FOCUSED PRACTITIONER (Pg. 136) (Supernatural Scale)

While lacking the raw power and the training requisite for a full magical practitioner, you have been gifted—whether by purpose or providence—some small yet potent mystical capability that permits considerable strength across a more limited spectrum. The ectomancer Mortimer Lindquist is a fine example: his abilities are limited to communing with spirits, yet in that respect his capabilities are profound. This mantle requires advance preparation because magical power can manifest in countless ways; consult the GM and the rules for creating stunts (page 114) and modifying mantles (page 200) for guidance. Focused practitioners usually operate at Supernatural scale (page 182).

UNIQUE CONDITIONS

Exhausted (sticky): []

Mark this condition to boost your magical power, as described by the Magical Talent stunt. When you are Exhausted, the GM has one boost to use against you in any scene in which your fatigue may be used against you. The GM may claim this boost at any time during a relevant scene. Clearing Exhausted, of course, requires an active effort to rest. The GM may allow this recovery to occur between any two scenes involving a sufficient time jump.

Burned Out (lasting): []

Mark this condition to further boost your magical power, as described by the Magical Talent stunt. If Burned Out, you cannot use magic, period, until fully recovered. Begin recovery by eating, meditating, or otherwise deliberately resting as per the Exhausted condition. Recover fully at the end of the following session. One-trick ponies are terrifying when they can sic legions of ghosts on you. Mr. Lindquist is one of the most underestimated practitioners alive. Like I said.

CORE STUNTS

Magical Talent:

You channel magic in a certain specific, limited way. Choose a general theme for your talent, such as ectomancy (speaking with ghosts), kinetomancy (dealing with motion), or precognition (seeing the future). Choose three levels of manifestation for your talent:

1. One default combination of approach and action that gains the benefit of Supernatural scale (page 182), which you may do whenever you please. Example: Defend with Intellect because you can see moments into the future.
2. A themed stunt effect you may use when you mark Exhausted. This effect may be an enhancement to your default ability or a unique effect that lasts an entire scene. Example: Mark Exhausted to automatically see the most emotionally intense moment in someone’s possible future. If you act on that knowledge in this or in a future scene, gain +2 to any relevant actions during that scene.
3. A very powerful themed stunt effect you may use when you mark Burned Out. This effect may be an enhancement to your default ability or a unique effect that lasts an entire session. Example: Mark Burned Out to reroll any one action during a scene and pick the better outcome, due to your ability to see multiple possible outcomes simultaneously. You may do this for the rest of the session.

ADDITIONAL STUNTS

Channeling Specialist:

You are practiced in leveraging your talent in a specific way. You may take this stunt to do one of two things: gain +2 on the default action for your Talent or choose a new approach and action combination for your Talent. You may take this stunt more than once, but you cannot improve a particular magical action beyond +2.

Self-Immolation:

At your discretion, you may mark the In Peril condition to use the effect for which you would normally mark Exhausted. In Case of Emergency, Break Self: You may mark the Doomed condition to overcome the restrictions of being Burned Out for one scene.

Ritualist:

When preparing rituals which fit in the penumbra of your Talent, add +2 to the preparation roll and reduce the number of costs by 1 (to a minimum of 1).

Paranetter:

Page 121.

TYPES OF FOCUSED PRACTITIONERS

Below is a list of example Focused Practitioners that can be selected. This list is not exhaustive and is meant to show the different possibilities of this Mantle.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – ARCANE ARTISAN (Supernatural Scale)

Ars Technica:

You carry with you a couple of signature items of your own construction. Choose two different combinations of action and approach, then name the items associated with them. An overcome action with Guile might be a “skeleton key” which unlocks any lock, or a defend action using Force might be “ring of protection.” The magic in these items will work only for you and by your will alone, and you cannot perform magic without them. Use of these items gain the benefit of Supernatural Scale at the GM’s discretion.

Hands of the Svartálfar:

Mark Exhausted. Inexplicably, your magic extends to even the mundane items you handle. When you repair, modify, or build a mundane device it always functions as intended and is flawless in its performance. Furthermore, you can do these things with even the most primitive tools, if you even need tools at all — your own two hands and your belief in yourself are all you truly require. In game terms, you create an aspect relating to the work you’ve done and you gain two free invokes. At the GM’s discretion, you gain the benefit of Scale when using such devices.

