Sponsored Magic Master List

[gojj]

Regarding the extra benefit, I forgot to include that you do need at least Thaumaturgy to take this Magic. It's implied in the Description, but I'll make it explicit. It's functionally just one or two stunts. I'm a little confused by your reaction. It's powerful, but only in a fairly limited scope. I can't really think of anything I could do with it that I also couldn't do with, say, Spirit magic.

Say Joe takes this sponsored magic and a refinement, and he chooses to use all six slots for specializations. He now effectively gets six free specializations for any Evocation spell he casts, which amounts to three refresh worth of refinements.

Say Joe takes this Sponsored magic and decides to use all four focus item slots as focus items, +2 Deus Vitae Complexity and +2 Deus Vitae Control (Thaum). He now effectively gets +2 DV Offensive Power, +2 DV Defensive Power, +2 DV Offensive Control, and +2 Defensive Control for free, a total of four refresh worth of focus item bonuses.

If Joe decided to take this power and three refinements, and used them on 6 thaumaturgy specializations, and 4 thaumaturgy focus items, he gets a whopping seven refresh worth of evocation bonuses for free.

Maybe I am looking this in a different way than you guys, but this seems like a ridiculous amount of power for relatively little refresh.

[Sanctaphrax]

It's a lot. Probably too much. Especially with the way your foci always cover both offence and defence.

But every Sponsored Magic allows some of what you describe. Even with no extra benefit at all, you can get +2 offensive power and control with your base item slots. You won't have the same level of defensive or thaumaturgy ability, but honestly those numbers tend to be less important.

[gojj]

I definitely outlined a worse-case scenario, but even if someone wasn't trying to power game it could still result in at least two free refresh worth of refinements.

[Hick Jr]

This is probably one of my more powerful sponsored magics, I'll admit.

Would pricing it up to [-5] alleviate most of your concerns?

[Sanctaphrax]

Some of them. It still sort of feels like two magics glued together, though.

[Hick Jr]

The biomancy/psychomancy thing is weird. The character I wrote this for had this whole myth arc where she was the descendant of the Horseman of Conquest, except that Conquest also bears the mantle of Pestilence. So she's got super biomancy from Pestilence, and super psychomancy from Conquest. Theyre also linked to her Sponsor Debt compels.

[dragoonbuster]

After looking through just about every power on this thread and comments on them for research, I put together a Self-Sponsored magic for my wizard Sergio over at RagnarokNYC. This wound up being fairly similar to a Dresden-y version of Aleran Metalcrafting, but it's not intended to be exactly the same, either. I was curious what others think of it, and figured I would drop it here for criticism and in case someone else wanted to use it.  Unlike some of the other Superior Spellcasting powers, I personally wouldn't limit this to only wizards, regardless of wording below that implies otherwise.

Superior Ferromancy [-4]
Description: A master wizard can refine his skills in a particular area so fully that his abilities are qualitatively different from those of a normal mage. While normal specialization simply makes one faster and stronger and more effective, this level of focus provides entirely new capabilities. PCs with evocation taking this power must be able to evoke with metal and have a specialization in it, or the cost is not reduced by 1 for having Evocation.

Sponsor: This magic is self-sponsored. (Though finding an outside Sponsor could be easily achieved...)

Agenda: As self-sponsored magic, this power lacks an agenda. Drawing on ferromancy makes the user more withdrawn, cold, and resolute/stubborn. They become harder people in every way, the deeper they draw on the magic (i.e. take Sponsor Debt).

Evocation: Directly manipulating metallic objects—‘telekinetically’ moving metal—is the most common, such as by having a bunch of cooking pots fly across a room, wrapping someone up in steel cables, or making a pipe-wielding enemy’s weapon whack him in the face. Degrading metal with entropy is possible, as is making it very hot through inducing vibration (the opposite effect, cold, can also be achieved). Weapon strikes guided by ferromancy are more powerful and more precisely aimed.

