signs and symbols: magic of the quill

[cobbthedestroyer]

hi all,
i need some help,
i'm part of Earthenforge's group who converted characters from D&D3.5(more like 3.suck!) and i have to say i LOVE BW, so thanx.
i've been running into a few issues with my character's sorcery. i have a character whose magic is based on symbols that he draws on objects. he may draw a symbol on someone and they are paralysed or trace a rune in the side of a glass, causing the contents to taste like toad vomit.
in my character's mind the symbols are living and active, more like friends and co-conspiritors than they are tools to do magic with. The character is also very much a puckish character with a burning itch to get into trouble (one instinct is to diffuse both conflict and boredom with pranks and jokes, another is to always humiliate opponents rather than striking a final blow)

my problem is this: i'm having trouble letting him be really miscievious using magic because it's so taxing even to do little things with Spell Abstraction. this would lean me towards Practical Magic or the Art of Sorcery.

have either of these had the kinks worked out and been posted somewhere?

if i go with Art of Sorcery, could i use my Semeist(or Symbolist) as a School of Magic specializing in spells that can be runic in nature(Persuasion, Witch Key, Mask)? can i invent a prankster School of Magic, involving any spell that brings to mind chaos ensuing (VoiceCaster, Mask, Spirit Servant, Transmute, etc.)? or do Schools have to be dedicated to certain Elements or Impeti?

any help you could give would be awesome
on fire for Burning,
-dan

[luke]

if i go with Art of Sorcery, could i use my Semeist(or Symbolist) as a School of Magic specializing in spells that can be runic in nature(Persuasion, Witch Key, Mask)? can i invent a prankster School of Magic, involving any spell that brings to mind chaos ensuing (VoiceCaster, Mask, Spirit Servant, Transmute, etc.)?


Yes and yes.

[cobbthedestroyer]

motto: ex iocus verum, from jokes, truth.

specialties: this school specializes in forms of magic that are usually cast quickly and are used for tricks and practical jokes. they can be used to defend oneself but this school will not help you if there is no humorous value to the spell. (conjuring up a sorcerous mace is not enough, the ball of the mace must resemble a live pig and when you hit someone with it, the pig oinks with pleasure!)

transform is also a favorite of this school. but never permanent transformations.

rule 1: pranks may not permanently destroy their object. (may leave in weak state.)
rule 2: there is no time that can't be funny

[EarthenForge]

Hmm...clever, but my concern is that the School seems a little silly to fit into the established world - unless perhaps, it's just a Gnome thing, which might be workable. I was thinking that perhaps you could still go with the House of Tricks idea, and have the strong emphasis on silly be more of a personal twist that Cobb has placed on his spells.

[cobbthedestroyer]

i was thinking of it as being a small school and very much a gnome thing. but i see your point.

i was looking for a way to require or at least reward my character "with helping dice" for doing both the funny thing and the thing that needs to be done. like instead of firing a blast at my opponent's head to knock him over, i turn his head several sizes too big, and he falls over by himself.
perhaps that can be solved by BITs. i don't want it to just be a colour thing. i'm kinda trying to force my character to act like himself and not like me.

two questions:
1. what would the House of Tricks look like with out the silly? how can it be a trickster school if with out silly? (seriously, what types of spells would a Trapezium Mage without cobb's penchant for the silly be trained to cast?)

2. is there a standard way to describe Schools of Magic? is there anything missing from my description that would be nice to know? i'm working on an explanation of the Sybolist School and i want to make it right.

[EarthenForge]

Gah - my ability to offer useful suggestions feels pretty limited. In trying to figure out how best to give you what you want, it seems that you'll either have to follow the path less traveled (and therefore more experimental, hazy, etc.) as with the Art of Sorcery, or you can go the more certain route of standard sorcery and just choose spells that can be used for tricksy purposes or be more creatively interpreted.

If you go with the Art of Sorcery stuff, which I don't fully understand (does anyone?), you could potentially have a lot of fun with trait-based magic, which can do goofy things that are also temporary. Spells that stuck out to me as ones Cobb might use (or might use as inspiration) include Bard's Gold, Timur's Tactless Tangletongue, Abzu's Polish Gypsy Curse, Slumber of the Dead, Gotcha Sucka, Veil, and Elaine's Excruciating Emasculation. Very fun!

