Magician: Difference between revisions
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Revision as of 20:26, 4 September 2024
From powerful healers and flame-hurling battle mages to canny summoners and the creators of intricate scrolls and wands, magicians wield powers beyond the ken of mortal folk.
Spellcasting skill paths include the three spheres:
- Corporeal Magicians that heal and harm,
- Elemental Magicians that change, move and destroy,
- Spiritual Magicians that govern spirits and influence minds,
And the three conjunctional magics:
- Dealing with elemental and oathbound creatures via Demonology,
- The undead via Necromancy, or
- Soulless constructs via Thaumaturgy.
Beyond these are two disciplines concerned with weaving subtler, more enduring enchantments, creating charged charms and talismans via Invocation or channelling the vast powers of the leylines via Ritual Magic.
Advice for Magician Characters
Almost every magician learns some spellcasting, and most will pursue at least one sphere to greater level. Many magicians pick up one level of Ritual Magic, to enable them to contribute to rituals. Extra Magic Points are essential.
Combat spellcasters can conserve magic by taking Iron Will or Resist Magic to save them from having to counter enemy spells.
Invokers may dip into crafting skills including Artisan for scrolls and trinkets or Alchemist for inks, although it’s generally more effective to collaborate with dedicated creators.
Skills
Most of these skills cost (and provide) magic points.
Corporeal Spellcasting
Elemental Spellcasting
Spiritual Spellcasting
Demonology
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Demonology | 8 | Elemental Spellcasting and Spiritual Spellcasting |
| Demonic Insight | 5 | Demonology |
| Exalted Demonology | 12 | Demonology |
| Exalted Demonology | 5 | Demonology |
Necromancy
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Necromancy | 8 | Corporeal Spellcasting and Spiritual Spellcasting |
| Exalted Necromancy | 12 | Necromancy |
Thaumaturgy
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Thaumaturgy | 8 | Corporeal Spellcasting and Elemental Spellcasting |
| Exalted Thaumaturgy | 12 | Thaumaturgy |
Invocation
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Talisman Invocation | 5 | Charm Invocation |
Ritual Magic
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Greater Ritual Magic | 6 | Ritual Magic |
| Higher Ritual Magic | 8 | Greater Ritual Magic |
Extra Magic Points
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Extra Magic Points | 1-10 | Any Spellcasting Skill |
Note: Maximum of 10 extra Magic Points. Extra Magic Points cannot be taken as a cross-archetype skill.
Resistences
| Skill Name | Points Cost | Prerequisite |
|---|---|---|
| Immune to Mind Effect | 6 | Iron Will |
| Resist Exalted Magic | 8 | Resist Magic |
Note: Any character may have a maximum of 3 immunities in total.
Magician Study Paths
Although there is scope for Training in magical gifts and skills, much magical progression is in researching new and improved magical techniques, especially Rites.
Study paths include the following:
Corporeal Sorcery
Corporeal magic holds in its two hands the twin powers of life and death. Healers can investigate faster, more powerful and more versatile treatments for the wounded and heal even the most terrible diseases venoms. Corporeal magic also allows transformations and enhancements of the living form, or to explore the natures of plants or other life forms – some attempt to create new herbs or other things for alchemy to use. Some seek even to create life (although no-one yet has succeeded in reversing death).
More combative Corporealists can inflict terrible harm on their foes, overcome magical defences, twist their bodies away from their natures – or just kill them outright.
Elemental Sorcery
Elemental magic is the power of the natural world, the substance of which all things are made and the natural forces – light, heat, movement – that govern them. It is also the magic of change and transformation. Elementalists can learn to charge, power or modify objects or materials, to manipulate their environment or to snatch energy away, bringing cold, darkness and stillness. Elemental magic excels on the battlefield, hurling fire, lightning or cold about to destroy opponents and objects.
Many Elemental Magicians specialise by element, focusing on fire (and on harmful spells, or spells that control energy), earth (and spells that strengthen and defend), air (and spells that create movement, or that repel attacks) or water (and spells that transform and change).
Spiritual Sorcery
Spiritual magic governs minds, emotions and feelings; sorcerers on this path look to magics that control others – or free or protect them from control. It also influences fate and destiny, including the powers of chance. This is a risky proposition, as the forces of fate dislike being controlled, and those who proceed incautiously may find their enchantments turning against them.
Most importantly, spiritual magic governs spirits themselves, especially free spirits, neither undead nor demons: the ancestors, the spirits of nature, of place, of trades and mortal endeavour; the spirits of stories, even the gods themselves. Starting by researching the rites Call Spirit, Offering or Sanctify, spiritual sorcerers can attempt to make relationships with these prickly, proud beings.
Demonology
The powers of Demonologists all relate to the denizens of the Demon Plane, which tends to influence the nature of the practice. Anyone can deal with Demon, but a Demonologist excels at it, commanding and dominating Elementals or bargaining and trading with the Oathbound. This often means summoning demons (starting with researching the Summon Demon rite) and usually building on summoning, warding against and controlling progressively more powerful creatures. This requires more specialised rites with greater magical and material costs.
