[Thaumatology] Powers as (Path/Book) Magic

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Prince Charon

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

Journeyman's Blessing - While some Supers and such are wealthy dilettantes (Ted Knight, Bruce Wayne, Don Diego de le 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),

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).

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

For Succor I just want to note the clause that all Crippling Injuries are Temporary. Getting that chance up to 98% is well worth the 5 pts for Rapid Healing but Succor is 100%. Very useful.

As to Clark Kent and the Daily Star, by the time Crisis was coming around in 1985 ISTR that Clark had inherited Perry White's job and had a private office.

This was definitely the case when the Berlanti DC TV shows got to their verison of Crisis and they went to recruit the Superman of Earth-90. This was especially interesting as Brandon Routh played not only that version of Superman (as he had done in the Superman Returns movie) but also the already established version of Ray Palmer. (the Atom). They were even movie magicked into a scene together in the same room and I didn't even think they looked that similar.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

For Succor I just want to note the clause that all Crippling Injuries are Temporary. Getting that chance up to 98% is well worth the 5 pts for Rapid Healing but Succor is 100%. Very useful.

Oh, yes.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

As to Clark Kent and the Daily Star, by the time Crisis was coming around in 1985 ISTR that Clark had inherited Perry White's job and had a private office.

Some more thoughts on Superman and his abilities: When comic book readers were introduced to him in 1938, his powers are simpler and less awesome (but still very impressive) than they would later become: "When maturity was reached, he discovered he could easily: Leap 1/8th of a mile [201 meters]; hurdle a twenty-story building...raise tremendous weights...run faster than a express train... and that nothing less than a bursting shell could penetrate his skin!" So, quite strong, exceptionally fast, and very hard to injure... but not invulnerable yet, and unable to fly (his Super-Jumping is clearly meant to be an artifact of his strength). His enhanced senses show up fairly quickly, showing both X-Ray vision and super-hearing in 1939, but he doesn't start out appearing to have them; he demonstrates his super breath or super lungs around 1940. Heat vision and freezing breath show up in the Silver Age, with the former being at first 'the concentrated heat of his Telescopic X-Ray vision,' and the latter being a new application of his established super-breathing. The Silver Age is also where New Powers as the Plot Demands became a stereotype of Superman stories, though even in the Golden Age, he had the occasional weird one, like changing his face (with super-muscular control, a pulp staple taken to extremes) to resemble a ceremonial mask twice the height of his head! (The Silver Age was also when we got the Superboy who was 'Superman, when he was a boy' having the same powers at roughly the same level as Superman in the same years-of-publication, but I'd really prefer to ignore that for this thread, and am only mentioning it because someone might bring it up.)

When the clone Superboy was introduced in 1993, his only power was 'Tactile Telekinesis!' (the exclamation point was important, at least to him, since he seemed to use it every time he talked about his power), which allowed him flight, a force field, and a good imitation of super-strength (probably Telekinetic Control with 'Melee Attack, C,' and a variant of PK Shield). Again, he started gaining various other abilities later on, as his experience grew. More recent versions of young Clark, such as the one from the Smallville TV series, likewise seem to come into their powers gradually, without retconning them to have always been available.

My suggestion for this thread is that the abilities he started out with are Kal-El's actual powers, and the newer ones are the rituals. So, he has a high level of Extra ST with Super-Effort (or one of the other versions of super-strength that have been suggested), a lot of DR and some level of Injury Tolerance (probably Damage Reduction), and some abilities that exist as side-effects of his strength, like Super-Jumping and Enhanced Move. Whether he has Enhanced Time Sense or Altered Time Rate, or those are rituals, is another question; possibly he just has extra Speed as a power. The rituals he uses are probably based on some form of Autohypnosis or Meditation, perhaps using Torquasm Vo (if you want to use more of the Post-Crisis version, the rituals would be a variety of Path/Book Psi).

EDIT: Depending on what assumptions you're making about his powers, he may also be a Solar Battery, having a high ER that recharges during the day, and has some level of Regeneration (either ER Only or Includes ER) in direct sunlight. If his rituals are Energy Accumulating, the ER will be very, very useful, but it can still be helpful without that.

