Spells That Don't Suck

[Arynne]

We've heard it all: Sorcery is a trap. Sorcery is a landmine. Sorcerers are a liability in combat. There is nothing sorcery cannot do that regular Charms cannot do better. Storytellers should discourage players from rolling up sorcerers if possible.


I think this is just a lack of imagination on behalf of writers and players alike. Sorcery is meant to be a way for PCs to affect Creation in ways other than those their Charms allow.


As it says in the corebook:


"Solars are the heroes of the dawn. They are the sages, warriors and god-kings of old, wakened from the sleep of ages to set their order on the world. They fight, they lead and they rule. They don't really shapeshift, fire ice bolts out of their hands, raise legions of the dead, curse villages to doom or inject poison with their fingernails. These are the sorts of things other Exalted do. No matter how long they work at it, Solars can't learn to shoot their mouth out on a tentacle and bite someone to death -- any more than Gilgamesh, Herakles, David, Solomon, Paul Bunyan or the Yellow Emperor could. A Solar might shout loudly enough to shatter bones or call down solar flames, but she cannot achieve Gigeresque special effects without the art of sorcery."


So, with that in mind, what are the best spells you've seen or created? What spells plug holes in various Exalted types' Charm sets? Which create truly original effects? Which are the most overwhelmingly useful (besides Demon/Elemental Summoning, of course)?

 

[Lord-Leafar]

I've found that nation building games can benefit incredibly well from having a sorcerer, but overall here are some of my preferred spells.


- Flight of Separation - Great for escaping a losing battle.


- Infallible Messenger: Quite simply one of the most useful spells ever, communication is key when the party is separated.


- Private Plaza of Downcast Eyes: Paranoia? This spell is a must if you fear people using magic to spy on you.


- The Faithful Ally: Not proficient with combat? let someone else take care of it.


- Mirage of Protective Shelter: Fear an invasion? Has your anathema status brought the unwanted attention of the realm? No need to fight an army when the army can't find the city you're in.


- Solar Sanctuary: One of my favorite spells, create Manses out of pure essence and become the absolute ruler of a single territory.

 

[Arynne]

Anyone else? *hopeful, puppy-dog eyes*

 

[Taliesin]

Seconding Infallible Messenger. I have, with multiple characters, considered learning Terrestrial Sorcery solely to grab that spell.


Summon Elemental makes a close second - it's not as long-lasting as a Demon, but on the flipside it's much more convenient, and if you know the right names you can whistle up much more powerful entities without investing in multiple circles of Sorcery. You don't have to enslave them either - if you're buddies with a particular Elemental, you can summon them, willfully fail the contest of wills, and simply choose not to banish them.


Dolorous Reflection is actually pretty viable in personal combat, too. Set it up, and you can enjoy a minimum of eight minutes of immunity to physical ranged attacks. Combine that with a flying archer build, and you can rain death with impunity on anybody who has neither flight or energy attacks.


Oh, and a friend of mine had an absolutely disgusting No Moon combat Necromancer who used the No Moon anima power and a Key of Mastery to basically spend the entire combat casting Flesh-Sloughing Wave for free. Combat sorcery is surprisingly doable, but it requires a smidge of twinkery, and an unconventional perspective

 

[Dracogryff]

Oh, and a friend of mine had an absolutely disgusting No Moon combat Necromancer who used the No Moon anima power and a Key of Mastery to basically spend the entire combat casting Flesh-Sloughing Wave for free. Combat sorcery is surprisingly doable, but it requires a smidge of twinkery, and an unconventional perspective :tongue:

Except for the fact that as far as I've ever understood the Key of Mastery, it only works on Sorcery, not Necromancy (though this doesn't stop there from being a necromantic equivalent as an Abyssal-Aspected Manse, I'd say... *g*). Though, even putting that aside, the Key of Mastery also specifies that they MUST spend a minimum of one mote on the spell, even if combined with such as the Lunar Anima, so breaking the rules there a bit.


Not going to argue that casting spells for one mote isn't pretty darn good in its own right (aside from the willpower cost, but I suppose careful stunting can help keep that up)...but yeah. Spells aren't completely free.


More on topic...I'm always a fan of Incantation of Effective Restoration. Especially comboed with a Lunar with Strength charms and a Full Moon Anima? Pick up that warstrider and fix it with a wave of my hand? Sure, no problem!


Others I like are Horse that Travels Earth and Water or Cirrus Skiff for travel, Hound of the Five Winds for tracking people. Purifying Flame is always good for your medic to have on hand for emergencies, as well. Need a fortress or fortifications and need them NOW? Raising the Earth's Bones is your best bet. Also handy for fast manse creation. You just might not be able to pick what Hearthstone you get if you don't have the time or skill to hold it all together.


