Welcome back to Adept Tactics for Unknown Armies 3. Part 1 can be found here. To make it a little more useful at a glance, I'm shading the "best" general purpose combat spell for an Adept to throw out in blue. If you found this document because you need an answer right now, look for the blue shaded spell.
Katharomancers can generate a minor with an hour of work. It takes a day to generate a sig charge from a location and you can't use the same location more than once a month. Someone who cleans things professionally can get both through their daily activities.
Dual-Purpose Cleaner (2 minors) costs two minors, a roll to hit and a casting roll to inflict a 30 percent penalty to the target's actions for three minutes. It's got too many failure points and it's too expensive for what it does.
Germspotting (2 minors) is probably based on that episode of Invader Zim where he sees all the germs crawling over everything with the microgoggles and freaks the fuck out. That's how the fluff says it works, but the mechanics only inflict an Unnatural 3 shock for touching an unclean object. Most UA characters can tank that no problem.
Fear What I Fear (4 minors) costs twice as much as Germspotting but you get what you pay for. You tell someone something is unclean and they freak out, no saving throw, until the object that caused them to panic is gone or they leave the unclean place. Four minors to remove an attacker from the equation is the best you're going to do as a Katha.
Does This Look Infected To You (2 sigs) is a worse version of Fear What I Fear that costs five times as much. It does the same thing but instead of inflicting guaranteed SAN failure it inflicts a rank 7 Helplessness or Violence test. I had an NPC bust this out in a magick duel instead of the cheaper, better version and she lost because of it. Why is this in the game?
Dual-Purpose Cleaner (2 minors) costs two minors, a roll to hit and a casting roll to inflict a 30 percent penalty to the target's actions for three minutes. It's got too many failure points and it's too expensive for what it does.
Germspotting (2 minors) is probably based on that episode of Invader Zim where he sees all the germs crawling over everything with the microgoggles and freaks the fuck out. That's how the fluff says it works, but the mechanics only inflict an Unnatural 3 shock for touching an unclean object. Most UA characters can tank that no problem.
Fear What I Fear (4 minors) costs twice as much as Germspotting but you get what you pay for. You tell someone something is unclean and they freak out, no saving throw, until the object that caused them to panic is gone or they leave the unclean place. Four minors to remove an attacker from the equation is the best you're going to do as a Katha.
Does This Look Infected To You (2 sigs) is a worse version of Fear What I Fear that costs five times as much. It does the same thing but instead of inflicting guaranteed SAN failure it inflicts a rank 7 Helplessness or Violence test. I had an NPC bust this out in a magick duel instead of the cheaper, better version and she lost because of it. Why is this in the game?
If you're following along with your copy of books 1 through 5 you'll notice I'm passing over a lot of healing and other spells that are great for pre-buffing or post-combat cleanup, but don't help in the moment where you're limited to one action per turn and need to either eliminate the threat or escape. I think anything that just increases your percentage chance to hit is worthless unless you can bust it out beforehand.
MOTUMANCY
Motumen constantly get minor charges without doing anything thanks to being hardened against everyday rank 1 shocks. Sigs take effort, like an Entropomancer you can't just farm them without consequence. The average Motumancer is swimming in minors but has few or no sigs to play with.
Draw A Crowd (1 minor) lets you summon a group of people. Plowshares to Swords (1 minor) increases the odds of a riot, but doesn't instantly start one like the Fulminaturgy spell. This is a good one-two punch and the crowd summon might be enough to get the flag-burner off the hook by itself. Any public use of magick can start a riot directed at the caster. Motumancy spells are not obviously magickal to an outside observer, giving them the adavantage when the mob chooses who to tear apart. The Motumancer can worsen the odds using all their spells that append tags and labels to people, but it might not even be necessary.
Community Organizer (4 sigs) summons a squad of simulacra to wreck things up. The Motumancer decides who shows up and has more control over them than a random crowd, but the high cost makes this one hard to pull out for emergency self defense.
