Project Hermes Power Limitations

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  bulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  Have you ever run into, for want of a better term, a "sports nerd"? Knows all data related to their sport of choice -- player stats, percentages, strategies. Couldn't play the sport to save their lives. Or fans of pop music who know all the lyrics to their favorite songs, the history of the bands, but can't play or sing worth a darn. Armchair generals who can quote chapter and verse of military history and tactics, but haven't the nerves for actual combat. Aviation engineers who can design jet fighters, but can't pilot them. Magic in the Champions Universe is like that, only more so. Scholarship can teach someone much about the theory of magic, but the talent to actually cast spells is rare, and to learn to wield super-level magic requires talent on the level of a musical virtuoso or chess grand master. Even the members of the Trismegistus Council and the Circle of the Scarlet Moon, among the world's most knowledgeable occultists, rarely command spells with raw power close to even a beginning superhero. (There are exceptions, though, to how magic ability can be acquired. If you'd like you can check my thread on Learning Magic for a breakdown of how that works in this setting.)
  
  So it's very possible, even likely, that a qualified scholar of magic would have no spell-casting talent themselves. It's more probable that any mystic working for UNTIL with significant power would be streamed into UNITY; although Doctors White and Black of UNITY frequently assist the Hermes researchers. That said, there are several ways of looking at this issue to plausibly modify it for whatever purpose you have in mind. To start with, just because at the time UNTIL: Defenders Of Freedom was written (almost seventeen years ago now) Project Hermes had no actual spell casters as members, doesn't mean they have none now. I'm sure the Project would be happy to recruit such people, as long as they had actual knowledge and not just magic-based superpowers.
  
  Another issue would be power level. Just as there are athletes who never become major-league, there are sorcerers, witches etc. who can't match supers, but still aren't devoid of magic. Alicia Blackmun of the Trismegistus Council is quite a versatile magician, but by the scales used in PnP Champions her spells are less than half as strong as her good friend Witchcraft.
  
  Also, there's magic and then there's magic. Comic-book magic tends to look like that of Doctor Strange -- fast, easy, forceful, flashy, almost always reliable -- well-suited to combat. But both real-world folklore and literary fantasy is replete with styles of magic very different from that comic example, and the CU has practitioners of most of them. Although they can have potent effects, those spells may require long periods to cast a spell, elaborate rituals, special materials, multiple participants, or only work on certain dates or under other specific conditions. They may be difficult and/or dangerous to execute, and their final result may be much more subtle than the Crimson Bands of Cyttorak. Some forms of magic may be very potent in their own way, but not combat effective, like divination or clairvoyance, querying the spirits of the dead, crafting illusory glamors. But in the CU that type of magic can still set awesome events in motion. For example, the mysterious and devastating Tunguska Explosion of 1908 was the culmination of a days-long ceremony by a significant fraction of the Circle of the Scarlet Moon to conjure a terrible Hellstone to murder the Archmage of the day. However, quite a few Circle members died from the strain of that conjuration.
  
  If you wanted a practicing magician to be a full-time "agent" of Project Hermes, it would be most logical to either make him or her of significantly less power than a "supermage," or else practice a style of magic not suited for the "front lines." But like I always say, you shouldn't feel bound by the book precedents. If playing an actual supermage who belongs to Project Hermes would be fun for you, and no one you role play with objects, who am I to gainsay you?

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  kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User

  April 2020

  I appreciate ya, Bulg. Thanks for the info!

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  bulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User

  April 2020

  You know, going back over your remarks that the character you have in mind "can cast basic self defense and offensive spells," it occurred to me that another route to what you want might be a person whose actual talent lies only in a very narrow field. For example, Martika Duquesne, mother of Witchcraft and Talisman, is very adept at astral projection, but otherwise can only cast minor spells. The mystic assassin called the Alcedama is skilled at only a few spells of "thaumaturgy" (as the magic of supermages is called in-setting), but those are particularly useful to his line of work, and fairly formidable.
  
  Your character may command a few basic attack and defense spells, but lack the versatility to hang with the full-time supers. He might be the sorcerous equivalent of an UNTIL combat agent with blaster rifle and body armor.

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  kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User

  April 2020

  Yeah. I thought Hermès could cast spells and have read that it’s a discussion on yes or no. After posting, I went to the Warzone and was let down to see them using blasters, but the arcanists can keep a portal open? I like the idea of the character using magic, but will have limitations on time, concentration, etc. Whenever he’s facing an enemy and goes unconscious (dead), I’d think it would be safe to say he strained himself of power to go unconscious or he didn’t cast the spell properly, due to the situation he was in.

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  bulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User

  April 2020 edited April 2020

  There are frequent minor disconnects between the style of presenting things in CO vs PnP Champions, because the two games have some different priorities, and a video game engine isn't as flexible as pure imagination. But "keeping a portal open" falls well within the sort of non-combat magic that's well-supported within and beyond CU lore. And the other things you describe all have precedents.
  
  As far as mystics using blasters, if your magic isn't the kind that's effective in a firefight it makes good sense to pack some techno-heat. Before Robert Caliburn became Archmage he was infamous for using enchanted guns, which led to his nickname, "the Magnum Mage."

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  kjames91 Posts: 186 Arc User

  April 2020

  You’re correct on the comparison between PnP and Imagination of the game, unfortunately. I can try the route on the techno aspect. Thanks for your help, Bulg!

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  bulgarex Posts: 2,310 Arc User

  April 2020

  It's also possible for your character to have made or obtained a few magical artifacts to supplement his spell abilities in a fight. "Blasting wands" are a thing in real-world occult tradition. In the CU DEMON Brothers use them, as did Caliburn. No few Champions mystics also carry warding amulets, talismans, and the like for added protection.

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