Mage ONLY Flaws

 

Anachronism (1-3pt.)
Your mage was raised in another time and hasn't quite caught up to the present. Maybe she traveled forward (or backward) in time, or sideways from a parallel universe. Maybe the Awakening made her recall one of her past lives so vividly that she thinks she's supposed to be in lOth century Egypt. Or maybe she's from one of the few quaint backwaters of the present day and everything in the modern Western world might as well be Mars for all the sense it makes to her.

For one point, the character is just a little out of sync. Pick any decade from the 20th or 21st century, excepting those on both sides of the current one, and set your attitudes and beliefs accordingly. For two points, pick any decade in the 18th or 19th century (or 22nd or 23rd). For three points, pick any decade from the 17th century or before, or any particularly well insulated backwater of the present day (if any still exist), or just some totally weird social behavioral construct. The character has a two-point difficulty penalty when dealing with anything outside this cultural identity. Thus, a character used to the 1800s has trouble with computers but understands light bulbs; a character from a hypothetical 23rd century parallel universe might have trouble with telephones, which never existed in her world experience!

This Flaw can be bought off over time and with roleplaying. In the mean time, culture shock can be fun.

 

Beast Within (5pt.)
The Beast is awake within your character! He is prone to frenzies, just like a vampire or werewolf. These are caused by situations of intense emotions: fear, anger, hate. Your character is a figure of great rage and fear to the rest ofhumanity, much like Charles Manson or Mike Tyson. Your mage automatically has one extra dot of Dynamic Resonance, and whenever placed in a stress situation, you must roll your mage's Dynamic Resonance, difficulty 6 - with any successes, your mage flies off the handle into a frenzied rage with all the same qualities as the Berserker Merit. This Flaw is especially appropriate to Ghoul and Kinfolk mages.

 

Bedeviled (6pt.)
Job - that guy in the Bible - was a whiner.Someone or something is watching your character and ruining his life. Your mage has no idea who or what it is but knows it's responsible for all the things that go wrong, or at least the big ones. When things are just starting to look up, it socks him with another personal tragedy, but instead of letting him die, it always seems to save him and take someone close to him insteadjust so it can watch him suffer (or so he thinks). The Storyteller must decide why you are being watched and what is watching you (it is not necessarily the Devil, despite the name).

 

Bizarre Hunger (2-4pt.)
You have very odd dietary needs. Rather than normal food, you must consume some odd or disgusting substance in order to maintain your health. If you are unable to acquire and consume your required substance, you begin losing Health Levels at the rate of one per day after your first day offasting. Although you may eat “normal” food as well, you derive no sustenance from it. Eating such odd fare is bound to attract attention if you do it in public. Some substances are also harder to get than others. In general, the more disgusting the substance required or the more difficult it is to obtain, the greater the cost.

Flaw    Examples:
2 pts    Pig's blood, iodine, cat food (unless you are a cat)
3 pts    Heroin, rotten meat, mare's milk
4 pts    Child's blood, gold, feces

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Blood-Hungry Soul (2-5pt.)
One of your prior incarnations (likely one alive during the original Massasa War) fell under the seductive spell of vampiric vitae. Your mage was “born” into his Awakened life an addict (as were all of his incarnations after the unfortunate imbibing of the accursed nectar). It is only now, however, with the rekindling of the war, that his Avatar remembers the desire for the blood that so fulfilled it.

For two points, your mage's Avatar remembers its addiction as a long-recovered addict might; it was a bad choice, made long ago and foolishly. Nevertheless, the hunger whispers to his soul every so often, prompting a Willpower roll (difficulty 5) to resist temptation whenever an opportunity to potentially get vampire blood presents itself. Failing that, you must make another roll (difficulty 6) to turn down the stuff if the initial opportunity proves fruitful.

The three-point version of this Flaw is identical to the weaker version, save that the first roll's difficulty is 6 and the second increases to 8.

The five-point variant awakens within the character all the wracking agonies of a ghoul's lust for his unclean sacrament. Players of these unfortunates must roll Willpower (difficulty 8) to stay the hell away from a chance to lay hands on the sweet venom of Caine's Curse. Should that roll not prove sufficient, make a second roll (difficulty 10) to thrust it away and flee from this self-annihilating lust. (A few Thig have taken to referring to this Flaw as having a “crack-baby Avatar.”)

 

Blood Magic (5-pt.)
Perhaps you learned magic from a particularly dark cult. Maybe your spirit needs additional energy, beyond your strength of will, to enact magic. Perhaps you foolishly studied under a vampire or from tomes plundered from vampires. Whatever the reason, your sorcerer's use of magic always requires the sacrifice of his own blood. In some cases, it will simply burn away from inside. In others, the magician must cut himself and include it in the ritual. Each use of magic causes an unsoakable level of bashing damage. Furthermore, the Resonance of your magic is likely to be dark, or at the very least, martyred in nature.

