The Age of Myth
Runic Magic - Learning Magic
Control over the elements takes both innate talent and copious amounts of training. Some mages spend decades – even centuries – mastering their art; others take dangerous shortcuts to power.
|Archmage (Page)||40 points|
|Prerequisite: Ritual Expert|
You completely ignore the first Greater Effect used for a particular Path in any ritual. For example, if you have Archamge (Fire) and are casting a spell using both Greater Control Fire and Greater Create Fire, you treat the spell as if it has only a single Greater Effect in all ways.
Prerequisite: Ritual Expert.
You completely ignore the first Greater Effect used for a particular Path in any ritual. For example, if you have Archamge (Fire) and are casting a spell using both Greater Control Fire and Greater Create Fire, you treat the spell as if it has only a single Greater Effect in all ways.
Conditional Spell Slot
You may have one more conditional spell active at once per level than normal.
You are able to cast spells without moving a muscle or uttering a sound; your spells are cast via an act of pure concentration. You are still able to cast spells while bound and gagged, and when casting outside observers can only see that you are concentrating hard on something.
Higher Purpose (Tradition)
You follow a particular magical tradition or style, which gives you +1 on rolls to cast spells that match the definition of that tradition. This definition can be very narrow to very broad; the specifics determine the cost per level.
- Narrow: A Narrow tradition encompasses about a third to half the versatility of a Path, taking into account that a Path includes all relevant spell effects. Examples include Demonology, Druidic, and Divination. 5 per level.
- Broad: A Broad tradition encompasses the versatility of one to three whole Paths. Examples include Magical Defenses and Magical Offense. 10 per level.
Higher Purpose provides a task bonus, not a skill increase; it is thus not limited by Core skill (see Skills, below, for more specifics). Casters can buy multiple types of Higher Purpose. They may also may treat it as a leveled advantage; e.g., Higher Purpose 3 (Demonology) provides a +3 bonus for spells involving demons. However, no spell may accept a bonus from more than three levels of Higher Purpose at a time. (The GM may adjust this limit to suit the campaign.)
While anyone can work Runic Magic, you are particularly good at it. This advantage comes in levels; there is no limit to the number of levels you may have, unless the GM sets one. You must purchase Magery 0 before buying higher levels of Magery. Magery 0 allows you to cast spells at full skill; without it, you are at -5 to work rituals. See Non-Adepts and Magic (pp. 19-20) for more. Magery 0 grants no other benefits – it cannot detect magic, etc.
Higher levels of Magery give the following benefits:
- Higher Path Skills: Each level of Magery gives a +1 bonus to all of the mage’s Path skills. It does not provide any increase to Thaumatology, Ritual Magic, Alchemy, or Symbol Drawing, and all Path skills are still limited by Thaumatology.
- Additional Conditional Spells: A caster may have ((Maximum of Thaumatology and Ritual Magic) + Magery level) conditional spells (see Performing Magic) active at once. Thus, improving Magery raises this cap.
Magery can be learned after character creation. It reflects training and skill as much as it does any inborn mystical potential. (Impressive inherent magical power is better represented by Ritual Adept, below)
Namer of Flowers
Prerequisite: Herb Lore at IQ+0.
Once per game session when gathering natural reagants using Herb Lore, you may use the following to determine what you have procured: two improvised ingredients per point of success, one basic ingredient per point of success or one good ingredient per 3 points of success or one fine ingredient per 10 points of success. Critical success yields a legendary ingredient or triples your margin! You may choose to to use your margin however you like, mixing and matching. For example, if you succeed on your roll by 12 you could have 6 basic ingredients and 2 good ingredients, or 1 find ingredient and 4 improvised ingredients. Optionally, you could use this perk to automatically succeed on your Herb Lore roll. This would give you a margin equal to (Effective Herb Lore skill)-10.
The GM may allow multiple levels of this perk, if he does each level requires Herb Lore at attribute+2 per level. For example, Herb Lore at IQ+4 would allow three levels.
This talent provides a bonus to a number of magic-related skills, including all Path skills.
Skills: Alchemy, Esoteric Medicine, Exorcism, Hidden Lore (any magical or supernatural), Innate Attack, Mental Strength, Occultism, Ritual Magic, Symbol Drawing, Thaumatology, and all Path skills.
Bonus: +1/level to your spells resistance attempts; your spells are inherently more difficult to dispell.
Prerequisite: Magery 0+.
The definition of a ‘Greater Effect’ is completely flipped for you. You can cast anything that is described as a Greater Effect easily, as if it were a Lesser Effect – but what is a Lesser Effect for others is a Greater Effect for you! You’re great at big, flashy magic – but subtle just ain’t your thing.
Prerequisite: Magery 0+.
You are a potent spellcaster, able to pull off impressive rituals in less time than it takes other casters to do a cantrip. You can work anywhere (consecrated or not) and require no special connection to your subject. The GM must decide if this advantage is inborn or if it can be learned; if he doesn’t say, assume it’s inherent and cannot be acquired after character creation.
At the GM’s option, this advantage may be broken down into separate components, as for Path/Book Adept (GURPS Thaumatology, p. 123). If so, use these three new advantages to remove the penalties under Non-Adepts and Magic.
- Ritual Adept (Connection): You may ignore the -5 for lacking a connection with the subject of your spell. 10 points.
- Ritual Adept (Space): You may ignore the -5 for performing a ritual in a non-consecrated space. 10 points.
- Ritual Adept (Time): You may cast spells faster. Use the times listed in the Adepts column of the Greater Effects Table to figure out how fast you cast spells. 10 points.
- Mastered Spells Only: You are only a Ritual Adept with abilities you have Ritual Mastery or a Grimoire for. -50%.
Prerequisite: Ritual Adept.
You are an even more potent spellcaster than an Adept, able to cast spells even faster. Use the times listed in the Experts column of the Greater Effects Table to see how fast you cast spells. The GM must decide if this advantage is inborn or if it can be learned; if he doesn’t say, assume it’s inherent and cannot be acquired after character creation. If the GM has broken Ritual Adept down into several components, this advantage only requires Ritual Adept (Time).
- Mastered Spells Only: You are only a Ritual Expert with abilities you have Ritual Mastery or a Grimoire for. -50%.
You have +2 to all Path skill rolls when casting a specific ritual (Specific Definition, Performing Magic), +1 per level after the first. You must specialize by ritual. You may take this perk up to four times per given ritual, but you may buy it for as many different ones as you’d like. The maximum bonus from a combination of Higher Purpose and Ritual Mastery for any one ritual is +5.
