This came up in another thread, and I decided to continue it here. One of my players is the Autumn Knight. She wanted to play a spellcaster but doesn't have any experience with the system or much of the setting, so I figured her as the Forgotten Knight of Autumn would work well. She's got low lore, no training, and is kinda just winging it with what she thinks she can do. So far it's working fairly well and seems to be evolving organically, but I want to make sure I don't start stepping outside the rules as she becomes more comfortable.

So, the question is, for someone with Sponsored Magic, how are Elements handled? It says in the book that it's like Channeling, and on Harry's staff Hellfire is itself treated as an "element," but what about the standard five?

Each sponsored magic discusses how it can apply to certain elements. Hellfire obviously lends itself strongly to fire magic, but can also be done with Spirit (Force), while Soulfire seems the exact reverse. Then again, that's just when Harry uses it, and he's kinda a doofus when it comes to these things. He also uses Winter magic through fire of all things, treating it as the absence of heat, when it may be easier to do it with water magic (which he sucks at).

The way I'm treating it is that Autumn Magic (without Evocation) gives technical access to all elements, if you are creative. The effects she has seemed to favor so far were mostly fire (in the form of burning leaves or an exploding pumpkin) or bitter autumn wind, but she has also used an effect that was either Water or Spirit to dissolve a monster's feathers and keep it from flying. All of this really fits in with Autumn's purview, but I want to make sure I don't go too far with this, so should I limit it to three "wizarding" elements unless she also takes Evocation?

Another issue is focus items. When someone with Sponsored Magic takes focus items, do they use the wizardly elements to decide which one they give bonuses to? Like, if she made her dagger into a focus item, would it give bonuses to Fire evocation, to Autumn evocation, or to Autumn (Fire)?

Finally, rituals. Obviously, any rituals must be flavored within the purview of autumn. Mostly, due to her previous occupation as a baker, she favors potion crafting, though she has also used some necro/ectomancy to deal with spirits. Should I restrict her to that, or does she technically have the full range of Ritual/Thaumaturgical abilities? I'd hate to tell her she can't do things she previously did, and like the slow evolution of her abilities as she feels out her powers more.

As a final note, thanks to her using baked goods as sleeping potions more than once (we call them Roofy Cupcakes..among less delicate things), I let her take a unique stunt that allows Craftsmanship to sub for Lore when making potions, only the potions gain the Perishable aspect. "Magically Delicious" is the stunt name. Only question here is, should you use Craftsmanship or Performance for baked goods?

I'm new at this so I'm probably being a little lenient.

I'm going with the lycanthrope idea. Definitely makes him more scary if he can have sleeper agents everywhere. Also makes his Children's Crusade particularly disturbing and dangerous.

I gotta be kinda subtle about things since I know my players read the forums, so I'll spoiler this.

I've read through the rules, and I'm having trouble telling how badly a spellcaster would hex technology. Seems like a pretty basic thing, but the rules are either very vague or my reading comprehension is failing. There seem to be vague guidelines that a character with more magic will foul up technology worse, but how badly? Where's the cutoff between "just a bit old fashioned" and "lives like the unabomber"?

I'm sure this one comes up a lot.

In social combat, or just regular rolls, how do you keep player knowledge separate from character? That is, if someone is being evasive but also trying to make it not look like they are being deceptive, how do you do that? Saying they're rolling Deceit is somewhat obvious, after all. Heck, in certain situations having a roll at all can be tipping your hand.

For instance, let's say your players go to someone for information on a subject. She knows a lot about it, and would freely provide the information, but the PCs showing up here at all have her a bit rattled for reasons they should not know. Her goal is to just give enough (truthful) information about the subject they're looking for to get rid of them. She's not lying, she just doesn't want them to get suspicious. Rolling Lore modified by Deceit would be tipping your hand since it's normally a subject she wouldn't even need a Lore roll for. The reverse is also true, particularly when you call for an Empathy roll to oppose her.

What do you do in these sort of situations?

If I was up against Lord Raith, I'd want a Contacts skill more than anything else. Straight-up ass-kicking isn't terribly useful in a political conflict.

Well, he lost, didn't he? 

Probably overestimated the value of his personal skills. That's the problem with anger being your vice of choice...it doesn't lend itself to sound judgement, even when focused into hate.

Still, he's learned his lesson and has some really nasty plans through his side operations. Let's just say he runs a summer camp.

I could see a Wrath vampire being unusually focused on hand-to-hand combat. Some kind of combat shapeshifting could work.

As could making him a master swordsman. Maybe one with an Item of Power sword.

He could also be an Emissary Of Power. Or a sorcerer.

Any of that sound good?

All are good options. Emissary in particular has potential due to The Old Things of the Hills. He made a deal with them that let them join the Accords, so he had to have gotten something in return. Only problem is, I'd have to figure out what they could actually gift, and they're so diverse that's hard to pin down. Making him a master swordsman is almost a given, and if he has an item of power weapon it could easily relate to this. Making it of Cherokee make would be a great tipoff who is sponsoring him.

Shapeshifting is also an interesting option as one of his weaknesses is that after so long being abused and humiliated his demon is far too close to the surface. Oh, he can keep control most of the time, but when he doesn't...while most of them simply grow pale and their eyes turn silver, he actually goes full demon-face at times. It's still technically a human face, it's just a visage of anger so primal and exaggerated that it could be seen from the back row of an amphitheater. Some sort of shapeshifting could play from that.

Well, it also depends...Asheville spoilers ahoy:

Oh yeah, she was definitely getting the hang of it by the end. The other player had spent more time studying the books in detail and had read more of the books, so he started at a little higher level. When she got in the feel, the burning leaves were genius and I hope she rotes it (you can rote sponsored magic, right?). I wonder if she would have been better going for a Wizard or a character with a list of elements. A little more structure does wonders, and Sponsored Magic has very little structure.

Overall though, you are right it went fairly smooth. Once the players started to get the hang of things, they were coming up with good effects and descriptions. I need to brush up on some of the more obscure rules like falling, because it took me a minute to find out just how badly the dewinged Raven Mocker was screwed. I also need to learn how to better explain certain rules concepts since sometimes my attempts at resolving the debates were less than helpful.

All in all, a combat with two sides and five total participants taking around an hour and a half (short session due to cancellations), including rules lookups, arguments over unclear concepts, and moment of back-and-forth over "what can I do/what do you want to do" isn't bad at all. I imagine, had we been more familiar with the system, we could have handled a combat twice as big in half the time. Very fast-paced once you get the ball rolling.

Sadly, due to complicated factors the player is both aware and unaware of (and I know the players browse this forum), your explanation does not work. Still, the last bit I think cuts to the heart of the matter: "Who" is more important than "why." I very well know "who," and "why" can come later. And, now we have a hook in the story for two of the characters I was iffy about. The third character has Guide My Hand, which realy should be entitled "hook my plot." In the immortal words of Father Forthill, "You need a babysitter again, don't you?"

Oh yes, if you want to know about the Raven Mockers, they're at the end of this post: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,33139.0.html

Just don't go there if you're in my campaign, please!