How close do you have to be to magically remove an astral signature from a location?

Can you perform the "Cleansing" metamagic while astral, or from across the street?

How far out does a Background Count reach?

Like an alleyway has 5 brutal murders in it. The BG count would be high. But would you walking by on the sidewalk casting spells while passing the alley suffer the BG count to a lesser degree from distance?

Can an Ally Spirit use a foci?

Can Shaman bind or control Elementals? They can banish I know.

How broken would this metamagic be?

A single brutal murder would cause a background count. Trick is, it takes a lot more than that for the background count to last more than maybe a few weeks. Concentration camps have heavy background count over a hundred years later.

~J

And yes I think I was looking for a slower healing spell. For those times it's too hard to cast under pressure, have it started before the drek hits the fan, and feel the warm tingle afterwards.

Thanks Doctor Funky and Totori I'll look into that Path magician stuff, and the UMT Hermetics. I wanted to throw something a little odd at the players, and on a remote possiblity have one of them learn it. I haven't gotten the SOTA:64 yet, but I will now.

Anchoring foci didn't quite hit what I was going for. As the foci itself needs to cast the spell at that point which might fail, and the creator suffers the drain again. But the way I was looking was just to hold back, and remove some of the successes temporarily, so the effect is nulled. The surpressing the Invisibility spell came along the same ideas of being able to suppress wards. And there is another metamagic that allows Severing. Surpressing ICe too But I can see how munchkined up it can be. I might scrap this idea totally.


And back to DarkShade.

So if you shoot a troll, and he soaks and shows no outward effect. Does your disbelief factor grow then too?

And almost anything and everything that causes an 'emotional response' causes BG count. It's the nature of magic and BG counts. So yes a murder would cause a temporarily strong one that fades. Multiple murders would last longer in an area.



But what I really wanted to know is how far or large of an affect does it have. BG count X 5 meters? or like a grenade with -1BG/m away from center.

Any ideas on how to fix the Supress Damage? I figured the high power point cost would cover any disbelief factor. Considering that an adept can punch a hole through a steel wall from across the room with the right powers that cost alot less than 10 points.

Err, "manual anchor" should be "manual trigger." Words, how I hate 'em.

few remarks to add..

1- fixing the supress damage: create something like an illusion power, so while you ARE wounded the illusion covers for it so as to show few outward signs. this would be a cheap power though, unless you combine it with pain resistance then it would cost a little more <but not a full point>. main difference with the power as you put it is that wounds are real. a sword that decapitates you still kills you even if you have 20 points of this, you dont `keep fighting for a while then die with your head rolling off..> the mana level in sr doesnt seem enough atm to warrant the version you proposed... see my version as sort of a combined healthy glow spell and adept pain resistance..

2) Background counts.. sorry consistency of gming is completely broken if background counts are created so easily.. are you going to map every area in the puyallup with an `emotional map` for background counts? if not you will not be consistent therefore the mage player will just feel like he is being targeted by the GM at whim, which (s)he is. Leave background counts for the heavy things only...if not make sure you discuss it with your players. as said there are no exact rules just guidelines.

3) shamans: I disagree with the good doctor 100% for roleplay reasons, someone choosing a point of bear and a point of eagle and a point of shark seems plain wrong to me. it doesnt fit in with shamanic tradition.. roleplaywise its not impossible but its like d&d 3.5 with its half races if you know what I mean...


DS

In Doc's defense, that isn't what he's saying, or even implying. His point is that, while it is true that a Totem chooses a Shaman in some, if not most (my addition) cases, there are some cases in which the Shaman himself first opts to follow the ideals of a Totem, thereby shaping his view of Magic, and hence his ability to wield it.

Just as some Awakened people express their Magic as Psionics, a person's upbringing, beliefs, and cultural expectations can all have an effect on how a particular person's Magic is expressed.

This is exhibited in the way certain tribes have, for example, more followers of Bear than others. The tribal expectations placed upon an awakened youth would have a great impact on just how his Magic expresses at adolescence. Is it truly Bear that approaches him, or is it that he wishes so much that Bear would approach, that he himself influences the expression?

And the afore mentioned brutal murder (or five) mentioned above, is an 'easy' way to ramp up the background count.

Note that 'the street' will tend to be pretty clear alot of the time, since most stuff will tend to even out (except in universally crappy areas like the barrens). But most 'enclosed' spaces like buildings (where the 'same' sort of stuff tends to happen) can get a background count of 1 or 2 pretty easily.

IMHO, if the GM is really going to play up background counts he should take the time to aspect them. In general, backgound counts should be supportive of 'more of the same', so you won't have and trouble nailing people with manabolt on the sight of the brutal murders, but healing someone it right out. It's the background counts generated by hopelessness and apathy (which are opposed to just about everything) that should be the 'worst', magically speaking. This can also explain why runners don't notice the background counts their mass murders create, it's always supportive of yet another killin'. Just wait until they are trying to heal their mates ate the end of the gun fight. GM: Hmm you killed all the witnesses huh, heal spells are not TN +3. muhahaha.

This is probably one of the overlooked disadvantages of being dual natured, you have to put up with the background counts of where you live (I would assume that they promote a feeling of '_______', depending on their aspect.)

Note that the PCs can reduce the background count of an area by removing the things that cause them. I.e. running out the church worshippers and that pesky background count will take care of itself (after a while, anyway).