SURGE?, What the hell? Options

[GaiasWrath8]

OK, so I have seen people talk about SURGE. I have also seen people talk about a flaw that makes you dual Natured. Can any one tell me what book this is in? I have a player who really wants to be Dual Natured so he can take Aura Reading.

Thanks. :twirl:

[Ol' Scratch]

Year of the Comet. :)

[toturi]

Year of the Comet.

In the book, there is an Edge and a Flaw that can get you Aura Reading.

[Backgammon]

[Nikoli]

They might want to consider the Edge that grants astral perception (and a magic rating of 1 provided Essence isn't below 1)

[GaiasWrath8]

Oh cool, so this is all in Year of the Comet? No wonder. I must pick it up then.

:D

[Canid13]

[toturi]

[Fortune]

[edit]Move along. Nothing to see here.[/edit]

[Nikoli]

Unless it happened in game, which isn't likely. Hrmm, I coulda swore that one edge had an essence minimum, because of the Magic attribute granting, which IIRC it's the only way to gain the magic attribute for a mundane.

[GaiasWrath8]

Well you have all been helpful. I just ordered the book from amazon. Any one mind telling me how many points Dual Natured is?

also, The player who wants this has an essance of 2+ left but lots of bio, could he take that other one you were talking about, the ability to peak? How many points was that?

[Gilthanis]

Also keep in mind that per the erratta, IIRC, they changed how bio index + cyberware effect magic. If you have 4 points of essence loss from cyberware and 4 points of bio index, you now total -6 when calculating magic.

EDIT] I meant -6 Essence not target numbers.

[Canid13]

Dual natured is like -10 I think - it's a 'flaw' while the 'edge' is something similar in points costs.

With the magic rating astral perception edge, does the magic point get lost automatically if you aren't whole (Essence 6 and Bioindex 0) when you become a SURGE Changeling or do you get it at the 'false zero' which is whatever your stats are at the time and then lose the magic point (and hence your ability to percieve) should you lose more essence and/or increase your bio index?

As for the dice roll, I'm pretty sure it says that you round essence down to get the number of dice you roll.

[GaiasWrath8]

ok, so I am missing something. If you are dual natured (10 point flaw) you can see astraly...all he time. So you can take aura reading..but thats only a suplamentry skill. So what would I roll for a non-magic charector to assence some one? And also, does magic have a default?

[Fortune]

Intelligence for Assensing. Magic skills, according to canon, cannot default to anything ... even Willpower. There is currently a large thread about house-rules for this very subject.

[Nikoli]

Well, with no Magic Attribute, you'd have to rely on the Aura Reading Skill and take half your successes for the assencing table.

Just remember a dual-natured character has trouble with barriers, annoyed astral creatures and astral targeting as well as they will likely catch a goodly share of the incomming fire as the mage on the opposing side sees their little astral beacon self and tells the gun-bunnys to fire your way.

[Gilthanis]

You use intelligence to aura read and the aura reading skill is complimentary. Don't forget if you are initiated, you also get an astral pool equal to your grade that can also be used when assensing. Instead of using dual natured which is pretty hard to surge to being it is like -10. You could get Astral perception which is +6 and take other negative flaws. That would be much safer and more beneficial.

According to the books, there is no default for Magic specifically. Either you have it or you don't....whith the exception of SURGE which still means you only had it because the mana levels rose enough to open yours.

Keep in mind also that by Surging and getting the magic point, that does not allow you to use any of the magic skills except aura reading and possibly enchanting as described. So, no metamagics and no initiating. Unless you are a mage already.


You could though make wards. The second biggest benefit even though they would only be force 1's.

[Nikoli]

I dunno, I'd allow a newly awakened character to begin learning magic. But not at char-gen. They could have the edge, but not take sorcery or conjuring, they'd have to learn that in game. It also means that if they want to be able to toss more than a force 1 anything, they had better come up with some karma to initiate and raise their magic attribute.

[Gilthanis]

[GaiasWrath8]

I have already told this guy that Dual Natured was nuts, but players will do what ever they want until some one puts a bullet in there head.

Two of my five players are already dual nature.

A Physical Adept Drake...
and a Shapeshifter (Bear) Full Shaman of Bear Albino... Talk about taking it to far.

So with two other dual natured charectors he felt safe taking it. Man I am really going to screw with them when they sleep.

[GaiasWrath8]

Ok, sorry. So then If some one took dual natured they would be able to use aura reading, take half sucsess and add to an Int check? Would the int check be at defualt penaltees?

[Ol' Scratch]

If that much of the group is already dual-natured, most of the problems that being dual-natured causes is a moot point -- the team's already tripping wards and astral-targeting opponents don't have just one guy to focus all of their attacks on.

[Nikoli]

Yeah, then it's time for a high force manaball from astral space

[Fortune]

Assensing is always Intelligence, with Aura Reading as complimentary. There is no need to default.

Dual Natured is nowhere near as bad if the character is Magically-active (which is why it's only a 5 point flaw for them), especially if they can Initiate and pick up Masking.

[Nikoli]

True. That's be a fun flaw to mix with Spirit Bane