If you go with traditional Sorcery, there are quite a few spells that could be used for pranks or to add that magical sparkle to Cobb's deeds. They're pretty much all Ob 5 or less (and many of them are Ob 3, which is very doable for Cobb). Spells like: Call of Iron, Chameleon, Chaos Ward, Dark of Night, Fish Lung, Flame Finger, Grey Cloak, Horse's Stride, Lights of St. Andrew, Low Speech, Mage Light, Minor Maker, Pyrotechnics, Raise Bread, Wallwalker, Waterwalker, Witch Flight, Wyrd Light, and Unraveling the Skein (this one's on the Wiki) all have tricksy potential.

A few Sorcery spells really stick out to me as more obvious fuel for Cobb's intentions: Falcon Skin (or perhaps something like this), Mask, Philosopher's Perch, Spirit Servant, and Voice Caster. For small pranks, Cobb wouldn't need magic at all, he could just test a relevant skill. For more impressive or really important tasks, juice it up with one of these spells - it'll still take a bit of creativity to apply, but without the headache of a prototype magic system.

::shrugs:: That doesn't really answer your above questions, but if you're sure you want to go with The Art of Sorcery, then I'll try to think about it some more. (And I'll also try to keep my "magic sucks, be a rogue" opinion locked up, although it's hard when magic complicates things - just stab something, already! :D)

[cobbthedestroyer]

i'm really tempted to go with standard sorcery if that's how you feel,

perhaps i can pursue it in another campaign down the road. before next session i'll look at both and give you a definite answer. i do really still like AoS, though.

my House of Tricks school could limit me to Traits and Transforms and to Tweaks. anything else i wanted to do would be sans SoM helpig dice.
and as to the not having such a silly school, i think i'm going to follow the School motto more closely in my description of the school.
their motto: "Ex Iocus Verum" from jokes, truth.
this means that rather than ignoring the serious matters and entertaining themselves, they are trying to get at the serious matters by challenging other people. what kinds of challenges? being transformed into, say, a horse, (temporarily of course,) would certainly cause some personal growth in the lives of a few people i know. heh heh heh!

[EarthenForge]

i'm really tempted to go with standard sorcery if that's how you feel,

perhaps i can pursue it in another campaign down the road. before next session i'll look at both and give you a definite answer. i do really still like AoS, though.

yeah...I dunno. Part of me wants to say pursue AoS later (in another game or future character), after the mechanics of sorcery become well ingrained in your head. Why? 1. my own understanding of it is weak so I can't help you much yet. 2. Because of this, I'm afraid it will be abused or otherwise misused - not on purpose, mind you, that kind of thing just tends to happen. 3. Most of the suggested AoS spells start at Ob4 - many are much higher. So you might find yourself in the same boat you were in with Spell Abstraction. Now, you might be able to get around that by choosing 1 pt traits, which could still result in a powerful spell, but subtly so. 4. You might want to consider you own tendencies, too. Do you think fast on your feet? Do you think, once you have a better grasp of how to work the system, that you'll be able to put things together quickly, or are you more likely to keep your nose in the book, hemming and hawing over what to do? If you're of the former tendency, AoS might work for you in the long run. If you're of the latter tendency, it's probably not a good idea because you'll slow things down or miss half of what's going on at the table.

The other part of me wants to say, if you're willing to shoulder the burden of really understanding and experimenting with AoS, then just go for it. Maybe start by coming up with few ideas for spells and either post them on the forum or bring it up with our group. I think AoS is really cool, too, and it has all kinds of potential. But so do all of the magic systems. One isn't necessarily better than the other - it's all in how you channel your creativity.


my House of Tricks school could limit me to Traits and Transforms and to Tweaks. anything else i wanted to do would be sans SoM helpig dice.
and as to the not having such a silly school, i think i'm going to follow the School motto more closely in my description of the school.
their motto: "Ex Iocus Verum" from jokes, truth.
this means that rather than ignoring the serious matters and entertaining themselves, they are trying to get at the serious matters by challenging other people. what kinds of challenges? being transformed into, say, a horse, (temporarily of course,) would certainly cause some personal growth in the lives of a few people i know. heh heh heh!

Yes. I think you're on the right track to pursue a School that uses less common methods to get at what's important. You should bring your ideas up to the group as well - they'll probably have some good suggestions once they see what you're trying to get at. Seeking clever ways to overcome obstacles is also very Gnome.

[luke]

Art Magic is really easy to use.