 

Cast no Shadow or Reflection (1pt.)
There are many explanations for this phenomenon, and no two agree: Your mage may have attended the legendary Black School, where the Devil who runs the place took the hindmost as payment- in this case, your character's shadow. Or maybe it got trapped in a mirror or left in a little girl's bedroom somewhere which is better than the alternative, for some believe if it escapes, it runs around as your evil twin. In any case, your character casts no shadow or reflection (your choice), and this may cause many problems, especially because this is a common Flaw among the Nephandi.

 

Conditional Magic (1-6pt.)
There is one thing in the world that is a great boon, or bane, to your character's magic. Perhaps her spells work particularly well against men, or on Tuesdays, or just after a storm, or on people dressed all in black. Maybe she's powerless to affect those who are or who bear that certain thing, such as her magic being unable to affect Christians or those who carry a piece of rowan and red thread. It may be that a certain individual gave her power over them, or perhaps it is utterly proof against her magic due to an oath she swore or spells that were placed on her. The conditions that affect your magic may be common, uncommon or rare, and the value of this Merit or Flaw depends on the rarity of the condition. The base costs listed here assume that you have a difficulty modifier of three on all Arete rolls under the given conditions. You may adjust the difficulty by one for every point more or less you devote to the Trait.

Points    Condition
1 point    Unique: The Sword of Roland, the Matriarch of the MECHA construct, Leap Year
2 points    Scarce as hen's teeth: Current or former members of the Council of Nine, your former Mentors, once in a blue moon.
3 points    Rare, but not unheard of: loadstones, Swedish royalty, werewolves, rowan and red thread, the holy days of the archangels
4 points    Special order: virgins, middle eastern eye-bead charms, any member of Iteration X, during a thunderstorm
5 points    Available without much trouble: cold iron, silver, Christians, any member of the Traditions, a windy day, holy ground
6 points    Common as dirt: men, anyone who's ever been baptized, the color purple, under cloud cover, Tuesdays

 

Contrary (5pt.)
You are one of the oddest and most enigmatic types of shaman, a contrary. Contraries attempt to live their lives in ways diametrically opposed to the ordinary fashion. Most say exactly the opposite of what they mean and attempt to live in reverse by sitting the wrong way in chairs, traveling only in the hottest part of the day, eating at unusual times, attempting to pass outrageous lies for the truth or speaking only in riddles. Many also dress as the other gender (though players gain no additional points for doing so).
Contraries are sacred clowns and fools whose existence helps to show that reality is not as solid and immutable as most Sleepers believe. Not all contraries are magicians - they are social outlets, showing the reverses of “normal” ehavior. However, their dedication to change and opposition to static behavior certainly bolsters the Awakened insights of contrary mages. As a result, they gain an unusual level of magical power. When a contrary acts appropriately, reduce the difficulty of all magic rolls by one. Also, given how oddly they normally act, using their foci to perform magic often seems entirely in character. A contrary may even take contrary behavior as a focus for a particular Sphere - often Mind or Spirit.
Because contraries' magic is highly tied to their unusual behavior, they must be careful to always uphold their diametric actions. If a contrary ever ceases to act in an appropriate manner, increase the difficulty of all magic rolls by two. This penalty continues until the contrary resumes diametric behavior for a full scene.
In modern Western culture, many people assume that a contrary is either insane or exceedingly annoying and confusing. Some contraries work as entertainers of various sorts, but holding ordinary jobs is usually impossible. The Technocracy is especially wary of contrary mages, assuming they are all potential Marauders. However, most contraries have no actual magical power, so contraries are usually just watched, not actively harassed.

 

Crucial Component (2-5pt.)
There is some raw ingredient your mage needs to work his magic, besides magic itself. This component may be something rare or esoteric, like diamonds or ghostly ectoplasm, or perhaps something common or easily obtainable, like anger, alcohol or electricity. Without this crucial component, he cannot work his magic, and if this crucial component cannot be worked into a casting, oh well — you need to find a different Effect.

This Flaw does not merely represent a Technocrat's reliance on scientific devices and scientific principles. A Virtual Adept does not need a computer to work his computations; if he had to, he could use a slide-rule or a pencil and paper, or even do them in his head — it just takes longer. But Dr. Va-Voom requires diesel fuel to power all his Devices, and they won't work if he tries to attach solar cells or an etheric proton pack — or at least they won't work for him. This substance does not have to be direct from the source — moonlight can be charged into moonstones and holy water can be bottled — but it does have to be properly stored, with whatever methods or rituals are appropriate. (Charged moonstones must be kept in a black velvet pouch, away from the light of the sun, while holy water must be kept in a specially blessed flask.)

Flaw    Crucial Component
2 points    sunlight, eggs, motor oil, tea, aspirin, electricity, emotion, ectoplasm
3 points    beeswax candles, blood, fresh lavender, grave dirt, holy water, rage, spectral residue
4 points    virgin's blood, hashish, dead humans, gold, platonic love, the fires of Hell
5 points    diamonds, live humans, rare orchids, lightning strikes, transcendent joy, the tears of angels, any variety of Tass regardless of Resonance

 

Degeneration (3-9pt.)
Your character will die without the aid of magic or science to sustain her. She might be the victim of a disease or curse, or maybe she's something that wasn't meant to be alive in the first place.

