Welcome back to Adept Tactics for Unknown Armies 3e. This quick reference guide lets you pick spells for your NPC casters when the players ambush them unexpectedly and you don't have time to go through the whole list. In part 3 we'll cover my favorite Statosphere schools, and a couple fanmade schools that didn't make it onto the site before Atlas allowed the program to die by neglect.
Blowout (3 minors) lets you immobilize someone if they fail a Fitness save. It doesn't stop them from fighting, just moving. With no guarantee of incapacitation it's only useful in niche applications where the target closing to contact is really dangerous.
Darwin's Prize (1 minor) is a small heal-on-kill that a Culteurge can use in a fight. The health regen is small, probably too small to matter if they've got more foes to tack3 sigs)le but I like it anyway because it's thematic. I said at the beginning of the series that I like UA3 combat because it takes place in the psychic terrain of the mind. A Culteurge casts this spell because it's what they want, not because it's that effective.
I'll Spot You (2 minors) is useful in a team fight, which a charged up Culteurge can force using a later spell from this deck. Stop your gym buddies from failing SAN when they see the opposition use guns and magick.
Made of Iron (2 minors) is a physical debuff clear. If the players try to take a Culteurge alive, incapacitate them with magick, poison them, etc this is the muscle wizard's way out. The real benefit is that it removes the penalty for called shots. Cast this and punch people in the head, snatch their guns, break their arms so they can't cast...
The 5 Ds (2 sigs) lets you ignore five ranged attacks. It lists a bunch of weapons (guns, grenades) but it's less clear whether it lets you no-sell ranged magick attacks like Blast spells. Maybe it doesn't work if they touch you?
My Boys (3 sigs) lets you summon a goon squad of 1 to 10 musclebound tank brains to help you out. They "value their physical safety enough that they may not be willing to help you in a very dangerous fight" but I would use I'll Spot You to help them over the hump. The main problem with this spell from a "pull this out when the players attack one of your NPCs and you don't have a battle plan prepared" perspective of this series is that those NPCs need stat blocks and the spell description doesn't provide one. There's not even a single generic muscle-dude block for the whole stack.
Testosterone Poisoning (1 sig) inflicts madness on a single target, making them violently attack everyone around them if they fail a Rank 10 Self test. It's a gamble because the target gets a save but it can turn the strongest member of the enemy team against them. A muscle mage with sigs to spare will cast this.
Vitruvian Man (2 sigs) lets you undo a disabling injury. Culteurges who like to fight and win will not save two Sigs in their back pocket to reverse potential crippling damage. If ambushed out of nowhere and they get their limbs severed, it's the first thing they'll cast.
DIPSOMANCY (Bargain Brand Rework)
The Dipsomancy rework (not the one from Pen & Paper Bullshit) makes some balance changes from the original but the core function of the school is the same. You charge up fast by drinking, then lose the charges when your impairment penalty goes down. A Dipso who fights drunk will have charges, if they're sober they won't.
This caster school is part of why I wrote this series. The adventure Grand Supreme centers on a Dipsomancer making correct use of his spells to fight a larger group of player characters. A prepared ambush on the part of the NPC is the reverse of what this series is designed to help with, but once the players fight their way out of that Three Bear has to improvise and react with a deck of spells he knows by heart, but the GM might not.
Party Foul (3 minors) is the minor blast. The random pratfalls it inflicts are good for deniable damage dealing but in a real fight it's no better than just hitting the other guy. The main benefit over your struggle score is it doesn't suffer from your impairment penalty.
Drunken Stagger (3-5 minors) debuffs the chance to hit of all attacks against you for three rounds by 30 percent, or 50 if you spend two extra charges. If a Dipso has the action economy and charges to cast this then it's a solid defense against superior numbers.
Party Like Hell (5 minors) summon a demon. The control spell is too complicated to cast in a fight but all the summoning requires is to pour out a drink. Like with the demon summoning spells in the core set, the gamble here is that it tries to possess someone besides you. Even if it doesn't successfully take over their body, fighting it on the possession gridiron takes them out of the fight.
The World Trembles (1 sig) is the sig blast. It causes a major pratfall and a rank 5 Violence shock. A dipso who has the charges will lean hard on this one. It hits hard and if the damage doesn't disable the target the stress test stands a good chance of turning them away.
The impairment share and command abilities are great for a prepared attack but too finicky to use in a battle. You can't get the other person to accept a cup when they're fighting you.
