Fire can be a cruel but rewarding master. It excels in destruction, and a Blast: Fire is a strongly recommended sideline. The difficulty of the beneficial effects of this schtick is the target's Constitution. Effects that affect or depend on the environment have different difficulties depending on where they are invoked.
| Area | Difficulty |
|---|---|
| Hot and dry with a breeze | O |
| Normal dry conditions | 5 |
| After recent rain | 10 |
| Snow, rain, storm | 15 |
| At sea, on a glacier | 20 |
If you have access to a large fire, like a bonfire, the difficulty is zero and the Outcome is doubled.
A Backlash with Fire magic causes ten points of damage, plus the negative result of your roll. Toughness protects, but Fire Protection does not work against this damage.
Fire 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.
Elementalist
These effects are common to all the elements. The descriptions are generic, but apply only to the particular element(s) you know the schticks for.
Elemental Master
With Elemental Master, you can dominate creatures of your element 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.
Elemental Summon
You can also summon (but not control) elementals. This costs two for Magic points (one if you make it a 15-minute ritual) and has a difficulty equal to the Powers of the elemental.
Sense Elementals
You can sense the presence of any creature of your element 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.
Elemental Travel
You can travel to the elemental plane of your choice. Not all campaigns have elemental planes, or they may lack relevance to the story, in which case you shoild not expect this to work. But when it does work, you open a portal to the elemental plane and arrive in a spot corresponding to the place you left your own world from - depening on the cosmology of the plane.
Elemental Protection
You are protected against the harmful effects of your element. You can even survive on the corresponding elemental plane. Whenever you would take damage from elemental attacks, subtract your Magic from the damage dealt to you. This is not armor or Toughness, and cannot be bypassed as such. Elemental attacks include ElementalAura and Blast variants of your element - compare to DamageImmunity.
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 Fire fireballs, as well as Fire effects such as Immolation and Wall of Fire, substituting for Magic points.
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, 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 and you cannot tell that he is deceiving you.
Immolation
You immolate yourself with a flaming aura at the cost of a Magic point. Use environmental difficulties to invoke the fire, 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 fire, 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 fire. 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. Its 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 equal to 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.