At the lowest version of this Flaw, your character simply does not have the natural healing factor with which most mortals are born. All wounds he suffers remain until treated with magic or Technocratic science. He will not heal any damage otherwise.

At the six -point version of this Flaw, your character is actually falling apart. A hideous disease might be eating him up from inside, or maybe he's a victim of beetles and/or natural decay if he's the result of someone's half-assed necromancy. Maybe Iteration X didn't tell him that his “perfect android body” was a prototype made by the lowest bidder and that all the warranties are expiring. Whichever version you take, your character takes one health level of damage at three months, one a month later, another a week after that , one more three days beyond that, one the next day and a final one an hour after that. In short, your character's health deteriorates at an accelerated rate, following the progression for natural healing backward until he is dead. Obviously, the character doesn't heal normally, either. With the nine-point version of this Flaw, your character falls apart at the same rate as before, but the damage is aggravated.

 

Dependence on Props (3-6pt.)
While all mages must use foci to work their magic, shamanism often focuses on highly ritualistic traditions. Therefore, some shamans have additional requirements on top of their foci. Unlike foci that vary from Sphere to Sphere, props must be used for all Spheres.

Regardless of the specific type of prop, you can work magic only while using your chosen prop. Props like crossdressing and being able to work magic only while standing above (or below) ground level, are only two-point Flaws. More extensive props - like being able to work magic only while under the influence of a mild drug (which would subtract one die from all Dexterity and Perception rolls) or only when wearing a special costume- are three point Flaws. Being able to work magic only while sitting on a specially made stool, or while riding an intricately carved hobbyhorse, are six-point Flaws. All costumes and other physical props must be made according to special ritual requirements. These items are elaborately decorated, often with shell, copper, iron, feathers and bells. None of these garments or items can pass as ordinary First-World garments, furniture or toys.

 

Devil’s Mark (1pt.)
Somewhere along the line, your mage made a pact with a demon or devil and it tunneled its foul power into him, leaving a mark in the process. This blemish (known as a witch's nipple) is dark and unwholesome looking, but it is insensitive to pain. In ages past, the “witch prickers” of the Inquisition would test these marks with special pins before they burned infernalists at the stake. In the modern day, the puritanical pricks are few and far between, and most people who see this mark will just think it's a birthmark. Despite the name “nipple,” it can grow anywhere on your mage's body.
On the plus side, if you have some demonic familiar, your imp can suck Quintessence directly from your character's third nipple, with the added bonus of it being insensible to pain — a real perk when you have a cat chewing on your tit.

 

Echoes (1-5pt.)
Your mage manifests the traditional marks associated with the supernatural. Maybe it's a little quirk like not having a shadow, or something as severe as a baleful aura. Perhaps milk curdles around your mage and mirrors break.

Look up some superstitions associated with the heritage of your mage's Tradition, and pick a few! The Storyteller determines the value of this Flaw, based on the severity of these supernatural problems.

 

Faust's Burden (3-6pt.)
Either your mage or one of her prior incarnations cut a deal with a potent Umbrood, and now she must uphold her end of the bargain. This creature need not be a demon. Mammon, after all, is likely to be much friendlier (in the short term, at least) about the matter of a debt owed than, say, Uriel. If it was a previous incarnation that forged this ill-advised pact, the entity remembers your mage's soul (read: Avatar), and it will begin hounding her soon after the Awakening for its due.

For three points, your mage owes a significant service to this creature. This service might include a dangerous quest in its name, the freedom to possess you at any time of its choosing thrice in your life, or frequent sacrifices of property or Tass. For four points, this Umbrood may demand more significant sacrifices. For example, it might compel your mage to undertake a potentially life-threatening quest, demand that her magic always be worked in ways that create a Resonance pleasing to it, or impose significant strictures on her life. The five- point version of this Flaw grants the spirit leave to send the mage into a virtually certain death scenario, to claim her firstborn, or to force her to use her magic at any time in any way it sees fit.

In the case of these first three variants of this Flaw, failure to comply will be punished accordingly (the Storyteller is encouraged to be a genuine bastard). For the full six points, your mage owes the being in question her immortal soul. It may command her, possess her, use her powers, senses, knowledge (et cetera) at will, and it is perfectly within its rights to do its damnedest to collect as quickly as possible, short of killing her itself.

In theory, an awe-inspiring number of successes on a Prime 2, Entropy 5, Spirit 5 Effect might break this obligation. It is much more likely, however, that a combination of cunning, bravery, sheer willpower and luck will overcome the bargain.

 

Geasa (1-5pt.)
There is something your character must or must not do, and his life, his luck, his magic (and perhaps his very soul) depends on it. It may be something that has always been upon him, a Geas prophesied by druids at bis birth, or a curse laid on him by faeries at his christening. It may also be a sacred oath or vow he swore, or a promise or bargain he made, and Someone (with a capital S) witnessed it and is going to hold him to it. If he disobeys, the consequences are dire, if not deadly.