The scope for power moves far beyond that, including learning to bind demons into people or physical objects, enhance or weaken them or change their natures, or to travel to and from the Demon Plane.
There is also scope to make dealing with demons more reliable or controllable: this includes researching Pacts, formulaic transactions with fixed costs and standard outcomes, or learning to create, remove or manipulate Demonic Marks – or to use them for the Demonologist’s own ends.
Necromancy
The powers of Necromancy straddle the line between life and death, and this influence the approach of those who study it. Those who wish to command the dead will need to learn to raise (per the Raise Dead rite) or summon them, as well as focusing on strengthening their powers to summon and control, requiring more specialised rites with greater magical and material costs.
From there, the Necromancer can learn to enhance or alter their servants. Some, conversely, study this path specifically to combat the undead, learning powerful banishment and protection rites, and powers to weaken the undead or remove their powers.
Beyond the study of the creatures, necromancers can learn to channel the powers of the Plane of Undeath directly, with maledictions that inflict a taste of undeath on their victims, or emulations that allow the caster to adopt some of their powers themselves. The final goal for many necromancers is to seek undeath themselves.
Thaumaturgy
Thaumaturgy is the miracle of creation, giving life to the lifeless. Most Thaumaturges research a range of devices, weapons or tools fuelled by the magics of the Plane of Constructs to grant them extraordinary powers and qualities, but the ultimate expression of this is the creation, control and programming of simulacra, animate but soulless beings with the semblance of life. Thaumaturges are also masters of materials, learning to shape, alter or enhance the properties of mundane things.
There are things native to the Plane of Constructs; while most Thaumaturges concern themselves with creating their own constructs, some learn to conjure them from their own world, or travel there themselves. They hold that there is vast power there to be tapped, although the creatures of that world can be dangerous and unpredictable.
Invocation
Invocation is the investment of mundane things with magic, to be called forth at the will of the bearer. With research, Invokers can invest charms and talismans with more power, or create items in forms other than wands, brands and amulets, investing clothing, tools or musical instruments with power.
But the true power of Invocation is unlocked through the sigils, the ancient language of magic. With the right combination of sigils, the invoker can express their will in a host of more complex ways, even capturing effects beyond the standard spell lists.
Ritual Magic
To be a Ritualist is to govern powers akin to the gods – the potential for power is greater than any other path, as are the risks. Many Ritualists specialise in certain types of ritual – divinations, summonings, the enchantment of objects, the enchantment of people, the magic of one sphere or another – but there are many other routes.
Some learn to better channel (or briefly boost) the magic of the circle, or to manipulate the wards, expanding them or changing their shape or properties. Some learn to draw power from an audience, inviting spectators to cheer, play music or support the ritual through chanting and response. Some embrace wild magic, finding power in unpredictability, or learn to manipulate Ether Spheres.
Some eschew the circle altogether, finding ways to more safely (although never entirely safely!) tap the powers of the Leylines. Some expand their knowledge to accessing places of power such as holy shrines or trees of life.
| Priest Characters
There’s no “religious” archetype, covering priests and paladins who channel the powers of the gods. This is mostly because the gods themselves choose to whom they grant their boons; it’s not up to mortals to train for these powers, so much as to make themselves worthy of them. That said, players interested in this type of character have a number of routes open to them to seek out the approval of the gods.
All of these paths require the character to demonstrate strong and persistent faith; in many cases the gods may require the character to adhere to particular moral values. |
Example Magician Characters
Cosmologist
Showing promise in the village school, the cosmologist was chosen as an apprentice by a powerful sorcerer, but after a few frustrating years struck out on their own: the world is far too interesting to get bogged down in great enchantments. They just want to study and understand the universe, and apply their arts to cracking its mysteries.
Skills: Elemental Spellcasting (6), Intuition (5), Sense Magic (5), 4 unspent points
Description: Blue and black makeup around the eyes, speckled with stars; a worn, patched robe festooned with pockets and pouches full of notepaper, pens, eyeglasses and jars for collecting things to study.
Hierophant
A dedicated servant of the gods, the hierophant has spent years as a novice in a holy order, learning the ceremonies and observances of their church. Beyond learning mere ritual, though, they have learned to open their souls to the other world, speaking to the spirits of holy places – and listening to their answers.
Skills: Greater Spiritual Spellcasting (8), Ritual Magic (6), Spiritual Spellcasting (6)
Description: A sparkly white stripe across the eyes; heavy robes and a stole decorated with the symbols of their faith.
Summoner
Not all factions see demonology as evil, of course; the summoner is from a kingdom with a proud tradition in the art, and went to a college and studied under a master as did their forebears before them. But summoning and bargaining with demons isn’t for the faint-hearted – they must combine magical knowledge with ironclad resolve.
Skills: Demonology (8), Elemental Spellcasting (6), Spiritual Spellcasting (6)
Description: Purple skin with red highlights; long, immaculate robes dressed with mystical sigils.