Starfox | Home | T3 | Sorcery

Flame


Flame can be a cruel but rewarding master. It excels in destruction, and a Fire Blast is a strongly recommended sideline. The difficulty of the beneficial effects of this schtick is the target's Constitution rating. Effects that affect or depend on the environment have different difficulties depending on where they are invoked. If you have access to a large fire, like a bonfire, the difficulty is zero and the Outcome is doubled.

A Backlash with Flame magic causes ten points of damage, plus the negative result of your roll. Toughness protects, but Flame Protection does not work against this damage.

Area Difficulty
Hot and dry, breeze 0
Normal dry conditions 5
After recent rain 10
Snow, rain, storm 15
At sea, on a glacier 20

Flame Effects

This is but a sample, as this schtick is well-suited to ingenious stunts by creative sorcerers. You must still know Blast to use fire to attack directly.

Fire Tamer

You can tame a fire in a diameter equal to your Sorcery action result, causing it to die, move, change color, burn only certain substances and so on. If you have a large, tamed fire nearby, you can use it to fuel Blast Fireballs, as well as Flame effects such as Immolation and Wall of Fire, substituting for Magic points.

Flame Elemental Master

With Elemental Master, you can dominate flame elementals and expect them to do your bidding, if they are not dead-set against you. You can communicate with the elementals and speak their language fluently. Use Sorcery instead of your Charisma for purposes of dealing with them. The elementals fear and respect you and will not attack you without provocation.

Summoning and controlling elementals is governed by the Sorcery schtick Summoning.

Sense Elemental
You can sense the presence of any flame elementals within a hundred meters times your Sorcery action value. You only know that they are present until you can see them, whereupon you can sense their health and general well being. Sensing an elemental in this fashion requires a Sorcery check against it's Willpower. This must be done subtly, or the target will sense your scrying.

Flame of Truth

Fire is one of the primal fears, and has great applications in interrogation and intimidation. One of the more common uses is in the effect known as Flame of Truth. An open flame is placed in the subjects open hand. As long as he continues to speak truthfully, the flames do not hurt him, but if he hesitates or lies, the flames flare up. Use environmental difficulties to invoke the flame, it lasts a Minute per point of Outcome. The subject of this spell must make an Intimidation, Willpower or Deceit roll against your Sorcery attribute, or answer in accordance with your wishes. If you want the truth, you get the truth. If you want toadying and half truths, or even outright lies, that is what you get. He will reveal more if he blows the roll badly. If he makes the roll, he will speak according to his own heart and the skill rolled.

Flame Protection

You are protected against the harmful effects of flame. Whenever you would take damage from flame, subtract your Magic from the damage dealt to you. This is not armor or Toughness, and cannot be bypassed as such. You can even survive on the elemental plane of flame. Flame attacks include Elemental Aura and Blast variants of fire, as well as fire otherwise used. It also includes natural heat, making you immune to dehydration.

Immolation

You immolate yourself with a flaming aura at the cost of a Magic point. Use environmental difficulties to invoke the flame, it lasts a Sequence per point of Outcome. Anyone striking you in close combat is burned, with a damage value equal to your Sorcery minus the Outcome of his attack.

Depending on your magic tradition, your own gear might be protected against this flame, but anything else near you risks catching fire. GM Note: This should be a nuisance rather than a problem.

Fire Shape

If you desire, you can turn yourself fully into a creature of flame. Use all the rules for Immolation, with the following additions. The cost is three Magic points.

You keep your own basic shape, and cannot move through cracks and such, but you do become effectively weightless, able to walk along even a thin thread.

Your touch burns hotly, causing Magic +4 damage with unarmed attacks. You can use your Sorcery to make such attacks.

Normal physical attacks have little effect on you, causing at most a single Wound Point. This includes bullets, arrows, swords and fists, but not most Blast variants.

You do become susceptible to various forces hostile to fire; you cannot use your Toughness to soak damage from fire-fighting techniques. Thankfully, such attacks do only a limited damage; fire-hose (8), buckets of snow, water or sand (5), a wet blanket (3). Cold and water-based attacks cause normal damage with no soak.

Wall of Fire

You conjure a wall of flames at the cost of a Magic point. Use environmental difficulties to invoke the Wall of Fire, it lasts a minute per point of Outcome. The wall has a length equal to your Magic, and can curve or bend as you wish. It's height is equal to the Outcome. You cannot create it on top of anyone or anything in particular. It won't damage the surface it rests on, but may burn anything in it. Anyone passing through the wall takes damage based on your Sorcery Action Value.

Pyrotechnics

You can create a cloud of flying sparks and smoke. This can be used to amuse or to obscure vision. The cloud stays put a number of Sequences equal to the Outcome. Use environmental difficulties to invoke Pyrotechnics.

Smoke
The cloud has a diameter equal to your Outcome, and all people blinded by it suffer two points of impairment. Ranged attacks suffer an additional -2 penalty.

Sparks
If it includes flying sparks, all creatures not native to or protected from fire suffer two points of impairment inside the cloud, whether they can see or not.


Starfox | Home | T3 | Sorcery
Copyright © 1998 and onwards, Carl Cramér. Page downloaded times. Last update Fri, May 26, 2000.