The value of a Geas depends on how easily it is broken and the penalty for violating it. If the penalty is the loss of some Merit or Background, deduct the Geas' rating from the value of the Merit or Background and make that number the value of the Flaw. For example, your character's sword may be a five-point Artifact, but you have been told, “If you ever raise this blade in anger, the angels who gave it to you will take it away.” Never raising one's sword in anger is a small sacrifice, so it's worth four points, making a four point Flaw.

When you take a Geas, choose the Flaw(s), Background (s), and/or Merit(s) to which the Geas is attached. Then either lessen the final value of the Flaw(s) or decrease the cost of the Merit(s) and/or Background (s). In the case of Merits that may be taken multiple times, you may take the Geas the same number of times to decrease the cost. However, your Geas should be at least one point less than the total value of the Merits, Backgrounds and/or Flaws to which it's linked. In other words, you cannot get a Merit or Background for free just by piling on strictures and limitations. Storytellers should examine each Geas to make sure it makes sense in terms of story, rather than just being a pile of bizarre restrictions and commandments that could only be explained by faeries dropping acid at a christening. Storytellers should also blackball any Geas that does not cause actual problems. Losing your soul if you die is a problem, and so is losing an legendary Attribute if you lose your virginity. However, it's to be expected that you'll lose all of your Attributes, enhanced or otherwise, when you die, so this is not a legitimate problem unless your character also has some way to come back from the dead.

The point value of the Geasa suggested here is only approximate, and it will vary depending on character and circumstances.

Value    Geas
1 point    Inevitable circumstance or incredible sacrifice: When you die, if you ever let the sun touch your skin, if you ever allow your feet to touch the earth, if you ever speak another word.
2 points    Almost unavoidable circumstance or significant sacrifice: Remain a virgin, never harm a living creature, never tell a lie.
3 points    Everyday circumstance or common sacrifice: Never back down from a fight, never tell a secret, never refuse hospitality, never marry, never have children.
4 points    Unlikely circumstance or a small sacrifice: Stop and pet every cat you see, never eat any animal product, never harm a certain type of animal or a certain type of person, never raise your sword in anger.
5 points    Easily avoided circumstance or trivial sacrifice: Never break bread with a red-haired man, say your prayers every night, take your vitamins, never harm the king, don't eat ham, keep one small secret.
Classic penalties for violating a Geas include suffering a dark fate, losing one's Avatar, having luck turn from good to bad (losing the Lucky Merit), being deserted by one's familiar (especially if the Geas was a pact you made with the beast), losing a totem, losing all one's friends and losing one's worldly possessions.
Characters may have several Geasa that may come into conflict. Cuchulainn had the Geasa to “Never refuse hospitality” and to “Never harm a dog” (his namesake). Three hags then offered him roast dog for dinner and Cuchulainn died soon after. Consequently, most mages try to keep their Geasa secret, lest they be used against them by enemy mages. Unfortunately, Geasa can be divined by a simple Entropy 1 Effect mixed with a little skill in fortune-telling as can one's destiny. Elaborate traps have been devised to force mages to violate all their Geasa in succession, leading to their flamboyant destruction. Perversely, Geasa, curses, holy vows and binding oaths are also marks of great status among certain Traditions, particularly the Akashic Brotherhood, Verbena, and Celestial Chorus, who accord status to mages with such Flaws. Simply put, unimportant people don't have Geasa or family curses, and someone who takes a binding oath or makes a sacred vow (and keeps it) is worthy of respect. Most Technomancers, on the other hand, aren't impressed by people who take vows of chastity or silence, and they are similarly blase about those who break them. 
Traditionally, there is very little that may be done about Geasa, which are simply facets of one's destiny, and curses are devilishly hard to lift (and the Flaw must be bought off if they are). However, with binding oaths, sacred vows, and bans imposed by totem spirits, characters who violate them accidentally may attempt to atone for their crime. A witch who has vowed to never eat any red meat, then suddenly finds ham in her pea soup, might be able to atone for the trespass by fasting and sending checks to PETA. However, if a mage violates an oath willingly and with full knowledge — and survives — he becomes an oathbreaker, one of the most foul epithets among the Traditions. The destiny of an oathbreaker is scarred permanently, and the marks show clearly to the same Entropy 1 magic that reveals a mage's destiny. As such, it is virtually impossible for an oathbreaker to find a tutor or any sort of aid among those Traditions that value one's sworn word. Some Traditions, notably the Order of Hermes and the Verbena, kill oathbreakers on sight, numbering them among the Nephandi, whose dark paths of power are the only ones left open to them. Ironically, many oathbreakers are young internalists who foreswore their allegiance to the Dark Masters — and the binding oath they had been given — after realizing the price of that power. Destiny, however, does not play favorites, and those who break their word to Hell are just as stigmatized as those who lie to Heaven.
Characters who wish to begin as oathbreakers should take Dark Fate or some other curse. Occasionally there are good and noble characters who have sworn foolish oaths in the past, then have broken them rather than allow some greater evil to occur. It is impossible to erase the stain from the soul once one is foresworn, but some have friends who will still stand by them, even though most mages will spit when they say their names.
Geasa may be taken at the same time as the Compulsion Flaw, assuming that the Compulsion does not make the Geas impossible. For example, a witch could be both under a Geas and supernaturally (or just psychologically) compelled to stop and pet every cat she saw, lest she suffer a dark fate.

