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The Dresden Files => DFRPG => Topic started by: Chrono on September 07, 2012, 04:41:22 PM
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I'm trying to come up with an exotic type of focused practitioner, because confusing your players is fun. Something that isn't all-powerful, like a chronomancer or an atmosmsancer. Just something wacky. I can't think of any good words for a 'cake dough mancer' or 'dry wall' mancer, so that is impeding my creativity a bit.
Any suggestions?
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Audiomancer?
All sonic stuff. Manipulates sound waves, attacks people with ear-splitting sounds or can muffle noise etc.
He looks all Punk-Rocker and His focus Item is a double armed electric guitar.
His Rituals involve complex set-ups using wires and cables, stages and speakers. He channels the spirits of the greatest rockers of all time to super-charge his spells.
Kind of like a noise Marine from 40k.
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That could be fun. One of our NPCs is actually a harmonomancer, a street musician that makes magic through music. An audiomancer might be a great contrast for that.
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I'm so stealing that idea. He would be a great counter character to my group of Viking death metal lycanthrope npcs. xD
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I'm so stealing that idea. He would be a great counter character to my group of Viking death metal lycanthrope npcs. xD
:o
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Here a few ;)
Cryptomancers (Cryptos, meaning secret) - Someone who practices divining secrets, or creating them.
Bibliomancers (Biblio, meaning book) - Someone who practices divining from the Bible.
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Ivymancer: Someone who grows viny, thorny or grasping plants. Sleeping Beauty castle sieges? Shackles? Anyone?
Cadaverdancer: Someone who can control dead bodies like marionettes. Entirely unlike and weaker than any form of necromancy and also doesn't break any laws. The bodies don't become autonomous in any way, (s)he can merely manipulate them (make them dance! Favorite attack pattern: The Thriller.)
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Or, for the most awesome story example of a ridiculously powered "focused practitioner" villain ever, I'll refer you here (http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3460258&pagenumber=37&perpage=40#post404665722). It's 110% worth reading for everyone who enjoys epic game stories. While not a DFRPG-specific example, it could easily be adapted.
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The venerable Electromancer, while not being all powerful, is certainly versatile. For somewhat more outlandish:
Vectormancer, perturbs vector fields, especially the direction of travel of objects.
Hemomancer, aka, the blood bender
Hermetomancer, magic bender, twists other magics into new forms but is not herself a source of power.
Jurismancy, controls laws... is changing a law of magic a violation?
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I don't think Dresden Files magic can target concepts that easily - you can't, for example, channel destructive magic at the concept of "speed limit" to get out of paying the fine for going 115 in a residential area with a loup-garou in hot pursuit.
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Im stealing from Skulduggery Pleasant here but, an Osteomancer would be a scary opponent to face. His power is the control of bones, in particular his skill at breaking them with minute amounts of force.
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Im stealing from Skulduggery Pleasant here but, an Osteomancer would be a scary opponent to face. His power is the control of bones, in particular his skill at breaking them with minute amounts of force.
Skulduggery Pleasant has a load of great ideas - an Umbramancer (Shadow channeler), a specialized Kinetomancer who can walk on walls/ceilings, etc.
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Yo. (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,28711.msg1231169.html#msg1231169)
Alternately, anything from Unknown Armies ought to work.
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Canine-mancer. Attacks by conjuring dogs. Probably a small cute girl or boy who is this dire warlock. Evocations will include conjuring creatures inside the hapless PCs. Probably inflicting an absolutely messy amount of damage. (Also requiring endurance defenses.) In addition they will have a number of extremely cute, yet extremely vicious conjured guardians at their disposal.
Hair-mancer. The power of hair! Normally acts as a super hairstylist. The PC's will be more concerned about her abilities to do terrible things to hair. Shoot it at someone, use it as a nano-blade type weapon or the like. Alternatively a helpful NPC can use thaumaturgy to make it explode, protecting the PC's from a painful death by thaumaturgy. (Or a nasty one makes it explode while still on their head!)
Inkymancer: Controls ink! Have fun as it gets into your blood stream. Also great for forgery.
