Essence
From Sagataflwiki
(Created page with 'Essence is, crudely put, an amount of inflict-permanent-magic-on-the-setting ''coupons'' that each character has, and which he may be able to use. * Essence is calculated from s…') |
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| - | Essence is, crudely put, an amount of inflict-permanent-magic-on-the-setting ''coupons'' that each character has, and which he may be able to | + | Essence is, crudely put, an amount of inflict-permanent-magic-on-the-setting ''coupons'' that each character has, and which he may be able to spend. Very often abreviated as ES. |
| - | * Essence is calculated from some a character's attributes | + | * Essence is calculated from some a character's attributes. |
| - | * Essence is not renewable. The character is born with an amount and ''never'' gets more. | + | * Essence is a personal ressource. It's your character's to spend (if he has a way to spend it, and knows what he wants to spend it on), nobody can magically force him to spend it. |
| - | ** It should therefore be spent wisely | + | * Essence is not renewable. The character is born with an amount and ''never'' gets more. The character also can't reclaim or regain Essence once he has spent it. |
| + | ** It should therefore be spent wisely. | ||
* Essence is meant to be spent. There's no reason for a character to choose to retain his Essence, once he has found something attractive - in his eyes - to spend it on. | * Essence is meant to be spent. There's no reason for a character to choose to retain his Essence, once he has found something attractive - in his eyes - to spend it on. | ||
* Not all characters can spend Essence. | * Not all characters can spend Essence. | ||
| - | ** In theory, all characters can learn the Endowing skill, which is one way to Enchant permanent magical items; in practice, for many charaters the time and Skill Points (SPs) required to learn Endowing to a safely usable skill level is prohibitive. | + | ** In theory, all characters can learn the [[Endowing]] skill, which is one way to Enchant permanent magical. items; in practice, for many charaters the time and Skill Points (SPs) required to learn Endowing to a safely usable skill level is prohibitive. |
** Some characters are born with one out of several kinds of Powers that can be used to create permanent magical items. | ** Some characters are born with one out of several kinds of Powers that can be used to create permanent magical items. | ||
** Some permanent magics that are not item-related cost Essence, such as Enhancing animals, turning Enhanced animals into Familiars, or giving spells a Duration of Permanent. | ** Some permanent magics that are not item-related cost Essence, such as Enhancing animals, turning Enhanced animals into Familiars, or giving spells a Duration of Permanent. | ||
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* Divide the total by 12 | * Divide the total by 12 | ||
* Round down to the nearest 0.1 | * Round down to the nearest 0.1 | ||
| - | |||
| + | This means that an average person, with 3 in Psyche, Faith, Will and Constitution, will have 3.0 Essence. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Please note that there are some [[Essence traits|Advantages]] that affect the above formula in some way, e.g. by making the character's Psyche or Faith count as a higher value for the purpose of calculating Essence, or giving the character a so-called Marked amount of extra Essence, one that is Ear-Marked for a specific usage (such as Artificing or Domain Magic) and cannot be used for other purposes. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Example, Deriving Essence I === | ||
| + | Kuurtus the Bleak has a Constitution of 2, a Psyche of 7, a Faith of 3 and a Will of 6. Try performing the calculation above. If you arrive at any result other than 8.1 ES, you've done it wrong. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Example, Deriving Essence II === | ||
| + | Martina of the Lakes has a Constitution of 4, a Psyche of 4, a Faith of 8 and a Will of 6, and an expensive [[Essence traits|Advantage]] that makes her Faith count as 2 points higher for the purpose of calculating her Essence. | ||
| + | * Constitution of 4, squared, gives 16. | ||
| + | * Psyche of 4, squared, also gives 16. | ||
| + | * Faith of 8, plus 2, squared, gives 100. | ||
| + | * Will of 6, squared, gives 36. | ||
| + | * The sum of the above four values is 168. Divide by 12 and we get 14.0 | ||
| + | * With no decimals at all, there's no need to round down to the nearest 0.1 ES, so she has 14 full points to spend. That's an impressive amount. | ||
| + | === Example, Deriving Essence III === | ||
| + | Jürgen of the Nimble Hands has a Constitution of 4, a Will of 5, a Psyche of 5 and a Faith of 4, but he also has an [[Essence traits|Advantage]] that gives him a Marked Essence Reserve that can only be spent on Charm-Making, with this Reserve being equal to half of his rgular amount of Essence, rounded down to the nearest 0.1. | ||
| + | * We calculate his normal amount of Essence to be 6.8 (6.8333 rounded down). | ||
| + | * We calculate 50% of 6.8 ES to be 3.4 ES. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Any time Jürgen used his Charm-Making Power to make a Charm, he should spend Essence from his (Ear-)Marked Reserve first, because his regular amount of Essence can be used for anything, so he should spend from that only when he has to, i.e. when he wants to do something costing Essence that isn't Charm-Making. | ||
| + | |||
| + | If Jürgen wants to make only Charms, which is likely although not a given, he has a total of 10.2 ES to spend on it. | ||
| + | |||
| + | == Things to spend Essence on == | ||
