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< Circle Of Adamant | Spell Index | Circle Of Emerald >

Sorcery: General Info

Just a general page for innate Sorcery related information and such.

Sorcery Related Rules

• Essence Flow, as mentioned in the White Treatise, cannot be used during a Shape Sorcery action. In order to use a charm or effect while shaping sorcery, it has to be a hanging effect established earlier (so he still benefits from Scene Long charms), its activation has to be entirely out of the character's control (thus the Sorcerer can allow Surprise Anticipation Method to flip on), or the effect must be entirely innate and utterly natural (such as the Sorcerer's Anima ability).
• There are limits to the overall power of Sorcery. It cannot affect Celestial Events without the permission of the Incarna, it cannot make drastic immediate changes to the Geomancy of Creation, It cannot see the future or be used to travel there, and it cannot truly return the dead to life.
• In general, everything else is game. Though many many things will be outside the effective reach of anything in the setting.

A Note on Spell Balancing, and Essence Costs

For the purposes of balancing spells of the Three Circles, the following will be taken into account:

• In general, a spells relative potency will be measured via how much Essence it costs to cast it.
• When balancing a spell for its Circle, only consider it's base cost. Not any opportunity costs incurred when the spell is cast, nor variable costs that enhance a basic effect in limited and predictable ways. It's possible to spend 100 motes on a simple Terrestrial Circle spell.
• Terrestrial Circle Spells are weak for their cost, in general, but are often "solid, practical and useful". No Terrestrial Circle spell costs more than 25m.
• Celestial Circle Spells are almost of the same power grade as Solar Circle spells, for their cost, but are not as potent in practice. The Solar Circle Sorcerer is simply able to pull off more impressive effects with a concomitantly greater cost. No Celestial Circle spell costs more than 35m.
• Solar Circle Spells start off at 40m+, but can get Cheaper with the inclusion of Drawbacks, Side-effects and other Tradeoffs. There's no upper limit to Solar Circle and other than such tradeoffs, the only measure of a Solar Circle Spell's power is it's most cost. The following guidelines apply:
  • For these purposes, "Immanent Solar Glory" will be considered of prime importance. An Essence 7 spell costs closer to 175 motes than 110.
  • The Adamant Circle spell: Solar Charging Ritual can add (Essence x 15m) to the maximum mote cost that a Solar Circle Sorcerer can manage and this allows even more impressive effects. The effective maximum mote value an Essence 5, maxed out Sorcerer can manage is thus: 215m.
  • Through both methods, even a maxed out Essence 10 Solar can't manage more than 390 mote spells. This is not the upper limit on Sorcery, however, and there are ways around this available to the enterprising Sorcerer. An Essence 6 Occult charm, available to the most puissant Solar Sorcerers, enables multiple Twilights to work together to craft even more impressive spells.
  • In general, for balance, consider each Solar contributing to an effect to be good for about 200 motes. In general, getting 25 Sorcerer's of this caliber working together on something was the upward limit of what was possible in the First Age. Such spells can use up to 5,000 motes. The Salinan Working is the most prominent example of a spell of this Magnitude and represents a good practical ceiling on what Solar Circle Sorcery can accomplish.

The following is a chart showing the "Tiers" of Solar Circle sorcery, in effect, the "Minimum Essence requirements" for such spells. It's calculated from the minimum Essence required for a Solar with full purchases of Immanent Solar Glory, Willpower 8, and and 14 dots of Virtues to cast a spell costing that much. With the use of the Solar Charging Ritual spell, an Essence 5 Solar could thus cast spells up to Tier 9!