domain of "Spring" magic.
Basically a sponsored magic element in effect works in the same way as any of the five standard elements in that it is constrained to effects that can be justified by it's domain. It's just that the sponsored magic elements tend to be more vague, and thus are able to justify a broader area of specialisation.

[Sanctaphrax]

I agree with Praxidicae. Sponsored Magic is effectively its own element, which can overlap with normal elements.

That works for Thaumaturgy too. It's like Ritual (Autumn).

I use Performance for cooking, but Craftsmanship works too.

[JDK002]

If you really want to set a guideline for what elements are useable you could graph out an element wheel so to speak.  Basically attaching each court to one element.  Winter being water, next in the wheel would be spring which you could attach to earth, next to spring is summer for fire, then autumn with wind.

The court opposite autumn on the wheel is spring.  Which would suggest autumn doesn't really use earth magic.  But could use water and fire as winter and summer are closer to autumn, not in direct opposition, and share commonalities.

[Rougarou]

If you really want to set a guideline for what elements are useable you could graph out an element wheel so to speak.  Basically attaching each court to one element.  Winter being water, next in the wheel would be spring which you could attach to earth, next to spring is summer for fire, then autumn with wind.

The court opposite autumn on the wheel is spring.  Which would suggest autumn doesn't really use earth magic.  But could use water and fire as winter and summer are closer to autumn, not in direct opposition, and share commonalities.

The problem with this is that if you did so, you would prevent access to some elements which would make a lot of sense for that court to have. For instance, by the method you suggest, Summer would have no access to water. Where I live, summer is the rainiest season we have and would actually make the most sense to have access to water.

One aside to the OP, others have stated that autumn is a time of decay and death and that the spells associated with it should reflect that. While there is definitely some merit to that, I feel it should be pointed out that autumn is the time of harvest. While this does have an aspect of death inherent to it (another word for harvesting is reaping, the concept of the Grim Reaper wielding a scythe comes from the idea that he harvests souls), it also has an aspect of plans coming to fruition which should not be neglected. This is an interesting angle that can be played many ways since it encompasses so much. By the way, fire is often used as part of the process of harvesting certain crops, not to mention that the falling leaves make great fuel for forest fires, which is why I like the burning leaves spell so much.

[JDK002]

That's why you would only want to use it as a very rough guideline rather than an absolute.  Like say if your autumn knight wants to use earth magic, they need a really good justification or clever application.  As the GM it's really all up to you what exact autumn magic means. =)

[Jimmy]

By the way, fire is often used as part of the process of harvesting certain crops, not to mention that the falling leaves make great fuel for forest fires, which is why I like the burning leaves spell so much.

Mmmm...I grew up around the sugar cane region of Queensland, Australia. I remember cane fire nights very well, and the masses of snakes and rats that would run rampant in the towns after a few fields were burnt. Fun whacking day...