 

Hero Worship (1pt.)
You regard another individual, most probably your mage, with respect that approaches reverence. The object of your hero worship can literally do no wrong in your eyes, which can lead to some serious disputes with your fellows. You must make a Willpower roll (difficulty 5) to disobey an instruction given by your hero. In your eyes, he is perfect. In fact, you add + 1 difficulty to any roll in which success would require you to admit that your hero is wrong.

 

Hollow Soul (1pt.)
No matter how you try, the ingraining of your Tradition just doesn't seem to “take” with a special focus. You don't have any particular emphasis on the Spheres. Nothing's particularly hard (assuming that you're not Sphere Inept), but nothing's exactly especially easy, either.
Despite a Tradition, Convention or Craft affiliation, you have no specialty Sphere. You place a dot in your group's specialty Sphere as normal during character creation, since your mentor focuses on it, but you pay normal experience costs for further improvement.

 

Mayfly Curse (5-10pt.)
Common among Progenitor Victors and those with shifter or demonic blood, your character matures at an accelerated rate and declines at the same. At the lower level, your character ages one year every two months, which means that when you're physically 18 years old, you're chronologically three. At the higher rate, you age a year every week, making you 16 in less than four months and 52 by the end of the year. It's not much of a lifespan, certainly, but it's more than sufficient for shock troops. This Flaw can be combined with any degree of Aging.

 

Monstrous (3pt.)
Your mage has an Appearance rating of zero. He may be the stereotypical pock-marked leper, or he may have the face and body of a demon or bug-eyed monster. Otherwise, someone just beat him with the ugly stick.

 

Nephandic Taint (3pt.)
Somewhere early in your training, you studied a bit with a generous and helpful master. Turns out he had a reason for being such a nice guy.

Although you didn't fall to the Lost Path and your Avatar is still (hopefully) untainted, you wound up learning a bit at the hands/feet/ tentacles/whatever of a Nephandus. This colors all of your magic; your Resonance tends to flavor with destructive, primordial effects.You can't learn Qlippothic Entropy (you're not truly one of the Fallen), but the distinction is lost on most mages. You may have trouble finding a new mentor, and you will always be suspect.

 

Offensive to Animals (1pt.)
For some reason, animals are uneasy in your presence and cringe from your touch. Perhaps you have been touched by something in the course of your arcane practices; maybe you're cursed or related to a cursed family or bloodline. For whatever reason, animals are jittery around you. Add + 2 difficulty or subtract two dice from your Dice Pools whenever you're dealing with a beast; in story terms, it doesn't like you, and you don't like it, either.

 

Otherworldly Taint (2pt.)
Something about you just isn't right. Perhaps you have white hair at a young age, or you're unusually tall, or you've got eyes that shine slightly silver in the moonlight. Regardless, you've got some feature or mystique that other people consider disturbing, even if they don't know why. To most observers, you're simply uncanny; a person skilled in occult or mystical matters can recognize you for what you are with a successful Perception + Awareness roll (difficulty 7). Some people might find your disquieting presence compelling. Most, however, will give you a lot of breathing room - or a lot of trouble.

 

Path Inept (5pt.)
For some reason, your sorcerer is considerably limited in his ability to advance in the study of a certain branchofyourchosen magic. This may be the result of a curse, poor training or even emotional scars from childhood. Whatever the reason, you must choose a single Path from that available to your character's Society. In this Path, you must spend one quarter more experience points for any gain of Path level or rituals. Be sure to choosen a Path that your character plans to study-your Storyteller has ways to get back at you if you try to avoid your Flaw.

 

Permanent Wound (3pt.)
Due to Pattern damage, a permanent Paradox injury or some other nastiness, you have a wound that never heals. Even if you repair the injury with magic, it reoccurs at sunset or sunrise of each day (your choice as to which). This wound causes your character to suffer the Wounded health level with lethal damage that cannot be soaked. Such damage is cumulative with other injuries (and it could kill a badly wounded mage if it reoccurs while he's already injured), but it is not self-cumulative. That is, your character's bleeding head wound doesn't cause any more damage the next morning or evening if he hasn't bothered to heal it magically for a day.

 

Phylactery (7pt.)
Historically, a phylactery referred to a special arm wrapping with a prayer box that contained sutras, divine power and a portion of the wearer's soul. Mages refer to a phylactery as a container for the power to perform magic. Your mage's Avatar exists in the physical plane, invested into an object or place, or possibly imbued into some creature or person (such as his familiar or ally) or even a part of his body. On rare occasions, it may be invested into some nebulous concept, like a bloodline, secret society or a religion. The good news is that this object or creature is now Correspondence Range 0 in regards to yourself, which means you can sense it wherever it is, unless it's shrouded by warding. Teleporting your phylactery ring off your finger or making you drop your phylactery sword is as difficult a feat as teleporting your finger off your hand or forcing you to chop off your own arm. The bad news is that you must be in actual physical contact with your phylactery in order to work magic — even if that physical contact is long distance, like a Virtual Adept linked via modem to the mainframe in his bedroom. Moreover, you need to be very obvious about what it is you're using to perform your arts. If your mage's phylactery is his staff, your mage must wave it grandly during all invocations; if his phylactery is a crown, he must hold his head high and wear the crown everywhere he intends to do magic.

If your mage's phylactery speaks to him as his Avatar, you should also take the Manifest Avatar Merit. If the phylactery is an object, you should probably take the item as a unique focus. As with any unique focus, a phylactery can be repaired or retrieved if it is damaged, destroyed or stolen.

If your mage is separated from his phylactery, you may roll Perception + Awareness to sense the surroundings of where it is, depending on how the phylactery might perceive such things. If your mage's phylactery is animate (as with a cat or horse or severed-but-still-living hand) it will also do its best to find its way back to you, having the same homing sense.

Similarly, if your mage's Avatar is invested into a place, such as the Royal Forest of Dean or San Francisco, transporting him away from it, at least by magical means, is about as difficult as teleporting a city block to Istanbul. If he is removed from his phylactery by mundane means, his homing sense will lead him back. In cases where a phylactery is a place, the Avatar fuses with the City Father of that area. That is to say, your Avatar becomes one with the totem spirit of that particular region — Emperor Norton in San Francisco, Belle in Atlanta, a cert ain highly trademarked mouse in Disneyland. You should take an Avatar rating on par with the importance of your character's bailiwick. Wild places such as forests, deserts, rivers and even oceans can be linked with the same way, although your character must be in them or on them to work his magic. The Pacific Ocean is huge, but if that's your mage's phylactery, his connection to it ends once he sets foot on dry land. Generally speaking, it's not the size of an area that's important so much as the identity. The Queen of Angels may control most of Los Angeles, but there's a different identity to Hollywood and Malibu.

If your character's phylactery is a place, your Storyteller may also allow your character's magic to work in other places somehow linked to it. A mage with Hashberry for her Avatar could probably work her magic in other parts of San Francisco with raised difficulties the further she got from the Haight, and more powerful Avatars could probably work their magic in foreign lands tied to their spirit.

Finally, if your mage's phylactery is a concept with a physical or temporal manifestation, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Iteration X, the witch's Sabbath or the season of Christmas, you may work magic as long as your character is an accepted part of that institution. The symbols and tools representing it can be destroyed, of course, stripping your mage of his magic temporarily, but they can be replaced.

In cases of identity phylacteries, your mage loses his connection to his Avatar if he is disowned, banished, defrocked, excommunicated or otherwise kicked out. As such, members with this Flaw are intensely loyal. If the organization or other concept is destroyed, the Avatar is destroyed, but an organization cannot be destroyed until all members either die or truly renounce their loyalties. When a concept is your mage's phylactery, his Avatar is the protector or mascot of that concept.

If a mage with a phylactery ever dies, the Avatar may or may not go free, at the Storyteller's option. If it does not go free, the phylactery remains as it is, awaiting the mage to reclaim it in his next incarnation.

 

Primal Marks (2pt. Flaw)
Your mage may have an Avatar of the Primordial Essence, some totem or god of legend, or perhaps she's just gained some powerful spirit's patronage and it's set its mark on her. If the totem is an animal, she resembles what such an animal would look like in human form so strongly that people who don't even know her call her “Bear” or “Moose” or “Raven.” If the Avatar is some well known god or hero, your character looks just like people would expect her to, including any particular deformities (although you do get extra points for such handicaps). Your mage looks the part so much that anyone can guess her nature at a glance, and there is some danger in that, especially if your Avatar has a legendary enemy (as most do). Your character's totem or Avatar will also require her to protect its species or finish up its unfinished agenda.

Your mage might alternately be the descendant of some famous or infamous house: Pendragon, Murasaki, Bacon, Bathory, Borgia or Le Vey. Besides the family name, you've also inherited the family “look.” Students of history can easily picture you banishing the Devil and slaying dragons, or poisoning entire families and bathing in the blood of virgins — especially since they have the illustrations that might give them this idea.

Alternately, your mage may just look the part other profession too well. Perhaps she has the red hair and green eyes of an Irish witch, the pale eyes and dark skin of an Arabic sorcerer, the grown-together brows and elongated ring-fingers of a born shapeshifter or the intense yellow, violet or emerald green eyes of one the fae. Students of ancient lore recognize these signs, and your mage may easily become the victim of witch-hunters. However, some witches, changelings, shapeshifters and others may accord you more status in their societies if you “look the part.”

 

Probationary Member (4pt.)
Your character joined the Traditions (or Conventions, or appropriate Craft) recently, and he is on bad terms. He may be a former rogue who recanted, or perhaps he defected from the other side. The mage is treated with hostility and suspicion. Even a mage with a high Destiny rating is looked at askance. There's no telling if such a luminous individual will turn again to become a powerful enemy.

