Mage/House Rules

This is work in Progress, more to be added.

Mage Errata

This game makes use of the errata-in-progress found at this link. The previous easily indexed version seems to be down for good. Will get a version back up ASAP.
The exception to this adoption is that spells cannot be relinquished for a Willpower point as indicated in this errata.
Anything in the errata that contradicts what is in the Tome of the Mysteries, the rules from Tome of the Mysteries applies.

God-Machine Changes

Arcana

• Matter - Matter 2 can be used to reduce the initiative penalty of a weapon as a spell, with +1 initiative per potency, up to -0.

Shields

Mages may not benefit from both effects simultaneously; though they may have both instances available, they may only benefit from one in any given instance. If a maneuver does not do actual damage, damage-reduction Shields do not affect it.

• Death •• (Entropic Guard): Attack damage reduction.
• Fate •• (Fortune's Protection): Attack pool reduction.
• Forces •• (Unseen Shield): Attack damage reduction.
• Life •• (Organic Resilience): Attack damage reduction.
• Matter •• (Unseen Aegis): Attack damage reduction.
• Mind •• (Misperception): Attack pool reduction.
• Prime •• (Magic Shield): Special (costs 1 Mana per use).
  • Damaging Effects: Attack damage reduction.
  • Other Effects: Attack pool reduction.
• Space •• (Untouchable): Attack pool reduction.
• Spirit •• (Ephemeral Shield): Attack damage reduction.
  • Spirit ••• (Numinous Shield): Special (costs 1 Mana per use).
    • Damaging Effects : Attack damage reduction.
    • Other Effects: Attack pool reduction.
• Time •• (Temporal Dodge): Attack pool reduction.

Applications

• We do not allow backgrounds with a Child Awakening here on Safe Haven Harbor. All Awakenings should occur after the age of 18.
• TLDR: We are not accepting former Banishers, Seers, Scelesti and other “adversary” Mages.
  For a further explanation of this:
  xxxxxIn the aftermath of the Summer Apocalypse there are no awakened in the region of the game setting. In the future of the setting it is not only possible, but likely that Awakened character from other parts of the world will be encountered and may even migrate to the area in the form of new created PCs who are already parts of orders – but in the immediate and foreseeable future new mages will be those who awaken through RP on the game grid. This being said – it is unlikely that the PCs will look favorably on current or former Banishers, Seers, Scelesti and other “adversary” Mages, PC or otherwise and so we prefer to reserve those concepts for NPCs in plots to avoid creating additional conflict and disharmony among the players. They likely will find other reasons to be at odds with each other without creating an automatic hostility.

Becoming/Awakening Rebuilds

• Becomings in game do require “application” approval before being run as a PRP.
• Mage "Becoming" rebuilds will begin with Gnosis 1 and cannot begin with Arcana over what you are allowed at character creation by the book. (As per the table in MtA, page 76.)
• Rebuilds will not include any changes to skills or attributes, strictly to applicable merits and gaining of a power stat.
• Additionally, please keep in mind that the addition of Mage-specific CG-only merits at Becoming, whether for Mage or Sleepwalker, is at staff discretion.
• Starting Rote dots are not selected at Becoming (Awakening); instead those Rotes dots are banked and are allocated during the *Fostering* process. Traditionally the Fostered novice is taught one Shielding Rote, one Mage Sight rote and one offensive or utility rote – these demonstrated are one of the signs the Foster is ready to be released into an apprenticeship or Apostatery, the fostering person or cabal having met their obligations to tradition. The Orders often offer to teach rotes to a Foster as a way of generating interest in their order to a potential recruit.
• While all awakened can *understand* High Speech, with or without the Merit, the merit of High Speech indicates training in harnessing this magical language to focus Supernal workings. It is not gained immediately upon Awakening (Becoming), nor during the Fostering process. High Speech is learned from the Orders most often, as part of the apprenticeship process – and is part of teaching the student how to use the Rote Mudhras and Skills each order favors. The Merit is *free* at the end of an apprenticeship. Those who chose the path of the Apostate must ICly find someone willing to break protocol and teach them before they can purchase the merit.
• Proximi that Awaken retain their blessings as rotes as per the SL book (page 62-65). The Mage may not be capable of doing the rotes until they gain more experience and raise to the applicable arcana level.
• The Magical Nexus merit available to Thaumaturges is NOT the same thing as a Hallow, and will not convert to one should a Thaumaturge Awaken. The XP for all merit purchases is refunded in the rebuild process, under the sanctity of merits rule from the GMC (GMC Rules update, page 158), so the cost is not lost.