Uncanny Invention:

Mark Burned Out. You may combine materials in impossible ways, giving one the attribute of another. You may make paper with the strength of steel, or steel with the weight of paper. You can distill sunlight into a liquid or weave shadows into fabric. You may create a set of clothing that’s fireproof, waterproof, and bullet proof — you just need materials with the proper attributes and time in your arcane workspace. Consult with the GM and design any stunts or conditions these new creations may confer upon their user, subject to the normal restrictions. Permanent additions to any character must be paid for normally during a major milestone, otherwise each use of the item beyond the scene in which it was introduced costs a fate point.

Additional Stunts

Alchemist’s Constitution:

You are immune to the deleterious effects of working with hazardous materials in dangerous conditions. The heat of the forge doesn’t bother you, neither does smoke and other noxious fumes; handling things like cinnabar, phosphorus, or lead is without risk. Without an alchemist’s constitution, it would be impossible to achieve the pinnacle of your craft. Of course, it also comes in handy if you’ve been trapped in a burning or been exposed to a gas leak.

Craftsman’s Eye:

You have an intuitive understanding of mystic artifacts. Just by seeing an item, you can tell what it does, at least in general, and are capable of activating and deactivating it. Furthermore, if you are separate from the signature items granted by your Ars Technica Talent, you are mystically aware of their location at all times and can find them no matter where they are hidden from you.

Glitch:

Your rapport with inanimate objects means you can “hex” technology at will, causing it to break down, malfunction, or stop working completely. This is a create advantage action using Focus; you get +2 to these rolls. It is easy to hex complex machines and electronics and more difficult to affect very simple mechanical processes. The GM determines your opposition and you may get the benefit of Scale.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – CHRONOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Postcognition:

You can experience any point in history at your current location as if it were the present and gather information or witness events first hand. This is a create advantage action using Focus. At the GM’s discretion your chronomancy gains the benefit of Supernatural Scale.

Chronomancer:

Mark Exhausted. You can slow time to a crawl in your zone. This is a create advantage action using Intellect and you get +2 to your roll. Nameless NPCs move and act so slowly that they appear to be frozen in place. Named NPCs and PCs may actively oppose your magic using Force. Failure means they, too, appear to be frozen while success means they can move and act normally. A tie places the aspect Impossibly Slow on them. This effect ends if you touch them or as soon as you leave the zone; if you want to halt time again, you must spend a Fate point each time you do until you recover from Exhausted.

Against the Currents:

Mark Burned Out. You reverse the timestream and go back one turn, allowing you to choose a different approach to the situation armed with knowledge of the future (though to everyone’s perspective but your own, this is the first and only time this moment has or will ever occur). You may declare that you cast this spell as your action at any point in the initiative, undoing any exchanges since your action last turn. Although you cannot reverse any harm you have suffered, Against the Currents can be instrumental in allowing you to save the lives of others. Those other than yourself may feel a sense of déjà vu about the situation, but for them your new action is the first and only time this turn has happened or will happen. Participants remember the turn only as it has just been played, not as it was previously played before Against the Currents altered it (unless one of them is also a Chronomancer, in which case she is aware that something out of the ordinary has happened).

Additional Stunts:

Destiny’s Child:

Once per session you may ask the GM a question about future events, the likely outcomes of your actions, or any other information you can only access through seeing the future. The GM must answer honestly but may be vague. You get +2 to any rolls acting on this information as long as your actions ensure that your vision becomes true.

Perfect Timing:

Because you are always in perfect time, it doesn’t matter how fast people move. When someone opposes or defends against your actions using Haste, you get +2 to your action.

Warp:

You disrupt the flow of time within a living creature’s body, causing parts of them to age rapidly while other parts regress in their healing or growth. Use Focus to attack a target in your zone. This may not work on timeless beings.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – ECTOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Ghost Whisperer:

You can see and hear ghosts and they can see and hear you. Use Focus to create advantages when you gather information in this way. At the GM’s discretion your ectomancy operates at supernatural scale.

Summon and Banish:

Mark Exhausted. You can summon spirits and ward against them with but a moment’s thought. When you summon, you may make yourself a beacon to all ghosts in your area or you may call out to a specific kind of spirit (Joey Ramone or murder victims or deceased accountants). The ghosts that respond to your call will carry out a single task that you give them (search the city, defend my home, answer this question) to the best of their ability. When you banish ghosts, they are expelled from your zone and cannot re-enter until sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first. If there is opposition to your summoning or banishing, you get +2 to Intellect to overcome.