Exsesusurges can build up a decent sized pool of charges if they have a job or hobby that lets them feed people. Their deck of spells is not useful in combat because the school is fundamentally about sacrificing yourself to feed others, not getting in fights with magick. They can do a lot of nasty stuff to people they clandestinely feed through their self-dismemberment program but none of that translates to self defense in a straight fight.
That's So Wrong (1 Sig) inflicts a rank 6 or 7 Self test on a single target, who is overwhelmed with repugnance when they try to commit an act chosen by the Exsusesurge. Like all stress check abilities it's a gamble, but it's your best shot at making an attacker leave you alone.
Forgive me if I repeat myself: a Gourmeturge who works in food service can farm charges as part of their day job. A wedding caterer or similar emotionally significant food preparer can get a sig a day along with a constant stream of minor charges. Many of their spells give a bonus for feeding the target a food item, which doesn't work in a battle against a determined foe, but they also have stuff that works right out of the box.
Disagreeable (3 minors) is your minor blast. It inflicts gastrointestinal distress on the victim and the only targeting requirement is they have to have eaten in the last day.
Gut Buster (1 sig) is the sig blast. Killing a target by making food pinball around inside them can make their GI tract explode, which has the potential to inflict stress checks on their surviving allies. This spell is an effective and disgusting terror weapon. Like the minor blast, it doesn't work on people who haven't eaten in the last day.
The Beast of the Belly (2 sigs) skips the damage and inflicts the stress test directly, meter of the caster's choosing, equal to the sum of the dice. That's an average rank of 10 (5 plus 6) but there's the usual problem of spending charges and your action to inflict a shock that the target can potentially save against.
Purge negates one action as the target vomits but costs four sigs and requires the caster to touch the target. It's too expensive and takes an action to negate an action. The rest of the spell deck can absolutely cripple the victim long term or mess their life up if they eat your food, but that's not helpful in a battle.
PLUTOPHAGY (REWORK)
Another Bargain Brand rework, this time from the upcoming Court of the Burger Queen book. Plutophagy is a demanding school with a strict taboo and difficult charging requirements. The only Plutophage who is likely to walk around with lots of power on their hip is a mendicant employed by a more powerful conspiracy that literally feeds them charges.
Butterfingers (1 minor) makes someone drop what they're holding. They get a Fitness save opposed versus your casting stat. It's worth it in narrow circumstances where the victim dropping a valuable item would cause them to lose it, like it's fragile or they're on a boat or something.
Hazard Diamond (1 minor) makes an area, object or person repugnant, inflicting a rank 4 stress test in a meter determined by context. Dropping it on an area lets you hit a group with the test, making it economical to throw out in combat even if most of the targets make their save.
Work Life Balance (1 minor) removes one target's ability to manipulate dice using their obsession, and debuffs an adept's casting chance by 20 percent. Both the numeric debuff and the removal of flip-flopping can seriously nerf an enemy caster's chance to hit.
What's Mine Is Yours (2 minors) is the Plutophagy minor blast, which heals the caster and mirrors the injuries healed onto the target. The amount of healing and damage is not huge but you have to consider the psychological effect. Even if it's not explicitly called out in the spell description, witnessing that type of magick and being targeted by it is like a rank 5 Unnatural shock. Outside the pure mechanical effect on the characters there's also the impact on the players. If they are not nose down in the splatbook they won't know the actual limits of the adept's power. They see a dude healing himself and throwing the damage back again, they might think twice about hitting him again.
Triple Gem (3 minors) can be cast as a reaction and lets you pass a failed stress check. If maintaining control in a stressful situation is life and death, it's worth the cost.
Release From Samsara (1 sig) is the significant blast and works the same way as the minor. It's cool, interesting and powerful beyond the raw numeric effect for the same reason. Taking lots of damage with the intent of reflecting it back is a bad idea, but in an ambush situation you're going to get hit and hurt regardless of what you want and the ability to purge that while roasting someone else is your way out.
Total Recoil (1 sig) inflicts an instant Fight, Flee or Freeze reaction on a single target, no saving throw. They can attack you but someone in a three Fs response can't hit you with magick. Target the enemy mage with this.
Uh, okay... This guy's about to jack off. Praviturges are strictly limited in how many sig charges they can get over a lifetime, and their spells are pretty expensive. Having said that, their charging schema is purely internal and based on how far they want to push themselves. If they want to edge themselves right up to the line they can just do that and walk around with a full load of sigs ready to spew all over anyone who teases them. Too bad most of their spells are based on investigation and self mastery rather than beating people up. Their best bet is to flee the encounter unless they have a powerful non-magick form of self defense.