Magical Knacks and Evocation
A Knack is a natural ability with a narrow set of magic. It is the power of the sidhe and many other magical creatures who can naturally call upon magical powers. As a learned discipline, it is called Evocation and is typically tied very strongly to the Words of Power. Whereas Thaumaturgy, the magic of traditional wizards, is a relatively slow process, using a Knack is almost always fast, on par with the abilities of an archmage – but Evokers have significantly less breadth.
Unless explicitely allowed by the GM, Knacks do not utilize the rules for normal wizardly magic, Thaumaturgy. Instead, they use the alternative rules for Evocation; see below for the differences. The Ritual Mastery, Concentrated Ritualist, and Conditional Spell Slot advantages are also appropriate for an Evoker and work identically with the exception that for Evokers, Ritual Mastery has no maximum level.
Knack (Path or Effect)
You have a Knack with a specific Path or Effect. Note that you have to have both a Path and an Effect to actually utilize this advantage! Unless your GM specifically says otherwise, use all the rules for the Evocation tradition of Runic Magic, but your ‘knack’ only applies to the specific paths and effects you’ve chosen! This gives you the ability to act as if you had the relevant Path and Core skills at Will only when casting for those effects; take Magery (Knack) to increase that further.
By default, you can only use this for Lesser effects; take the Greater enhancement for any Path that you can use Greater effects with.
When used for an Evoker, this is usually recorded as “Word of Power (Path or Effect)”. An Evoker who can create or destroy fire would thus record his ability with the “Word of Power (Fire) 10”, “Word of Power (Create) 5”, and “Word of Power (Destroy) 5” advantages.
- Great: You can use Greater Effects associated with your Knack’s Path. Available to Path Knacks only. Typically recorded as Knack (Great Path) or Word of Power (Great Path), e.g., Word of Power (Great Fire) 15. +50%.
At the first level, you act as if you have the Ritual Adept advantage for your Knack. At the second level, you act as if you have both Ritual Adept and Ritual Expert for your Knack.
This is typically recorded as Evoker (for the first level) or Evoker Adept (for the second level), and the first level of this trait is required for all Evokers.
You gain a +1/level bonus to conditional spell slots and rolls to utilize your Knack, exactly as if you had appropriate Magery. An important consideration to note is that effective level with Knacks is not limited by any core skill, though the Ritual Magic skill can be taken to provide many of the other uses of Thaumaturgy, such as setting up conditional spells and charms.
This is recorded as Magery (Evocation) when taken by an Evoker.
The only real requirement to work Runic Magic is to have a point in the Thaumatology skill (or, alternatively, have a Knack, see above). The primary Path skills all default to Thaumatology, allowing even an ameteur with one point in Thaumatology to attempt spells – but that doesn’t mean they’ll be good at it! Unlike in the standard system, Magery does not add to skill, and Thaumatology acts as a cap to each of the Path skills.
Thaumatology is used to identify Grimoires and places of power, set up conditional rituals and charms, and to prepare a ritual space and access certain energy sources. As above, it is also a cap on all Path skills.
Each of the twelve Path skills is limited by Thaumatology; it may be raised to no higher than the caster’s Thaumatology skill. The four Disciplines, which are effectively combinations of the base elements, are in turn limited by their prerequisite skills and can never exceed them. Magery adds directly to Path skills, and this bonus is still subject to the skill cap. Bonuses from Ritual Mastery, Higher Purpose, Grimoires, Places of Power, and other sources can raise effective skill above this cap.
Any serious caster should start with Thaumatology and then buy up his Path skills. However, it is possible to use Paths at default; in fact, many amateur casters work rituals this way (often with disastrous results).
Every Path defaults to Thaumatology-6. Thus, someone who has at least one point in Thaumatology can cast spells! However, a Path skill defaulted from Thaumatology cannot exceed 12, regardless of how high the caster’s Thaumatology skill or Magery level is. This means that an untrained caster with Thaumatology-18 casts spells exactly the same as one with Thaumatology-25, because all ritual rolls are made against the Path skill (in this case, 12), not against Thaumatology.
Path skills that default to other Path skills can exceed 12. Dominion skills, those Paths that involve the base elements, default to their corresponding skill in the other tier (terrestrial or aetheric) at -4; this default cannot exceed 14, regardless of how high the caster’s corresponding Path skill is. Discipline skills, those Paths involving composite elements, default to the minimum of their component Paths at -2; this default cannot exceed 16, regardless of how high the caster’s component Path skills are.
Each of the eight base elements, and the four composite elements, has a diametrically opposed element. Any magical effect created by one element can be neutralized by use of an appropriate effect (see below) of the opposing element. Exception: The aetheric composite elements are a very important exception to this rule. The Discipline of Magic can neutralize any effect from any Path except the Discipline of Destiny. The Discipline of Destiny, in turn, can only neutralize the effects of the Discipline of Destiny and its component elements, the Dominions of Life and Death.
There are seven spell effects for each Path, each with its own Word of Power: Sense, Strengthen, Restore, Control, Destroy, Create, and Transform. (See Performing Magic for details) Spell effects are not learned separately; anyone who knows a Path knows how to work all of its associated effects.
Each spell effect can be broken into Lesser and Greater effects. The difference between Lesser and Greater varies by Path, but it often depends on how believable, natural, simple, or subtle the effect is; in all cases, the GM makes this decision. If there is any doubt, treat it as a Greater effect.
The Paths below include the list of possible effects, with samples of what each can do. These are only examples – there is an infinite number of things which can be accomplished with each effect! Many of the examples cannot be accomplished with just the spell effect, however, and also require spell modifiers (see Performing Magic).
Dominion of Fire (Flam)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Spirit-4.
The Dominion of Fire includes command over flames, explosions, heat, and light and shadows. It is a simple, but powerful path, capable of the acts that most people think of when they think of ‘wizards’. Lesser Fire effects can affect normal forms of fire, heat, and light in simple, natural, likely ways; it allows the caster to do things with the flames that it would already be “inclined” to do. Greater Fire effects can affect ‘primal’ or ‘pure’ forms of fire or cause it to do complex, unnatural things.
Opposed to Water.
- Sense Fire: Lesser Sense Fire can determine the exact temperature of an object, analyze the spectrum of a flame (e.g., to identify its fuel), determine the amount of force in an explosion, or locate the nearest source of light. Greater Sense Fire can use fire as a sense, “seeing” even light that is invisible to the naked eye or providing ‘LADAR’-like abilities and resolution.