Archmastery

The possibility of achieving the Archmaster Template as per the Imperial Mysteries book is available. When a potential candidate for this process is ready, they must work with staff to create the PRP to find the necessary Quintessence – Staff decides what will be necessary, not the player, and Staff will coordinate with a Storyteller (Player or staff) to run the plot necessary to garner this. When all the preparations are played through and the player is ready to risk everything for that next level of magic, a Staffer will have to run the scenes for the Abyssal Crossing and the Supernal Ablation. To be clear, the player is volunteering to possibly lose their character to the Abyss and NPC status or be destroyed and absorbed by the Supernal Realm in question and lost forever. There is no turning back ICly or OOCly once the crossing is started. There is no retcon. There is a very real probability the mage will be lost as a PC; this is why Masters often prefer to stay as the big fish in the little pond rather than risk losing everything to be a small fish in an infinite pond. Consider yourself +warned.

Causing Awakenings

There is no sure way to cause an Awakening. PCs may not, through their actions, cause the Awakening of another PC (or NPC). Their actions may contribute to the Awakening, but may not directly cause it. There is no formula to it. There is no spell. There is no Legacy that can do it.

Combined Casting

Combined spells are complicated enough to give confusion to some players and staff, this will hopefully clear it up. MtA p. 128-129 provides the explanation of the mechanics, including a table for how many spells you can combine based on Gnosis.

You must exceed the minimum Arcana requirement for the spell effect being combined in order to combine a spell. Ex: If you wish to combine a Shield spell and Mage Sight you must have the Arcana at 3 for the Shield and at 2 for the Mage sight.

You take -2 to your casting pool – quick casting or extended – for each spell you combine. For example casting a Mage Sight spell and Mage Armor spell for the day, you’d take -2 from your pool.

The Imago for each spell must be determined and all applicable factors applied and required mana spent, subtracting dice or adding required success for *each spell separately*.

In the case of a fast casting you must get the 1 minimum success for each spell, so if you combining two spells, you need *2* successes. For extended casting you need to meet all the Imago requirements for each spell as if you were casting it alone.

If you fail to reach the above minimums for both spell, perhaps only one of the effects will occur, example if you only get one success, you only get your shield up, but not the mage sight.

You cannot use Rotes for Combined spells unless you make a Rote of the combination. So if you have the rote for the Mage sight, but not the Armor, you have to use your non-rote pool. If you have the rote for both spells, you *still* have to use the non-rote pool unless you buy the combined spell as a Rote.

When rolling you use the lowest base pool of the spells involved. Ex: If you are Casting Forces 3 + Gnosis for the shield and Spirit 2 + Gnosis for the Mage sight, you use the lower dice pool.

Combined casting is difficult, IC and OOC – but the benefit is it only counts as one spell toward your threshold and maximum spell limit.

Demons & Magic

Clarification: Not all demons are vulnerable to Awakened magic. Mages know most demons are spirits of one kind or another. As such, mages can usually summon, command and banish them with the same spells they would use for other spirits of their kind. There are exceptions, however. Dominions are no mere elementals, thought-forms or hateful ghosts. Their Secret Names, power and guile make them immune to magical compulsion. Spells can injure them and protect people against demonic attacks, but when it comes to summoning Dominions, mages must use the same rites as Sleepers. World of Darkness: Inferno p. 34

Disbelief and Mortals

In the current setting of Quiescence of the Lie has been shaken, and consequently all of humanity are effectively Sleepwalkers and thus do not inflict the mechanic of Disbelief on improbable or impossible Magic effects. This means they *do not* degrade the Potency of ongoing effects nor generate more Paradox for Vulgar castings.

This also means they *do not* forget or explain away the improbably or impossible things they see.

