Author Topic: what can you do with earth magic  (Read 5443 times)

Offline potestas

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what can you do with earth magic
« on: August 05, 2014, 11:51:57 AM »
conjure metal, create gravity wells. Any ideas

Offline Taran

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #1 on: August 05, 2014, 12:25:44 PM »
I always look at Avatar the Last Air Bender for inspiration.  Check out some earth bending and see what they do

Offline blackstaff67

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #2 on: August 05, 2014, 12:42:51 PM »
Strengthen/weaken things; throw lightning, throw magma; mess with gravity/electromagnetism; reinforce your car/bike/house/windows; move/affect plants, find ores; move/affect/potentially see through rock/metal or other reasonable materials; shape all of previously said things.  Don't underestimate Earth magic, it's more powerful than you think.
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Offline CrimsonJoker

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #3 on: August 05, 2014, 12:50:24 PM »
Earth is the most powerful of the four Classical Elements in terms of versatility.

Offline PirateJack

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #4 on: August 05, 2014, 01:30:31 PM »
More abstractly earth is typically associated with life (men being moulded out of clay, the Earth Mother, Gaia, etc.) and growth, which gives you a lot of options. If you buy into the Gaia theory you could also make an argument for using earth magic for divination, given the interconnectedness of the planet. Vulcanism is one we've seen before, in White Night, which was cool.

Earth magic also seems to be the more energy intensive, but longer lasting type of magic in the Dresdenverse, so spells cast using it could be more stable and long lasting than your typical spell.
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Offline JGray

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #5 on: August 05, 2014, 01:51:29 PM »
Electromagnetism falls into the realm of Earth magic. Harry's thrown some 'pull guns out of people's hands' spells out using Earth magic.
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Offline bobjob

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #6 on: August 05, 2014, 02:40:06 PM »
Earth Magic thaumaturgy can do some cool things... like drop a satellite on your stronghold.
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Offline Tedronai

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #7 on: August 05, 2014, 03:17:48 PM »
Earth Magic?  Or Earth Evocation?

A lot of the things in the above posts are almost definitely beyond the scope of evocation.

Earth-themed Thaumaturgy (or evo-thaum) gets you some impressive versatility, but then, so do most thematic Thaum specialties.
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Offline Melendwyr

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #8 on: August 05, 2014, 04:05:04 PM »
I'd totally let Earth evocation cause people's feet to sink into earth or stone.  Of limited utility inside a wooden structure, admittedly... but an effective block to movement.

Offline SpoonR

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #9 on: August 05, 2014, 04:11:45 PM »
Earth Magic?  Or Earth Evocation?

Good point. A couple ideas from other games: grasping hands coming out of the earth, making a chunk of rock explode (or just throwing a big rock), temporary stone wall, summon your lightsaber/warden sword to your hand. Ride a chunk of earth around. Passwall. Sense anything touching the floor. Guess someone's weight. Count the number of pennies in the jar.

Given that ley lines are a thing, I think you could block or counterspell by 'grounding' the magic energy. Also seems to be the element for manipulating most solid objects, so reinforcing (t-shirt into armor) & destroying armor would be easy.  Telekinesis. "Enhancing" black powder to make a better bomb, maybe, or would that be over the line?  Dig  a grave in front of someone as a flashy threat.

Offline potestas

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #10 on: August 05, 2014, 04:22:30 PM »
i was thinking holding people in the air, kind of makes super strnegth worthless, summoning hunks of iron from the earth and into things that dont like iron. Inside i suppose you could cause chuncks of metal(nails beams ) so suddenly lash out and into said creatures that dont like Iron. Mostly i was thinking earth magic would be the one thing that could pretty much get things that are immune to lots of stuff. A giant hole is still a hole and you could be stuck a while even if you dont need to breath.

Offline Starjammer

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #11 on: August 05, 2014, 06:39:17 PM »
Given that ley lines are a thing, I think you could block or counterspell by 'grounding' the magic energy.

Without getting spoilery, that's how the Forest People do it.  And they're good at it.

Offline Troy

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #12 on: August 06, 2014, 03:47:10 PM »
I like this question and I like the responses.

I have a yet-to-be-played character with the High Concept Jaded Terramancer[/i].

Perhaps this thread will be of some help to you, because it's along the lines of the types of things I think[/u] should be possible with elemental evocation:

http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,37778.msg1847469.html#msg1847469

If your game thinks of it like this it will A) be more like how the DFRPG book describes the elements and B) put all the elements on "equal" footing with Spirit.
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Offline solbergb

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #13 on: August 06, 2014, 05:10:09 PM »
There's a lot of overlap and really, many things Harry does are combinations of elements.  His Fuego rote nearly always has a "knockback" component, which clearly comes from spirit, even though he uses his blasting rod to control it and thinks of it as fire.  Harry has perhaps read too many comic books, where "energy blasts" of various elements also knock enemies around.   He controlled lightning from a storm and thought of it as "fire" but it likely also used a bit of earth (for magnetism/targeting) and air (for weather).   Carlos might have managed that same effect a completely different way, focusing perhaps on the amount of water in the atmosphere and channeling the bolt through the conductive medium.

The answer is, any element can do anything in the realm of a mechanical attack, maneuver, block and to a limited extent (control shifts are hard) move.  Harry, for example, has used Fozare on a number of occasions to give himself a "superleap" sort of power, but as he's crappy at control, it's always scary for him.   Because Blocks are allowed, blocks against perception are allowed, although they'll manifest differently than the "spirit veil of invisibility".   Fire could do very bright light, air or water might do fog, earth can raise a dust cloud....they all block vision, and probably interfere with enemy vision more than your own (as veil mechanics dictate) but the primary advantage of a spirit veil is that it's subtle (for that matter, Fozare type effects are a lot more subtle than ripping up the ground or manifesting tons of water that turn into ectoplasm later..spirit is subtle, that's its thing).    If you're wondering how I'd use fire as a movement power, well, you can make ice bridges over water obstacles, or probably even turn your feet into ice-skates if you douse them in water first.  If you're reasonably resistant to fire and abrasion you might even make an explosion that hurtles you in a direction.  Spirit, earth or air are better for leaping about, and water for moving IN water, or surfing on water.

The details of what you do dictates which focus items you can use, whether refinement/specialization works, whether your aspects help or hinder and of course how likely it is for your opposition to counter it, or the environment to enhance or hinder it.   The details also give hints to what fallout does, or what happens if a high shift attack misses its target and hits the environment instead.



« Last Edit: August 06, 2014, 05:14:38 PM by solbergb »

Offline Mr. Death

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Re: what can you do with earth magic
« Reply #14 on: August 07, 2014, 04:21:46 PM »
When I want to get creative with Earth magic, I usually go for the magnetism route -- and this is doable with Evocation, Harry does it with Lord Raith's keys in Blood Rites.

I once had an NPC hit a PC by using magnetism to make her smack herself in the face with her own gun. Another PC then stuck that NPC -- or rather, the steel-bound book she was trying to get away with -- to a car to keep her from getting away.
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