Master Of Your Domain (2 sigs) makes the caster incorporeal. Manual Override is best used to tank damage while escaping a dangerous situation, this one is also best used to get the fuck out of dodge by no-selling physical attacks.
STRYGOMANCY
The author of Strygomancy took it down, which is unfortunate since it's a cool inversion of Epideromancy. It has a lot of powerful spells and a signature ability that permanently transforms the caster. If you've got a Strygomancer on the board, they should already have a Long Live The Neverflesh transformation (see below). Downside is, charging as a Strygomancer is expensive, requiring greater and greater shocks to break through (like in the name of the document).
Nosebleed (1 minor) is the minor blast. It only deals unarmed damage but the physical effects are disgusting, mulching organs and growing spikes out of bones.
Insect Politics (2 minors) buffs the caster's Struggle by 20%. If you have a good netherflesh mutation that requires a roll to hit, this is a value add, but it takes an action to cast.
Carapace (1 minor) inflicts a 20% penalty on rolls to hit the caster. Like Insect Politics this is a good pick if you've got breathing room.
A Highly Excited State (1 minor), issues a single target a command, which they can resist with a Rank 4 Self check. The usual caveats about single target stress checks apply, but getting an enemy to blast an ally or crash a car or cast a spell they don't want to use could tip this one over into being worth it.
Be Afraid (1 minor) hits a single target with a rank 3 shock in the meter they have the most failed notches in. In my opinion this is strictly worse than Highly Excited State unless you know your target has big hardening in Self. Remember that you can see your players' character sheets, but your NPCs cannot. They can play smart but only with the information available to them.
Aneursym (1 sig) is the sig blast. It can inflict normal looking injuries or horrible tumorous growths at the discretion of the caster. This is a terror weapon on par with the Gourmeturgy sig blast and should be used accordingly to inflict damage on one target and stress on the whole crowd.
Something That Will Break Through (1 sig) lets you make a "control organ" to take over an opponent's body. Using it on someone takes an opposed Struggle roll, but if you beat them you take over their body for minutes equal to the ones die. More than enough time for them to make a mess of your opponents. The target takes a rank 7 Helplessness shock but even if they pass they don't get their body back, they just tank the stress damage. The opposed roll makes this a gamble but the effect could be worth it.
A Good Healthy Dose of Hallucination (1 sig) lets you produce a visual hallucination that alters the details of an object. It could be good in narrow circumstances like hiding a land mine or something, but it's competing with some heavy hitters for your sigs.
Be Very Afraid (1 sig) hits the target with a stress check in a meter of your choice, equal to the sum of the dice. That's an average of 10, which is good, but the target gets a stress roll to resist even if they aren't hardened enough.
Destroyed And Recreated (1 sig) is your big heal, restoring wounds equal to the die roll. The replaced flesh is obviously unnatural and inflicts an Unnatural 3 test to behold. Like the Plutophagy heal & damage, this one hits harder if the players don't know your stat block. The book's out of print, they won't know what hit them.
Long Live the Netherflesh (2 sigs) is the signature spell of the Strygomancer. The caster permanently manifests a mental illness as a physical mutation. They can cast this on other people but the primary use is on their own bodies, giving themselves fucked up mutant abilities and transformations with the disorders they get from filling their faileds. Strygomancers can do this in combat to other people and inflict a stress hit alongside saddling them with a new organ that hates them. Most Strygomancers use this to upgrade themselves instead, not during battle but prior to combat.
If there's a Strygomancer on the board, you should pick a cool and disgusting power for them before they hit the table. I realize that's not a helpful piece of advice for a guide on what the NPCs do right the fuck now, but I have to imagine that the only people putting these people in their games are people who read the book and immediately got excited about the possibilities.
Flick (1 minor) is the minor blast. It requires the caster to carry a bottlecap stuffed with tissue around for use as a projectile, but if we allow Vestimancers to carry mystic totem gloves and cloaks we can forgive something that fits in a pocket.
Image Game (2 sigs) is an information gathering spell based on a Korean drinking game. You make a yearbook style "most likely to X" statement and everyone in earshot is compelled to point to the person most likely to fit the profile. It says you can cast this in combat and force people to point weapons at one another, though not themselves. This can force them to actually shoot each other, per the example in the book. Craft the prompt carefully and you can get the opposition to mow each other down.
The sig blast is useless in battle because it requires the victim to voluntarily drink something offered by the caster, which Tormsen says outright is not going to happen even in a friendly conversation if the other guy knows your caster school.
WHAT'S NEXT?
My personal adept schools, plus anything I missed from previous posts that I want to revisit. See you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment