Sorcery: Communication and Empathy Spells II

Sorcery: Communication and Empathy Spells II

One of the players in my ongoing game soon is going to "unlock" his magical abilities. He's planning to focus on the college of Communication and Empathy, and I have barely touched this college. The player went along and did a write-up of some spells. After looking them over and making some changes, I decided to post them here. Hide Emotion hides the subject's emotional state. Persuasion and Vexation give a bonus or a penalty to a reaction roll. Sense Emotion allows the caster to read the emotional state of a subject. Sense Foes detect enemies.

Hide Emotion

Keywords: Buff.

Full Cost: 50 points.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: 100 yards.

Duration: 3 minutes.

The subject’s current emotional state becomes impossible to discern. This always includes the following: Body Language, Detect Lies, Criminology, Interrogation, and Psychology on you, as well as some Influence skills when the GM thinks understanding the subject’s emotional state would be important. It also includes uses of Empathy or Sensitive and similar traits.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Hide Emotion, +380%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [50]. Note: “Hide Emotion” is Obscure 10 (Emotions; Defensive, +50%; Magical, -10%; No Area of Effect, -50%; Stealthy, +100%) [38].

   

Persuasion

Keywords: Buff.

Full Cost: 14 points for level 1 + 2 points/additional level.

Casting Roll: None. Use Innate Attack (Gaze) to aim.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: 3 minutes.

The caster makes the subject being more persuasive to a single other person. When that other person makes a reaction roll to determine his reaction towards this spell’s subject, the roll gets a bonus equal to the spell’s level. The spell ends once this reaction roll is made. In most games, GMs will wish to limit the number of levels of Persuasion a sorcerer may take. Persuasion 5 is a common maximum.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (HT; Advantage, Persuasion 1, +20%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Increased 1/2D, 10x, +15%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [14]. Additional levels add further Persuasion to the Advantage enhancement [+2]. Note: Each level of “Persuasion” is Charisma 1 (Accessibility, Only against the secondary subject, -50%; Magical, -10%) [2].

Sense Emotion

Keywords: Information, Resisted (Will).

Full Cost: 9 or 19 points.

Casting Roll: IQ.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

The caster gets a brief flash of the emotions a subject is experiencing. This only works on living, sapient (IQ 6+) beings. If successful, this gives the caster +3 on any roll to detect an impostor, or to use Detect Lies, Fortune-Telling, and Psychology against the subject. The basic (9-point) version takes normal range penalties. The improved (19-point) version does not take any range penalties at all.

Statistics: Empathy (Requires IQ vs. Will Roll, -10%; Short-Range 2, -20%; Sorcery, -15%) [9]. Improved version replaces Short-Range 2, -20% with Remote, +50% [+10].

Sense Foes

Keywords: Information.

Full Cost: 15 or 35 points.

Casting Roll: Per.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: Instantaneous.

With the basic (15-point) version of this spell, you can immediately sense all nearby beings that mean to cause harm to you, sorted by the direction to each one. The GM will roll against your Per (plus Talent), minus the range penalty to the nearest appropriate being, and inform you if you succeed.

The improved (35-point) version of this spell works as above, except that you know the precise location of each subject. This allows you to cast spells on any of them for as long as each remains in that location – or for the next second, if one is already on the move.

Statistics: Detect (Foes; Cannot Analyze, -10%; Sorcery, -15%) [15]. The improved version adds Precise (+100%) [+20].

   

Vexation

Keywords: Resisted (Will).

Full Cost: 29 points.

Casting Roll: Will.

Range: Unlimited.

Duration: 3 minutes.

The caster makes the subject being less persuasive to a single other person. When that other person makes a reaction roll to determine his reaction towards this spell’s subject, the roll gets a -5 penalty. The spell ends once this reaction roll is made.

Statistics: Affliction 1 (Will; Based on Will, +20%; Disadvantage, Vexation, +12%; Fixed Duration, +0%; Malediction 2, +150%; No Signature, +20%; Sorcery, -15%) [29]. Note: “Vexation” is Social Stigma (-5 penalty; Accessibility, Only against the secondary subject, -50%) [-12].