Honestly, I more find that utility Sorcery is much more interesting and useful than combat Sorcery (other than Countermagic possibly), in part due to how much of a headache it is to cast if I understand the actual mechanics right (using Shape Sorcery for 5 ticks (1-3 times depending on your circle) then rejoining battle to actually cast it...bleh). But that's me.

 

[The Dark Wizard]

If someone does not take sorcery(Which is not always) I will almost always at least grab Infallible Messenger, it is too useful not to have!.


Admittedly I have not made any sorcery heavy characters in a long time, so I'd have to reread the appropriate material and give you an opinion of the ones I like that I feel don't suck.


Admittedly I've been addicted to crafting of the genesis kind with Revlid's mutation list. The one in our resource manager.

 

[gatherer818]

as far as actual combat magic, my sorcerers usually keep Blood of Boiling Oil already cast and waiting to discharge and rely on Thunder Wolf's Howl or Titan's Icy Breath in combat for the massive penalties they can throw around. First enemy that closes to melee gets the Blood, then Flight of Separation away and switch to Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. My sorcerers most often carry a big two-hander to make sure people prefer to stay away, and don't forget sorcerers take no penalty to cast in armor in Exalted.

 

[SephirothSage]

Hehehehehehe.. Craft Genesis... I have a char in the Seven Sins one with... well, a full 3 dot Specialization in it, and a full 5 in Craft.. cant wait to not be getting mindraped by the Big Bady. xD

 

[WarDragon]

Call me old fashioned, but I'm a big fan of Flight of the Brilliant Raptor. Turns you into a one-man siege weapon, with the long range and big area.


For up close combat, there's always the old standbys of Invulnerable Skin of Bronze and Unbreakable Bones of Stone.


Agree with Taliesin about Summon Elemental. My New Moon had just finished making a summoning treaty with the Court of Orderly Flame when the game petered out...


And of course, there's Total Annihilation. Sometimes, it really is the only way to be sure.

 

[Seeker of the End]

I'm looking into Elementals as well. However my knowledge of them really isn't that strong. Any suggestions?

 

[WarDragon]

I didn't get a chance to actually summon any, but Efreeti were probably going to be my go-to summon. They're quite versatile. Maybe flame ducks for swordsmanship, and Garda birds or unique elementals for emergencies.

 

[gatherer818]

Summon Elemental is a player's dream and an ST's nightmare. Understand that basically any "god" that governs air, water, earth, fire, or wood in any of their aspects are probably actually elementals, unless they govern an abstract of that element (such as "weather" instead of air, or "arson" rather than fire). They are countless and limitless. You should read through the Elementals in whichever Book of Sorcery: Roll of Glorious Divinity it is that has them in it for samples, but remember there are all kinds. Also, the ones in the corebook do a good job of showing the range in their power levels, though the most powerful can usually send a servant in their place. Faraku (sp?), Censor of the West, is an elemental that's on par with Octavian, Demon of the Second Circle at least...

 

[HumanPlus]

Well i mainly like sorcery because of the aesthetics. Sorcery in Exalted has an element i love, the fact that it looks good. You can take all the charms for traveling faster you want, but to me it doesn't compete with standing by a lakeside with raised arms as your anima weaves the light of the sun into wood rope and linen that forms a mighty ship in front of your very eyes. Fighting an enemy head on in a simple but pure duel is cool but if you can cast something like Shadowy Simulacrums of Smoke so that you can confuse your enemies with illusions as you fight by slipping in and out of shadows, it creates a whole different game. Also, who can NOT love throwing something big, flashy and amazing like Flight of the Brilliant Raptor sometimes. When i play a character that does sorcery i don't do it to be the most effective character on the field, i do it to be the one that looks the best. I'm bad at games so i can't make something effective in any case so this works for me at least.

 

[Phong]

This Sorcery Fix seem awesome to me.


http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1068211#post1068211

 

[Moonstone Spider]

Ritual of Elemental Empowerment lets you make permanent quasi-artifacts out of ordinary stuff, and get effects out of items that you sometimes can't get any other way. I've made Everlasting Rations by using wood (regenerates damage and lost parts) on iron rations, and shapeshifting clothes using Water on a robe to get a disguise boost. Air, Fire, and Earth give you offense and defense options and air also lets you make heavy loads light as a feather, useful if you find a big treasure like, say, half a ton of silver coins, which you want to steal but can't carry by yourself. On the less mechanically useful front having a lot of minor enchanted stuff makes you feel much more like a real wizard without having to blow a ton of EXP on dots of artifact and half your essence pool for attunement. Stuff like a self-heating teapot, a robe who's occult symbols change to match your mood, a ritual dagger that glows red-hot on command, and a bottle of wine that never gets empty aren't going to conquer the Realm but they do make it clear that your character has some serious mojo and have good stunt potential, without costing much.