- Strengthen Fire: Either version of Strengthen Fire can increase a fire’s damage or rate of growth or brighten a light source. Lesser effects can impart enough energy to double the effect; Greater ones can go beyond that.
- Restore Fire: Lesser Restore Fire can rekindle a dying fire, while Greater Restore Fire can even affect “killed” flames, such as by replaying the patterns of light that were previously playing upon a now-darkened room or relighting a fire that died for lack of fuel.
- Control Fire: Lesser Control Fire can dictate the direction and rate at which a fire spreads or alter the shape of the flames in ways that are believably natural. Greater Control Fire can completely alter how a fire behaves, allowing it to stretch out and attack someone, take on the shape of an elephant, make heat energy travel against a temperature gradient, or bend light completely around a person.
- Destroy Fire: Lesser Destroy Fire can reduce the strength of the flames; it can also stop the fire completely if there is a natural means by which that could happen. For example, it can weaken a fire or put it out completely (because fires die naturally), but it could only lessen the strength of sunlight on a bright day (because there’s no realistic way to make the sun stop shining). Greater Destroy Fire can kill the flames completely, no matter how unrealistic, or do partial destructions, such as destroying a fire’s ability to burn people while still leaving its ambient heat and light.
- Create Fire: Lesser Create Fire can bring fire into being in a believable and natural manner. It can create fire if there’s fuel or light if there’s a lumincesant material. Greater Create Fire can ignore this restriction, creating a fireball in the caster’s hand or flooding a cave with light. Many Create Fire spells also include a Control Fire effect; if not, once created, the fire acts as the laws of physics dictate!
- Transform Fire: Lesser Transform Fire can shift visible light into infrared or completely alter the coloration of an object or flame. Greater Transform Fire can completely change what a person looks like by altering the light that’s reflected off of him or, when combined with other Paths, transform Fire into some other element entirely.
Dominion of Air (Hur)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of the Void-4.
The Dominion of Air, or alternatively the Dominion of Wind, includes command over air currents, movement, sound, and kinetic energy in general, as well as most gases. It is a versatile dominion whose effects aren’t usually as flashy as those of the Dominion of Fire, but can be just as powerful when wielded by a cautious user. Lesser Air effects can affect normal forms of air and kinetic energy in simple, natural, likely ways; it allows the caster to do things that the air would already be “inclined” to do. Greater Air effects can affect ‘pure’ forms of air or cause it to do complex, unnatural things.
Opposed to Earth.
- Sense Air: Lesser Sense Air can detect the exact speed of an object, whether a pocket of gas is safe to breath or not and how long it will last, and the location of the nearest pocket of fresh air. Greater Sense Air can allow you to “see” all moving objects or where things are by the holes in the air that they leave, or analyze the chemical composition of air down to an atomic level.
- Strengthen Air: Either version of Strengthen Air can increase the speed of an object or vehicle, or increase the sound output of a shout. Lesser effects can impart enough energy to double the effect; Greater ones can go beyond that.
- Restore Air: Lesser Restore Air can turn ‘stale’ air that is getting hard to breath into pure air that is safe to breath or dampen the effect of deceleration on a vehicle. Greater Restore Air can turn air that completely lacks oxygen into air that has the necessary components for sustaining life, restart an object that stopped moving, or replay the sounds of a conversation that happened previously.
- Control Air: Lesser Control Air can alter the heading of a vehicle by up to thirty degrees, slightly change the shape of a shadow, or alter the pitch or tone of a sound. Greater Control Air can exert perfect control over a moving object or make a voice sound exactly like someone else’s.
- Destroy Air: Lesser Destroy Air can slow a moving object down if there is a believable source of friction, dampen sounds, or make it more difficult to breath. Greater Destroy Air can completely stop an object or prevent any noise from occuring even if there’s no believable source, or even make a volume of air incapable of sustaining life by removing its oxygen content.
- Create Air: Lesser Create Air can create movement or sound in a believable and natural manner. It can create movement if something is on an incline but unmoving due to static friction, or sound if there’s a believable source. Greater Create Air can create movement and sound in completely unbelievable ways, such as making a rock roll around a flat surface or even take flight. It may also be used to create air in an area that previously had none, such as under water or in a vacuum – though it may be advisable to use Control Air to keep that pocket in place!
- Transform Air: Lesser Transform Air can completely alter the words a person is saying or slightly alter the composition of air to, for example, remove a particular noxious substance. Greater Transform Air can go even further, changing the air from being one gas to being a completely different variety – such as changing breathable air into mustard gas.
Dominion of Water (Aq)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Life-4.
The Dominion of Water, or alternatively the Dominion of Ice, includes command over liquids of all kinds. Life-giving liquids, such as juices or milk, and liquid fuels may not be created with just the Dominion of Water, but they may be controlled and transformed. This also includes dominion over frozen liquids as well as cold in general. Lesser Water effects are simple and “rough” – not very precise – and are limited to interacting with the liquid in ways that the laws of nature and physics would agree with. Greater Water effects can be very precise and/or blatantly impossible. (Create and Transform effects are an exception, as they are blatantly impossible by definition.)
Opposed to Fire.
- Sense Water: Lesser Sense Water can locate the nearest body of water or object made from ice, tell whether a body of water is safe to drink, or detect the temperature. Greater Sense Water can locate items that are mostly made of water – including people, though not in enough detail to identify them – or provide a detailed chemical breakdown of a sample of liquid.
- Strengthen Water: Lesser Strengthen Water can double the effect or height of waves or cool an already chilly (less than 60 F) item or area down to near-freezing. Greater Strengthen Water can do even more, greatly altering wave action or making a chilly item flash-freeze.
- Restore Water: Lesser Restore Water can cool an area that’s been heated down to a previous temperature or cause a melting block of ice to reform as its original shape and size. Greater Restore Water can re-freeze a completely melted puddle or or separate a mixture into its base liquids.
- Control Water: Lesser Control Water can make water act in a natural way, such as prevent hail from hitting a particular object or cause waves to appear in the ocean. Greater Control Water can make the water or ice move in impossible ways, such as cause an icicle to fly across a room or water to take on the form of a person.
