Rules Questions Archive/Magic


 * 1) The Oracle Mentor spirit requires that a follower take Divination as their first Art, and therefore the Augury and Sortilege Ritual as your first initiation. This applies to all followers, no matter their awakened type.
 * 2) Tests to Perceive Magic are subject to Perception test modifiers.
 * 3) You do not need any hits on an Assensing test on an aura to meet the criteria for having seen the aura in the past when you assense it later. However, you need 3 hits to get the Astral Signature of the subject, which is necessary if you want to identify a connection between other astral forms and the subject.
 * 4) A character using astral perception can perceive normally as long as they are not wearing a mage hood; such an item obscures all of the astral and physical planes from vision.
 * 5) The Dedicated Conjurer quality allows you to add a spirit type to the list of spirit types you can conjure. This spirit type does not have to be of your tradition, but if it requires a specific metamagic to conjure, you must still meet that prerequisite.
 * 6) The Noble Sacrifice metamagic can be used to receive all forms of damage, including Drain, Fade, Biofeedback, Stun, and Physical damage.
 * 7) The Sensing metamagic does not confer the ability to detect any non-magical activity or traits that the user could not already perceive. Its passive version should be used by the GM to alert the character to the stated magical phenomena, though the GM may also use it to alert the character to any magical phenomena not specifically forbidden by the metamagic.
 * 8) The Digital Celerity Enhancement applies to all uses of Palming.
 * 9) The Improved Sense Adept Power cannot add a sense that requires a wireless function to operate, which includes the Radar Sensor cyberware. Senses that say they replace your vision still replace your natural vision.
 * 10) Heightened Concern: This adept power can be used on any situational modifier currently affecting you, but only on the chosen modifier for as long as it lasts. For example, the penalty applied by a background count, for as long as you are exposed to it, or attempting to fire unmounted weapons on a moving vehicle.
 * 11) Combat Sense: This Adept Power guarantees a Perception Test before being surprised (the GM can roll this for you). Success gives you a +3 bonus to the Surprise Test.
 * 12) Flaming Water elemental damage does not reduce the damage of fires, but it does create the slippery area, force a knockdown test (DV vs Agility, threshold Physical Limit), force an ignition test (net hits vs (Armor + Resistance - Force)), and deal its damage.
 * 13) The Flesh Sculptor and Skinwalker qualities do not stack to allow you to exceed both of their limits when using the [Critter] Form spell on yourself.
 * 14) The Sun mentor spirit does not recognize the Light, Alter Temperature, or Personal Warmth spells as being sun or fire based. It does recognize Ignite spell as being fire based.
 * 15) Corrode / Melt / Sludge [Object]: An object must be a solid composite with a structure or body, such as firearms, blades, armor, etc.
 * 16) Shape [Material]: This spell must specify the exact element, compound, or mixture that you can manipulate (Blight, Blight+DMS0, Carbon, Carbon Monoxide, Air, etc). If the material is not a solid, you cannot make it a solid for any purpose, including blocking other materials from passing through it. You cannot create a vacuum because of this.
 * 17) [Element] Aura: This spell does not apply Armor Penetration to your attacks, regardless of the element selected. You instead use the Armor Penetration of the attack you are making.
 * 18) [Element] Wall: This spell deals no damage if the learned element does not have an elemental damage effect. As a Physical spell, damage it deals can affect anything with a structure, body, or barrier rating. The spell can conjure a wall or dome in any orientation and position that is entirely within LoS; if the wall is a solid object, it cannot appear in another solid object. Taking a complex action to relocate the spell causes it to vanish and appear in the new location, rather than move through space. Elemental damage rules can be found in CRB 170 and SG 105.
 * 19) Fire is not solid, but does apply a visibility penalty of -3 and deals fire damage.
 * 20) Smoke is not solid, but does apply a visibility penalty of -6.
 * 21) Air is not solid, but does apply a wind penalty of -6.
 * 22) Water is not solid, but does apply a visibility penalty of -1, a ‘wind’ penalty of -3, and water damage.
 * 23) Ice is solid, applies a visibility penalty of -1, and deals cold damage.
 * 24) Earth is solid, and applies a visibility penalty of -6.-
 * 25) Lightning is not solid, but does apply a glare penalty of -3 and deals electricity damage.
 * 26) Magical Lodges must have a permanent, immobile location with space at least two meters across. They can be moved with the appropriate time investment.
 * 27) Critter powers with a terrain/domain limitation can only affect targets while they are in MAG * 10 meters of the critter.
 * 28) Group Bond rituals calculate the necessary force based on the make-up of the ritual leader and all ritual participants, not the entire group.
 * 29) The Animate / Mass Animate spells cannot replicate complex or skill interactions with animated devices, but has a provision for breaking restraints/etc. If the opposed test is successful, animated objects can break free, refuse to operate, or whatever other simple commands the caster provides.
 * 30) A Powerblade spell cannot be conjured in a sheath, and it cannot be Quick Drawn, even with the Rapid Draw power. It cannot benefit from a Weapon Focus, as it has no physical relation to other
 * 31) The Rapid Healing adept power can still apply its bonus to Natural Recovery tests to recover from Drain.
 * 32) A dual-natured object cannot be moved from the astral; its astral form is locked onto its physical form.
 * 33) Elemental Focus types drain you take, but does not prevent the Stun / Physical damage sustained from your drain test. It only types the drain of spells that are explicitly marked or can cause the relevant damage type. You may not apply Special Resistances to drain, but those effects can be applied to the secondary effect rolls if your armor/gear is affected.
 * 34) Elemental Master does not reduce drain, whether it is typed or not.
 * 35) The Path of the Wheel tradition does not have any server restrictions on it beyond the usual background check requirements.