| + | === Rendering items permanently magical === | ||
| + | This section refers to generic magical items, usually but not always man-portable. Rendering large objects or groups of objects, such as ships, standing stones or stone circles, permanently magical, is possible with some of the below methods. | ||
| + | ==== Endowing ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Imbuing ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ===== Royal Imbue ===== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ===== Heroic Imbue ===== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Religious item creation ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ===== Bless Item ===== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ===== Lunar Empower ===== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ===== Satanic Rites ===== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Charm-Making ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Amulet-Making ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Artificing ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Rune-Carving==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Tree Magic === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Domain Magic === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Ocean Magic === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Water Magic === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Stone Magic === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Animal Enhancement === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Familiars ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Undead Minions === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Elemental Companions === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | === Making spells permanent === | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Element Control ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | ==== Raise Dead ==== | ||
| + | No content yet. | ||
| + | == General rules == | ||
| + | For most purposes, Essence is accounted for in increments of 0.1, that is something can cost 1.6 or 1.7 Essence. Sometimes there may be formulae involved in calcualting the cost of a magical procedure, for instance the creation of a [[Battle Item]], in such cases do not round until the final value for the specific procedure (often one Enchantment, out of several that may be put into an item) and then round this value up to the nearest 0.1. Thus 3.55 Essence becomes 3.6 ES. | ||
| + | |||
| + | A character cannot be magically compelled to spend any amount of Essence against his will, although Flaws may drive a character to do so against the will of the player controlling the character. This only happens in extreme cases, though. | ||
| + | |||
| + | === Micro-Essence === | ||
| + | For some purposes, such as rendering spells permanent, especially Element Control spells, or Laying a dead person to Final Rest, 0.1 Essence would be too expensive. There may also be Essence cost discounts on such procedures, for various reasons. | ||
| + | |||
| + | For such situations, the character may choose to convert 0.1 Essence into 100 points of Micro-Essence, abreviated mES. This mES remains with the character until spent, and cannot be converted back into regular Essence. Also, no character may have more than 100 mES at any one time, but mES costs larger than 100 can be paid by with a combination of mES and regular Essence. For instance, to pay 210 mES, the character would pay 10 mES and 0.2 ES | ||
| + | |||
| + | Calculations are sometimes performed on mES costs, due to discount rules or discount options. In such situations, round the final value of each procedure (each spell to be rendered permanent, e.g.) up to the nearest whole number, and be sure to perform the calculation on the total amount of mES, not just the amount paid for with mES. As an example, if a price of 210 mES is subject to a 50% mES cost discount, then the result is 105 mES, not 205 mES. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Note that most discounts are rather smaller than that, although with some stacking one can sometimes get close to a 50% discount, or even surpass it. | ||
| - | |||
| - | |||
| - | |||
== Advice == | == Advice == | ||
| + | Essence is a precious ressource, and empowers the character to increase his own power, or set a lasting mark on the world, or both. | ||
| + | |||
== Please note == | == Please note == | ||
| + | If a character has multiple Essence amounts, such as regular Essence, micro-Essence and an (Ear-)Marked Reserve, then he can freely spend from several of them on any given project, as long as he doesn't violate the Ear-Mark on a Marked Reserve, e.g. by spending Essence Market for Amulet-Making on Rune-Carving. The idea is not to hold the character back due to inflexibility of the rules. | ||
| + | |||
| + | Also note, and this is important, that characters cannot pool their Essence, except in those very few cases when the rules says that they can. Each individual project, such as each of the Enchantments that make up a magic item, must be paid for by a singel character. This serves to make large effects rare, e.g. expensive Enchantments, or large-scale Domain Magic. | ||
== See also == | == See also == | ||
| + | [[Essence traits]]<br> | ||
| + | |||
[[Category:Sagatafl|Categories]] | [[Category:Sagatafl|Categories]] | ||
[[Category:Character creation|Categories]] | [[Category:Character creation|Categories]] | ||
Revision as of 16:42, 29 July 2010
Essence is, crudely put, an amount of inflict-permanent-magic-on-the-setting coupons that each character has, and which he may be able to spend. Very often abreviated as ES.