Sanguinemancer: Blood control. This person can puppet people around. The wardens can't do much of anything about this person controlling people since its not actually mind control. Also extremely effective against red/black court vampires since they basically are blood. At least that is the source of their supernatural strength. Probably can control and transform them at will. Sets up a fun moral dilemma. They need this guys expertise to fight the vampires, but he is running around blood controlling everyone.
P.S. Don't let him get near the Stone Table. Everything would go to hell in a hand-basket. I do mean everything.
So now you have four extremely gruesome, yet still wacky, casters.
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Sanguinemancer: Blood control. This person can puppet people around. The wardens can't do much of anything about this person controlling people since its not actually mind control.
The Fourth law is against enthralling, not mind control specifically. Also, aren't the Wardens explicitly called out as enforcing the spirit of the Laws?
Still, one of my favourite concepts. I'd always liked blood magic, for some reason, though in DFRPG I usually go for the slightly more conceptual level of blood magic.
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Both the 3rd and 4th laws apply explicitly to mind magic, there is no law against binding someone with magic, similarly there should be no law against forcing them to move their arms and legs in certain ways if you do not do it by controlling their mind. Really this comes down to the concept of identity and choice (see Ghost Story).
With the Laws of Magic there is no "spirit of the laws." The laws of magic (in game terms Law Breaker powers and aspect changes) apply because these laws are fundamental to magic in the universe. It has to do wit you believing you have a right to change someones thoughts, or destroy their identity. You either become more inhuman because of your actions, or you don't.
The wardens do not enforce a "spirit of the law," but individual wardens may take a particularly broad view of what constitutes breaking a law. Since without soulgazing someone it is impossible to know weather or not they have actually broken a law (and the wardens often do not soulgaze those they consider warlocks, for their own protection) warden often treat anything resembling law breaking as a violation. If you used magic to move someones arms/legs, it could easily be interpreted as mind magic/lawbreaking when it is not, and the wardens could easily decided to kill you (especially if they only heard about the incident and were not actually there). On the other hand there are wardens, like Harry, who do not take such a broad view of the laws and are more concerned with truth and justice.
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Hmm. That's a pretty good argument actually. Ah, well, your game, your rules.
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I mean if you want something to be lawbreaking in your game, especially if it is a grey area and you have discussed it with your players (so you are all on the same page), then it is. If you want to ignore the laws, that's something you could do as well (I feel they represent invaluable plot hooks/devices, but whatever makes your game more fun).
Weather or not a warden shows up and bothers you is also something you should think about. If it would be a good plot hook/session/complication for the character that moves the story along/makes it more interesting, and especially fun, then by all means. If you think it would just slow things down and not be meaningful (the player is not ok with potentially bad things happening to his character, you don't want to deal with it, etc.), then they never learned about it.
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A Gravitomancer (manipulation of Gravity) would be cool. I imagine it would work kinda like Biotics in Mass Effect.
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Friction can be really fun, as can light and dark. Gravity. Metal. Wood. Magnetics. Ice. Heat. Mist. Bacteria. Genetics. Inanimate objects.
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An inanimancer? That really rolls off the tongue. Gravomancer? Genetemancer? Polarmancer?
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Foldomancer(plyomancer?) married to a steamomancer.
They run a dry-cleaning business. One cleans and the other folds and presses. The foldomancer also holds the world record for folding a single peice of paper the most times. It was 6 times, but he can do it, like, 15. The foldomancer would be especially gruesome to see in combat. His calling card would be a dry-cleaning stub.
Maybe he makes kilts and accordians on the side.
Maybe too silly.
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With the Laws of Magic there is no "spirit of the laws."
Actually this is not true.
"The White Council’s Wardens are the main law enforcement body of the supernatural world— at least as far as mortals go. For the Wardens, the Laws of Magic are sacrosanct. The Laws of Magic are clear, concise, and offer little in the way of “wiggle room”—at least in the views of some Wardens—but are very much written to communicate the spirit of the law, which is the mode in which they are enforced. (This stands in contrast to the other major body of super- natural legalese, the Unseelie Accords, where there is no spirit of the law—only the letter of it. See OW15.)" YS232. Emphasis mine.
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Foldomancer(plyomancer?) married to a steamomancer.