Thaumaturgy: Divination when related to assessing metal in some way (the strengths/construction/history of a sword, the weak points in a building’s skeleton, the exact alloy composition of a support beam, etc). Summoning may be used to call upon spirits/beings related to blacksmithing, metal, armor, weapons, etc. Transformation may be used to combine individual metals into alloys, separate alloys into their components, or even create metal sculptures/weapons; complex manipulation of metallic structures can also be performed.

Rituals with ferromancy also often take the form of internalized, ‘subtle’ spellcasting; a combination of transformation, aeromancy and ferromancy (ultimately it's all still Transformation)—increasing speed and reaction time when using or defending against metal weapons, reinforcing and sharpening weapons to withstand the abuse a ferromancer can put on them, and hardening oneself against pain are all possible, as well as hardening oneself psychologically against things like intimidation and persuasion. Legends have it that the most powerful Ferromancers can surround their bodies in a metallic “skin” that renders them impervious to nearly all attacks.

Evothaum: All Transformations associated with Superior Ferromancy may be used with evocation’s methods and speed.

Extra Benefits: The character’s connection with metal means they have the equivalent of Supernatural Sense: Metal. They may set this power aside to be able to use Discipline in place of Guns or Weapons (not both) when wielding a metal weapon of some kind. Ferromancers specializing in different metals may have a different extra benefit; discuss w/ GM.

[Sanctaphrax]

Looks more or less fair. Not quite sure about that extra benefit, though; do you have to choose which benefit you get when you take the Power? Or can you swap during a session?

[dragoonbuster]

I'd intended it to be a one-time choice upon choosing the power. Doesn't make much sense to me to be able to swap it on the fly; you've either developed a broad overall sense of metal or managed to focus and hone that inherent sense into one very specific application of it to the point of excluding the other aspects that would go along with the ability to "sense" metal. At least for a self-sponsored "superior wizardry" style power.

With an outside Sponsor, I might be more lenient and say you could swap on the fly (probably for a point of sponsor debt).

[Sanctaphrax]

I'd intended it to be a one-time choice upon choosing the power.

Sounds good.

[Sanctaphrax]

Two more for the list, though one of them is only vaguely fitting.

OP-OP FRUIT [-4]
Description: You ate the Op-Op fruit. This isn't really magic, or sponsored, but the sponsored magic rules seem to suit it so...
Sponsor: Nope.
Agenda: Nope.
Evocation: The Op-Op fruit can be used to chop things up and move their parts around. This allows some crazy stuff, like swapping somebody's head with somebody else's foot and somehow leaving both of them alive.
Thaumaturgy: The Op-Op fruit's "ritual" effects are similar to its evocation effects, but bigger and more complex. They include mental attacks that move people's personalities from body to body and movement spells that swap the places of things.
Evothaum: All "spells" that can be "cast" with the Op-Op fruit may be cast with Evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: Attacks and movement "spells" "cast" with the Op-Op fruit may be given additional targets for 2 shifts per extra target. Movement spells cast this way must exchange the places of the targets. If a target defends well enough that there aren't enough shifts left over to move them to another targets place, but not well enough to be unmoved, move them all the way.

UNLIGHT [-5]
Description: In a real world, physics-grounded Universe, darkness is simply the absence of light. Bring a light into a darkened room and the darkness recedes - it has no power to resist. The power of the Unlight is another matter.
Sponsor: Unlight is one of the powers offered by one or more Old Ones, the forgotten gods in the Outside. Even seeking knowledge of this power is a violation of the Seventh Law, as is every use of it, regardless of how benign it might seem. This is a very quick road to self-destruction.
Agenda: Unlight seeks to destroy things, especially things that keep the Outside from coming inside.
Evocation: Evocations cast with Unlight destroy things. They resemble darkness and cold evocations.
Thaumaturgy: Rituals cast with Unlight can disrupt, destroy, and decay things. They can also open holes in space-time to allow for world-walking effects, but this tends to be bad for reality as a whole.
Evothaum: All rituals that may be cast with Unlight may be cast with Evocation's speed and methods.
Extra Benefits: Unlight can harm characters with Physical Immunity as though they had Mythic Toughness. Moreover, any Unlight spell that is used to block or destroy matter or energy gets two free shifts of effect added to it after casting. Double this bonus to four free shifts when Unlight is used to block or destroy light or heat. Reduce it to zero free shifts when Unlight is used against magic infused with Soulfire.
Drawbacks: A character who fails to control of an Unlight spell must take their margin of failure in both backlash and fallout. The sponsor will never help mitigate this effect.

