Sorcery
Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2014 3:53 pm
A thread for posting useful spells, relevant lynchpins, and general thoughts on how to play an effective sorcerer. For the moment, these thoughts are unorganized; a more organized version of this thread may turn up in rules & resources at some point.
Lynchpin: Local magic.
This one's the obvious one, and I won't bother listing it for every spell. That said, there are times when you won't include this lynchpin; if you expect to be mostly in Amber, for example, then you might prepare most of your spells to work with "Magic of Amber", and be able to skip this lynchpin when casting. Or if you own a personal shadow, you might prepare some of your spells to work there. Etcetera.
Casting time:
One lynchpin is roughly equivalent in time to drawing and throwing a dagger.* This means zero and one lynchpin spells are very good in combat; two lynchpin spells are complex maneuvers more akin to loading and firing a light crossbow, and three lynchpin or greater spells will usually not be that useful without someone to cover for you (or really good armor - such as, perhaps, that provided by a one lynchpin self-targeting empowerment...)
Psyche & Warfare & Spell Preparation:
Warfare lets you predict what you might need. Psyche gives you intuition and spider sense. Both can be used to declare "Well, of course I prepared a water breathing spell before attending the ball in Rebma!" - this particular example, requiring minimal foresight, would probably only require chaos rank in either to make such a declaration retroactively. In general, you should not actually specify what spells you have in advance; your character has much higher stats than you do, and a correspondingly better ability to plan for the unexpected. Unless you're playing a sorcerer with human warfare and psyche... in which case, I really have to ask WTF?
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* This value is based on information from page 23 of the rulebook. Benedict, the master of Warfare, is listed as being able to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell as long as the target is within range. Which I interpret to mean, trying to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell is a matter of warfare - and someone who isn't a master of warfare, against a higher-warfare sorcerer, is unlikely to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell. (Edit: Josh suggests that this is also an example where the caster might be able to use psyche instead of warfare - using their superior force of will to get the spell off quickly enough to avoid interruption.)
Lynchpin: Local magic.
This one's the obvious one, and I won't bother listing it for every spell. That said, there are times when you won't include this lynchpin; if you expect to be mostly in Amber, for example, then you might prepare most of your spells to work with "Magic of Amber", and be able to skip this lynchpin when casting. Or if you own a personal shadow, you might prepare some of your spells to work there. Etcetera.
Casting time:
One lynchpin is roughly equivalent in time to drawing and throwing a dagger.* This means zero and one lynchpin spells are very good in combat; two lynchpin spells are complex maneuvers more akin to loading and firing a light crossbow, and three lynchpin or greater spells will usually not be that useful without someone to cover for you (or really good armor - such as, perhaps, that provided by a one lynchpin self-targeting empowerment...)
Psyche & Warfare & Spell Preparation:
Warfare lets you predict what you might need. Psyche gives you intuition and spider sense. Both can be used to declare "Well, of course I prepared a water breathing spell before attending the ball in Rebma!" - this particular example, requiring minimal foresight, would probably only require chaos rank in either to make such a declaration retroactively. In general, you should not actually specify what spells you have in advance; your character has much higher stats than you do, and a correspondingly better ability to plan for the unexpected. Unless you're playing a sorcerer with human warfare and psyche... in which case, I really have to ask WTF?
_____
* This value is based on information from page 23 of the rulebook. Benedict, the master of Warfare, is listed as being able to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell as long as the target is within range. Which I interpret to mean, trying to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell is a matter of warfare - and someone who isn't a master of warfare, against a higher-warfare sorcerer, is unlikely to interrupt a one-lynchpin spell. (Edit: Josh suggests that this is also an example where the caster might be able to use psyche instead of warfare - using their superior force of will to get the spell off quickly enough to avoid interruption.)