Shadows of Austin

Allowed:
8
All Pentacle Mages
All Paths.


Merits:

Mortal Merits from any of the Core books are allowed. (Splat books, and WoD 2.0)
Professional training is limited to 2 dots at character creation.

Disallowed:
Legacies (At Start of Play)
Left handed Paths (At start of play)
Seers of the Throne (If a PC converts, they are retired)

Case by Case:
1st Edition Merits. (If a 1st Edition Merit is approved, It will be placed on the approved list with any mechanical changes)

Gnosis capped at 3, at character creation.

Concillium and Order status called at 3 at creation.

Common Attainments in the core book are learned for free when you get the proper arcana


We will be using the hard caps for all arcanum and we will be disregarding the learning over limits sidebar



Other Supernatural Creatures add 1/2 their powerstat, round down (BP, Wyrd, ETC...) to the withstand ratings of spells that HAVE a withstand rating.

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Activated mage sight layered with prime can identify other mages.

Attempting to Identify Lost or pierce the Mask requires Mage sight with both Fate and Prime active at the same time.

Determine your effect Levels, Casting Dice pool and costs.

When casting the spell, the mage creates a dice pool based
on her Gnosis and her dots in the highest Arcanum included
in the spell. The mage must decide what she wants her spell to
achieve before rolling, and a single success means the spell is
cast to her specifications. The character must have all Arcanum
dots used in the spell

Reaches:

Is a is a manipulation of spell factors, (Range, Duration, Potency, Cast time.. as per 112)
Yourecieve a free reach for each dot of an Arcana *AT OR ABOVE* The minimum required arcana. If you cast a level 3 effect, and you have the arcana at 4. You recieve 2 reaches, One for Arcana 3, one for Arcana 4.

Yantras:
are your spell casting tools.
Yantras increase your spell casting rolls by specified numbers listed Below:


Places:

--Demense, +2 Die Bonus on Effects related to the Demenses associated Arcana
--Environment, 1 die Bonus
--Supernal Verge, +2 Die Bonus on Effects related to the Verges associated Arcana
Actions:


--Concentration, Concentrating on an spell with a Duration greater than a turn provides +2 extra dice. If the mage is hurt or takes a non-reflexive action while the spell is active, it ends immediately

--Mantras, If you have the High Speech Merit, you gain this Yantra for free. +2 Die bonus, but it involves vocally intoning the spell in High Speech.

--Mudras, Only applicable for Rotes: Pick any skill, and then Add that skills rating to the dice pool. If this skill is an orders specialized skill, add Another Dice.

--Runes, Add +2 dice to the spellcasting roll. If anything disrupts or destroys the rune(s) while the spell is active. Its effects end immediately.

--Tools: Each item used as a yantra adds +1 to the spellcasting pool. (Tools are denoted by Order and path)

--Sympathy
Rather than defining the “what” of a spell, sympathetic tools
define the “who” — the person, place, creature, or institution
upon which the mage forces her will. She may have a person’s
sympathetic name or a lock of his hair, a ghost’s Anchor, a chunk
of concrete taken from a building, or a company’s articles of
incorporation. Whatever the case, the Yantra represents the
subject of the spell, allowing the mage to build it into the Imago
or access an Attainment to use her own sympathetic connection
to the subject in order to cast across Space or Time.

• Material sympathy represents the subject as he is now, or at
the time the mage wants to affect him. It could be a piece
of the target’s physical substance, or a recent photograph
or recording; an item the subject created within a month
is also acceptable.

• Representational sympathy is something that represents
the subject though she has changed since — an old lock
of hair or photo of the subject as a child, for example.
• Symbolic sympathy includes indirect representations of
the subject — a person’s sympathetic name, drawings,
caricatures, or posed and costumed photographs.

Effects: Material sympathy gives a 2-die bonus to the spellcasting pool, while representational sympathy adds +1 die. Symboliccsympathy is not close enough to the subject to give a bonus. A
mage must use a sympathetic Yantra in order to cast a spell using the Sympathetic Range or Temporal Sympathy Attainments; it does not give any bonus dice when doing so.

--Sacraments, Items destroyed that are relevant to the spell being cast. They provide a 1 die bonus.

--Persona, Required Merits: Shadow Name And/Or Cabal Theme. Provide between +1 and +4 Dice.

--Dedicated Tools, When using a dedicated tool, reduce the paradox dice pool by -2


Casting Time:
Casting time determines how long the mage takes to create her effect. Casting can be 1 or more standard actions. Depending on the number of Yantras and effects.
If you opt to cast as a ritual, for each ritual increment you spend you gain +1 die.
If you spend a reach, you can cast in a single turn.
Immediate spells cannot gain extra dice from taking extra time but, you can spend several turns to use multiple Yantras.


Once you have Determined your dicepool

Determine your Spell Factors:

Spellcasting results in the following general effects, but each
of these can be increased through changing spell factors or
risking Paradox. ((All of these can be accomplished without Reaching or modifying dicepools))

• The spell grants a one-die bonus or penalty, deals one
point of weapon damage, or heals one wound.