Possession:

Mark Burned Out. In the tradition of those who allow the loa to ride their bodies for a short time, you invite ghostly possession. Sometimes you do this in repayment of a debt to a spirit that has performed a favor to you; nothing is quite as good to a shade than the simplest pleasures of the earthly flesh. Most times, however, you do this in order to possess the knowledge and skills of the spirit invited to possess you. When you do this, you gain the aspect Possessed by [the High Concept of the spirit] and change one of your aspects to also reflect the ghost. You may keep this aspect or return to normal freely at your next Milestone. Also, temporarily switch the rating of any two approaches to reflect the ghost who has possessed you. You gain the benefit of scale when performing actions in keeping with skills or knowledge of the spirit inhabiting your body. The possession lasts until sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first.

Additional Stunts

The Sixth Sense:

You can perceive disturbances in the veil between the living world and the spiritual world. Such disturbances include possessions, hauntings, “thin” places where the spirit world crosses over with the material, and stranger things.

Spirit Contacts:

The information you gather from the spirit world can be taken to the bank! You get +2 to Focus when you create advantages based on the gossip, rumors, and “eyewitness” testimony of ghosts.

Helping Hand:

Either out of fear or respect, invisible spirits watchout for your wellbeing. You get +2 to defend using Haste in physical conflicts because they cause impossible coincidences to occur which protect you from harm. Of course, this won’t work if you’re beyond a Threshhold or in a similarly warded area.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – KINETOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Kinetomancer:

Your magic enables you to impart motion to and control the movement of people or objects with your will alone. Use Force to create advantages in this way and your kinetomancy operates on a Supernatural Scale.

Principles of Motion:

Mark Exhausted to subconsciously harness the ebb and flow of kinetic energy around your body in order to move faster and hit harder. You get +2 to physical actions involving strength and movement for the rest of the scene.

Juggernaut:

Mark Burned Out to shield yourself in a skin of seemingly impenetrable force. For the rest of the scene you have Armor:4 against physical attacks.

Additional Stunts:

Levitation:

You can use your kinetomancy to “fly,” rendering certain movement based obstacles inconsequential. Gain +2 to Focus when overcoming obstacles in this way.

Speed of Thought:

You can use your kinetomancy to move at preternatural speed. Gain +2 to Haste to overcome or create an advantage.

TK Storm:

You’re dangerous. Once per scene, you can attack your entire zone, friend and foe alike, by hurling everything and everyone into the air, slamming them onto the ground, crashing them into walls and each other. Gain +2 to Force when you do this.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – KLEPTOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Magical Sponge:

You naturally absorb (inadvertently or not) magical energy. You get Armor:2 against magical attacks and +1 to overcome magic-based obstacles with Force.

Kleptomancer:

Mark Exhausted. For the rest of the scene you can duplicate any magical power you witness or have used against you, mimicking their approach and action. You are capable of “borrowing” more than one spell or power in a scene, but can only retain one at a time for continual use. For example, if a necromancer strikes you with a flesh-rotting bolt of entropic energies, you can do the same to him until such a time you choose to abandon that magic for some other spell you see in action (Fuego!, for example).

Into the Abyss:

Mark Burned Out to make any zone in which you are currently inhospitable to the use of magic. If anyone attempts to use magic in your zone they must add +2 to the opposition; if their magic doesn’t prompt opposition, they must first overcome Fair +2 opposition to use it. It’s as if their magic is just sucked into nothingness. This lasts until the end of the scene or sunrise, whichever comes first.

Additional Stunts:

“Borrowed” Power:

If you are aiding in the casting of magical ritual, you can use magical energies you have siphoned during your experiences to pay one cost of the spell in lieu of accepting a complication. You may do this once per scenario.

Mana Static:

When using Into the Abyss, spellcasters and other magical powers face Great (+4) opposition in order to use their powers.

Thaumavore:

Absorbing magic empowers you. When you successfully defend against magical attacks or overcome magical obstacles using your power, in addition to other effects, you gain a Filled With Energy boost reflecting the sort of magic you absorbed. You may only have one such boost at a time.