In "Plugging Holes in the Charmset" I second Wardragon. Sidereals really benefit from Invulnerable Skin of Bronze and Unbreakable Bones of Stone, due to often not wearing armor for the sake of martial arts. Incomparable Body Arsenal can be really good for any martial artist, but it has too high a cost and too short a duration to have the same utility as the previous two spells. Really any non-lunar benefits but if you have trouble getting your soak up, they're downright critical.


Hound of the Five Winds is an excellent combat/utility spell. It's a summon but your Hound is awesome, a gigantic wolfhound you can ride that auto-detects your enemies in a 100 mile radius, runs like the wind, and is so fierce that by itself it counts as a magnitude 3 army in mass combat (stackable up to magnitude 8, which is hilarious when some pitiful fool shows up with a magnitude 5 army of barbarians planning to sack your hometown). It doesn't have the broad utility of Demon of the X Circle or Summon Elemental, but for what it does, it's better than either of those.


Raising the Earth's Bones lets you build earthworks and stone walls. The ostensible use is to throw up a quick defensive wall if you see an incoming army. I find it far more useful for more mundane purposes: Building roads and constructing buildings in order to throw up cities to rule in days instead of years (I defined roads as "Walls a foot high and fifteen feet wide"). Of course the whole instant fortress deal is useful too.


Imbue Amalgam pretty much lets you create a poor man's Exalted out of random mortals, at will. It's so ungodly powerful I expect most campaigns to ban it or houserule it to be weaker as a matter of course.


On the Summon Elemental Front, Sobeksis are one of the few elementals that can be readily summon and also have good healing powers, nifty if you're lacking in medicine charms and have to patch the party up.

 

[Captain Hesperus]

This Sorcery Fix seem awesome to me.
http://forums.white-wolf.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=1068211#post1068211

Looks like an interesting project. It's a shame the author stopped after the Emerald Circle. I would have liked to see what they could have done with the Sapphire Circle.


Captain Hesperus

 

[Bromsy]

Flight of the Brilliant Raptor was exceedingly useful when I ran a game out in the west. Explody long range fireballs plus wooden ships makes for a lot of dead extras.

 

[Thorn Darkblade]

Summoning demons is not to be second guessed. The duration they last, vs how often you can summon more means this should be exploited fully. Even if it's just 1st circle demons, a dozen blood apes is a force to be reckoned with.


Oh, but demon summoning is dangerous, you say? If you fail a roll, you're dead? That's what the rest of your circle is for. You're only summoning one at a time...if they can't handle one, somethings wrong.

 

[gatherer818]

hehe, physical danger only comes into play if you're summoning rather powerful 2nd circles with a new Exalted circle, or else summoning 3rd circles. It's the OTHER dangers, to mind and soul, that the ST should fully exploit. Translator-armor-jellies whispering in your ear, listening to your conversations, reporting back to masters and mistresses unknown... your scouts sending intel to other leaders...


But damn it, Emerald Swiss Army Knife is still too useful to pass up.

 

[hellrazoromega]

We've heard it all: Sorcery is a trap. Sorcery is a landmine. Sorcerers are a liability in combat. There is nothing sorcery cannot do that regular Charms cannot do better. Storytellers should discourage players from rolling up sorcerers if possible.
I think this is just a lack of imagination on behalf of writers and players alike. Sorcery is meant to be a way for PCs to affect Creation in ways other than those their Charms allow.

Lack of imagination is right, and perhaps a bit of bad habit. I have seen to many players take sorcery and think they are going to be a Wizard, ah la most every other fantasy game out there. With few exceptions sorcery is not for


combat, it is to re-engineer Creation. That is not to say there are not some very nasty combat spells--which have been listed here, I just like to think of all the awesome non-combat ways sorcery can be used. The flashy "spell" type stuff is what charms are for, I'll buy that it can be a "hole filler" for charms but it should never replace charms. Sorcery should be awe inspiring and when it is of the Solar Circle it should make the gods (other than the Incarna themselves) take the slightest bit of an veiled peak away from the Games of Divinity.