This means while there are no longer Mechanical consequences for blatant use of magic, there are in fact more In character consequences in the form of inquiry and perhaps worse – Awe or Fear. Also, while the mechanics have altered, that does not mean all mages are automatically aware of this factor – and the Gold Laws certainly didn’t alter themselves to update to the current circumstances. OOCly there is no Disbelief – ICly there are still very serious consequences for cavalier use of flashy magic, from within and without mage society.

Seeing Through a Changeling Mask

If a Mage has Ongoing Mage sight -- there is a Reflexive Contest Once a Scene to see if they can pierce the Mask.

The Mage Rolls Scrutiny (Intelligence + Occult) with a -3 Penalty due to the built in power of the Mask. The changeling rolls Wyrd + Resolve.

If the mage gets more successes, they see the Changeling's Mien. If the Changeling gets more successes, the Mage may be aware of the Fae's nature, but they see only what the Mask presents.

If the Fae has Strengthened Mask, the contest is still rolled, but if the Mage gets more successes, they see the Fae as per the mask but see their Shadow as per their True Mien.

Geists & Magic

• Nothing less than an Archmaster of Death may affect a Sin-Eater's Bound Geist. A mage may tell that a Sin-Eater is a Sin-Eater via normal scrutiny means, however. It may be particularly easier if one is using Grim Sight. The reason for this is that a Geist is to a Sin-Eater what the 'spirit' is to werewolf. Sin-Eaters are, effectively, part ghosts. Since a Spirit Mage cannot affect the spirit part of a werewolf, a Death Mage cannot affect the ghost part of a sin-eater.
• No amount of Spirit & Death, short of Imperial Mysteries, will allow a Mage to undo the binding between the Sin-Eater & Geist.
• Affecting Unbound Geists with magic requires Death effects as would affect a ghost, however, due to the Geist's changed nature and the fact that it is no longer purely a ghost, it requires equivalent levels of Spirit and Prime to the required level of Death.

IC Crafting

It was the intention of the game designers for players to have their characters augment themselves and their servitors and allies with Imbued and Augmented items they crafted through their own workings. This being the case the following applies:

If you make a magic item for yourself, casting all the spells yourself, and for use only by yourself or NPCs who are attached to you by a Merit (Retainers, Familiars, etc) then the item costs you no XP – you still pay in IC time, effort and materials obviously.

If you make a magic item but another assists you by say casting a spell into the item you cannot cast yourself, or casting it for you at a higher ability level, then you pay the XP cost for the item as a merit, but have your effort to create the item covering your Justification on the XP spend.

If you make a magic item for a PC or NPC attached to another PC, they must pay the XP cost for the merit. This also means if you make an item for yourself and then later on pass it along to another PC or NPC attached to another PC – they XP cost still applies as if they were taking the Merit. This also means if you make an item, pass it along to another character, then have that character pass it to your New character after you freeze the one who made it – you pay the XP cost for the Merit and also are really pushing the boundary of the Conflict of Interest policy.

For one shot magic items such as Alchemical potions, one use spells or one use Fetishes and the like, the XP cost for another to use it is one Dot. While this is mainly an OOC policy to keep proliferation of one shot magic items from causing merry havoc, it is also thematic in that magic always has some sort of cost.

Addendum: Imbued and Enhanced items gained through acquisition from character generation XP spends or through PRP based recovery or loot or otherwise NPC generated items are set at the basic level of the casting requirement. Ex: If you buy a 3 dot Imbued Item with Forces Shield on it, you get an item with a 2 Defense Shield (the minimum level to cast the spell).

On the other hand, if you get a PC to make the same item for you, you get the item set at the caster level in the Arcanum for the same price. Ex: You get a PC Forces Master to create the item for you and the Shield is a 5 defense shield for the same 3 dot merit cost. This is by design and intent of the game developers and encourages RP.

Any story to acquire magic items, artifacts, fetishes, enhance and augmented items must be approved through a +job with staff prior to RP of the story. Acquiring an item through a PC on the game will be handled through staff by a +job prior to the item being received in play.