- Destroy Water: Lesser Destroy Water can inflict internal damage (up to about what a handheld weapon in the setting could inflict with a single blow or shot) to a living creature or one that depends on liquid lubricants or reduce its HT to half normal value (rounded up), or cause a number of irritating or incapacitating conditions that are appropriate for someone who is dehydrated or suffering from acute blood loss. Greater Destroy Water can exceed these limits or work partial destructions, such as destroying blood’s ability to move down an arm but not interfere with the rest of the body.
- Create Water: Lesser Create Water can cause an existing body of water or ice sculpture to grow over time or cause a cup to hold more water than its physical shape or weight would imply. It can also cause a chill to appear on a hot day. Greater Create Watter can cause a body of liquid or ice to appear out of nothing or flash-freeze a desert.
- Transform Water: Lesser Transform Water can change one liquid into another one – for example, transforming water into wine or blood into acid. The amount of damage that Lesser Transform Water can do to a living target is limited by the amount of damage that a handheld weapon in the setting can inflict with a signle blow or shot. Greater Transform Water can perform partial transformations, such as turning water into a wine that leaves no hangover or blood into acid that doesn’t harm the host and still sustains life or exceed the limits on damage.
Dominion of Earth (Ylem)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Death-4.
The Dominion of Earth includes command over raw, nonliving materials such as ores, dirt, and rocks. It also gives command over base metals and simple alloys. It does not include complex manufactured goods such as electronics or machines, but Greater Earth effects can impact simple refined goods such as refined metal plates or damaging/strengthening (but not repairing or creating) the metal portions of machines. Lesser Earth effects can affect raw materials in simple, “rough” ways and are limited to interacting with the earth in ways that the laws of nature and physics would agree with. Greater Earth effects can be very precise and/or blatantly impossible. (Create and Transform effects are an exception, as they are blatantly impossible by definition.)
Opposed to Air.
- Sense Earth: Lesser Sense Earth can locate the nearest deposit of ore, identify a solid object’s general composition, or identify when something was refined or dug up. Greater Sense Earth can identify weak points in a structure, locate a specific metal item, or provide a metallurgical breakdown of an object – including locating the metal’s ore source and the refining methods used to create the object, which can be used to determine who made it.
- Strengthen Earth: Lesser Strengthen Earth can improve a metal or stone object’s ST or HT by up to 30%, or its HP or DR by up to 100% (round up). Greater Strengthen Earth can surpass these limits.
- Restore Earth: Lesser Restore Earth can fix a stone object (up to the equivalent of a minor repair). Greater Restore Earth can return a refined metal to its original state, changing it from being refined back to being raw ore, under the ravages of time on an object or piece of terrain (such as closing a fissure or canyon) or repair a stone object to pristine condition.
- Control Earth: Lesser Control Earth can make a stone or metal object move in any natural way (e.g., rolling a ball bearing down a hallway). Greater Control Earth can move an object in impossible ways (e.g., making a ball bearing fly) or shape terrain into any form desired – or cause a general earthquake.
- Destroy Earth: Lesser Destroy Earth can inflict internal damage to unliving earth or metallic objet (up to about what a handheld weapon in the setting could inflict with a single blow or shot) or reduce an earthen or metallic object’s stastics (e.g., HT, HP, or DR) to half normal value (rounded up). Greater Destroy Earth can surpass the limits of Lesser Destroy Earth.
- Create Earth: Lesser Create Earth can conjure raw materials and stone or earthen objects. Greater Create Earth can summon simple objects made from refined metals, including plate armor or handheld weapons.
- Transform Earth: Lesser Transform Earth can reshape hard materials or make a minor change to an earthen or metallic object’s substance; e.g., a steel crowbar could be made into iron or aluminum, but it couldn’t turn a metal breastplate into mud. Greater Transform Earth can exceed this limitation, allowing it to, for example transform dirt to steel and vice versa.
Discipline of Energy (Lux)
Default: Minimum of Dominion of Fire-2 and Dominion of Air-2.
Prerequisite: Dominion of Fire and Dominion of Air.
The Discipline of Energy includes command over lightning, the weather, electricity, nuclear radiation, and complex illusions. It is a highly versatile Discipline whose powers end where another’s begin; for example, it can not be used to halt the electrical signals within a person’s nervous system (for that you’d have to use the Dominion of Life). Lesser Energy effects can affect normal forms of the energy in simple, natural, likely ways; it allows the caster to do things with the energy that it would already be “inclined” to do. Greater Energy effects can affect weird forms of the energy, such as radiation, or cause it to do complex, unnatural things. As a Discipline, it can also be used to form any effect that its component Paths could form.
Opposed to Matter.
- Sense Energy: Lesser Sense Energy can detect electrical current, determine the expected weather over the next week, and identify radioactive isotopes. Greater Sense Energy can use energy as a sense, such as with radar, or track a particular electron as it passes through an appliance.
- Strengthen Energy: Either version of Strengthen Energy can increase an energy source’s output, such as making a AA battery have the same amperage and voltage as one built for a car. Lesser effects can impart enough energy to double the effect (such as doubling the HT penalty from an electrical shock); Greater ones can go beyond that.
- Restore Energy: Lesser Restore Energy can keep an electrical current moving through resistance, recharge a partially-drained battery, or reverse a temperature change. Greater Restore Energy is similar, but can even affect “killed” energy, such as keeping electricity flowing in a circuit even after being switched off.
- Control Energy: Lesser Control Energy can reverse electrical polarity, make already-formed clouds begin to rain, or make a tornado turn away. Greater Control Energy can exert perfect and unnatural control – forcing a tornado to make a design in a field of wheat, have a bolt of lightning follow an exact path through the air, or force nuclear radiation to radiate in only a specific direction.
- Destroy Energy: Lesser Destroy Energy can reduce the strength of energy; it can also stop energy completely if there is a natural means by which that could happen. Greater Destroy Energy can kill the flow of any sort of energy, no matter how unrealistic, or do partial destructions, such as destroying lightning’s flash of light while retaining its damaging potential.
- Create Energy: Lesser Create Energy can bring energy into being in a believable and natural manner. It can create electricity within a circuit, lightning from a thunderstorm, or a tornado from a storm. Greater Create Energy can ignore this restriction, flinging lightning from the caster’s hand, creating a thunderstorm on a clear day, or making it pour rain in the middle of a desert. Either form can also be used to create a mirage; Lesser Create Energy can create simple illusions like a static beach scene, while Greater Create Energy is able to make one that is more complex and dynamic.