• The spell lasts for one turn.

• The spell hits one subject of Size 5 or less, or an area equal
to an arm’s-length circle around a point.

• The mage must be touching the subject of the spell, or be
casting on herself.

• The spell takes an amount of time to cast based on Gnosis
The magic casting dice pool is modified by Yantras and spell
factors. The penalties to spellcasting can exceed the normal
–5 penalty cap to dice pools. In cases where the penalty would
reduce the dice pool beyond 0 — and thereby a chance die — by
an additional –5 even after including bonuses from Yantras, the
spell is too complex for the mage to cast and it automatically fails.
The mage may need to spend Mana as part of spellcasting.
Improvising a spell using a Common or Inferior Arcanum
costs one point of Mana, in addition to any other Mana the
spell may require.

Modifying Factors.

Potency: Each level of Potenecy reduces the dicepool by 2.
Potency determines the extent of the spells... Example uses: Health levels of Damage inflicted or healed by a spell. The number of times an item can benefit from a quality. A Reach can be spent to gain advanced potency. Advanaced potency increases the spell's Withstand ability against dispellation by +2



Duration: How long a spell lasts. Once the time lapses, the spell effect ends.

There are 2 Duration tables, the first is Standard duration, the other is Advanced duration. Spells can be moved from the Standard duration to advanced duration table with the use of a Reach.


Scale:
How many targets, how large of a target, or how large of an area a spell can affect. You can use a reach to move from Standard to Advanced.

Standard Scale:
Range:
Range determines if the spell requires the mage to touch her
subject, or simply be in sensory range to create an effect. Range does
not increase incrementally with penalties like other factors. The
standard Range factor for all spells is touch/self, meaning that the
mage can cast the spell on herself or a subject she touches without
any penalties. A mage can target an individual she cannot touch
with a self/touch spell by succeeding on an Aimed Spell roll (see
below). The Advanced Range factor is sensory, meaning that the
mage must be able to directly see, hear, or sense her subject. Viewing
a subject remotely but in real-time, whether by security camera or
magic scrying window, requires an additional Reach. A spell cast
with sensory range cannot be dodged by the subject, and does not
require an Aimed Spell roll. If the mage has the Space Attainment
Sympathetic Range or the Time Attainment Temporal Sympathy,
she can cast spells without the need to sense her subject. For more
details, see those Attainments on p. 193.



Withstanding Magic

Before dice are rolled for spellcasting, the caster must consider
if her subject can Withstand her magic, as it could affect the
dice pool and outcome of the casting. The subject of a spell can
always choose not to Withstand a spell, but she must consciously
choose to do so as a reflexive action

If a spell must ocercome some aspect of its subject to take full effect. if this is needed, a spell will list a withstand rating (Usually but not always, a Resistance attribute: Resolve, Composure, Stamina)

Withstood spells reduce their potency by the withstand rating.
Withstand ratings / spells are applied individually.
Characters can spend willpower to increase a resistance attribute used for withstanding, if and only if they are aware of the spell being cast.


Aiming Spells.

A mage can attempt to throw or fire her spell at her subject insteadof touching him when casting at standard range. Aimed spells appear as bolts of energy or projections coming from the casting mage, as opposed to spells cast at sensory range which materialize at the point of the subject. The player rolls Gnosis + (highest of Athletics or Firearms) – subject’s Defense. The subject may gain the benefits of cover, and range bands apply; an Aimed spell’s short range is Gnosis x 10, medium is Gnosis x 20, and long is Gnosis x 40. A success means the spell hits her subject as intended, a failure means the spell effect misses its subject. Aimed spell rolls happen after spellcasting rolls and Paradox roll results have been determined, but are reflexive — they happen on the same turn as the spellcasting roll.



PARADOX!!
If a Mage adds reach effects beyond the free reaches granted by Arcana Ratings. It adds Dice to the Paradox Dice pool for each reach beyond the free reaches, based on the Gnosis of the Mage.

There are also other situations in which paradox may be added to the pool.


Releasing Paradox.

Before the Spell is actually cast, the Paradox is rolled.


The Storyteller rolls a dice pool equal to the current paradox pool:
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The mage does not invoke a Paradox,
regains a point of Willpower, and the next Paradox roll made
for her in the same scene does not suffer the usual, cumulative
+1 dice modifier.
Failure: The mage does not invoke a Paradox.
Success: A Paradox occurs, regardless of the spellcasting’s
success or failure.
Exceptional Success: The mage gains a Paradox Condition
and a Paradox occurs.
If a single success is rolled on the Paradox dice, a Paradox occurs.
The Abyss taints the spell and, potentially, the area around the
spell’s subject. The Paradox imposes a dice penalty to the spellcasting roll equal to its successes.

Whether or not this makes the
spell fail, a Paradox anomaly occurs. If the spellcasting results in
a dramatic failure, the mage incurs a Paradox Condition as well.

