[Thaumatology] Powers as (Path/Book) Magic

[Prince Charon]

Sorry, it's another tangent, but one that I should have had in the first couple of posts: Rituals that would be very common among Supers that last more than a few issues (as opposed to just being useful occasionally, which basically all of them could). This list is just from GURPS Thaumatology, and a lot of them could need setting-specific or style-specific adaptations or replacements.

Ghost Shirt - In any setting where firearms are common and likely to be used against you, especially repeating firearms, it helps to have reasons why the characters are still unperforated after the adventure. Ghost Shirt is not enough for this, as we must assume that there will be people aiming at you deliberately, but it's a place to start. There are also a number of rules from the GURPS Action series that would help, or rituals could be adapted to imitate them in settings where they would not otherwise apply. An alternative to this would be rituals allowing high DR, such as Dr. Fate's force field, or perhaps one for Insubstantiality (which IIRC Fate also used sometimes), or enchanted items (charms or fetishes) used to parry bullets, as discussed for Wonder Woman.

Succor - If you do still get injured, healing much faster than normal can be very important, and is consistent with a lot of characters in the source material, even those who are alleged to be normal humans.

Endure Elements - Fairly minor, but a lot of those costumes would be unpleasant to quite unhealthy in all but ideal conditions; I mean, Hawkman doesn't even wear a shirt, and he's not the only one!

Warrior's Blessing - Kind of obvious; 'both versions of Warrior's Blessing plus whatever replaces Ghost Shirt' fits well with a fairly low-end estimate of Miraclo, for example.

Weapon Blessing - While not all Supers or other powered characters use weapons, enough do to include this on the list. A variant for machines in general would benefit a fair range of Supers.

Journeyman's Blessing - While some Supers and such are wealthy dilettantes (Ted Knight, Bruce Wayne, Don Diego de la Vega), most have fairly mundane jobs that they want to keep. Sure, Clark's words-per-minute is very high, but he still has to do some of his work in the open-plan offices of the Daily Planet (or Daily Star on Earth Two), surrounded by people who are trained observers. Most others don't have quite the same issue, but they do have others, which also lacking Clark's advantages.

Guise - Secret identities are hard, and this provides an excuse for the ones who seem to have a secret identity with no mask, or an inadequate disguise (though it's less needed than you might think, as that famous scene in the first Christopher Reeve Superman film showed).

Obscurity - Not just for explicitly stealthy types: anyone with a secret identity would benefit from being able to change without being noticed. Likewise, it serves as a good excuse for a lot of villain escapes where they never found the body.


Any suggestions for things I missed, or expansion of the above? Other thoughts on this?