- Transform Energy: Lesser Transform Energy can change alternating current into direct current, make a thunderstorm turn into a rainstorm, or make a dog look and sound like a cat. Greater Transform Energy can turn one type of energy into another – fire into sound, kinetic energy into light, and so on – or make a person completely impossible to see, hear, or detect by natural means.
Discipline of Matter (Xen)
Default: Minimum of Dominion of Water-2 and Dominion of Earth-2.
Prerequisite: Dominion of Water and Dominion of Earth.
The Discipline of Matter includes command over complex material creations, such as machines and complex refined goods, as well as chemical reactions. It can be used to repair or create manufactured goods, or transform them in strange ways. It can also be used to manipulate electronics, while greater effects can impact matter on an atomic level. The boundary between Lesser and Greater Matter effects is one primarily of complexity and size, though simple operations (causing a computer to crash or disabling the parking break on a car) on complex machines still count as Lesser effects. As a Discipline, it can also be used to form any effect that its component Paths could form.
Opposed to Energy.
- Sense Matter: Lesser Sense Matter can locate the nearest object made of any specific material or of any particular type, identify an object’s general composition, or tell how hold something is. Greater Sense Matter can locate any specific item that the caster has previously analyzed or is very familiar with, provide a complete chemical and metallurgical breakdown of an object, or identify and separate fingerprints on a surface.
- Strengthen Matter: Lesser Strengthen Matter can improve an object’s ST or HT by up to 30% or its HP HP or DR by up to 100% (round up). It can make food take twice as long to rot or make it twice as nourishing. It can keep a ship seaworthy after it’s dow to 0 HP (but no worse). Greater Strengthen Matter can surpass those limits.
- Restore Matter: Lesser Restore Matter can fix any object (up to the equivalent of a minor repair), remove a curse from an item, or make spoiled food edible again. Greater Restore Matter can perform the equivalent of a major repair (or more!), under the ravages of time upon an object, or regrow a half-eaten apple into a whole one.
- Control Matter: Lesser Control Matter can make an object move in any natural way or operate any of the controls of a complex machine. Greater Control Matter can move an object in impossible ways, shape soft matter into any form desired, or control the inner parts of a complex machine to make it do something its controls don’t allow.
- Destroy Matter: Lesser Destroy Matter can inflict internal damage (up to what a handheld weapon in the setting could inflict with a single shot or blow), reduce an object’s statistics (e.g., ST, HT, HP, or DR) to half normal value (rounded up), or cause any irritating or incapacitating affliction appropriate for the object in question. Greater Destroy Matter can surpass the limits of Lesser Destroy Matter, or can work a partial destruction.
- Create Matter: Lesser Create Matter can conjure raw materials, simple tools, food, solic melee weapons, fuel, or wood furniture. Greater Create Matter can summon more complex things, such as firearms, electronic devices, crossbows, or vehicles. COnsumables only need last long enough for them to be fully processed. This usually requires a duration of three days for food.
- Transform Matter: Lesser Transform Matter can reshape hard materials or make a minor change to an object’s substance. A spell can use two Lesser Transform Matter effects to transform both shape and substance. Greater Transform Matter can completely alter matter, turning stone into air, a dead body into a computer, or a wooden table into an ice sculpture.
Dominion of Spirit (Zu)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Fire-4.
The Dominion of Spirit includes command over the emotions, motivations, and current thoughts of free spirits, including nonsapient spirit beasts, and most sapient beings. Divine and Infernal creatures may also be commanded by the Dominion of Spirit, but require help from the Dominions of Life and Void, respectively. Nonsapient animals do not have enough animating spirit to control, and thus are not a part of this Dominion. Lesser Spirit effects can affect base emotions or must be noninvasive (e.g., voluntary communication). Greater Spirit effects can go further, with fully invasive procedures and explicit, direct commands. This explicitly does not include reading a person’s past thoughts or their memories, both of which require the help of the Discipline of Destiny. Note that Lesser Spirit effects impact nonsapient Divine or Infernal creatures as if they were Greater effects if the requisite Lesser Control Life or Void effects are used to prepare the way. Nonsapient Undead, on the other hand, are controlled entirely through the Dominion of Death, while both sapient and nonsapient Elder Things are controlled via Dominion of the Void.
Opposed to the Void.
- Sense Spirit: Lesser Sense Spirit can locate the nearest person, track down a specific person known to the caster, enter into telepathic communication with someone, or sense whether the subject is hostile. Greater Sense Spirit can read someone’s current thoughts against their will, find someone with a specific skill, or communicate with the spirit realms.
- Strengthen Spirit: Lesser Strengthen Spirit can improve someone’s IQ, Will, or Per by up to 30% (rounded up), add any exotic or supernatural mental advantages that the GM would permit the subject to have with an Unusual Background, add any mundane mental advantages, provide up to a +5 bonus for mental actions (or resisting mental disadvantages) or provide any degree of bonus to resist mental or spiritual effects (e.g., Influence rolls and magical compulsions). Greater Strengthen Spirit can surpass these limits or add any mental advantage unless the GM has explicitely disallowed it for PCs and all NPCs (of any race or species).
- Restore Spirit: Lesser Restore Spirit can heal IQ damaged by a spell, snap the subject out of being mentally stunned, overcome temporarily mental penalties (e.g., from Affliction or a spell), or let a nonsapient animal recover from any mental condition. Greater Restore Spirit can temporarily remove permanent mental disadvantages, counter an effect that’s completely taken over the subject’s mind, or provide the equivalent of a year’s worth of psychoanalysis with a single spell. Both forms of Restore Spirit can also heal spirit creatures as if it were Restore Life.
- Control Spirit: Lesser Control Spirit can force the target to take one brief, simple mental action, change his emotional state (perhaps causing a Fright Check), or make it impossible for him to voluntarily take one specific action. Greater Control Spirit is classic “mind control” – it can be used to give the subject direct orders, cause an incapacitating mental affliction, or inflict any “self-imposed” mental disadvatnage or one with a self-control roll. When dealing with nonspapient creatures affected by Control Spirit, Lesser Control Spirit can do anything that Greater Control Spirit could do.
- Destroy Spirit: Lesser Destroy Mind can impose any mental irritating affliction, mentally stun someone, reduce IQ, Will, or Per by up to 30%, or give teh subject up to
5 to specific IQ, Will-, or Per-based rolls. Greater Destroy Spirit can trigger incapacitating afflictions, larger penalties, or any mental disadvantage not covered by Control Mind. Both froms of Destroy Spirit can also cause internal damage to spirit creatures as if it were Destroy Life.