Imbued Items

• Imbue Item Clarification: The duration of an imbued item is separated from the duration of the spell that is imbued into it, with Prime 3 setting the duration as prolonged, and Prime 4 as advanced prolongation.
• Infinite Flash: The Infinite Flash item from FC, p.118 uses a Forces/Matter affect to give it unlimited space rather than a Space affect. Matter and Forces fit more than Space does for an electronic tangible item.
• Nevender Batteries: The Neverender batteries from FC uses a Prime 4 affect to be created.
• Imbued Items & Paradox: Imbued items that have vulgar effects risk Paradox. The Paradox roll for an imbued item's effect can only be mitigated through the expenditure of mana and cannot be contained through backlash. Paradox rolls made for items are tallied separately, so the usage of an imbued item that requires a Paradox roll does not count against a mage's total Paradox roll modifier for spells they have cast.

Legacies & Legacy Attainments

• We are aware that Mage Legacies are being altered with the upcoming Mage: the Awakening 2nd edition. At that time we will review/adjust these house rules as appropriate to remain by the book. (If you would like to know more about the changes that are coming, please see this link: http://theonyxpath.com/legacies/)
• Currently the only way to learn a Legacy in-game is from a PC who has it.
• Attainments are treated as spells for the purposes of determining their interaction with wards.
• Legacy Attainments may be used in conjunction to spells given their innate quality and do not count for the cap of passive effects one may cast upon either themselves or others. This does not allow for stacking similar effects - such as armor or stat boosts from legacies with those from spells - unless the spell or attainment otherwise says it can.
• A player may learn a Legacy that is sourced from neither their Path nor Order, but, it must be taught to them by a PC, and the PC must be aware that doing such is typically considered treasonous or betrayal by other members of the Legacy, and so if such should be encountered as NPCs or PCs, consequences are likely to follow. Consider this a +warning.
• No Left-Handed Legacies are allowed for PCs at Character Generation.
• Legacies that could potentially be Left-handed Paths or Right-handed Paths will not be taken at Character Generation.
• Legacies which grant an Arcana as Ruling which is already a Ruling Arcana (e.g. an Acanthus with a Legacy Arcana of Fate) allow the PC with that overlap to purchase that Arcana at 2XP. Legacies only have one ruling arcanum (though they may use more), so a mage with a legacy will either receive the 2XP overlap bonus OR three ruling arcana at 3XP, never both.
• The Uncrowned King Legacy requires gnosis 5 for the 2nd attainment, and gnosis 7 for the 3rd like all other legacies.
• The Perfected Adepts Legacy uses Life, not Mind. They get Life as a new ruling, and Life to their physical attributes with the second attainment, not Mind.
• The Daoine Legacy's first Attainment, "The Eye and the Fist": The first part of the attainment grants the Fate 1 spell "Interconnections" in addition to the Space 1 spell "Correspondence".
• The Subtle Ones second attainment, "False Presence": 1) Non-power-statted people do not get a resistance roll. 2) Power-statted people get a wits+power stat resistance roll & the Subtle One is considered to have achieved as many successes as their Mind dots.
• The Blank Badges get Mind as a ruling Arcana.
• Clarification: When using a Legacy power, the power does not trigger Unseen Senses – metaphysically its not magic but a “natural” function of the Legacy member’s soul. That said, while the power itself is not detectable as magic – many can be resisted by other ongoing effects such as bans or shields and the like, often reflexively. In such cases, the impact of the “natural phenomena” may be detected by some effects such as “Touching the Threads” in relation to a ward being pinged or a similar roll for a person with a Mind Shield to notice that *something* has brushed against it. This also means that while the effect itself may not be detected by active or post-cognitive uses of Arcana, the *effect* on the subject that resulted from the power use could be detected. If you use a Legacy power to change a target’s strongly held point of view, reviewing the subject’s memories will show that sudden change of perspective, for example. This does not mean the origin of the power use is identified, or the power is identified – that becomes the purview of investigation and research.
• A Legacy Ruling Arcana counts for the purposes of the 'two-out-of-three highest Arcana must be Ruling' rule.
• Orphans of Proteus - The third attainment now works in the same way as Shapechanging and Greater Shapechanging in that it is possible to add in an additional optional effect with Matter 4 and 5, as described for the parent spell. Similarly, it is clarified that this covers personal effects that can be considered worn or equipped, e.g. backpack, weapons, armor and so forth. (Having a rifle or two slung across the back is fine; carrying a crate of M16s, 10 RPGs and a gun safe while turning into a pigeon is not. Please play within the spirit of this rule.)
• If your soul has been removed, you cannot access your Legacy powers until your soul has been replaced.

