Latest revision as of 01:16, 6 April 2010

No Pie For You! Only Thaumaturgy!

Thaumaturgy currently sucks, ya know. The Sciences, anyway. I'm sick of my amazing Solar healer having no experience whatsoever with Alchemy, or my perplexingly fantastic Dragon-Blooded craftsman who can't enchant a bucket of water to stay wet without spending stupid amounts of XP or bonus points. This is a vague attempt to muck around with it a bit until it's horribly broken. Er, until it works better. Yes...

• - back to LeumasWhite

Sciences

Ok... roughly, your level in a Science is determined by various Abilities; not by some number representing your training. Training is purchased similarly to Arts; you're either trained or you aren't. The various Ability combinations are:

• Alchemy - (Occult+Medicine)/2
• Enchantment - (Occult+Craft)/2
• Geomancy - (Occult+Lore)/2
• Weather Working - (Occult+(Survival or Sail))/2

Fractions are rounded down, ie. Medicine 4 and Occult 5 will qualify you as a level 4 Alchemist. And your maximum level in a Science is equal to the lower of the two Abilities, +1. So Medicine 1 and Occult 5 makes you level 2. Simple!

Now, training in Sciences is hard. For the Arts, all you need is some basic info on what you're gonna be dealing with... for Sciences, you need very detailed and particular tutoring in the theories and principles behind them. Training in a science requires 18 XP, 15 if Occult is Favoured (or 7/6 BP), and 4 months spent learning at the knee of a master thaumaturge. These folks are fairly rare, too; no more than a dozen or so in each direction, plus one or two extra in each of the major cities.

Onto the buying of the actual formulae (or weather rituals/methods of enchantment, whatever). An untrained thaumaturge must buy each and every formula separately, with each formula costing 1XP, or 1 BP for two. A trained thaumaturge is assumed to know all formulae of her level of expertise, so a level 3 Alchemist would know every level 1, 2, and 3 Alchemical formula. Level 4 and 5 formulae are always bought separately, regardless of skill, and you must have the Science at 5 to purchase formulae of level 5, but as I'll explain in a bit they get easier to perform the higher your level in your chosen Science.

Performing the Science is as described in the Players's Guide; gather your ingredients, prepare your ritual space and whatnot, then make your roll. The second of the two abilities listed above may be used in place of the regular Occult (Medicine for Alchemy, Craft for Enchantment, Lore for Geomancy and Survival or Sail for Weather Working). Apart from the various modifiers listed, trained thaumaturges receive two dice extra on this roll, and the difficulty of the roll is modified by the difference between your level of skill and the level required for the formula. And obviously a trained thaumaturge doesn't need to worry about the "unavailable ingredients" penalty. An untrained mortal thaumaturge with a skill of 1 attempting a level 4 formula would be legally required to Exalt if they succeeded. Seriously.

That's pretty much all I had in mind, I think, but it's currently late and lack of sleep makes Leumas something something. "Go crazy?" Don't mind if I do! *whoops, runs off into distance*

Exalts! *fanfare*

Ah, Exalts. Not that they don't already make thaumaturgy seem trivial with their Charms, but I feel they needed a bigger benefit, a further enhancement of their previous studies, like all things the Exaltation touches. So now, Exalts receive 1 automatic success on any Science roll they attempt per dot of Essence over 1. Shiny Solar #62 with Essence 4 gets 3 automatic successes when trying to craft his enchanted sword, for example. I'll say that they understand the underlying principles of Essence (and thus Creation) better for their closer connection to it, but that's just me inventing something to explain it away. Anyone else feels like taking a stab at a reason, go right ahead.

Explanation, Or "What The Hell Are You On?"

Basically, my intention was that 98% of thaumaturges in Creation were untrained. The level 5 stuff is purely for the masters, the sort of people who have spent most of their lives studying this. Note that most of this was based on Alchemy; I've possibly left out something important regarding the other Sciences. The thing with the Exalts was so that they're better at it than mortals... not like they really need it, but hey, it's there.

I admit I haven't put an extreme amount of thought into this, but I really didn't like the way it was in the Player's Guide. Any Exalt with Craft, Occult, Lore or Medicine as one of their main Abilities should logically have at least some exposure to the Sciences, but the current rules don't reflect this. Perhaps I was entirely wrong to create this... maybe not. And I'm pretty much positive I've forgotten something obvious. Hey, that's why I'm putting it on the wiki, right? For viewing in the public eye. So, here you go.

As a side note, I highly recommend the Knowledge background for any Exalt-based game where thaumaturgy is important. But halve the amount of points you get, and remove the Flaws bit.

Comments

The comments, they go here. Duhuhuhuhuhuuu. - LeumasWhite, so very tired

My ST gave us a knowledge rating equal to the Occult rating we started the game with (as Exalts, obviously it would be broken for mortals) and specified all the bonus points were to be spent on Thaumaturgy. Not as complex as yours, but fixes the problem a little bit. It's only a quick fix though. I like your system, but it seems to make some things easier. Then again I havn't really played with thaumaturgy much, so I don't know.
-- Darloth

I really like some of the stuff here, and I know it's been years since this bit has been updated, but thought I'd throw in a thought myself... In the game I'm running, I'm using Performance for Weather Working because in most of the tribes the PCs are going/may encounter it's a rain dance sort of affair. Just thought I'd throw in two cents there. - EwindaleMoss