 

[Sherwood]

In one game, we used the Ritual of Elemental Empowerment to make a custom airship that totally rocked. Using the Earth benediction, we made parts of the hull extra armored, while using the Air benediction to make other parts of the ship weigh much less. The sails on the ship were self repairing, and the interior cargo hold was made to be transformitive, making more space as needed. It was a sweet ride.

 

[Moonstone Spider]

If one insists on trying to use Sorcery in combat, my first choice would be Mists of Eventide (White Treatise 53). It's not an attack so it can't be easily perfected away. It has a moderately small area of effect and lasts for a decent amount of time in battle, and it's effects put an enemy out of the game so they can be easily killed or taken prisoner at your leisure. And it won't destroy any infrastructure you're trying to capture.


It's long list of things it doesn't affect (including Extras) keep it from being a be-all end-all but there's no sorcery spell that's omni-useful in combat.

 

[ava]

We've heard it all: Sorcery is a trap. Sorcery is a landmine. Sorcerers are a liability in combat. There is nothing sorcery cannot do that regular Charms cannot do better. Storytellers should discourage players from rolling up sorcerers if possible.

I beg your forgiveness for necroing the thread, but I just had to ask: WHO the heck you were playing with?


Sorcery is, in my opinion, one of the primary things which distinguish a fantasy or magical reality setting from a realistic or sci-fi setting. I find Exalted's approach to sorcery especially interesting, because I feel that by making sorcery , "harder" to use, the game elevates it from the "parlor trick" status and really drives home the impact of feats which can be achieved by sorcery. I never remember a time any ST or player told anyone not to create a sorcerer character on the grounds that "they would be a liability in combat" or "everything spells can do could be done better by Charms". Unless you're playing a game which only focuses on combat, these are flat out not true or gross exeggerations.


You usually would have to pick the right spells for your character's concept and game's scope (e.g., The Eye and the Mouth would be of no use to a blacksmithing oriented Twilight, but would make very much sense for a linguist Eclipse), but some generally useful spells I like to pick are Demons of the First and sometimes Second Circle, transportation spells like Cirrus Skiff or Swift Spirit of Transportation (again, exact choice depends on the scope of the game), Internal Flame, Death of Obsidian Butterflies, Unity of Dreams, Between the Minute and the Hour, Incomparable Body Arsenal and such.


Solar Circle Sorcery spells are usually a story unto themselves, because obtaining them is near impossible, finding the correct time and place to use them is difficult and their effects are momentous.

 

[gatherer818]

It sounds like you pretty much summarized the thread, there. Although, you also drove home the OP's point - you notice how few of the spells you picked are combat applicable? With an awesome circle, a sorcerer can participate in combat and completely own (my RL campaign resembles an old-school DnD campaign sometimes, with everyone protecting the wizard until she finishes the fight with a single mighty spell), but outside of that the sorcerer needs to be prepared. Unbreakable Bones of Stone can't be cast in combat time...


One thing I don't think we've mentioned, though, is that being a sorcerer and being a leader are not incompatible in Exalted. Demon of the First Circle or Summon Elemental can be very useful for forcing an enemy into mass combat when they might only be prepared to handle personal combat. Demon of the Second Circle can fill your MCU up with special characters that are not insignificant. And they can all Dematerialize - that means you can walk around with your army without LOOKING like you're walking around with an army (or having to feed them or pay them). And the look on some mook's (or Wyld Hunt's) face when he challenges you and your first move is to materialize 200 demons out of thin air is priceless.

 

[Silent Wayfarer]

IIRC Mnemon has a habit of going around surrounded by enough demons that she looks like a cloud in Essence sight. And demons are really damn good at mass combat, they have a huge Might rating which goes up even more when you equip and train them with easily-mass produced gear. Firmin can create exceptional arms and armor, Neomah are (surprisingly enough) the most badass fighting demons in the First Circle second only to the tomescu (because tomescu can automatically counterattack and have stats nearly as good as neomah).


Plus, even if you're into the whole "one against a thousand" angle, you can tell your demons to "chill out in my yasal crystal and lend me your Charms". Then kek heartily as you spam PoM, Meat of Broken Flesh, Essence Bite, (De)materialize and all the other badass Charms to augment your own Exalted prowess.


In general, sorcery is inefficient compared to Charms, but sorcery can do anything within its ridiculously broad thematic as long as it doesn't infringe on, oh, necromancy. I'll take "inefficient thing that I wouldn't be able to do otherwise" any day, even if it does cost me a WP minimum and double digit Essence expenditure. In addition, sorcery benefits massively from infrastructure AND lets you build an infrastructure easily. A sorcerer is feared because he is powerful and difficult to predict/understand, and people have always feared what they cannot understand,