Draw A Crowd (1 minor) lets you summon a group of people. Plowshares to Swords (1 minor) increases the odds of a riot, but doesn't instantly start one like the Fulminaturgy spell. This is a good one-two punch and the crowd summon might be enough to get the flag-burner off the hook by itself. Any public use of magick can start a riot directed at the caster. Motumancy spells are not obviously magickal to an outside observer, giving them the adavantage when the mob chooses who to tear apart. The Motumancer can worsen the odds using all their spells that append tags and labels to people, but it might not even be necessary.
Community Organizer (4 sigs) summons a squad of simulacra to wreck things up. The Motumancer decides who shows up and has more control over them than a random crowd, but the high cost makes this one hard to pull out for emergency self defense.
PLUTOMANCY
The Plutomancy charging system implies a local gentry or "petty tyrant" figure, the type of guy who owns land and businesses in a town or small city. Someone at the center of business life can make a lot of money without ever having to pay for things formally, using intermediaries or favor trade to avoid breaking the thousand dollar limit. Someone in this position can easily get minors and sigs. Salaried Plutomancers get their charges on a weekly or monthly basis. None of their minor spells are much help in a magick duel but they have one nasty sig.
Hostile Payment (1 sig) lets you order a single target around by tossing money at them. Making them hurt themselves or their allies is nice but the real value is that doing whatever you say takes up their action. They can refuse with an Unnatural 5 save, but if they pass the stress roll they're stunned for a whole minute. Tossing this out can scramble a group of attackers if you target the right person. The driver in a car. The guy with the gun.
Devaluation (2 sigs) lets you destroy objects. It takes thirty seconds but you can use it on vehicles, making it viable in a car chase.
Hostile Payment (1 sig) lets you order a single target around by tossing money at them. Making them hurt themselves or their allies is nice but the real value is that doing whatever you say takes up their action. They can refuse with an Unnatural 5 save, but if they pass the stress roll they're stunned for a whole minute. Tossing this out can scramble a group of attackers if you target the right person. The driver in a car. The guy with the gun.
Devaluation (2 sigs) lets you destroy objects. It takes thirty seconds but you can use it on vehicles, making it viable in a car chase.
Like Agrimancy, a Plutomancer should have backup. A squad of idiots who owe them money or favors.
PORNOMANCY
Pornomancers who work together can generate lots of charges, significant and minor, limited only by their endurance. Lone Pornomancers are limited to what they can convince a partner to put up with, or pay for, and don't have as much juice to work with. Experienced Pornomancers permanently juice their Fitness and Struggle scores with How Did She Bend Like That?
Don't Hate Me Because I'm Hot (1-4 minors) lets you inflict an Isolation shock equal to the charges spent on a single attacker. If they fail, they can't attack you for an hour. The Isolation meter is oft-neglected so it's got a chance to hit, but the target still gets a stress defense roll.
Aural Sex (2 minors) lets you guarantee failure on the target's next action by saying something obscene to them, but if anyone else hears what you say the spell doesn't work. Outside a one-on-one fight this one's not worth it.
Flash Bang (3 minors) is the real shit. Expose yourself and stun up to three people for a single round with no saving throw. Spend an additional charge and extend the stun for another round by showing more skin. It's the strongest combat spell in the game. If you want to deal damage, buy a gun. Taking away the other guy's actions is why we learn magick.
Thirsty Gardener (3 sigs) lets you ensorcel a group of up to five people and make them friendly toward you. The victims get a chance to resist if they can beat an Unnatural 4 shock. The theming on the spell makes it clear that it's not intended for combat use but I said at the beginning that forcing casters to work within constraints makes them more creative. If a Pornomancer can work within the confines of the script I'll allow it.
Don't Hate Me Because I'm Hot (1-4 minors) lets you inflict an Isolation shock equal to the charges spent on a single attacker. If they fail, they can't attack you for an hour. The Isolation meter is oft-neglected so it's got a chance to hit, but the target still gets a stress defense roll.
