Its not too hard to rip an amulet off a character. In his animal forms the amulet is very obvious.

Previously I did not want to bore everyone with why it is VERY obvious. The amulet has an elder rage spirit bound to it and it radiates its malevolence/hate/rage. So others pick up on it emotionally/narratively within 1 zone of him. It makes other people very uncomfortable. Magic sensitive types pick it up right off the bat. When its powers are active it becomes visible to the eye as a magic item. When the rage spirit inside the amulet is trying to persuade the character to follow its murderous agenda a gem flashes and sparkles. The character gets a schizo look of having an inner conversation. When he is changed into his war form the gem flashes and blazes an angry ruby red. It is not a small amulet either. Its about four inches thick with gold like material in the band around the neck. The front piece has gold filigree and a huge ruby in the center of the filigree. At its front it is about seven inches for six inches. It adjust to a large size in his tiger form and war form. It is not a concealable item at all due to the pathos it exudes when he is human and the blazing piece of jewelry when he is a beast. The ONLY piece of jewelry/clothing. Successful maneuvering can lead to said item getting snatched with a contested roll. Just like a sword.  My understanding of the rebate is based on how obvious it is as a source of power and whether or not it is accessible to being taken away. So something that say "Magic sword" is obvious as power and with weapons/fists/guns/magic vulnerable to disarm. An item that is not obvious as a source of power that can be hidden would be no rebate at all. +2 is not just reserved to swords. Even the DFRG resources has examples (like cloaks) of non weapon items at +2. In real life something around your neck can get ripped off or used to chuck you around. Player is aware of the social implications of the item being visible in scenes. Visible items become conversation pieces in scenes.

So back to my original question. If he buys modular ability he can only build a pool with refresh AFTER the purchase of modular ability...correct? (based on Sancta it would be a technical no unless allowed by GM)  Can I as a GM designate that the modular ability only allows one form with powers swapped as a limitation. I am leaning towards this to prevent a player from having a huge utility bag of 8 pts to swap all sorts of way to prevent him outshining the party. Should I prevent the player from stacking points to Mythic level (party is at 13 refresh)?

Should I direct him to another point of beast form to have a third form/set of skills instead?  Does beast form have to be a naturally occurring beast?

Hello,

Some context: A player with a weretiger in our game wanted an item of power. He had two refresh to spend on the item. We did a story that build up to the item which is an amulet from his ancestors. Its visible and can be potentially pulled off (so +2 rebate) He wanted to have the amulet give him access to a new form. The form is the half-man/half-tiger form. Sort of like White Wolf's Crinos but with a tiger.

Can Modular Ability be purchased at a later date/after the fact? If so can it be purchase with an item of power. In some ways it reads like abilities that go into Modular Ability must be purchased beforehand. The player wanted to use 8 pts of his abilities in the pool. If the modular ability is allowable what can he purchase with it? His abilities are speed, strength, recovery. Will he need to stay with speed, strength, and recovery with different degrees (unnatural, supernatural) or can get use the points to take toughness?

If Modular Ability is not feasible after the fact of character creation what would you suggest power wise to capture a third form that is not purely an animal form?

Input would be helpful as I don't want to have an item that breaks game balance. Thank you in advance.

Hello,

Thank you for previous information on blocks to incite emotion. The game actually had all three mentioned go off by different characters: increase to discipline via potion, straight discipline roll, and a magic area of effect block to the emotion. Everyone got through unscathed mentally except for a Son of Ares who botched his roll and pissed his pants. So thanks for the information.

1. About athletics and jumping. I am having a hard time visualizing distances with jumping via athletics. At what point does the leaping become super human. Can high athletics lead to stuff like jumping 2 or 3 story building etc. The rule reads like the GM makes the difficulty to clear an obstacle by jumping. We have a were-tiger with super speed in our game. He was asking with his springing athletics at 8 how far and how high can he jump. Any perspective would be helpful.

2. A character has resources at 6 (13-14 refresh party). He was asking about using his resources to add +1 to his contacts of 5. (going for the tony starkish gozillionaire thing). At a contacts at potentially at 6 what sort of contacts should I allow the player to tap? He wants to start getting high powered govt officials in his pocket (sort of like Lara Raithe). Is there a previous post that gives a chart on power level of contacts?