 * 36) A character sustaining a spell or managing a summoned spirit cannot rest while doing so.
 * 37) By RAW, Killing Hands can change your unarmed damage to S even if it would be P without the effect of the power.
 * 38) A magical lodge, if in place for at least a month, generates a background count of 1 aligned to the tradition of the owner.
 * 39) A Watcher Spirit functions identically to a spirit with the exception of the differences itemized in the Watcher Ritual and statblock.
 * 40) Regeneration does not cause a character to reject Blood Crystals. If the character loses the Blood Crystals, however, regeneration will restore the natural parts of the body that were originally lost. Regeneration also does not reject geneware.
 * 41) A Shifter gets the critter power Shift (Metahuman Form). It does not receive any other critter powers or gain the ability to purchase them.
 * 42) The Attunement Ritual uses the full value of the Object Resistance table to determine the minimum Force. An object with 15 dice on the table necessitates a Force 15 ritual, not a Force 5.
 * 43) Spells do not travel through barriers unless they are Indirect Combat spells. This includes Area spells.
 * 44) A paralyzed character cannot have LoS for spellcasting. It may cast Touch spells on itself or characters in sustained contact with it, cast LoS(A) indirect combat spells centered on itself, use Astral Perception to become Dual-Natured (but not to establish LoS), use Astral Projection (this allows astral LoS), use DNI, deactivate foci/powers/spells, command spirits, and use any action explicitly provided by the paralyzing effect. Breathing is not an action.
 * 45) The rules for Noticing Magic apply to every astral form that a character ‘sees’ regardless of when it was created. A character who succeeds on the test to notice magic is certain that there is magic present, but must make his own assumptions about what that magic might be.
 * 46) A magician with both Kinesics adept power and Masking metamagic rolls both dice pools separately when assensed, but considers it one roll for the purpose of checking for glitches. The observer’s hits are reduced accordingly by the Masking dice pool, and determining the true emotional state of the magician has its threshold raised from 1 by the number of hits on the Kinesics dice pool.
 * 47) When multiple astral forms or auras ‘blend’ together in one shape, such as a magician under the effects of a sustained spell and wielding a metamagic focus, a single assensing test ‘reads’ all of them together. If the magician has Masking, he will roll his opposed pool once against the test, and results on each astral form and aura are determined with those hits.
 * 48) Mentor’s Mask can be taken for magicians or for adepts (Mystic Adepts receive the Mask effects associated with their Mentor Spirit perk choice). Adepts receive +1 power point, but gain a magical mask of their mentor when using an active adept power; the threshold to notice this mask is 6 - (4*standard power cost). Magicians take 1 less drain for casting spells (minimum 2 drain), but gain a magical mask of their mentor when casting; the threshold to notice this mask is (6 - (3+Force)), minimum 1. Characters with a mentor’s mask must still be spotted before their mentor’s mask can be noticed. Noticing the mentor’s mask marks that character as obviously Awakened.
 * 49) Blight is a magical toxin and cannot be selected as the subject of a Natural Immunity quality.
 * 50) The Spectral Warden quality allows a character to use the Binding skill in a test to summon a spirit, and obligates them to make a Binding test immediately. The initial test is still a summoning test, with all effects except the skill used. The summoning skill for that character is still an Active skill, with the appropriate costs.
 * 51) The attribute substitution granted by Supernatural Prowess does not replace all aspects of the attribute. It only affects Physical Actions concerning that attribute (Attack tests, melee damage, jumping, sprinting, climbing, etc). Defense tests are not actions, and do not receive the benefit of such a substitution.
 * 52) The Mana Barrier spell uses the spell’s hits to set the barrier’s Structure and Armor ratings, not the Force. (other mana barriers use their Force as both Structure and Armor)
 * 53) Visibility modifiers apply to ‘visually targeted spells’ whether on the astral or on the physical. Spells cast using visual targeting on the physical plane are subject to Lighting modifiers, but vision enhancements that have been paid for with essence can be applied to both Lighting and Visibility modifiers. If either modifier would be a -6, the spell cannot be targeted.
 * 54) Body Sculpt allows you to spend ten minutes to make a Magic + Body test on which each hit can be used to change a feature of your body. A full body rework is considered six features’ worth of changes. Each feature takes one full minute to undo. False Face cyberware, while it only affects the face, can be reconfigured using one minute of time.
 * 55) When an Area spell is moved, it travels physically but cannot have any offensive effects as part of its movement. No characters other than those in the new area are affected by the spell or can be moved or dealt damage by its movement.
 * 56) The Manascape spell has an upper limit of causing astral forms and auras to appear like other astral forms and auras - it cannot make them disappear. Spells can be made to appear to be fluctuations in the natural background count, however. Its own astral form is not hidden from view without Extended Masking.
 * 57) A background count’s reduction of Force for a focus applies to all foci. A Qi focus does not lose a level of the adept power it confers until it has had its Force reduced by the entire cost of the upper level of the power it confers.
 * 58) A spell that refers to a subject is referring to a living subject. They can only be cast on such, though Area spells can be centered on any target or point.
 * 59) Adept Way Qualities are the only prerequisite to taking a metamagic or enhancement listed under the correlated Physical Art at your Initiation.
 * 60) Attune Item: this cannot be used on foci, prepared vessels, enchanted items, or items controlled electronically. The ritual can only bond the item to the ritual leader.
 * 61) Imbue Item: this can only be used on an item bonded to the ritual leader. An item can only receive a given trait once.
 * 62) Hapsum-Do can only be taken by Awakened characters. Its techniques can only be learned by Awakened characters.
 * 63) The Tohu wa-bohu mentor's Driven quality is permissible on this server. When a player takes it, we will ask them to include a note on the quality stressing what lens the character should evaluate 'meaning' through. The lens should be approved by a GM on the acquisition.