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Talbot's Musings on Hermetic Magic

There are a lot of reasons for the non-awakened to be leery of magic. Perhaps the biggest one is that spellcasting is not obvious, especially when the spellcaster is invisible. A perceptive runner will notice when a potential adversary aims a firearm or baton at you, but your first indication of offensive magic may be when you start bleeding out of your ears.

Flipping the roles around, what this means for the spellcasting runner is that in cases where adversaries are not aware that they are in fact adversaries, you can often take the time to knock out each member of a guard detail with stunbolts staged to deadly as they won't understand that you are the one attacking them.
NOTE: Spellcasting alone does not initiate combat, meaning it does not put you in initiative rounds. Outside of initiative, you have a half second delay (IRL time) between spells.
NOTE: Technically, a target that takes damage does understand that they are being attacked, but if the damage is staged to deadly, they don't get the chance to react (unless they have a trauma damper or pain editor).

Improved Invisibility

Improved invisibility is probably the most desired (or hated, depending on who has it) spell in the game. But for runners, there is a bit of nuance to using it. If the invisibility is seen through by any means, guards will respond aggressively. While a force 1 stealth spell can be used to prevent auto-detection via ultrasound, astral perception or the rare lucky spell resistance roll will still be able to spot you. In addition, if you initiate combat in a way that does not immediately knock your target unconscious, they will fight back even if they can't see you. Once somebody is fighting you, they can also alert others who cannot see you and so you can end up fighting everybody in the room (and possibly also adjacent rooms). There are a number of autoruns that will go smoother if the subtle runner does not use improved invisibility.
NOTE: Invisibility still has a use if an adversary is fighting you but can't see you, as they will suffer a +8 blind fire penalty. If they have ultrasound, they suffer a penalty of (8 + the force of your stealth spell)/2, max +8.

Compared to Other Archtypes

Unlike a shaman, a hermetic's spells are limited by the quality of their library. There are no sorcery libraries with a rating greater than 8 available in Awakened Worlds CE. That restriction causes hermetic attack spells to be very unreliable when facing off against certain top tier opponents. Example: a force 8 stunbolt with 24 dice vs 16 willpower gives less than 4% chance of success, whereas a force 12 stunbolt in the same situation gives a 20% chance of success.

Where the hermetic has the advantage is their elementals, which have the ability to sustain spells associated with their element. A shaman is not able to sustain the various beneficial spells (beyond what can be handled by the available force 3 or 4 sustaining foci) without having to deal with prohibitive TN penalties in subsequent actions. Thus, a hermetic is better at using their magic in a self-supporting role. Along with the weakness in offensive spells, it makes sense for mage characters to approach dangerous situations in the same way as a street samurai (e.g. with large firearms loaded with APDS).
NOTE: Elementals cannot sustain health category spells.
NOTE: A mundane street samurai can reach rating 12 with firearms and melee skills and so is the better overall killer. A hermetic with the below listed spells sustained by elementals (plus spell defense or reflecting) is the better overall survivor.
NOTE: In a team situation, a shaman is also better at support magic, as they can sustain force 12 spells on teammates while the hermetic is limited to force 8. While the shaman would take sustaining penalties, that doesn't matter when teammates can be relied on to handle the action.

Notable Elemental Sustainable Spells

Spell Element Comments
Combat Sense Air no cap to combat pool dice allocated to dodge or soak
Improved Invisibility Water can be defeated by successful spell resistance, ultrasound, or astral perception
Stealth Water negates ultrasound; if the target is sneaking, adds to the TN to spot them
Armor Earth stacks with normal armor; not counted for quickness armor limit
Spell Comments
Stunbolt low drain; if it fails, it does not initiate combat
Waterbolt for targets that are immune to stunbolts (e.g. vehicles)
Heal as with all other spells, wound penalties apply
Levitate ignore terrain (e.g. climbing, swimming, icesheet); force 1 is enough
Increase Willpower contributes to spell pool, drain resistance, and stun/manabolt resistance
Increase Reflexes +3 once in combat, spellcasting follows initiative rules; force 1 is enough
talbot_mage.1657681319.txt.gz · Last modified: 2023/01/30 19:07 (external edit)