Armor and Evocation

[Vargo Teras]

How does armor from stunts interact with the stresses of evocation?  Particularly: if you have Inhuman+ Toughness, and take Backlash from a failed control roll, does the armor from that Toughness apply?  If you have the Conviction stunt Tower of Faith, does this reduce the cost of drawing up power?  I assume the answer is no, but is there a reason for that other than it being cheesy?

[Becq]

Take a look at the sidebar on YS250:

"Hey, Billy, can you take a stunt or cast a spell or make an item of some kind that gives you armor against the mental stress caused by casting a spell?"

"Good question! And no, you can’t. Armor just doesn’t help against stress you inflict on yourself."

(Note that the extra physical boxes you get from Toughness and the extra mild consequence slots you get from several stunts/powers can be used, just not the armor.)

[Vargo Teras]

Ah, thank you.

[wyvern]

Note that not everyone will have exactly the same interpretation here.  My personal ruling is that backlash counts as your catch for any toughness or recovery powers.  I've seen other people rule that you get the full effect (including toughness armor) against backlash.  So, talk it over with your group / GM.

[Becq]

Note that not everyone will have exactly the same interpretation here.  My personal ruling is that backlash counts as your catch for any toughness or recovery powers.  I've seen other people rule that you get the full effect (including toughness armor) against backlash.  So, talk it over with your group / GM.

Having it count as a Catch is interesting; this would mean that the extra stress boxes from Toughness would be unavailable for that purpose, nor could Recovery powers be used to clear consequences faster.  I actually prefer this take on the matter (as a house rule), since it prevents what I see as abuse of physical recovery powers to enhance spellcasting.

The armor question seems to have a very clear answer in the RAW I quoted previously (YS250 sidebar), though.  If you decide to houserule that away, what optimal spellcasting build wouldn't include the following stunt (compare to Tough Stuff, YS152):

Resilient Psyche: Your mind is able to shrug off the mental trauma inflicted by using or being abused by spells and supernatural attacks.  Against such sources of mental stress, you have a natural Armor:1 (which stacks with other forms of protection).  This does not apply to any mundane/non-supernatural source of mental stress.

Unlimited free spellcasting up to your Conviction plus power specialization (and reduced stress for more powerful stuff), and persistant resistance to mental attacks such as Incite Emotion!  What's not to love?  Spellcasters with "Inhuman Mental Toughness" would be downright ridiculously overpowered, in my opinion.

[wyvern]

Oh, yes, the sidebar is quite clear on mental stress; I don't think I've seen anyone house-rule that away (once it was pointed out) - I was referring specifically to backlash, there.

And yes, I do rather like having self-inflicted damage count as your catch; after all, if you're sacrificing a minor consequence to fuel a ritual... well, it's not much of a sacrifice if you can just instantly heal it back, now is it?  And magic is all about symbols; trying to fuel a spell with a papercut isn't going to get you much - and if you've got the recovery to replace "papercut" with "chopped off arm" - well, symbolically, that's the same thing to someone with mythic recovery.

[Becq]

Oh, yes, the sidebar is quite clear on mental stress; I don't think I've seen anyone house-rule that away (once it was pointed out) - I was referring specifically to backlash, there.

I guess I see backlash as self-inflicted, too.  You are choosing to pay stress to keep control of otherwise uncontrolled shifts of energy.  I don't think there's any RAW that states this outright, but there's an inference here:

As we hinted above, it should be noted that backlash is a kind of safety mechanism for the wizard—if he chooses to absorb it all himself, his spell should still go off as intended because he was willing to pay the extra cost.

Or, to look at it another way, you can summon shifts of power up to your Conviction (for the base cost), then pay (sacrifice) additional stress for each extra shift.  And you can control shifts of power up to your Control roll, then pay (sacrifice) stress for each extra shift.  You don't have to pay the first cost, it's an option to power a larger spell.  You don't have to pay the second cost, it's an option to control a larger spell.

At least, that's the way I see it.

[ways and means]

Oh, yes, the sidebar is quite clear on mental stress; I don't think I've seen anyone house-rule that away (once it was pointed out) - I was referring specifically to backlash, there.

And yes, I do rather like having self-inflicted damage count as your catch; after all, if you're sacrificing a minor consequence to fuel a ritual... well, it's not much of a sacrifice if you can just instantly heal it back, now is it?  And magic is all about symbols; trying to fuel a spell with a papercut isn't going to get you much - and if you've got the recovery to replace "papercut" with "chopped off arm" - well, symbolically, that's the same thing to someone with mythic recovery.

I like the Status Quo by disallowing mental armour against self-inflicted stress you get of the biggest danger of mental toughness/armour stunt (Unlimited Casting) but leaving the stress boxes out of the equation also makes sense there being no reason why your magic would damage you any more than anyone else's magic. As for recovery from ritual consequences I don't see a problem with it as sacrificing physical consequences in my opinion is sacrificing life energy (just like blood drinking for vampires) and clearly those with inhuman recovery just have more life energy or are pilfering there life energy for somewhere else at the cost of lives.