[Prince Charon]

Instinctive Rituals

Thinking about Marvel's mutants, and similar characters, such as the supers in the GURPS I.S.T. setting, I considered the Charm perk, and then Meta-Traits, which lead to this: Humans and other beings in such a worldline might be born with a Latent Magic perk. At puberty, or after some other form of trauma occurs (e.g. mainlining a connection to the Spider Totem after being bitten by a magical spider), their inner power is awakened, which is where the Meta-Trait comes in. You have Limited Path/Book Adept and possibly Limited Magery (generally One Path or Book Only, or One Ritual Only, but possibly other modifiers), and if your instinctive style is Energy Accumulating then most likely you've got an Energy Reserve. You may or may not have some perks, disadvantages, or quirks in the Meta-Trait, but certainly have skills and techniques, hence the name - you have one ritual (or perhaps a few) that you are instinctively good at, probably based on a Path or Book with a separate core skill (or your instinctive style only has one Book, so the Book skill is the core skill); you instinctively know these, as well, but might have a disadvantage or quirk that limits your understanding of them (so perhaps you're Incompetent with any use that isn't covered by your ritual). Alternatively, perhaps you have a perk that causes your Instinctive Ritual to default off of IQ, Will, or another characteristic. Depending on your abilities, personality, and setting, you may buy down or buy off some limitations or disadvantages, and expand your range of rituals, or you might not.


Examples

Imagine, if you will, a boy named Charlie, about age twelve, has learned that he can read the minds of those around him:
Instinctive Ritual (Magery 0 (Path of the Mind Only, -40%) [3]; Magery (Path of the Mind Only, -40%) 3 [18]; Path/Book Adept (Path of the Mind Only, -40%) 3 [18]; Path of the Mind [8] IQ+3; Read Thoughts (H) Path of the Mind-6 [7] Path of the Mind-0) [54]

As Charlie grows older (and starts preferring to be called Charles), he learns other rituals in the Path of the Mind (or perhaps the Book of Xavier, or something like that), and seeks to teach other mutants, but also tragically loses the use of his legs.

Similar ideas work for Bobby Drake ('Path of Ice,' perhaps) and Jean Grey (Path of Motion), with the caveat that early Jean had telepathic abilities that were locked away for her sanity, so her Path of Motion-limited advantages later became Two-Path advantages.

When Warren Worthington III was introduced, his wings were depicted as so compressible that a set of belts were enough to completely conceal them beneath his longjohns and tailored suit. In a setting like this, it makes more sense for his winged form to be the result of a ritual, at least at first:
Instinctive Ritual (Magery 0 (One Ritual Only: Skinchange (Winged Human), -80%) [1]; Magery (One Ritual Only: Skinchange (Winged Human), -80%) 2 [4]; Path/Book Adept (One Ritual Only: Skinchange (Winged Human), -80%) 3 [6]; Perk: Skinchange (Winged Human) defaults from HT [1]; Skinchange (Winged Human) (H) HT-6 [7] HT+2) [19]

Possibly, a critical failure later leaves him permanently changed; it makes sense for that to be a possible, or even likely, result of a crit-fail on a Skinchange ritual. This may be common among mutants, and could explain Hank McCoy's issues - every time he tries to fix it, though, something goes wrong, perhaps due to subconsciously sabotaging himself. Another plausible effect of a Skinchange crit-fail is that you get the Alternate Form advantage, but it's cyclic (e.g. changing at the full moon, or sunset), or otherwise not under the caster's control ('Now, whenever Dr. Banner grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs...'), at least at first ('That's my secret, Captain: I'm always angry.').

Scott Summers is an interesting case, as is Anne-Marie (Rogue). One way to deal with their abilities is to just give them the advantages with the Always On, -50% limitation, but since I'm already fudging things to fit, I prefer to go with the idea that Scott, at least, has the Uncontrollable limitation on his One Ritual Magery, and add his glasses or visor as a Mitigator on the limitation (this won't change the price at all, unless I can find an appropriate enhancement or two for Magery - something that not every GM agrees is acceptable); his optic blasts going off whenever he's under stress would be dangerous enough that he'd wear a Mitigator all the time anyway. Rogue would likewise have Uncontrollable, but without the Mitigator, and might also have Unconscious Only when she started out. The big problem with Rogue is really designing her ritual, more than the advantages in her meta-trait.


Thoughts?