Batteries Not Included (Requires Thaumavore):

Virgil has become so accomplished at absorbing ambient magical energies that he can cast Evocations using his rune-covered playing cards as a focus. He has learned to cast magical spells comprising the five elements: fire, air, earth, water, and spirit at the Mundane level. Spend the Boost gained from his Thamavore ability to increase the scale of his spells to Supernatural Scale and beyond. If he Defends against magical attacks or overcomes magical effects he can boost the Scale of his spells to match that of the opposition. This means that if Zeus zapped Virgil with his Godlike Lightning Bolt and Virgil somehow survived he would have the ability to use the boost generated from that to cast a single spell of Godlike Level. There is a reason Kleptomancers are feared and loathed by wizards and sorcerers.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – LUXOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Luxomancer:

Your magic enables you to create and manipulate light. Of course, creating or banishing light tends to draw a lot of attention. You can use Flair to create advantages in this way and your luxomancy operates on a Supernatural Scale.

Illuminated Reflections:

Mark Exhausted. Gaze into any reflective surface in order to see the events that transpired in said reflective surface, effectively viewing the past. You can do this for the rest of the scene. These visions are as clear as the surface in which you’re viewing and, being only images, there is no sound, but you can “rewind” or “fast forward” or “pause” to your heart’s content. By making a successful overcome roll using Intellect you can even witness events transpiring presently as long as you have some connection to your target and your target is near a reflective surface. The GM will determine the opposition.

Divine Radiance:

Mark Burned Out. Your luxomancy operates at the Otherworldly Scale for the duration of the scene.

Additional Stunts

Frickin’ Laser Beams:

Use your luxomancy to attack using Haste. These attacks must be line of sight, but can be in any zone in which you can see.

Dazzler:

You use awesome displays of dancing colors, flashing lights, and mesmerizing patterns to incite emotion among onlookers. You get +2 to create advantages using Flair when you do this.

Luminous Revelation:

Your magic can reveal objects hidden to you with a shining beam of light. You get +2 to Overcome using Focus when looking for something hidden in your zone.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – PALOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Palomancer:

You possess the potent magical ability of moving from place to place without regard to barriers. Paranetters have many theories about how such magic works with the most prominent being that the palomancer somehow traverses interdimensional pathways or transmits their material form instantaneously through any medium. Regardless, you (and whatever you’re wearing or carrying) can move through walls, doors, or other physical barriers without difficulty as long as you are touching them. This source of opposition is just off the table for you. When you encounter magical barriers or those with a Threshold, you get +2 to Intellect to overcome them using your ability. At the GMs discretion, your Palomancy operates at the supernatural scale.

Traverse:

Mark Exhausted. Move instantaneously from one place to another, or move any object you can fit in your hand from one place to another, as long as such is in your line of sight. You may do this for the rest of the scene and it is your action in an exchange. If something opposes you in this endeavor, roll Force to overcome. Even if your roll doesn’t go well, you can still traverse but at a cost to be determined by the GM.

Gateway:

Mark Burned Out. You tear an opening in the fabric of reality between your location and any other place you have ever been. This gateway can be as large or as small as you need it to be and remains open until sunrise. People, objects, environmental factors or whatever, only move through the gate at your discretion. You may grant permission for some things to pass through the gate, but not others, and you dictate if and when the gate is one-way or two-way at your whim. For example, you may dictate that anyone can travel through the gate, but only your allies can come back through from the other direction; or you can dictate that only left-handed red-headed women born on the 4th of July can traverse the gateway. Enacting these restrictions (or lack thereof) are your action in an exchange.

Additional Stunts

Anchorpoint:

You can mark a location with a mystic rune or arcane circle. From that point forward, you may Traverse to that location regardless of where you are. Only one location can be thus marked at a time. If you opt to make a new location your anchorpoint, your previous runes will mystically destroy themselves.

Gatecrasher:

You get an additional +2 to Intellect when attempting to overcome magical barriers using your palomancy.

Passengers:

Normally your magic only affects yourself or what you have on your person. With this level of proficiency you may take others with you when you use your palomancy powers as long as they are in physical contact with you.

Pathways:

The palomancer always knows where they are and maintains a flawless sense of direction. Furthermore, with a moment’s concentration and a successful overcome roll (Approach and opposition at the GMs discretion), she can calculate a route between two points which meets the criteria she needs. The more criteria, the more complicated the route and higher the opposition. This Minor Talent is often possessed by a city’s best Uber drivers.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – BLACK MAGIC: PSYCHOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Psychomancer:

You can perceive and draw out a person’s innermost desires and darkest fears, heightening them and lowering their inhibitions to act on them. Use Guile to create advantages in this way. At the GMs discretion, your psychomancy operates at Supernatural Scale.

