CollectiveSorcery
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Collective Sorcery
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The power of the Dragon-Blooded is in their numbers, not their individual strength. This extends to their Charms, their training and in some rare cases, their sorcery. In a similar manner to the various martial arts initiations, there are methods of training and practice that allow a Dragon-Blood to reshape the flows of his Essence and broaden his understanding of the mechanics of Creation. By harnessing the natural harmony between Dragon-Blooded, groups of these trained sorcerers are able to combine their powers an achieve feats of power that no single Terrestrial can produce.
In the First Age there existed spells of the Solar Circle that could speed the process and Artifacts that helped the Terrestrials harmonize their essence flows with each other, allowing temporary use of Collective Casting or Supportive Sorcery among a specific group. These spells and Artifacts are, however, long lost to the Age of Sorrows. Instead the modern Dragon-Blooded must rely on the far more strenuous vision quests, physical deprivation and training that forcibly reshapes their minds and Essence.
Supportive Sorcery
The goal of the Supportive Sorcery is to combine the powers of several sorcerers together for the casting of a single spell of the Terrestrial Circle. In this way a spell is given more power then a single sorcerer can put behind it. After completing the training a sorcerer learns the Charm Sorcery Shaping Unity. Without that Charm it is impossible to lead or join in Supportive Sorcery.
Casting with Supportive Sorcery takes much longer then normal spells, the characters must shape the spell for 10 turns instead of 1. These turns are counted by the leader's initiative; all supporters simply forfeit their turns while shaping.
= Offering Support
To participate in Supportive Sorcery a character must know the spell being cast and have mastered Sorcery Shaping Unity. After the leader has begun casting and paid all costs for the spell, the supporters may offer their Essence and skills to the leader. Up to four characters can offer support to a sorcerer. Each supporter pays up to their Stamina + Occult + Specialties in motes. If a supporter is prevented from finishing the shaping, their motes are not spent; they were lost in the disruption.
Leading Supportive Sorcery
When a character leads Supportive Sorcery , he begins casting a spell as normal but they must expend 1 additional willpower. The sorcerer must also expend 2 motes for each supporter. Once all his costs are paid, the supporters begin their function. Because of the great power being funneled through him and into the spell, the leader must make a Stamina + Occult roll for every turn of spell shaping. Failure results in an automatic health level of lethal damage, botching makes the damage aggravated. Either of these forces a roll to resist casting disruption.
After the shaping is complete the leader may choose how to expend the power given to him by the supporters. For every 2 motes spent by the supporters the leader may add 1 die to a dice pool involved in the spell, put 1 mote toward the cost of the spell, or he can raise a trait measured by the spell by 1 effective dot.
Collective Casting
The often sought after but rarely achieved power of collective casting allows the Dragon-Blooded to reach beyond their normal limits and reach the powers of their Celestial cousins: Sapphire Circle Sorcery. Seen as a threat by the Sidereals, this technique is never spoken of at the Heptagram and its use is highly discouraged by the Immaculate Order, saying it touches upon the tainted powers of the Anathema. Despite this, it is known to a few Realm sorcerers and some of those in Lookshy and used in times of desperate need.
Mastery of Collective Casting is represented by learning Harmonious Union Technique. Once this Charm is learned, the sorcerer has mastered the Essence changes necessary to theoretically understand and grasp spells of the Celestial Circle. He may then purchase the Terrestrial version of Celestial Circle Sorcery and spells of that circle.
Celestial spells cast by Dragon-blooded take 20 minutes to shape, though the normal amount of time to release.
Attempting to cast a spell of the Celestial Circle requires five Dragon-Blooded either of the same element or one from each of the five elements. No other configurations can bring to bear properly balanced and channeled power to activate the spell without disaster.
Each sorcerer in an improperly aspected Circle attempting a Celestial Spell must make a difficulty 7 Essence + Occult roll to control the spell's power. If even one member fails, the spell fails as if it were shattered by Sapphire Countermagic and all the characters in the Circle take 5 dice of aggravated damage. A botch doubles the damage.
If the Circle of sorcerers is properly balanced, each character must pay the full cost of the spell and make any rolls required. The lowest number of successes is the one that is used. Celestial spells that affect the caster affect only one of the sorcerers, one agreed to by all the sorcerers. That character must expend 3 extra motes to draw the spell to himself.
Comments
I don't think I like how the points are spent, for supportive, because all of the options are not equal. If you can raise your effective permanent essence by 1 and doing so gives you an automatic success then why ever by a bonus die? The only reason I can think of is that the perm essence factor doesn't exisit in all spells. - Malikai
You are correct. In some spells, adding dice will be obviously what you want to do. In others, you'll want to raise your Essence or spend motes on a variable cost. Depending on what you cast, you'll invoke a different effect. I didn't design the system to work equally well with all spells. Some are naturally more suited to it and stronger then others when used with it. - Telgar
