[MH] Charms for Sages

[Bruno]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Why couldn't you use your Lore skill?

The complaint wasn't that "Lore didn't work", the complaint was that "there's a Sacred Site an hours drive away" was a completely unhelpful piece of information for the circumstances, as they couldn't relocate at the time.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

*snip*

Sages suck at magic. This appears to be very intentional. If you wish to be an effective caster, you roll a Witch, not a Sage. Or you earn gobs of CP with a permissive GM running the game who allows you to take Ritual Adept [40] as part of character advancement.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Sages suck at magic. This appears to be very intentional. If you wish to be an effective caster, you roll a Witch, not a Sage. Or you earn gobs of CP with a permissive GM running the game who allows you to take Ritual Adept [40] as part of character advancement.

Ritual adept is only needed for quick magic, or magic away from the home base. The sage should have a better grimoire and a better site to cast magic then the witch. And in all likely hood better artifacts. That could easily make up for a difference of 2 in the casting styles.
A witch is a field mage a sage is a lab mage. Both can do very nice things with their magic. (They could both whip out any of the spells listed. You don't suck at magic if you can give the whole party close to a 100 cp worth of buffs, heal them, make super bullets or what not.)

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Lamech

Ritual adept is only needed for quick magic, or magic away from the home base. The sage should have a better grimoire and a better site to cast magic then the witch. And in all likely hood better artifacts. That could easily make up for a difference of 2 in the casting styles.
A witch is a field mage a sage is a lab mage. Both can do very nice things with their magic. (They could both whip out any of the spells listed. You don't suck at magic if you can give the whole party close to a 100 cp worth of buffs, heal them, make super bullets or what not.)

Right. The post I snip-quoted was complaining about the time it took a Sage to cast a spell and the time it takes a Sage to recharge their energy reserve.

So, for the purposes mlangsdorf is trying to use the Sage, the Sage sucks at magic because mlangsdorf is trying to use the Sage like a Witch rather than the Sage it is. Sages do things differently than Witches.

[PK]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

It's very frustrating when we're under time pressure to follow the bad guys and my magic is basically too slow to do anything in the first place and then can't be used again for a half hour or more.

It kind of sounds like you wanted to play a witch instead of a sage. A sage's magic is just as ridiculously versatile as a witch's, but you need 20-30 minutes or so of free time to pull it off. I tried to lampshade that in the Chapter 3 vignette of MH1, with the other hunters being a bit impatient and commenting that an on-the-spot spell is a smart idea because they have the time for it.

However, if you find that you're never able to use your magic usefully in a game, I'd suggest talking to your GM. It's the GM's job to avoid nerfing character concepts, and "slow caster" is part of the sage's concept. If the GM never lets the team catch its breath and there's never 15-20 minutes between scenes to cast a spell, then yeah, the sage is getting shafted. That's a play style issue, though, not a template issue; it would be the same thing if the GM skipped over social interaction completely, or decided it all by fiat instead of rolling, and thus shafted the sleuth and his Talker! skill.

For example, if you've defeated a group of monsters and have a chance to interrogate one after the fight, that is the perfect time to use a spell! If the GM has set things up to make that explicitly impossible, that's going to make the sage player feel useless. I'm willing to bet the GM didn't realize he was doing that, though -- let him know. (He could even compromise -- e.g., let someone Intimidate a rough answer out of the monster, so you at least know which direction to drive in, then while you're driving that way, the sage can cast a spell in the back of the team van to get the full info. Plus, I'm sure the sage has done a lasting consecration on said van. Now, if y'all take the bus everywhere, that's a problem . . .)

[mlangsdorf]

I didn't realize I could consecrate the van. Nothing in the block on Non-adepts and Magic or Gathering Magical Energy implies that I could consecrate a moving vehicle. That certainly helps, as there is a bit of downtime when we're in a chase sequence.

As for it only taking 30 minutes to cast a spell, this is how I'm interpreting it:
1) Following a murderer into the sewers, my teammates and I beat up a minor foe in combat, using skills and my prepared charms.
2) We want to interrogate the foe, but he's stubborn so I decide to use magic.
3) I spend 1d minutes creating a hasty circle, since transporting a fae through the streets to the nearest sacred site is likely to get us questioned by the cops and such.
4) I spend roughly 15 minutes drawing ambient energy and another minute tapping my mana reserve, cast the spell, and in the process use up the hasty circle.
5) We have our data, and since time is of an essence, everyone wants to get going now.
6) But I would prefer to have my mana reserve replenished for the next time I cast a spell, so I draw a new circle and spend another 25 minutes replenishing my mana reserve.

So that's 45 minutes to cast a Greater Sense Spirit (admittedly, I'm not very good at Path of Spirit, but...) Of course I didn't have to refill my energy reserve, but I really need to do it sooner or later if I want to cast a spell again.

Now, if I can consecrate the van, I can recharge my mana reserves while we're traveling, which helps. I still can't cast more than one spell per scene, but at least I'm not slowing down the party, too.

[PK]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I didn't realize I could consecrate the van. Nothing in the block on Non-adepts and Magic or Gathering Magical Energy implies that I could consecrate a moving vehicle.

True. Though, to be fair, nothing says you can't, either. :)

I likely should have spelled that out better. One more note filed away for later consideration . . .

[Luke Bunyip]

Originally Posted by mlangsdorf

I didn't realize I could consecrate the van.

This puts a totally different perspective* on street rods.


*Well, for me at least.

[Harald387]

Miss Me?

The subject gains +2 to all defense rolls for an hour.

Lesser Control Chance; 1 subject up to 300 lbs; +2 to all defense rolls (broad category); duration 1 hour. Costs 20 Energy.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Harald387

Miss Me?

The subject gains +2 to all defense rolls for an hour.

Lesser Control Chance; 1 subject up to 300 lbs; +2 to all defense rolls (broad category); duration 1 hour. Costs 20 Energy.

Personally I would up the duration to something like a week or a month. Also add an AoE.
So
Miss Me: Lesser Control Chance; Area of effect ; 300 lbs; +2 to defense (broad category); 1 month total energy 31
This affects the whole team, and can be kept online pretty much forever.

Rewire: Lesser Transform Body, area of effect, 300 lbs, +.5 basic speed, 1 month total 34
Subtly alters nerves and muscles to allow the target to be faster.

Holy Water MKII: Ghost Breaker: Lesser Destroy Crossroads, Lesser Control Magic, Breaking a connection of a ghost too this world, 1000lbs, Area of effect +2
Total 16-36*:
An improved version of holy water! Optimized for maximal ghost busting potential. Order a bottle from Universe Inc. today!

*I'm not sure how much the breaking the ghosts connection to this world would cost. I figure at best its a 0 point feature or I'm not charged anything, at worst its some weird form of warp, and we're looking at up too a 100 points (hopefully not more) that I have to fight off.