To create an anomaly, the Storyteller utilizes the number of
successes gained on the Paradox roll as Reach on a one to one
basis to affect the spell. The Storyteller can use Paradox Reach
to change the spell factors of the spell, to create Abyssal taint
on the environment, or to summon an Abyssal entity.

Storytellers can spend Reach however they like to affect the
spell, using up all the Reach to warp the spell into something
very different from what the mage intended, or leaving the spell
as-is and instead producing Abyssal wastelands around the spell’s
subject. The Paradox effect should reflect the type of spell being
cast. Attack spells may rebound and hit an innocent subject,
or split and hit multiple subjects. Healing spells may heal the
subject, but create a blighted patch on the ground nearby. A
mage may succeed in making herself invisible, but summon a
Gulmoth in her wake. A Paradox anomaly’s duration depends
on the Wisdom tier of the caster who invokes it
A mage may try to contain the Paradox within her soul
The player rolls her Wisdom Dots as a dice pool contesting the Paradox roll.
Each success cancels out one success on the paradox roll.
Each paradox cancelled in this way, deals 1 resistant bashing to the mage.
If there are any remaining paradox successes, the spell is not penalized, the and an anomalie is not created.
The character instead gains a Paradox conditions

These can be resolved by taking actions to resolve them, or to let them lapse.

Letting them Lapse. If the Paradox Condition is allowed to lapse, the Abyss enters
the mage’s Pattern. While the Abyss is part of the mage’s Pattern, it
appears in her Nimbus. Every spell she casts is tainted by the Abyss
and gains a Paradox die even if she does not attempt to Reach as
part of the spell. Conditions that resolve this way grant an Arcane
Beat. At this point, the only way for the mage to remove the taint
from her Pattern is to Scour it out, similar to Pattern Scouring
for Mana as described on p. 87. Removing a Paradox Condition
in this manner deals a single point of lethal damage to the mage,
but she does not gain Mana from the Scouring.
The following example Paradox Conditions are not exhaustive. The Storyteller is encouraged to invent his own.



Abyssal Nimbus
The mage’s Nimbus is disfigured by the Abyss, the corruption
cascading through her sympathetic links. The mage, and any
subjects affected by her Nimbus (including sympathetic ties influenced by her Long-Term Nimbus, anyone affected by her Nimbus
Tilt, and anything imprinted with her Signature Nimbus), gain
the Resonant Condition applicable to Abyssal entities. If the
Paradox roll that inflicted this Condition rolled an exceptional
success, she gains the Open Condition instead.
In addition, the Abyssal corruption is readily apparent to anyone who scrutinizes her Signature Nimbus, and her Long-Term
Nimbus effects become twisted by the unreality of the Abyss. A
Moros’ Long-Term Nimbus might cause bizarre materials with
impossible atomic properties to appear, while the religious revelations of an Obrimos’ Nimbus take on a nihilistic tone.
Resolution: An Abyssal Entity uses the Condition to Manifest,
the mage Scours the Condition from her Pattern, or the mage
allows the Condition to lapse after the specified time.
Arcane Beat: Gain an Arcane Beat when this Condition lapses


Abyssal Imago
The Abyss has warped the mage’s ability to clearly envision
her Supernal will. Whenever the mage casts a spell, she must
spend additional Reach equal to the successes earned on the
Paradox roll that inflicted this condition. If she does not, the
spell automatically fails and adds dice equal to the caster’s
spellcasting dice pool to the Paradox roll.
Resolution: The mage successfully casts a spell that does not risk
Paradox, the mage Scours the Condition from her Pattern, or the
mage allows the Condition to lapse after the specified time.
Arcane Beat: Gain an Arcane Beat when this Condition lapses.


Abyssal Imago
The Abyss has warped the mage’s ability to clearly envision
her Supernal will. Whenever the mage casts a spell, she must
spend additional Reach equal to the successes earned on the
Paradox roll that inflicted this condition. If she does not, the
spell automatically fails and adds dice equal to the caster’s
spellcasting dice pool to the Paradox roll.
Resolution: The mage successfully casts a spell that does not risk
Paradox, the mage Scours the Condition from her Pattern, or the
mage allows the Condition to lapse after the specified time.
Arcane Beat: Gain an Arcane Beat when this Condition lapses.


Casting the Spell
Once all dice penalties and bonuses are calculated, including
any penalties from Paradox, the player rolls dice. A single success
on the casting means the spell effect takes place.
Roll Results
Dramatic Failure: The magic does not work. The caster gains
a Condition based on the intended outcome of the spell.
Failure: The magic does not work, the mage’s imagination
is not made real.
Success: The spell’s effect takes place as imagined.
Exceptional Success: The spell’s effect takes place better than
imagined. The character regains one spent point of Willpower,
and the player may choose one of the following results;
• A bonus step in the primary spell factor.
• A Reach in the primary spell factor.
• A Condition which will give Arcane Beats when resolved,
on either the mage or her subject.
• All Mana spent on the spell is refunded, and the mage
receives one more point of Mana.
• The spell ignores any Withstand levels and takes effect at
full Potency