 

Psi Focus (3-5pt.)
Perhaps your psychic needs his lucky crystals to properly heal the sick. Possibly, his cyberkinetic powers require him to mime the action he wishes the machine to perform. Maybe his telekinesis only works on a hubcap he found one afternoon. Either way, he requires some form of crutch for his psychic powers to work. For 3 points, the character must gesture or speak some catch phrase or incantation for the power to work. For 4 points, the power requires a physical focus to work (crystals, a hypnotist's pocket watch, a harmonica). For 5 points, the power only works with a specific focus, akin to a mage's unique focus. (See pages 202-203 of Mage Revised).

 

Psychic Feedback( 1-6pt.)
While the psychic is gifted with potent powers, the use of the talent tires him. Some psychics even experience minor cerebral hemorrhages from the strain of using the power. As a 1 point Flaw, the character experiences headaches or dizziness from each use of the power. Roll Stamina + Meditation (difficulty 7) or experience a round of pain or disorientation. All actions while in this state are at+ 2 to the difficulty number. As a 2 point Flaw, the psychic experiences minor long-term pain rom use of the power. You should roll Intelligence (difficulty 6) to “soak” the power's activation successes, which are scored as bashing damage. As a 6 point Flaw, the psychic takes this as lethal damage, though a “mental soak” is still allowed.

 

Ritual Sleeper (5pt.)
There is no such thing as the quick fix. Real magic takes time and effort. You cannot just wave your hand and expect the forces of the universe to leap at your beck and call- at least, that's what your character thinks. You do not have access to any instant magical effects whatsoever. All of your sorcerer's magic is therefore limited to rituals. Even normally “instant” effects require some ritual; your sorcerer must devise rituals to perform the equivalents of the fast effects that other sorcerers perform. If the rules for your character's magical society already consider this, your Storyteller may disaUow this option for Flaws. Ironically, this means that any time your character wimesses any instantaneous magical effect, she is treated as a Sleeper.

 

Slow Healing (3pt.)
The mage's body's natural healing processes are slow, whether due to a bad immune system, old age, bad diet or just genetics. You heal all of your character's wounds twice as slowly as everyone else. All Life magic Effects heal half the damage they should, rounded down.

 

Sphere Inept (5pt.)
For some reason, your mage sucks at a certain kind of magic. She could be paying off some karmic debt or struggling with some metaphysical concept. Maybe she invested her knowledge in some item in a past life and she hasn't run across it yet in this incarnation.

This Flaw acts like Sphere Natural in reverse. Advancement in one particular Sphere (chosen at character creation) costs 1/4 more experience points than normal, rounded up. To take this Flaw, choose one Sphere that your character plans to study. This Flaw can be selected only once, and it must be chosen at character creation.

 

Spirit Trained (1-2pt.)
Spirit-trained mages have had no mortal teachers. Instead, one or more spirits select them as an appropriate candidate for Awakening. Sometimes spirits select mages to act as their agents in the mundane world, however, spirits Awaken a few mages for no readily discernable reason.

Awakening without mortal aid is much more difficult. The only aid and advice you received was from the voices in your head, voices which you may have at first believed were signs of growing insanity. Even more problematic is the fact that the primary information you possess about other mages (and the supernatural in general) comes from spirits. While some spirits are quite well-intentioned and helpful, all Umbrood are fundamentally inhuman and their perspective on people and events is not a human one. Anyone trained by a spirit is likely to have some rather unusual ideas about the supernatural. Because of your unusual training, you receive a free dot in either Cosmology or Enigmas, but you cannot begin play with more than two dots in any Lore. Also, you must take the Totem or Familiar Background instead of the Mentor Background (if you have a Mentor, it's a spirit). Spirit-trained mades in the First World also often have the Mental Patient Flaw, and they are usually very poorly connected to other mages. A lack of traditional training makes it hard to relate, after all.

Being a Spirit-Trained mage with significant misinformation is a two-point Flaw. Shamans who are trained by spirits with a strong ulterior motive often have very unusually and significantly incorrect views about other mages and the supernatural. Dreamspeakers believe that spirits Awaken such mages to serve as tools for a specific purpose. In one instance, a mage was Awakened and told that a certain Node was becoming so unstable that it would unleash a vast magical catastrophe unless it was destroyed. The mage used her magic to attempt to destroy it, and he was badly injured by the Garou who protected the Node. It turned out that the Node was perfectly normal, but it happened to be the dwelling of a powerful spirit inimical to the mage's patron.

 

Spiritual Duty (1-4 pt.)

You owe allegiance to a powerful spirit. This Flaw is often possessed by Dreamspeakers who also have the Spirit-Trained Flaw, though any mage who has dealt with spirits extensively may take it. While you are not always at this spirit's beck and call, it asks you for favors or assistance frequently. This relationship may be one of mutual aid, in which case you can take the spirit as one of your allies. However, your connection to the spirit could be one-way or even unwilling. Perhaps you swore allegiance to it in return for it saving your life when you were lost in the Umbra. Alternatively, maybe you attempted to bargain with it for some service, and it tricked you into swearing eternal servitude.