They run a dry-cleaning business. One cleans and the other folds and presses. The foldomancer also holds the world record for folding a single peice of paper the most times. It was 6 times, but he can do it, like, 15. The foldomancer would be especially gruesome to see in combat. His calling card would be a dry-cleaning stub.
Maybe he makes kilts and accordians on the side.
Maybe too silly.
I love the idea of a drycleaning couple like that. :)
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Actually this is not true.
"The White Council’s Wardens are the main law enforcement body of the supernatural world— at least as far as mortals go. For the Wardens, the Laws of Magic are sacrosanct. The Laws of Magic are clear, concise, and offer little in the way of “wiggle room”—at least in the views of some Wardens—but are very much written to communicate the spirit of the law, which is the mode in which they are enforced. (This stands in contrast to the other major body of super- natural legalese, the Unseelie Accords, where there is no spirit of the law—only the letter of it. See OW15.)" YS232. Emphasis mine.
You quoted the wrong section of Centarion's post.
The section you quoted referred to the Laws (represented mechanically as the Lawbreaker power, etc) representing the metaphysical truth of the Dresdenverse that using black magic corrupts the user.
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I agree my post was unclear. I also agree that Wardens are less preoccupied with the "letter of the law" and enforce whatever they feel is the "spirit of the law." I feel that if a law is written to communicate its "spirit" then that is really just the letter of the law. As a side note, are the laws in YS anything close to how the laws are actually written?
Anyway, it seems clear to me that the Laws of Magic, the fundamental metaphysical Truth, has no grey area or "spirit of the law" because the law is ALL spirit. On the other hand the laws of magic the Wardens enforce are subject the the interpretation of that particular Warden, based really on whatever they want.
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I agree my post was unclear. I also agree that Wardens are less preoccupied with the "letter of the law" and enforce whatever they feel is the "spirit of the law." I feel that if a law is written to communicate its "spirit" then that is really just the letter of the law. As a side note, are the laws in YS anything close to how the laws are actually written?
I swear that the one on necromancy is about binding, calling and such of the unwilling dead. Or maybe that is just the wikis infecting my brain.
The Fourth law is against enthralling, not mind control specifically. Also, aren't the Wardens explicitly called out as enforcing the spirit of the Laws?
Still, one of my favourite concepts. I'd always liked blood magic, for some reason, though in DFRPG I usually go for the slightly more conceptual level of blood magic.
Yeah, but enthrallment is tampering with their mind, not binding their body. Although their is a good chance they would be falsely convicted.
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I imagine a Warden would kill you for being creepy. I doubt many of them perform thaumaturgy to confirm that what looks like enthrallment or necromancy actually is.
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I've created a sartoriomancer once, the idea was for her to be a supernatural assassin known as "the seamstress", who could control peoples clothes, so they could not move or make them move like her puppets. Also great for disguises, if you can change your clothes in any way you want with an effort of will.
The chloromancer has already been mentioned, and I am looking forward to playing one at some point. Though I will probably have to make her an npc instead...
I have to agree with Chrono on the wardens. If they think you broke the law, you won't get out on a technicality.
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I appreciate all the great ideas so far. My players may not, but I am having a lot of fun with it!
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Saw the ???mancer and the first thing that popped into my head was:
The Riddler.
Enigmancer!!!!
Thaumaturgy rituals that have nasty consequences if you fail the riddle. Very sphinx-like?
Maybe make the guy/girl is a brilliant detective also, much like the Riddler or Dresden.
Stunt allowing Empathy and Investigation to replace standard spell skills? yeah it mya be overpowered but it is a gimmicky NPC right? Who cares? It could be fun.
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Stunt allowing Empathy and Investigation to replace standard spell skills?
Like this?
ALTERNATE MAGICAL PARADIGM [-1]
Description: Your magic is different from everyone else's. Where most practitioners cast spells with mental strength and magical knowledge, you use other methods.
Musts: You must possess at least one spellcasting power in order to take this one.
Skills Affected: Any three.
Effects:
Alternate Magical Paradigm. Pick three skills. For the purposes of any spellcasting powers you possess, use the first in place of your Conviction, the second in place of your Discipline, and the third in place of your Lore.
/self-promotion.
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Maybe make the guy/girl a brilliant detective also, much like the Riddler or Dresden.
Like what now?