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Old 02-01-2011, 04:53 AM   #15
Icelander
 
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Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: Iceland*
Default Re: [Thaumatology] Real world magical traditions

The thing to take away from all this is that the closer a magical tradition is to the 'original' teachings, the more powerful it should be. Hermetic magic, as a syncretisised system of magic, is supposed to be versatile and comparatively easy to use. It is something that mere ordinary scholars have a chance to learn and it includes most of the useful rituals that are known. However, disciplines which are older and more esoteric should have some benefits over 'bastardised' systems like that.

So the effect I want is that Hermetic magic is an excellent choice for all around magic use, but Kabbalah, while it has a much more narrow focus, is capable of more powerful effects within that field. Provided, of course, that the user has the requisite learning to make use of it.

This means that Hermetic magic is much easier to learn*, but that someone with all the right lore will be more effective using a more ancient tradition. Truly accomplished Hermetic practisioners, of course, might use proto-Egyptian and reconstruct rituals as they originally were during the Golden Age of magic. Not that any such have been noted in the campaign setting so far or are likely to be so. This is very much a 'gritty reboot' of mystical conspiracy gaming, where most adepts are not even capable of demonstrating their powers in front of a skeptical audience.

One PC, whose father was a rabbi and Kabbalah scholar and whose character has studied the msyteries** extensively should be able to use Kabbalah to some effect. Ideally, Wards and Curse Sanctums (what he contemplates using it for), should be more effective than what he could get by simply taking Ritual Magic (Hermetic) for the same amount of points.

*Not that this means 'easy', but that there actually are books in living languages written about it and that Latin gives a +0 modifier with it and that Latin is at least not that hard to find instruction in.
**As anthropological curiosities, not something he believed in.
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Last edited by Icelander; 02-01-2011 at 06:00 AM.
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