- Essence is calculated from some a character's attributes.
- Essence is a personal ressource. It's your character's to spend (if he has a way to spend it, and knows what he wants to spend it on), nobody can magically force him to spend it.
- Essence is not renewable. The character is born with an amount and never gets more. The character also can't reclaim or regain Essence once he has spent it.
- It should therefore be spent wisely.
- Essence is meant to be spent. There's no reason for a character to choose to retain his Essence, once he has found something attractive - in his eyes - to spend it on.
- Not all characters can spend Essence.
- In theory, all characters can learn the Endowing skill, which is one way to Enchant permanent magical. items; in practice, for many charaters the time and Skill Points (SPs) required to learn Endowing to a safely usable skill level is prohibitive.
- Some characters are born with one out of several kinds of Powers that can be used to create permanent magical items.
- Some permanent magics that are not item-related cost Essence, such as Enhancing animals, turning Enhanced animals into Familiars, or giving spells a Duration of Permanent.
- In some cases, Essence can be spent to drastically boost the power of magic, without this magic being permanent.
- Essence is an in-world phenomenon that characters can and should talk about; it's not a metagame phenomenon.
- Essence can be lost due to spellcasting or Endowing Fumbles, or other disasters, and also to the Death Touch of a Wraith or Wraith Lord.
Contents
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Deriving Essence
The formula for calculating how much Essence a character is born with is
- Psyche attribute squared
- Faith attribute squared
- Will attribute squared
- Constituition attribute squared
- The four above values added together
- Divide the total by 12
- Round down to the nearest 0.1
This means that an average person, with 3 in Psyche, Faith, Will and Constitution, will have 3.0 Essence.
Please note that there are some Advantages that affect the above formula in some way, e.g. by making the character's Psyche or Faith count as a higher value for the purpose of calculating Essence, or giving the character a so-called Marked amount of extra Essence, one that is Ear-Marked for a specific usage (such as Artificing or Domain Magic) and cannot be used for other purposes.
Example, Deriving Essence I
Kuurtus the Bleak has a Constitution of 2, a Psyche of 7, a Faith of 3 and a Will of 6. Try performing the calculation above. If you arrive at any result other than 8.1 ES, you've done it wrong.
Example, Deriving Essence II
Martina of the Lakes has a Constitution of 4, a Psyche of 4, a Faith of 8 and a Will of 6, and an expensive Advantage that makes her Faith count as 2 points higher for the purpose of calculating her Essence.
- Constitution of 4, squared, gives 16.
- Psyche of 4, squared, also gives 16.
- Faith of 8, plus 2, squared, gives 100.
- Will of 6, squared, gives 36.
- The sum of the above four values is 168. Divide by 12 and we get 14.0
- With no decimals at all, there's no need to round down to the nearest 0.1 ES, so she has 14 full points to spend. That's an impressive amount.
Example, Deriving Essence III
Jürgen of the Nimble Hands has a Constitution of 4, a Will of 5, a Psyche of 5 and a Faith of 4, but he also has an Advantage that gives him a Marked Essence Reserve that can only be spent on Charm-Making, with this Reserve being equal to half of his rgular amount of Essence, rounded down to the nearest 0.1.