Aural Sex (2 minors) lets you guarantee failure on the target's next action by saying something obscene to them, but if anyone else hears what you say the spell doesn't work. Outside a one-on-one fight this one's not worth it.
Flash Bang (3 minors) is the real shit. Expose yourself and stun up to three people for a single round with no saving throw. Spend an additional charge and extend the stun for another round by showing more skin. It's the strongest combat spell in the game. If you want to deal damage, buy a gun. Taking away the other guy's actions is why we learn magick.
Thirsty Gardener (3 sigs) lets you ensorcel a group of up to five people and make them friendly toward you. The victims get a chance to resist if they can beat an Unnatural 4 shock. The theming on the spell makes it clear that it's not intended for combat use but I said at the beginning that forcing casters to work within constraints makes them more creative. If a Pornomancer can work within the confines of the script I'll allow it.
SOCIOMANCY
Sociomancers can get minors easily, on an hourly basis. Sigs are harder to get, from one every few hours to every few days, then weeks... When escaping danger they flee toward rather than away from crowds, their abilities work better in groups.
Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (2 minors) lets you fill your hands with an item that would be reasonable for someone from your subculture to have. Get a weapon, or something that will help you get away.
A Face In The Crowd (3 minors) lets you disappear into a crowd. If you've got a crowd to disappear into, disappear into it.
The Team Takes One For Me (3 minors) lets you reduce incoming damage by 10. It only works once per day. It's not clear from the language whether it has to be cast as a pre-buff or if you can cast it in response to getting hit.
Pariah (3 minors) hits one target with a rank 3 Self shock. Not a big deal, but Self is a neglected meter compared to Unnatural and Violence.
Show Me How To Do That Again (3 minors) lets you draw on the skills of people in your subculture. This is more useful than it sounds. There are a lot of weebs, bronys, sports fans, etc in active duty military. It's a lot of rigamarole just to shoot a gun, but in a world where most characters don't have Provides Fireams Attacks...
Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (2 minors) lets you fill your hands with an item that would be reasonable for someone from your subculture to have. Get a weapon, or something that will help you get away.
A Face In The Crowd (3 minors) lets you disappear into a crowd. If you've got a crowd to disappear into, disappear into it.
The Team Takes One For Me (3 minors) lets you reduce incoming damage by 10. It only works once per day. It's not clear from the language whether it has to be cast as a pre-buff or if you can cast it in response to getting hit.
Pariah (3 minors) hits one target with a rank 3 Self shock. Not a big deal, but Self is a neglected meter compared to Unnatural and Violence.
Show Me How To Do That Again (3 minors) lets you draw on the skills of people in your subculture. This is more useful than it sounds. There are a lot of weebs, bronys, sports fans, etc in active duty military. It's a lot of rigamarole just to shoot a gun, but in a world where most characters don't have Provides Fireams Attacks...
Trading Places (2 sigs) swaps in someone else from your subculture to take the hits for you. You have to know their name. It inflicts an Unnatural 6 shock on the person you teleport in, so they might freak out immediately and it's possible they'll attack whoever was attacking you.
Summon Egregore (3 sigs) is expensive enough that most Sociomancers will not be able to pull it out in an unplanned skirmish, but it's a good one. The summoned being stays under your control for at least a minute, long enough for a typical Unknown Armies combat. It's got all abilities at 60 so bare minimum it can slap the enemy around with Struggle, but it's also got a "relevant identity" at 90 so it could throw out weapon attacks or even magick if it's a character from a piece of media.
Unlike Motumancy and Fulminaturgy, Sociomancy cannot whip a crowd into a frenzy and direct them against your enemies.