- Create Spirit: Lesser Create Spirit can summon a lesser spirit creature with a nonsapient mind (IQ 1-5) and, optionally, make it inhabit a nonsentient creation; this is typically bundled with rituals to animate statues, conjured beasts, and so on. This spell effect includes “free” IQ appropriate for the creation; e.g., IQ 3 for a summoned horse. FOr more intelligence, use ALtered Traits to add IQ. It can also implant a memory. Greater Create Spirit covers summoning greater spirits with sentient minds, granting up to IQ 8 “for free” in most circumstances.
- Transform Spirit: Lesser Transform Spirit can force a simple but fundamental shift in how a mind sees itself (e.g., making a human believe that he’s a hawk) or make a minor adjustment to a moral code or similar disadvantage. Greater Transform MInd can affect the fundamental nature of a mind; e.g., causing a human mind to act as a digital intelligence. It can also be cast on two subjects to switch minds and souls.
Dominion of the Void (Nul)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Air-4.
The Dominion of the Void includes command over the connections between locations and the planes of existence, as well as the fundamental force of gravity. It is also connected to certain beings from outside this plane, primarily Infernal creatures and Things Man Was Not Meant To Know. This does not include command over the connections between places in time; time-based effects either require the help of the Discipline of Destiny or are the domain of the Discipline of Destiny. Lesser Void effects can impact gates or weak points in reality that already exist, slightly alter the local force of gravity, or allow the Dominion of Spirit to affect Infernal creatures. Greater Void effects can create new gates or weak points in reality, greatly alter the force of gravity up to and including the creation of miniature black holes, or target creatures or people with the natural ability to travel between planes. Dominion of the Void can also affect Things Man Was Not Meant to Know as Dominion of Spirit impacts normal sapient beings, but it always requires an extra Control Void effect – Lesser for nonsapient Elder Things and Greater for sapient Elder Things.
Powers with the Psionic modifier can be manipulated by Dominion of the Void effects.
Opposed to Spirit.
- Sense Void: Lesser Sense Void can reveal a nearby gate, identify where it goes, or use it to find or communicate with someone on the other side. Greater Sense Void can locate someone (or something) with an innate ability to cross over (or other psionic powers), identify details about that ability, or find or communicate with someone across dimensions.
- Strengthen Void: Lesser Strengthen Void can stabilize a fluctuating gate, cause a weak point to further distort reality, or make it easier for travelers to use a gate. Greater Strengthen Void can enhance someone’s innate ability to cross over or bend reality with psionic powers, help a being remain in our plane if its ability to do so is weak, or force such a being to remain here instead of returning home.
- Restore Void: Lesser Restore Void can reopen a closed gate or reactivate another reality warping spell that left a weak point. Greater Restore Void is required to reactive or reopen a weak point that has been left inactive for so long as to render it inert, and may be used to restore someone’s innate ability to bend reality.
- Control Void: Lesser Control Void can alter the use of a gate – restricting it so it’s only useful during certain times or to certain people, for example – or physical move a weak point to a new location. It can also be used to dictate the effects of a weak point in reality. Greater Control Void can overrule a person’s (or creature’s) innate abilities, or target an area as a whole to make it easier or harder for others to form gates that link there. Control Void can also be used to control the actions of Elder Things as if it were Control Spirit.
- Destroy Void: Lesser Destroy Void can close a gate, oppose a spell which allows something to cross over, or banish a being relying on such a spell (or an open gate) to temporarily remain here. Greater Destroy Void can banish any being here from another place or dimention, even if it’s using its own innate abilities to cross over indefinitely; it can also cause a partial destruction (e.g., removing someone’s ability to travel to one particular plane).
- Create Void: Lesser Create Void can make an existing weak point visible and easily controlled or create a new weak point that can bend reality in various ways; possible effects are visible shimmers, gravitational or magnetic anomalies, increased mental stress, make flashlights cast shadows and shadows emit light, etc. This can result in a 50% change in conditions, such as a 50% increase or decrease in gravity or +/- 5 to almost any success roll. Greater Create Void can create a spatial or dimensional gate, or to create a fissure in reality whose effects exceed those for a Lesser effect.
- Transform Void: Lesser Transform Void can change the endpoints of an existing gate without changing its type or change a reality fissure from manipulating gravity to manipulating magnetic fields. Greater Transform Void can alter the fundamental nature of a gate or fissure, change a fissure into a gate, or rearrange a person or being’s Void-related traits.
Dominion of Life (Mani)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Water-4.
The Dominion of Life includes command over the physical body as well as nonsapient animals and all plants. It can target seeds and trees (which are still growing), but not fallen branches or harvested fruits. This is the Dominion of physical effects and changes; use the Dominion of Spirit to target someone’s thoughts or emotions, even if you’re justifying it as “affecting hormone levels” or something similar, though note that nonsapient animals and plants can have their minds and emotions affected by the Dominion of Life. Lesser Life effects allow localized, believable, and subtle changes – or provide basic information. They can also completely dominate most animals or plants, though they may only impact supernatural animals such as Dire Beasts in the same ways as Lesser Spirit effects can impact sapient beings. Greater Life effects can be blatant, complete, and/or superhuman in nature, or sieze control over supernaturally resilient animals such as Dire Beasts. The Dominion of Life may also be used to allow the Dominion of Spirit to impact Divine creatures; this is a Lesser Control Life effect.
Opposed to Death.
- Sense Life: Lesser Sense Life can identify what species or race someone is, detect all living things nearby, detect all members of one particular species nearby, locate the physical presence of one particular person you know, or diagnose any medical problem that a doctor could potentially identify. Greater Sense Life can reveal a person’s full genealogy, determine the exact moment someone was poisoned, diagnose an issue that medical science could not, or determine when someone will die of natural causes.
- Strengthen Life: Lesser Strengthen Life can improve one’s physical attributes or secondary characteristics by up to about 30% (rounded up), add any exotic physical traits that the GM would permit the subject to have with an Unusual Background, add any mundane physical traits, provide up to +5 to rolls for physical actions, or provide any degree of bonus to resist metabolic hazards (e.g., disease or poison). Greater Strengthen Life can surpass the limits of Lesser Strengthen Life or add any physical trait that doesn’t change the subject’s morphology.