Inducting Someone into a Legacy

In accordance with p. 344 of Mage the Ascension the following points apply to the Tutor and Inductee of a Legacy:

The Tutor pays one willpower *dot*, but may replace it at a cost of 1 XP.

The inductee pays on willpower point, cementing the mystical bond between them.

The Tutor and Inductee have an intimate sympathy to each other, this can be decreased through deliberate magic, but regenerates at a point of one level of sympathy a day until the inductee has Mastered the Legacy completely.

The inductee reflexively passes along a portion of his or her experiences through the mystical soul bond back to his or her Tutor. Every month the inductee pays 1 Arcane Beat (.2 Arcane XP) to their Tutor, this is not voluntary by either party. This continues until the Inductee reaches the highest tier of the Legacy.

Upon reaching Gnosis 5 the inductee can choose to learn the 2nd attainment of his or her Legacy OR can choose to diverge and create their own attainment. If they choose to diverge, they must reach Gnosis 6 to create the new attainment.

Divergence also requires a severing of the link with the Tutor. This requires the Inductee to spend a Willpower Dot (which can be replaced with 1 XP) and this ceases the flow of Arcane beats (.2 xp) to the Master. The intimate sympathy remains, but will deteriorate naturally like any other sympathy or can be wiped clean with deliberate Arcane effects. The Tutor need not consent to this severance.

If an inductee cannot continue study with their original Tutor for some reason, such as death, they can transfer their link to another member of the same Legacy with both the new mentor and the inductee spending a willpower point to link the new bond.

If an Tutor inducts an order based Legacy to someone outside of their order, the price is a loss of Order status and trust traditionally.

Custom Legacies

• When pitching a new Legacy to Staff, please use the rules found in the Mage Corebook on page 366-367. Legacies of the Sublime has some additional suggestions for suitable attainments. Your legacy will be compared to these guidelines prior to approval.
• Custom Legacy Costs: If you create a legacy for your PC in game, your PC is subject to the +1 higher gnosis creation cost (MTA p. 366)

Reality Transfers and Legacies

Mages who are transferring who have Legacies retain these Legacies and the powers derived from them with some caveats. The reason for this retention despite the pre-requisites no longer being met is that each level of induction in a Legacy is a process of actual soul warping, and is a permanent change to the Soul in question. This in turn allows the Soul to apply abilities that are like magic, but which are not magic. (See MtA p. 344-345 for more on this). The caveats are as follows:

Legacy abilities use the changed Dice pools – so they use the lowered Arcana and Gnosis levels not only for their pools, but for the limitations of extended use as applicable.

A Mage cannot induct another mage into the Legacy until they once again meet the minimum requirements for the Tier 2 of the Legacy. A Mage cannot teach the third Tier ability if they possessed it previously until they once again meet the minimum requirements for that Legacy level.

Masque Clarification / Errata

Per the errata for the GotV book, the following values are used for masques. If nothing is mentioned, the values remain the same as printed hard-copy.

• Untended Forge: -1 Resolve; +2 Persuasion
• Sighing Tower: -1 Resolve; +2 Persuasion
• Lord Incarnadine: -2 Socialize; +2 Persuasion
• Vermillion Stole: -2 Socialize; +2 Persuasion
• Gray Cloud: -2 Socialize; +2 Persuasion
• Holy Concubine: -2 Empathy; +2 Persuasion
• Regent: -2 Persuasion; +2 Politics

Mastery & Adepthood

You may learn your Favored Arcana, which includes additional Favored Arcana obtained from a Legacy which would not normally fall under your path, up to Mastery Level without instruction. Additionally, you may reach these levels of puissance using Regular XP – you attunement to your Tower makes your Primary Arcana “natural” to you.

You may learn your Common, or Secondary Arcana without the need of an instructor all the way up to Adepthood (level 4), but to gain Mastery you must receive instruction on the Arcana in question from a Member of that Path as discussed in the Mage the Ascension core book. In addition to that requirement, the first three levels of the Common Arcana may be purchased with standard XP alone; but starting at Adept and going to Mastery the cost must be a mix of 2 standard XP and 2 Arcane XP. The split cost is a mechanical expression of the thematic idea that the Arcana outside one’s tower become more difficult to cipher as part of the personal experience when it reaches the more esoteric levels.

