Hey all,

My wife is playing a character who uses magic that is derived from advanced science in a super hero campaign we're running. She'd like a talent that reflects her ability to use magic to influence technology.

Here's what I'm proposing:

Technomancer

Tier: 3

Activation: active (incidental)

Ranked: no

As long as you are capable of casting spells you may consider yourself as having the correct tools to make Computers, Mechanics, or Medicine checks. If you actually have the appropriate tools you may add a boost die to these checks as you magically enhance the tools. This does not stack with any boost die already gained from having superior tools to apply to the job.

I'm also open to any other ideas anyone has for talents that would imply an intersection between magic and technology. I was also considering a talent that would decrease the difficulty of magic use against technological targets (vehicles, robots, tech-based weapons, etc) once (to a minimum of easy).

Thanks for your thoughts!

Fin

I would make Technomancy its own Arcane skill, based on Intelligence. Then have Talents that boost it, based on the other qualities you mentioned such as: Always have the right tools, decrease difficulty targeting technology, etc. The existing magic frame can accommodate what you want, without having to make a talent-based new magic game mechanic.

That might have worked when we started the campaign, but we're already mid-swing. So we're trying to add some flavorful abilities without just expanding what the existing magic rules allow.

I've also considered that (alternatively) the talent might allow spells to target vehicles and machines as though they were characters. So things like Barrier, Augment, Curse, Heal, Summon could be used to affect the stats of a vehicle or relevant machine.

So you could use a barrier spell to protect a plane/boat/ship from other vehicles (it would translate into reducing vehicle scale damage from other vehicles instead of personal scale damage- but would not reduce at vehicle scale versus personal scale opponents). Heal could repair Hull Trauma and System Strain. Augment could boost the speed, weapons, etc. Curse could penalize an enemy vehicle etc. You could summon vehicles for use, etc. I would probably increase the difficulty for size in these cases (so up to silhouette 2 would be normal, above that +1 difficulty).

Now I kind of like this version better. Though it might be a tier 4 ability instead of tier 3.

In my fantasy pirate campaign I added a new magical effect called "Vehicle Scale." It added +2 difficulty to use spells exactly as you describe above.

Thanks, we ended up going with that version though I didn't add difficulty I made it a Tier 3 talent. In the superhero game we're playing hero vs. vehicle combat is handled almost exclusively through the use of critical hits so it lets me avoid the scale problem that having a PC using vehicle scale spells would be (doing 5 points of vehicle damage is a much bigger deal than 5 points personal).

It worked well in that the spellcaster was able to use a barrier to protect a ship, use Heal to remove a critical hit from the ship, and Augment to make their hyperdrive super fast. It worked out very well in our case, but could be unbalanced in a different game.