- Restore Life: Lesser Restore Life can provide healing up to twice as what First Aid could provide, cure diseases with a finite duration, restore any amount of FP, revive a stunned or unconcious subject, or counteract any degree of temporary penalties or imposed traits. Greater Restore Life can heal any amount of HP, cure diseases that normally last indefinitely, end a person’s coma or heart attack, or remove permanent disadvantages for the duration of the spell. Restore Life can also injure Undead creations as if it were Destroy Life.
- Control Life: Lesser Control Life can cause a single irritating or incapacitating affliction, stun a target, force someone to perform a simple reflexive action, obstruct the use of a limb, or prevent the subject from actively using a particular trait. Greater Control Life can force a person to perform any physical action (no matter how complex). Control Life can also be used to control the actions of plants and nonsapient animals as if it were Control Spirit; this includes controlling the growth patterns or movements of plants that typically can not move on their own.
- Destroy Life: Lesser Destroy Life can cause internal damage (up to about what a handheld weapon in the setting could cause in a single blow or shot). Greater Destroy Life can do unlimited damage, cause a coma or heart attack, or do partial destructions (e.g., eliminating the ability to feel pain). Both versions can also reduce attributes and secondary charactersitics, and inflict disadvantages (or negated advantages); use the guidelines under Strengthen Life, but reversed. Destroy Life can also heal Undead creations as if it were Restore Life.
- Create Life: Lesser Create Life can “stabilize” the physical form of a spirit that has already manifested, so it doesn’t have to expend its own energy to remain on this plane. It can also be used to make plants grow from ground that could reasonably support them. Greater Create Life can create a living, breathing nonsapient animal or, in conjunction with a spirit’s assistance or Create Spirit, can summon a sapient animal out of thin air.
- Transform Life: Lesser Transform Life can change someone’s blood type, alter his DNA or chromosomes to fool a test, improve or reduce his Appearance by up to two levels (while obviously maintaining his identity), or make him look like someone similar. Greater Transform Body can alter someone’s species, make the subject look like anyone, or add any exotic physical traits.
Dominion of Death (Corp)
Default: Thaumatology-6; Dominion of Earth-4.
The Dominion of Death includes command over all necromantic powers. This includes command over the undead as the Dominion of Spirit, as well as command over the process of death itself, allowing the caster to halt or even reverse the process. It can also include vampiric effects, such as draining the vital forces of one person and putting them in another. Lesser Death effects can make someone more resistant to succumbing to death, transfer a small amount of vital energy from one person to another, or issue basic commands to nonsapient undead or allow the caster to speak with sapient undead. Greater Death effects can halt the process of aging and death or reach across into the underworld to commune with a deceased soul, snuff out a person’s life force entirely, or fully command sapient Undead.
Opposed to Life.
- Sense Death: Lesser Sense Death can locate the nearest corpse or person close to death, determine how how close to death a person is, or enable communication with sapient undead. Greater Sense Death can reach into the underworld to instill a deceased soul with the ability to speak through its corpse’s mouth, locate every corpse that has died in a specific way, or give a detailed analysis of an undead creature’s traits.
- Strengthen Death: Lesser Strengthen Death can reduce a living creature’s HT to half normal value (round up), give up to -5 in HT rolls to avoid death, improve an undead creature’s ST or HT by up to 30%, or its HP or DR by up to 100% (round up), add any exotic physical trait to an undead creature that the GM would permit to a living version of it with Unusual Background, add any mundane physical traits, or provide up to +5 to rolls for physical actions taken by undead creatures. Greater Strengthen Death can exceed these limits or add any physical trait to an undead creature that doesn’t change the subject’s morphology.
- Restore Death: Restore Death can heal undead creatures as if it were Restore Life. It can also be used to reopen old wounds to reverse healing; Lesser Restore Death can reinstill any amount of damage that was either recently healed or is in the process of healing, while Greater Restore Death can reopen wounds that are even long healed.
- Control Death: Control Death acts like both Control Life and Control Spirit when dealing with the undead. Remember that nonsapient undead treat any Lesser Control Deathe effect as if it were Greater!
- Destroy Death: Lesser Destroy Death can provide any amount of bonus to rolls to prevent death, unconciousness, or aging; stabilize any mortal wound; end a heart attack; or cause internal damage to an undead creature (up to about what a handheld weapon in the setting could cause in a single blow or shot). Greater Destroy Death can cause any amount of internal damage to an undead creature; provide any degree of Regeneration, Unkillable, or Unaging; bring someone back from the dead, no matter how long they’ve been deceased; or prevent a person from being able to be resurrected.
- Create Death: Lesser Create Death can raise weak, mindless skeletons and zombies; or infect a living target with a disease, cripple their limbs, or cause them internal damage (up to about what a handheld weapon in the setting could cause in a single blow or shot). Greater Create Death can raise more powerful, sapient undead; cause a living target to have a heart attack or fall into a coma; or cause any amount of internal damage to a living creature.
- Transform Death: Lesser Transform Death can leech a target’s HP or FP, injuring the target to heal the caster (up to 2d of both injury and healing) or alter an undead creature’s template to a related one (zombie to skeleton or vice versa). Greater Transform Death can leech any amount of HP or FP and add any trait to an undead creature, including changing one undead creature into a completely different one (zombie pig to ghost dragon).
Discipline of Magic (Ort)
Default: Minimum of Dominion of Spirit-2 and Dominion of the Void-2.
Prerequisite: Dominion of Spirit and Dominion of the Void.
The Discipline of Magic governs spells, magical energy, and the act of casting. It is most commonly relied on for “meta-magical” spells. No Discipline of Magic ritual can be used to improve someone’s ability to cast spells. Lesser Magic effects can target the caster or ambient magic – including active spells, conditional spells, and charms. Greater Magic effects can involve another person’s casting ability or magic resistance, or magic permanently tied to a place or object. As a Discipline, it can also be used to form any effect that its component Paths could form.
Opposed to Destiny.
- Sense Magic: Lesser Sense Magic can detect spel use, analyze a ritual, locate the nearest charm, or tell the caster if he’s been unknowingly affected by a spell. Greater Sense Magic can identify a mage, seek the nearest adept, determine why a location is a place of power, or determine what an enchanted item does.
- Strengthen Magic: Lesser Strengthen Magic can oppose an attempt to cancel a spell, enhance a spell’s ability to punch through a ward or similar “anti-magic shield”, or increase a previously-cast spell’s effect (up to double any previous bonuses or penalties). Greater Strengthen Magic can temporarily expand the area covered by a place of power (though not its bonus), increase the DR or HP of an enchanted item, or increase a previously-cast spell’s effect to any amount or double the bonus or penalty from an enchanted item.