[Hick Jr]

Well, I'm back, so back to doing what I do best.

GATE OF BABYLON[-5]
Description: You have access to the infinite treasures contained in the vault of Gilgamesh the God-King, allowing you to call forth legendary objects from throughout history.
Sponsor: Gilgamesh.
Agenda: Gilgamesh’s agenda. Rulership. Kingly pride. The collection of more treasures.
Evocation: Gate of Babylon evocations typically involve calling forth a treasure from the vault.
Thaumaturgy: Gate of Babylon rituals typically involve displays of wealth, summoning treasures, kingship, and pride.
Evothaum: You can employ Gate of Babylon rituals that summon treasures with Evocation’s speed and methods.
Extra Benefit: You can use Gate of Babylon rituals to summon Items of Power, mechanically represented as you gaining the IoP for one scene by casting a spell. For every two shifts invested into the spell, the IoP gains 1 more Refresh. These items never provide any Refresh rebate.

I wrote this one while making a Dresdenverse version of Gilgamesh based on his Fate/stay night incarnation, and I think it works fairly well. It covers both his "shoot magic swords at it until it dies" stuff with offensive Evocations, and his "summon some ridiculously overpowered weapon" stuff with Evothaum and the Extra Benefit. The Extra Benefit basically just streamlines the Paranet Papers rules for granting yourself powers with magic.

[Rossbert]

Maybe I missed something obvious but where did it say that sponsorship gives you item slots? We never saw that in our read, either in the power, the description or the character stat blocks.  Did my group grossly overlook something?

[Sanctaphrax]

Maybe I missed something obvious but where did it say that sponsorship gives you item slots? We never saw that in our read, either in the power, the description or the character stat blocks.  Did my group grossly overlook something?

The Power writeup on page 183 of Your Story says

If you're paying full price, you get four focus item slots with this ability. If you have either Evocation or Thaumaturgy, thus reducing the cost of Sponsored Magic, you only get two additional focus item slots. If you have both, reducing the cost more, you don't get any additional focus item slots.

GATE OF BABYLON[-5]
Description: You have access to the infinite treasures contained in the vault of Gilgamesh the God-King, allowing you to call forth legendary objects from throughout history.
Sponsor: Gilgamesh.
Agenda: Gilgamesh’s agenda. Rulership. Kingly pride. The collection of more treasures.
Evocation: Gate of Babylon evocations typically involve calling forth a treasure from the vault.
Thaumaturgy: Gate of Babylon rituals typically involve displays of wealth, summoning treasures, kingship, and pride.
Evothaum: You can employ Gate of Babylon rituals that summon treasures with Evocation’s speed and methods.
Extra Benefit: You can use Gate of Babylon rituals to summon Items of Power, mechanically represented as you gaining the IoP for one scene by casting a spell. For every two shifts invested into the spell, the IoP gains 1 more Refresh. These items never provide any Refresh rebate.

I wrote this one while making a Dresdenverse version of Gilgamesh based on his Fate/stay night incarnation, and I think it works fairly well. It covers both his "shoot magic swords at it until it dies" stuff with offensive Evocations, and his "summon some ridiculously overpowered weapon" stuff with Evothaum and the Extra Benefit. The Extra Benefit basically just streamlines the Paranet Papers rules for granting yourself powers with magic.

So does the Extra Benefit remove the need to take consequences? If so, it seems overpowered. If not, I don't see why you need the Extra Benefit at all.

Also, do you still need to create an Aspect? And can you extend the duration?

[Rossbert]

Looks like I might still be working off the unrevised PDFs. I should send in for the updated copies, my hard copies are just so heavy to carry always.