Psychic Assault:

Mark Exhausted. The deepest fears and most painful memories in the minds of your victims are your weapon. For the rest of the scene you may attack other thinking beings using Intellect. Any Conditions you inflict using Psychic Assault must reflect their mental or emotional nature.

Domination:

Mark Burned Out. If you take someone out using Psychic Assault you inflict the following Condition on them, which is immediately marked:

Enthralled (Lasting): [ ]

You have become a Thrall, a slave, completely subject to another’s will. Unless your master commands it, you take no actions other than stand, stare off into space, and drool. Your consciousness and memories remain intact, so you may be traumatized by the things you witness or do while in thrall to another. Your enthrallment lasts until sunrise or sunset, whichever comes first.

Additional Stunts

Hitchhiker:

You have the ability to “ride” the senses of your Thrall or anyone recovering from an Enthralled condition you inflicted on them. You experience everything through their five (or more) senses from their perspective. While you are doing this, your own body appears to be unconscious.

Incognito:

As long as you do not directly interact with a person, they will not remember you or notice your presence. This aura is psychic in nature and does not affect electronic or mechanical methods of detection. If someone is capable of piercing your deception (other mentalists, faeries, those with The Sight), you actively oppose their attempt to discover you using Guile.

Influence:

You maintain undue powers of persuasion over anyone recovering from an Enthralled condition you inflicted on them. You get +1 to all actions against them whenever they can see or hear you.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – BLACK MAGIC: PSYCHOMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Psychomancer:

You can perceive and experience thoughts, emotions, and recent or strong memories from people, places and objects. Use Focus to create advantages in this way.

Phantasms:

Mark Exhausted. For the rest of the scene you can use your psychomancy to create illusions. As these phantasms exist in the minds of onlookers, once discovered, they can be resisted with a successful overcome action using Intellect. These illusions can affect all five senses and fill an entire zone but have no actual substance and cannot be caught on camera. You get an additional free invoke when you use Guile to create advantages in this way.

Soul Balm:

Mark Burned Out. Given enough time to work with a subject, you can heal a subject’s psyche. Spend a scene in psychic communion with them and make an overcome roll using Intellect, opposition determined by the GM. Success clears one Condition of your choice that resulted from psychological or emotional damage.

Additional Stunts

Psychic Feint:

Attackers believe you are somewhere you’re not. Use Guile to Defend against physical attacks. This tactic only works on thinking beings, naturally.

Gift of Babel:

Your mind to mind communication can manifest in the spoken or written word. You are able to understand (or be understood in) any human language.

Imprint:

Coming into brief contact with a person enables you to know what they know through psychic imprint. Once per session you may automatically succeed at any overcome action that involves knowing specific information.

FOCUSED PRACTITIONER – PYROMANCY (Supernatural Scale)

Pyromancer:

You can generate flames just by thinking about it. You may use Flair to attack by causing flames to erupt (from your hands, mouth, eyes, or just out of nowhere) and strike a target within your line of sight. Your pyromancy operates at Supernatural Scale.

Stoke the Fire:

Mark Exhausted. Use Focus to create advantages using heat or fire. You can shape flames to your will, command them to move in any direction, or dismiss them entirely. You can cause the temperature to drop or increase to uncomfortable levels by transferring energy from one place or thing to another within your line of sight. You can even draw all the heat from something, causing it to freeze solid. You can do this for the rest of the scene.

The Salamander’s Legacy:

Mark Burned Out. The ultimate expression of your pyromancy, like the salamanders of old, you are a being of fire! You gain the aspect Living Flame for the rest of the scene. In this form you are immune to conventional forms of physical harm, except those which can extinguish fires; defend normally by whatever means you have at your disposal. You can take whatever form or shape you choose, spilling across rooms or through doors; gain +2 to Haste to overcome physical barriers. The downside, of course, everything with which you come into contact risks igniting and gaining the infamous aspect On Fire!

Additional Stunts

Blazing Within:

Whenever someone successfully attacks you in melee combat, they mark 1 stress box due to the sheer heat pouring off you.

Flamekissed:

Either by force of your own will or some other, stranger blessing, you are immune damage from intense heat and flames. You or your clothing cannot burn and you suffer no ill effect no matter how hot or cold your environment.

Purify:

Fire exists not only to destroy, but to purge and restore. You can harness a flame within to burn away contaminants. With this magic you can destroy infection or poison and remove impurities or toxins from food and water. This is an overcome action using Intellect with opposition as determined by the GM.

Created by: Troy2012

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