3. Could you give me some examples of how might could give a bonus to other skills (either the +1 due to higher skill or the greater plus due to super strength)? Am I correct in stating that might does not give bonus to the attack trappings of fists and weapons? Could might give bonuses to maneuvers of fists and weapons?

Thank you in advance for advise, rules clarification, and suggestions.

I'm not sure that I agree with magic only defending physical/outside. From the books magic is about Will and Belief (discipline and conviction). Both are "interior" qualities. The book directly states that the element of spirit is about emotions as well as the mind. It also has that "block is a block is a block" commentary. Previous posters on this thread opened my eyes to that.

I did just learn now from this thread that you can't reflexively block with evocation unless house ruled. Something to discuss with the group. Really shows the importance of preparation and thaumaturgy. So thanks for that point as well.

Discipline vs incite does not zero out even at superb vs superb. Emotion touch gives a +2. And the attacks are at weapon 2 and weapon 4. Barely get hit with weapon 4 there goes the stress track. Get hit twice a wizard is really going to run out of gas. I know this as one player was ambushed by a WCV and ate the wizards stress and mental consequences. Got hit with a sticky maneuver first (using the + 2 and 2 shifts from contested roll). Then using the maneuver to successfully hit with the potent emotion. Later the same wizard with mild and moderate consequences ended up confronting the Outsider. Fortunately thaum was used to push back despair beforehand. Point being that incite emotion can hammer wizards as it attacks the muscles behind their primary power. So I know that wizard is going to be looking at ways to deal with incite whether or not he can anticipate or gets ambushed. Also said wizard might have to shield the muscle headed members of the party.

All of your posts have given me a better understanding to GM incite vs wizards. Items to buttress mental defense or thaum is most effective. Caught with pants down I know can see how a wizard can throw up a slightly costly defense. That being said non-magic using types can get mangled by incite.

It does make sense if you consider this...1 stress for a shield vs an attack that lands that can take a chunk of stress. The reason for this post wasn't an expression of my opinion. It was to get information on how magic blocks work vs incite emotion and what the shift cost is for said block. I am clear on how thaum works to protect.

Sometimes that party gets ambushed. Thaum isn't the best vs ambush.

So now I have more clarity as a GM on one tool in a tool bag that wizards can use to counter. It also helps to know how a party tends to roll. They are more on the evocation side in response. I do let them squirm a lot but not to the degree that I trash their characters over their chosen play style. Lead flies and out comes shields. Now emotion bullets fly...

Hello,

I wanted to clarify for an upcoming game if a magic shield can "block" or "armor" vs the mental attack of incite emotion. If so would it only be Spirit Magic?

If magic can block/armor vs mental attacks what would be the mechanism? What I understand from the book is that a magic user can either block all types of damage vs a single opponent OR one type of damage from all sources. Is that understanding correct?

How should a spell be priced to block mental attacks and physical attacks? Or is it a one or other proposition?

Basically the party is know encountering monsters that incite despair and rage.

Thank you in advance.

Thank you all for the help.  I was able to use the NPC successfully in the story. The ideas for rotes and the mechanics sure helped.

I did end up keeping Conviction as the skill for power. It made a lot more sense for the character and mechanically. Belief in magic is a big deal in Dresden. So belief in ancestors and righteous action and "void" made better sense for fueling beyond human swordsmanship. Conviction helped to explain the "void"/"non-action" elements of Zen sword saints. The foci element was an interesting twist. So when using sword magic he had a better pool to hit than when just swinging the sword. So it made it that the sword saint could only operate from the void for as long as he had mental stress/consequences available.

To side step the whole argument about sponsored magic and the Laws I had the NPC only use destructive magics against inhuman bad guys and regular skill vs non-evil humans. Still not sure how to land with sponsored magics beyond the sidhe courts with the laws. Its sure sticky given that spending 4 pts vs 6 pts with a speed pass for the laws is difficult.

So thanks for the help. Forums helped pull off the PC