URBANOMANCY
Urbanomancers take four hours to generate a minor charge. They can rack up sigs fast by causing traffic disruptions, or slowly by making more durable changes to the urban form. A consultant who worked on local government comprehensive plans across a region (most jurisdictions hire the same handful of firms) could get a lot of sigs at once after a few months of work.
Five Star Ride (1 minor) is yet another quick getaway spell. Summon a cab, run for it. Not the stuff that underworld legends are made of, but the Urbanomancer's direct damage spells are almost useless in a straight fight.
Face In The Crowd (2 minor) is the Urbanomancer's equivalent to Face in the Crowd from the Sociomancy list, and they could break it out under similar circumstances.
Break Your Mother's Back (3 minor) is the Urbanomancy minor blast. It doesn't come out immediately, but marks the target for a subsequent accident that deals unarmed damage. It's better for clandestine harassment than direct combat.
My Turf (1 sig) is not a spell that an Urbanomancer would cast in a fight, but one they might have up in the background if they expect an attack. It's their early warning system, it lets them know when enemy casters operate in a prepicked area so they don't get ambushed. Like the old Mystic Herm channel that detects magick. It only lasts a week, so the caster might not have the charges necessary to constantly keep it active in the background.
Wrong Turn (2 sigs) is likewise expensive but a great way to throw someone off your tail during a pursuit. It sends the target to a location of your choosing when they try to travel through the city. The city gets angry and even violent if they try to resist with magick.
Madness of Crowds (3 sigs) is another riot starter, more expensive than the ones we've already seen (at least relative to the difficulty of getting Urbanomancy sigs). By definition Urbanomancers are more likely to be encountered in populated places.
Traffic Accident (3 sigs) is the sig blast. It's expensive and like the minor it's got a delay on it.
USTRINATURGY
Ustrinaturges can get charges without doing much of anything. Ten minutes of smoking is enough for a minor. Two hours is a sig. Just avoiding taboo (smoke every four hours) will get you six minors in a day. Unless they're casting like crazy the average smoking mage has a lot of power built up at any given time. Their deck of spells gives them many ways to deploy them in a straight fight.
Coughing Fit (3 minors) is the minor blast. It damages the eyes and makes the target cough, and while there's no immediate mechanical listed for either of those things I think you could make the case for how it impairs the victim similar to the Epi blast.
Death Sticks (2 sigs) is the sig blast. It's not cheap but Ustrinaturges get easy access to sigs. The main downside is it competes for charges with some good escape spells. Sometimes I use stress checks even in situations where an NPC is hardened enough to keep fighting, to see if they use their charges to keep fighting or save them for a quick getaway.
Obscuring Cloud (1 sig) makes a smoke cloud. Against a superior force of guys with guns or direct damage spells that require line of sight, this is the play.
Smokeform (2 sigs) lets you become smoke. You can't move very fast but you can't get hit while you're smoked up. It's a good way to no-sell serious firepower, like a bomb or a burning building.
Smoke Without Fire (3 sigs) destroys objects. It's expensive but you can use it to destroy the engine block of a car, collapse a building on someone, drop them down a manhole into the sewer below... If the environment allows for creative use of the spell to remove an enemy from play (not necessarily kill them but stop them from fighting back) then it's a better investment than Death Sticks.
VESTIMANCY
Vestimancers can get minor charges without exposing themselves to danger. It takes work but it can be done alone. The example given is three to four hours of work for a Sig, similarly without violating social or moral laws. A professional tailor, costume designer, etc could get multiple Sigs a day at work. A hobbyist could get one a day or one on the weekends. Their combat spells require preparation or paranoia since they all have an activation condition beyond charges.
Camolevar (2 minors) applies a tiny negative modifier to the enemy's chance to hit while you're wearing a garment enchanted with the spell. The positive is, the garment is enchanted against a number of attacks rather than over a period of time. The low cost and infinite duration of the spell mean that any lifestyle Vestimancer will have a buffed piece of clothing on at all times.
