[UA] Pharmomancy

[Chris Milne]

On Monday, April 03, 2000 1:01 AM, Nick Wedig 
[SMTP:mrteapot at disinfo.net] wrote:
> >Blast Style: The aleetheiamantic blast does not, per se, 
do
> >damage to the target. Rather, it causes the victim to
> >experience instant (and therefore disorienting)
> >hallucinations. These are usually sufficient to distract
> >the victim from whatever they were doing at the time.
>
> I might consider making this like the plutomantic blast 
(i
> think) where the target ends up hurting himself.  And
> have the hallucinations along the lines of the one
> dipsomantic spell (Timblebelly, i think).

D'oh! Something I forgot to add to the post. I envisage the 
blast's effects as doing psychological damage to the target 
- forcing them to take Madness checks (most likely Self, 
but dependant on the hallucination), in addition to the 
"standard" Rank-5 Unnatural check for being successfully 
attacked by magick. A minor blast hits on one gauge at 
rank-3, a significant blast on more than one gauge at ra  
nk-6 (roughly speaking). That was my idea anyhow...

I was toying with the idea that each adept's blast is 
unique, and reflects their personal view of the universe's 
reality (similar, I think, to what you were saying about 
Timblebelly). That way, the more "powerful" (read "more 
tripped-out") aleetheiamancers have more effective blasts - 
their view of reality is so different that it has a greater 
impact when imposed on someone else. Not entirely sure 
though.

> >Harry Houdini (2 minor)
> >The Aleetheiamancer can temporarily escape the natural 
laws
> >of reality, or alter them to his needs. Thus, gravity 
can
> >cease to affect the adept, or it can be made to act in a
> >different direction. The effect lasts for as long as the
> >adept concentrates. If this is done in view of other
> >non-aleetheiamancers, then the GM has the option to
> >increase the number of charges required.
>
> I thought this might be a bit too powerful, but the last
> bit about observers helps.  Even then, I might up the
> cost (maybe make it significant)

Re-reading it, I should clarify that only 1 law can be 
avoided/altered at a time, and that the adept can do 
nothing else while the spell is in effect. I had a 
significant version in which an area could be affected by 
the spell for an indefinite length of time; the power of 
the spell decreased as it affected people who weren't 
attuned to the aleetheiamancer's way of thinking (think 
Banality in Changeling).

Power is a definite problem with this school (such as it 
is). In a way, these guys are going right to the heart of 
magick by playing with reality itself, and they deserve to 
have power because of the risks they're taking with their 
mind to get it. BUT, changing reality is   an easy power to 
abuse (just take a look at any poorly-played Mage game) and 
I wanted to avoid creating a super-powerful 
school-for-munchkins.

> But those are all just my random thoughts, and I can't
> really suggest any other spells.

Thanks for the comments! Much appreciated.

At least I'm not the only one with a creative block.

:-)

> Mr. Teapot
> walks the road of evil

Chris


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