Spirits who are willing to trick mortals into serving them often do not have the most pleasant motives for doing so. Such spirits also rarely care if the servants survive the tasks asked of them. Add one point to this Flaw (to a maximum of four points) if your service to the spirit is a result of trickery or coercion. The rest of the value of this Flaw depends on the exact frequency and nature of the services it requires of you.

Minor services of an infrequent and usually non-dangerous nature are worth only one point. More frequent, dangerous, expensive or elaborate services are worth additional points. Remember that unlike mortals, spirits have odd and sometime inexplicable desires. Sometimes a spirit will request relatively ordinary forms of aid, such as protecting a family or a location. However, these services could easily include regular offerings, which could involve anything from flowers to cash to animal sacrifice.

A mage who takes this Flaw will have a long-term relationship with this spirit, so the Storyteller should endeavor to give the spirit a deep personality, including complex wants and needs. Of course, most spirits are, by their nature, fairly straightforward- but a spirit may have reasons to achieve its goals through intermediaries or in ways that a human wouldn't approach the same goal.

 

Sterile (1pt.)
Put simply, your sorcerer cannot have children. For those who practice Tantric rituals or require sex as a focus, but do not desire pregnancy or unwanted children, this is a Merit.For those who belong to cultures, strong families or marriages that expect them to have children, this is a Flaw.

 

Touch of Frost (1pt.)
Plants wither at your character's approach and die at his touch. His touch is as cold and clammy as a corpse- a refrigerated one at that. A common Flaw among Euthanatos.

 

Trance Requirement (3pt.)
In order to use one of your Spheres of magic, you must enter a deep and moderately long trance. The trance must last a minimum of 15 minutes. You cannot use the chosen Sphere in any way, including conjunctional magic, without entering a trance. You can enter the trance though dancing, drumming, taking euphoric drugs or deep meditation. However, while in the trance, you are completely unaware of the outside world. If someone shakes you and attempts to get your attention, you must succeed in a Perception +Awareness roll with a difficulty of 8 to notice the interruption.

Even if you overcome the need for foci with your trance Sphere, the need to enter a trace remains. Fortunately, to most Sleepers, someone in a trance induced by mediation or self-hypnosis merely appears to be napping. Similarly, going into trance through dancing can be easily done at any party or nightclub. While dancing, you will usually avoid bumping into others, but you will still be completely oblivious to the outside world.

 

Unsettling Effect (1-3pt.)
Though many psychic powers are completely intangible and unnoticeable, something about your character's psychic phenomena causes others to recognize that there's something weird going on. For one point, you have a single intangible power (like Telepathy or Psychometry) that generates an unsettling effect- perhaps your subjects can feel your character paging through their minds or everyone around the psychic feels a welter of harmless but eerie emotions when she touches a psychically-charged object. For three points, all of your intangible powers including ones that you learn later) have some sort of unsettling effect like this. This is in addition to any Resonance that your character may have

 

Vulnerability (1-7pt.)
Your character possesses a Vulnerability- a substance, element, or power that can harm or even kill him, like Superman's problems with Kryptonite or the Wicked Witch of the West's aversion to cleaning buckets. The level of this Flaw depends on whether his weakness can fatally injure him, or simply weaken him, and on how common the substance is. Damage caused by a Vulnerability cannot be soaked, except by Armor, assuming it's the right sort of Armor (the Wicked Witch of the West would have survived if she were wearing a hazmat suit or just a raincoat and umbrella).

A normal, weakening Vulnerability causes one health level of aggravated damage per tum of contact. A mortal peril causes three health levels of damage per turn of contact. If the slightest drop of the substance is certain death, instantly bringing your destruction, this Flaw is worth an extra point beyond that. If merely being in the presence of the substance causes you damage- being in the same room as the Emperor's perfume or standing in indirect sunlight- or the most infinitesimal drop causes you harm, this Flaw is also worth one point more; while if you actually have to be damaged by the substance- stabbed with the Lance of Longinus, beaten with an iron crowbar - this Flaw is worth one point less. If taken at the full seven-point level, this Flaw means a single beam of moonlight or the mere sight of a drop of blood can instantly kill you.

Flaw    Weakness
2 points    You can be fatally injured by something that's nearly impossible to acquire (the Holy Lance of Longinus, the perfume of the Emperor of Cathay), or weakened by something very rare (dragon's blood, naphtha, the bite of an Egyptian asp, panther's breath).
3 points    You can be fatally injured by something very rare, or weakened by something moderately rare (mistletoe, garlic, the sight of your reflection, silver, magic).
4 points    You can be fatally injured by something moderately rare, or weakened by something common (iron, sunlight, fire).
5 points    You can be fatally injured by something common.
Whimsy: (1pt.)
You become whimsical under stress. Rather than getting serious when things go wrong, you tend to get tickled and adopt a fey attitude. While this can occasionally be so disarming that foes are caught off-guard (perhaps giving you another chance to best them), it usually prevents you from doing anything particularly helpful for one turn and really annoys your companions.

 

 

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