Sorcery
Sorcery
Sorcery is a form of magic performed by the unenlightened (non-Mages). Few supernaturals find it useful to practice the rigors of sorcery, focusing on gifts or disciplines which are more easily mastered. Humans make the best sorcerers as they can manipulate the raw stuff of magic, called mana. Other supernaturals channel mana into other things, gnosis, vitae, etc. In fact, having the latter precludes the former entirely. For this reason, it is generally assumed that sorcery is the realm of mortals, but that is not entirely true. Anyone with the knowledge and skill can enact a sorcerous rite. Doing so is different from most other powers however.
Every sorcerous path rolls a different combination of attribute and ability. (Techno-sorcerers may substitute Technology on occasion.) The difficulty of the roll is the level of the highest aspect invoked+3. The minimum number of successes required to cast a spell is one. However, one success only allows a sorcerer to invoke that path's Aspects at the very first level. For each Aspect that the sorcerer invokes beyond the first level he needs to accumulate one additional success. In order to do anything more than parlor tricks, one must be a complicated sorcerer. Because invoking a higher level of an Aspect means using a higher level of the corresponding Path, the chance of success drops exponentially as the difficulty rises and the number of required successes increases. A human with a mana pool may spend mana to lower the difficulty. Other sorcerers must do it the hard way.
Despite the difficulty, higher level paths are enacted regularly, but they are usually done as an extended roll. Magic is more time consuming than activating a Discipline or calling on a Gift. To calculate the time involved you need to know the level of the highest aspect invoked. For every two dots in the aspect invoked, the sorcerer must take 1 round of casting (round up). So if the sorcerer intend to invoke a level 5 aspect, the first roll to enact the spell will take 3 rounds. Since the sorcerer may have to acquire multiple successes to complete a spell, the sorcerer may turn any attempted spell into an extended roll. The time required for each subsequent roll is equal to the amount of time already spent on the spell. A botch at any time during this can have catastrophic effects. On the other hand, failing to accumulate enough successes has relatively little effect, so a sorcerer can end an extended roll voluntarily at any time. A sorcerer can also choose to complete a spell and not enact it immediately. This is a hung spell. Hung spells are distracting. The first hung spell and every other hung spell afterward increase the difficulty of all social and mental tasks by +1.
Finally, a word about rituals. Custom rituals are not allowed except for the Enchantment and Alchemy paths. If a ritual is available for a path, then the cost is 3 XP to purchase it. How you learn it is up to you. Rituals may have a greater default duration or effect than the path. For more information on each path, including the default rolls, modifiers and duration for a typical spell, click the links on this page for more information.