- Restore Magic: Lesser Restore Magic can heal any of the caster’s magical advantages lost to a spell (or curse, etc.), fix an ongoing spell that has been “damaged” in some way by an outside source, instantly sanctify an area or restore a desecrated one, or restore the duration of any previously-cast spell. Greater Restore Magic can repair damage done to a place of power, remove a curse preventing someone from casting spells, or heal metaphysical “damage” done to an enchanted item.
- Control Magic: Lesser Control Magic can redirect or repurpose a ritual, ward off incoming spells, trigger a conditional spell or charm ahead of time, or shift the subject of a spell. Greater Control Magic can prevent a caster from working a particular type of ritual, prevent him from targeting a particular subject, or take control of an enchanted item.
- Destroy Magic: Lesser Destroy Magic can counter an existing spell – whether just-cast, an ongoing effect, or waiting as a conditional spell or charm – or give the caster levels of Magic Resistance (Improved). Greater Destroy Magic can inflict penalties to all spell use, remove a caster’s Magery or Ritual Adept advantages, give someone else Magic Resistance, or temporarily suppress the abilities of a place of power or enchanted item.
- Create Magic: Lesser Create Magic can fill an area with “magical chaff” to penalize spells that pass through it. Greater Create Magic can make an item or person register as “magical” to spells or senses.
- Transform Magic: Lesser Transform Magic can alter an existing spell’s paramters, though if it needs additional energy, a Lesser Strengthen Magic effect is also required. Greater Transform Magic can grant an “aspect” to a place of power, making its bonus only usable for one type of ritual, or temporarily shift the owner of an exclusive enchanted item so someone else can use it.
Discipline of Destiny (Des)
Default: Minimum of Dominion of Life-2 and Dominion of Death-2.
Prerequisite: Dominion of Life and Dominion of Death.
The Discipline of Destiny covers luck, odds, entropy, and time. This is often used for “metaeffects,” such as influencing die rolls. The degree of the bonus or penalty does not affect whether the ritual is Lesser or Greater; a +5 boon to a skill roll is no more obvious than +1. Blatant effects are always Greater effects. For predicting events (e.g., winning the lottery or accurately betting on horses), use a divination. In conjunction with Dominion of the Void, this can be used for time travel; in conjunction with Dominion of Spirit, this can be used to read a subject’s memories. By itself, it can also be used to see someone’s past and their future (as a Divination). As a Discipline, it can also be used to form any effect that its component Paths could form.
Opposed to Magic.
- Sense Destiny: Lesser Sense Destiny can provide the accurate odds of any one event happening as of this moment (but cannot actually see the future), determine if someone has the Destiny trait and its type (though not its specific details), allow a lucky guess (as Intuition, p. B63), or tell if something is interfering with destiny nearby. Greater Sense Destiny is most often used for divinations, allowing the caster to see into the probable future, but can also be used for seeing into the past or determining the nature of a Destiny. Combine Greater Sense Destiny with Greater Sense Spirit to read through a target’s memories.
- Strengthen Destiny: Either version of Strengthen Destiny can make a likely event more likely, or an unlikely event less likely. Greater Strengthen Destiny can increase the significance of a Destin trait (e.g., changing from Minor to Major or Great), but doesn’t change its essential nature.
- Restore Destiny: Restore Destiny is most commonly used to counter the effects of Destroy Destiny (below), but it can also be used in rituals that grant some form of Luck, Serendipity, or Unluckiness.
- Control Destiny: This allows precise manipulation of fate. It can be used as for Strengthen Destiny, but to adjust the die rol in either direction, regardless of odds. Greater Control Destiny can add Super Luck.
- Destroy Destiny: Can be used as Strengthen Destiny, but reversed, making likely events less possible or unlikely events more possible. It can also be used to remove or counter the effects of Luck-based traits or remove a Destiny trait.
- Create Destiny: Can add a new Destiny trait to the subject or give an effective use of Serendipity, causing weird things to happen. Unless the GM is set against an event being possible, he should give it fair “impossible odds” such as “roll 0 or less on 3d”.
- Transform Destiny: This can change any luck-related traits, change the nature of a Destiny trait, or add Cursed or Weirdness Magnet. When combined with the Void, it can also be used for time travel.
This skill is used in the mystical art of Alchemy. Aside from using Alchemy to create any and all alchemical elixers, it can also be used to identify found alchemical elixers and determine when (and if) they expire. It may also be used to identify magical reagents, which are always utilized in alchemical elixers and may be used in Thaumaturgical magic in order to gain a skill bonus. Someone who practices Alchemy is an Alchemist.
This skill is utilized to identify and collect naturally-occuring magical reagents from the land, which may then be used in alchemical elixers or in thaumaturgical magic to gain a bonus to skill. Someone with Herb Lore may roll once per hour to try and locate ingredients. Success locates one improvised ingredient per point of success or one basic ingredient per 3 points of success or one good ingredient per 10 points of success. Critical success increases the ingredient’s quality by a step; a natural roll of 3 yields a legendary ingredient! Failure means the herbalist wasted his time, while a critical failure means the herbalist found what he thought would be a useful ingredient. The GM should feel free to count this ingredient as a quirk in the potion or have some other nasty side effect to occur, the least of which might be poisoning…
When collecting ingredients in an area that is especially aligned with the element you are collecting for, your margin of success is doubled.
Ritual Magic (Runic)
This is used in Evocation in place of Thaumatology for setting up conditional rituals, creating charms, and accessing some sources of mystical power. It can not identify grimoires (as Evokers can not use them), nor do Path skills default to it. On the other hand, Evoker effective skill is not limited by Ritual Magic skill.
Symbol Drawing (Runic)
This skill is used in the mystical art of Runic Inscription. Runic Inscription is the ancient magic of the Dverger, able to create permanent magical artifacts. Symbol Drawing is utilized to create any and all Runic Sigils and Wards, as well as to analyze them to identify their effects. Someone who practices Runic Inscription is a Runesmith.
This skill is used to launch any ranged projectile attack. The statistics of a base, unmodified attack are Acc 3, Range 10/100, RoF 1, Rcl 1; this can be modified with different enhancements to the damage modifier. The specific Innate Attack specialty used depends upon the specific ritual; beam or projectile are most common.