"John Buck" is a  Native American trickster spirit scion.  So he has glamours, and he can transform himself into a shadowy form.

So he has
-2 Glamour
-1 Cloud the mind (stunt gives Deceit the stealth trapping)

And in his shadow form he has
-1 Wings
-1 Cloak of Shadows
-? Inhuman toughness, only in darkness or shadow

Basically, anyone who does a maneuver to hold a light on him, flashlight, laser pointer can get a good enough lock on his position to bypass the Catch.  (be a harder maneuver for a smaller light source though).  Since he can resist the maneuver with athletics or deceit, it isn't a gimme.

Btw, the campaign lore we are considering is that Native American magic is generally stronger at self-transformation, like into beast or spirit creatures.

Would it be better just to have a stunt that gives a bonus to his defense roll under the same restrictions?  The cloak of shadows power gives +2 to stealth in shadows, should a defense stunt give +2 to defense or just +1?

So you have this wizard who can craft items with 8 shifts of power.

He makes a 'lightsaber' that is a 4 shift weapon, always on.

He then uses what skill to attack with it?  Weapons?  Discipline?  The characters offensive Spirit control?

If he uses Discipline or Spirit control skill to attack with it, can he also use that skill to defend with in melee?

How about a stunt similar to the 2 seconds in the future stunt in the OW books to allow the Spirit control skill to be used in the place of dodge?  "I am parrying bullets with my lightsaber"

Yeah, I saw the Mythbusters episode, human reflexes aren't anywhere near fast enough to intercept bullets.

Character has a non-Fallen angelic form that he can only change into when fighting supernatural beings, and he has to have personal knowledge that they are evil.

So, rare or involuntary shapeshift is +2

Powers from shapeshift:
Wings -1
Inhuman toughness, superhuman recovery  Catch, doesn't apply versus Pure Mortals.

The catch has to do with Free Will, and how even an angel has to respect it.  If an angel interferes in mortal affairs, they are vulnerable.

Pure mortals are widely available, and the catch would be researchable.  So would it be +3 or +4?


Also, would incite spiritual experience
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=110997741

work as an Incite Emotion power?  Basicly, trigger the receptors in the brain that cause that "sense of the divine" sensation.

I need advice on both how to build these spells, and how to deal with them mechanically

A flamethrowing spell that causes the flame to stick to the target.  Perhaps a weapon 5 attack that lasts 2 extra exchanges.
There are other ideas for putting a continually damaging spell on the target.  Assuming the caster has a 7 control value for fire evocations, how do you figure both the initial targetting and the continuing damage.  Also, if someone wished to dispel the remaining time on such a fire spell, what would be their target difficulty?


For an item idea, I wanted to duplicate the Ghostbuster's particle accelerators.  A continuous tornado of energy.  Suppose I have a spirit spell with 5 attack, +2 exchanges.  Would that mean that for 1 mental stress I could have a 5 strength attack for 3 exchanges?


I was trying to figure out what would be the minimum power required to kill a ghoul with one spell.  17 shifts, and quite a bit more if it had any toughness.  But break it into a continuing spell that did at least 5 damage beyond defenses each round and it would inflict consequences each round, making a one mental stress to kill one ghoul spell much cheaper.

The other spell was an idea to allow the wizard to down one mook a round for several rounds for the cost of one mental stress.  Basically, the wizard would summon up the destructive energy and direct it through several exchanges.

I was designing an encounter hook for the party's Warden character and realized that I haven't the faintest idea what the routine method of communication is for the White Council and Wardens.

Obviously, things like phones and fax machines are unreliable, but worse, they are likely to be insecure.  Wizards are unlikely to be experts or current on technology, and therefore be unfamiliar with how easy some of it is to tap into.  And if they use pure human agents to handle the communications they have to deal with the issues of those agents having less defenses against supernatural subordination and deception.

I can see thaumaturgical rituals being used for contact.  Maybe a 5 minute ritual if you have things like the persons address, a photo, something handled by them.  Perhaps they have contact items that are kept in carefully sealed containers so preserve their thaumaturgical properties.

But that is one person contacting one other person.  I can't see wizards doing blast faxes to everybody on their contact lists.  It might be that wizards USED to have major advantages in long distance communications.  They could probably do transcontinental communications through the Nevernever centuries before the invention of the telephone.  A five minute ritual and you can contact anyone you know very well.  But contacting everybody on a friends and acquaintances list is a different proposition indeed.

So, how does it work?
Does the White Council use fax machines and phones and computers and just use wizards who are sufficiently disciplined that the technology doesn't blow up around them as much?  Does it use supernatural allies or pure humans who have long family connections?  Does it use magitech, or is it mostly hopelessly behind the times in communications?

Some ideas:
Synchronized paper:  What is written or typed on one piece of synchronized paper will magically appear on the linked paper or papers in Edinburgh or Regional offices.  Yay!  Wizardy bureaucracies.  Please remember to use up or dispose of old paper before the link expires at the end of the lunar cycle.

Stereotypical magic mirrors.  Constrained summoned creatures that transport letters through the nevernever.  Or the White Council communicates fairly little, trusting the various autonomous Wardens and Regional Commanders to handle things on their own.