- We calculate his normal amount of Essence to be 6.8 (6.8333 rounded down).
- We calculate 50% of 6.8 ES to be 3.4 ES.
Any time Jürgen used his Charm-Making Power to make a Charm, he should spend Essence from his (Ear-)Marked Reserve first, because his regular amount of Essence can be used for anything, so he should spend from that only when he has to, i.e. when he wants to do something costing Essence that isn't Charm-Making.
If Jürgen wants to make only Charms, which is likely although not a given, he has a total of 10.2 ES to spend on it.
Things to spend Essence on
Rendering items permanently magical
This section refers to generic magical items, usually but not always man-portable. Rendering large objects or groups of objects, such as ships, standing stones or stone circles, permanently magical, is possible with some of the below methods.
Endowing
No content yet.
Imbuing
No content yet.
Royal Imbue
No content yet.
Heroic Imbue
No content yet.
Religious item creation
No content yet.
Bless Item
No content yet.
Lunar Empower
No content yet.
Satanic Rites
No content yet.
Charm-Making
No content yet.
Amulet-Making
No content yet.
Artificing
No content yet.
Rune-Carving
No content yet.
Tree Magic
No content yet.
Domain Magic
No content yet.
Ocean Magic
No content yet.
Water Magic
No content yet.
Stone Magic
No content yet.
Animal Enhancement
No content yet.
Familiars
No content yet.
Undead Minions
No content yet.
Elemental Companions
No content yet.
Making spells permanent
No content yet.
Element Control
No content yet.
Raise Dead
No content yet.
General rules
For most purposes, Essence is accounted for in increments of 0.1, that is something can cost 1.6 or 1.7 Essence. Sometimes there may be formulae involved in calcualting the cost of a magical procedure, for instance the creation of a Battle Item, in such cases do not round until the final value for the specific procedure (often one Enchantment, out of several that may be put into an item) and then round this value up to the nearest 0.1. Thus 3.55 Essence becomes 3.6 ES.
A character cannot be magically compelled to spend any amount of Essence against his will, although Flaws may drive a character to do so against the will of the player controlling the character. This only happens in extreme cases, though.
Micro-Essence
For some purposes, such as rendering spells permanent, especially Element Control spells, or Laying a dead person to Final Rest, 0.1 Essence would be too expensive. There may also be Essence cost discounts on such procedures, for various reasons.
For such situations, the character may choose to convert 0.1 Essence into 100 points of Micro-Essence, abreviated mES. This mES remains with the character until spent, and cannot be converted back into regular Essence. Also, no character may have more than 100 mES at any one time, but mES costs larger than 100 can be paid by with a combination of mES and regular Essence. For instance, to pay 210 mES, the character would pay 10 mES and 0.2 ES
Calculations are sometimes performed on mES costs, due to discount rules or discount options. In such situations, round the final value of each procedure (each spell to be rendered permanent, e.g.) up to the nearest whole number, and be sure to perform the calculation on the total amount of mES, not just the amount paid for with mES. As an example, if a price of 210 mES is subject to a 50% mES cost discount, then the result is 105 mES, not 205 mES.
Note that most discounts are rather smaller than that, although with some stacking one can sometimes get close to a 50% discount, or even surpass it.
Advice
Essence is a precious ressource, and empowers the character to increase his own power, or set a lasting mark on the world, or both.
Please note
If a character has multiple Essence amounts, such as regular Essence, micro-Essence and an (Ear-)Marked Reserve, then he can freely spend from several of them on any given project, as long as he doesn't violate the Ear-Mark on a Marked Reserve, e.g. by spending Essence Market for Amulet-Making on Rune-Carving. The idea is not to hold the character back due to inflexibility of the rules.
Also note, and this is important, that characters cannot pool their Essence, except in those very few cases when the rules says that they can. Each individual project, such as each of the Enchantments that make up a magic item, must be paid for by a singel character. This serves to make large effects rare, e.g. expensive Enchantments, or large-scale Domain Magic.
