New Magical Tradition...ish, Need some help w/design Options

[taeksosin]

Howdy folks,
Edit: I'm the GM for this game, and am designing this for one of the players in the group.

So, due to my group's mage dying off and being replaced with a more street-sammy type, I've decided that the anti-aug paraplegic ex-lawyer in my group is going to start awakening mid game. He's a hilarious rip off of Archer, who routinely lets it drop that he's a lawyer/shadowrunner/prophet of his chosen religion of the week.

I want to design a tradition off of the religion of the week concept. I'm thinking he resists drain with Wil/Charisma, and has an automatic geas to all abilities that he has to engage in some ridiculous misinterpretation of their rites to cast a spell.

The kicker is that I want his spell choices/powers to vary by what religion he's currently observing. My thoughts are that he'll awaken as a mystic adept, with a total magic score of four. The various religions will effect where his points are spent and such.

One example:
The Force - Believes in the Force. Has to wear a cobbled together Jedi robe and use a flashlight to point at people he's casting spells at.
Magic Assignment: Adept 2 Magician 2
Spells known: Magic fingers, improved reflexes, stun bolt, some equiv. of force persuade
Abilities: Great leap...some others, not sure what yet

Ideally, I'd like to cobble together about twelve of these, based on very superficial research of the religion in question. If you don't feel comfortable posting them due to possibly offending someone, you're more than welcome to PM them to me and I'll post them myself without letting on who wrote it. This is one of those things that I think other characters could potentially use in the future for hilarious results.

[Lionhearted]

Wouldn't it be easier to have the same spell selection but give it different fluff for each religion
Like having force lightning as a jedi and the next week invoking Mjolnir when he's a asatru follower.

Also spirits leaves alot of room for creativity as they tend to reflect your beliefs in their manifestation. Even better if they're horribly confused/insulted by your intepretation (spirit bane quality?)

[DoomFrog]

The idea is pretty cool as long as your GM is okay with you switching your spells and powers all the time. Here is one I threw together.

Christianity: Has to carry a bag of stale bread and bottle of wine at all times. Spells can only be cast by throwing "holy" water on targets. Gliding only works across water.
Magic Assignment: Magician 3 Adept 1
Spells known: Heal, Cure Disease, Control Emotions, Flamethrower
Abilities: Gliding

[taeksosin]

I'm the GM. I'm designing this for my player. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Iduno]

It may help if we knew what the character believes each religion is.

I am also guessing this guy shouldn't worship Odin (the god who cut out his eye).

[Lionhearted]

I am also guessing this guy shouldn't worship Odin (the god who cut out his eye).

or impales himself on a tree letting spears stab him while he's hanging there...

When I think about it that story is an awful lot like an initiation...

Odin hung himself from the world tree Yggdrassil for nine nights all the while having sharpened spears stabbing his ribcage, on the ninth day he could by the virtue of suffering reach down and grab nine magical runes, that gave him the knowledge of nine magical spells (songs) previously unknown to mankind.

[taeksosin]

That's just the thing, he doesn't know anything about the religion's that he espouses the beliefs of. Think typical celebrity religion. He does the equivalent of hearing about it from TMZ, and it's his new thing. In table terms, I give him 90 seconds on Wikipedia to absorb as much about the religion as he can. The religion changes after each run, to keep up the continuity of a new one every week.

Best part, he completely disavows that at any point he followed the previous religion. Fun, effective character that screws up in all the right places for an Evil GM^™.

[Udoshi]

The kicker is that I want his spell choices/powers to vary by what religion he's currently observing. My thoughts are that he'll awaken as a mystic adept, with a total magic score of four. The various religions will effect where his points are spent and such.

Ideally, I'd like to cobble together about twelve of these, based on very superficial research of the religion in question.

From Ancient History's Advanced Magic Sourcebook Protodraft:
New Positive Qualities:
- Acolyte
- Prerequisite: Mentor Spirit
-- The character is something of a mercenary among magicians; their allegieance to a mentor spirit shifts and changes with their needs. Such a relationship has its benefits and suits many magicians, but the mental and spiritual strain can be too much for others.
-- Once every 28 days, the character /must/ change their mentor spirit to another of their choosing. The character receives all the advantages and disadvantages of the new mentor spirit, and loses all the advantages ad disadvantages of their old mentor spirit.


Also, you may want to look at the Aleph Society pact in digital grimoire. It revolves around the idea of lending magic out to others(similiar to a powerpact, kinda), but more in that a caster's available magic fluxuates depending on how much draw/supply there is at the network at the moment.
It could be worth looking for stealing, so that your mage's magic/confidence varies depending on HOW much he buys into his current religion of choice.