You may learn your Inferior Arcana without need of an instructor all the way through to third level (Disciple), after that, you must find an instructor from that Path to help you navigate the mysteries of the Adept and Mastery level. Additionally, because the Inferior or Tertiary Arcana is in such conflict with one’s “native” aspects, the cost for the first three levels is 3 Standard XP and 2 Arcane XP per dot. The cost for the Adept and Mastery level is paid for entirely with Arcane XP, signifying the struggle with the contrary arcana and the need to connect to it esoterically.

Note and Exception: Mages who transferred from the alternate realm may ignore the requirement for instruction to relearn Common or Inferior levels of Arcana they previous possessed, but, they must still buy back the lost levels with the mixed cost of Arcane and Standard XP like any other Mage.

Merits

• Predator's Innocence - This available for Thyrsus without justification, other paths require staff approval dependent upon the character’s breaking points and integrity.

• Sleepwalker Retainer - Any retainer purchased by a mage automatically receives the Sleepwalker merit. Proximi are a five dot merit, per Retainer house rules.

• Fighting Style: Adamantine Hand - Abyss (•••••) is Archmaster Only. This is not an HR, just a reminder.

• Sleepwalker ••••: Sleepwalkers do not suffer from Disbelief nor do they increase paradox. They also automatically gain Unseen Sense (Awakened Magic).

• Proximus •: This Merit has been turned into a template that gains the Sleepwalker merit for free, as well as six (6) points to put into Blessings. Any Blessing points not used in chargen are simply lost; they cannot be held for later use toward purchase of another Blessing. Proximus as a template is CG Only; you cannot Become a Proximus.
  • A Proximus who Awakens loses access to his or her Blessings as they have been, they will instead become Rotes as covered in the SL book (page 62-65) under the Silver Dynasties, as well as shedding his or her Proximus drawback.
  • Proximi are most likely to Awaken on the Path associated with their Dynasty. Please keep this in mind.
  • Please contact sphere staff for approval of Proximus families before entering CG. This may take a little time; please be patient.

• The following Merits are not allowed for PC use on Safe Haven Harbor:
  • Ancient Echoes
  • Ancient Lands Awakening
  • Blood of the Oath of Ruin
  • Body-Ravaging Magic
  • Graduate of Otranto
  • Guide of Death
  • Luxury
  • Magical Components
  • Mana Self Sacrifice
  • Myrmidon Oath Tongue
  • Nimbus Sense
  • Ractain Strain
  • Supernal Resistance

• Extemporaneous Affinity: This merit is not allowed based on the concept restrictions of this game. If you feel your background should warrant an exception, you may inquire with staff but be aware it may not be accepted.

• Rote Specialty: This Merit is allowed for Awakened who are not a full member of any Order. (Banishers, page 42)

• Slayer: This Merit is clearly meant for Otherworldly threats (e.g. abyssal intruders, spirits, ghosts, sin-eaters, werewolves, etc.). It does not work for Fallen World threats.

• Supernal Anchor: This Merit may not be taken at character creation; it must be gained through an official Staff run scene. Crafting a Supernal Anchor is a violation of wisdom, requiring a difficult integrity check and likely to give you a condition. It also counts as an act of Huberis. It’s also incredibly dangerous to do this, so consider yourself +warned. (Summoners, page 186)

• Mystery Initiation: This merit is covered in great depth in the Mysterium book, this note is a clarification: Mysterium *Rank* may not exceed Mystery Initiation merit, but Mysterium Position Status can. You cannot be a Daduchos Superior (Mysterium Rank 3) without being initiated to the 3rd Mystery, but you *can* be a Curator (Mysterium Position Status 3) without said rank or said initiation. Position is a job locally, Rank is status universally in the order, Initiation is progress into the deeper Mysteries.

• Low Tongue: The Low Tongue (Night Horrors: The Unbidden) causes covert spells to turn vulgar along with giving a +1 to paradox checks. As well, anyone witnessing someone using the Low Tongue will know that the person is not using High Speech and that there is something wrong with the power words, though they may not know what exactly. This merit is not available at character creation.

• Mentor: At this time, Mentor is only available to natives and only for mundane topics, due to game setting.