Dress For The Job You Want (1 minor) is like Camolevar. It takes preparation but it's easy enough to fit into what you're already doing. It lets you use your Vestimancy score to sub for a skill test if you're wearing thematically linked clothing. It's trivial to add a cowboy bandana or military shoe to your ensemble and learn how to shoot someone. Athletic tape, shoes, gloves let you climb and leap to escape danger. It only works for one roll, it's not a whole-fight buff like the Sociomancy spell up above.
A Very Fancy Hat (1 sig) lets you command your attackers to quiescence if you have a hat of authority. Refusal inflicts a Violence test with rank equal to the ones place of the casting roll. It's a gamble because the test could be low-ranked, UA3 characters tend to be hardened against violence and the hardened ones still get a save, but it hits a group of people rather than a single target so there's at least hope of thinning the herd.
Gyges Cloak (2 sigs) is borderline but if I allowed the previous "magick items" it's not out of the question for the Vestimancer to have a cloak as part of their everyday carry. Two sigs is expensive but 1 to 100 minutes of invisibility is a fight ender. Loup Garou Couture (3 sigs) and Swan Maiden Wings (3 sigs) are likewise useful but expensive and even less practical, transforming you into animal forms if you have the right outlandish clothing.
The Vestimancy blasts are useless. They have to be prepared in advance and take two actions with two successful die rolls to cast. Dress For Success and Dress The Part are longer lasting versions of Dress For The Job You Want but require the full attire of the person whose skills you want, which a Vestimancer won't be wearing in a random one-off battle.
VIATURGY
Viaturgy gives you a minor charge every 100 miles of driving and a sig every time you sleep in a new place. A long haul trucker or anyone else who drives for a living can get charges daily. A Viaturge's best bet in a fight is to get to their vehicle and either escape, or use the vehicle to deal ramming damage. If the players know this they'll do everything in their power to confront the caster somewhere else.
Decide if the Viaturge has a signature cool car which they've cast Rolling Throne on.
Get Outta My Dreams (2 minors) lets you conscript someone else into your car with an Isolation 4 test and drive away with them. Barely a combat spell but a Viaturge is never far from their car. Pick off a player character and drive off. Like Marshmallow kidnapping one of your cats in Mewgenics. I Feel Safest Of All (2 minors) inflicts stress tests on people in your car who attack you and you'd use that to stop the guy you kidnapped from immediately killing you.
Lifetime Piling Up (2 minors) is a rank 3 to 5 Helplessness test vs a single target. Not a big stress hit, only single target, not a high ranked check, but Helplessness is an oft neglected meter.
Red Light (2 minors) and Ghost Roads (4 minors) are your getaway spells. Immobilize the other guy's vehicle, drive through a wall. Green Light (3 minors) is no good because it gives you an 02 on an opposed test, which is easy to beat.
Crosstown Traffic (1 sig) is the sig blast, Viaturges don't get a little one. It activates the next time the target crosses the street, where they get hit by a car. If the players ambush the caster inside a building, it's useless. On open ground it's as much a deterrent as a damage dealer. The Viaturgy spells are in a player facing section of the rules, if they've read Book 1 they might realize what's about to happen.
Ramble On (2 sigs) lets you get to your car. This is the most important spell in the deck because most of the other spells require you to be in your car, your most potent damage dealer is your car, your best means of escape is your car, and the players will stop you getting to your car at all costs. If the fight on foot doesn't look winnable, cast this and get to your car. Don't waste your charges on the other stuff and get stuck.
I Am The Highway (1 sig) lets you quickly drive away from the enemy. Via Libris (3 sigs) lets you purge any magickal effects they stacked on you. Probably too expensive.
Rolling Throne (4 sigs) is not something the caster can use in a fight, but like the Vestimancy clothing it's something a committed Viaturge will already have up. It provides a spread of buffs while driving the Viaturge's totem vehicle and allows them to summon it by spending a Sig.
That's it for now. Next post, my favorite custom Adept schools.
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