• Artifacts: In the GMC rules, the Sanctity of Merits rule provides some protection for PCs and their merits. Artifacts are not fully covered by this. ICly it is common and legitimate for Artifacts to change hands because of Duels Arcane, Theft and even orders from one’s superiors in an Order. If you lose an Artifact due to IC causes such as this, your XP will be refunded to your pool. If you lose an Artifact as part of a plot, to an NPC rival – you will be allowed opportunity to recover it, or you may ask for Staff to refund the XP if you don’t wish to pursue it. Any artifacts recovered in Plots, staff run or PRP must have prior approval from staff and the item must be paid for by the PC who will utilize it, not necessarily the one who recovers it. In the case of an artifact put up in vault like the Athenium, and allowed for singular use by individuals as needed, the price of the artifact is not paid by an individual *BUT* in order to use it ICly the player must pay 1 XP per use, like the One Shot Magic Items rules covered above.

• Master Exocist: The +3 dice to exorcism provided by this merit applies to uses of Arcanum but also to the use of “mundane” exorcism rites as described in the God Machine Chronicle. This merit is about applying knowledge, not spell casting.

• Potent Familiar: Provides the Mage with 3 extra XP to use on a Familiar.

• Familiar: This merit is only available to characters who are capable of securing the merit, be it a ghost, Goetic, etc. Exception, transferring characters in possession of a familiar merit will retain it.

Hallows

Hallows are special case and require a PrP and staff approval to be purchased, because of their fixed-location nature and tendency to affect the area around them.

Proximi Blessings

When Proximi select a blessing that has a spell description indicating its strength is based on the number of dots held in a particular arcana, they will instead use the number of dots held in the highest blessing of that same arcana. For example, if a Proximi knows Unseen Aegis (**) and Repair Object (***), both of which are Matter arcana, then their Unseen Aegis would grant 3 dots of Armor.

Rank Position

Order Status as a merit does not cost XP if gained IC in the game. At character generation, purchasing Order status above 1 will have an XP cost and is capped at 2. If creating a character of 1 or higher Order status, the character must meet the requirements of that status per the Order book.

Perfected Metals

General

• Perfecting a metal takes a minimum of 24 shifts into a Twilight state, and the process will reduce the quantity of metal by a ratio of 10:1. e.g. To make 1lb of Lunargent, you will need 10lb of Silver.

Siderite

• Anything made out of Siderite will not be able to be broken through mundane means.
• Weapons made out of Siderite will permanently gain the sharpening benefit if applicable.

Orichalcum:

• Any Magical Tools made out of this metal will confer a +1 to your Path's ruling Arcana during casting. This is because of its innate link to the Supernal.

Lunargent:

• Any Weapons made out of this metal will give a +2 (Damage) equipment bonus. This metal does not affect Supernatural creatures like normal silver insofar as doing aggravated damage or causing bad reactions.

Hermium:

• Because of its liquid state, Hermium is used to coat projectiles. Hermium is toxic, and when it enters the body, it is considered to be Toxicity 3. If the victim does not negate the Toxicity, the effect is taken as a negative modifier to all rolls in their next action.

• Example: Pansy shoots William with a Hermium-smeared bullet. He makes a Stamina+Resolve roll and gets 2 successes, therefore having a -1 to his next action. If he had gotten 3+ successes, he would have negated the negative modifier.

Embodied Familiars and Magic

• Familiars now have a Claimed Condition, fitting with GMC that is slightly different from Claimed although it operates on similar principles.

• This is clarified further as follows:

• An Embodied Familiar is not strictly a Median Lifeform in the basic sense. Spirits have their forms for a reason and often these are tied in with their identity; from a roleplay perspective, please consider when using Life magic that your Familiar may not approve of its form being altered.

• Embodied Familiars are living beings and like any other living being they cannot be subjected to Indefinite duration spells. They also cannot be subject to Hereditary Change or other Lasting effects that do not heal or harm the body.

• Given the above, no Life effect -- with the exception of simple healing or harming spells of a Lasting duration -- may have a duration longer than 24 hours when targeting an Embodied Familiar, unless the spell also has Spirit as a Conjunctional effect of a level equal to the Life requirement. i.e. A Life 4 effect would have a maximum duration of 24 hours, unless the practitioner also has Spirit 4.