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by John Pederson <lobo1@juno.com>
With the advent of the Physical Magician, my thoughts have been spurred on to ideas of combined magicians, that is magical characters capable of the use of more than one magical ability. This brought me the idea of Active and Passive Adepts, and the ways in which they can combined. Active and Passive Adepts differ only in how they use their Magic Attribute.
Active Adepts are those which make active, or constant, use of their Magic Attribute. Active Adepts make up the largest group and include Sorcerers (Magic Attribute determines the amount of Magic Pool Dice available for casting a given spell and determines the maximum force of spell that can be cast without causing physical drain), Physads (Magic Attribute is tied up in the use of their special abilities), Shamanic and Elemental Adepts (have access to Sorcery), and Negamages (Magic Attribute determines size of Personal Spell Defense Pool).
Passive Adepts comprise a smaller group of those which make less use of their Magic Attribute. Passive Adepts include Conjurors (Conjuring is based on Charisma and Conjuring Skill*), Enchanters (Enchanting does not require the active use of Magic), and Astral Adepts (Essence determines how long the Adept may spend in Astral Space). In Passive Adepts, the Magic Attribute signifies the link they hold with astral space which allows them the use of their abilities. Passive Adepts do not channel the same amounts of mana through this link as Active Adepts do in the use of their powers. While Sorcerers channel mass amounts of energy in the casting of a spell, a conjuror's link only allows him to call and command spirits. Enchanters only ground energy through themselves into the enchanted object at a slow pace, and Astral Adepts do not channel energy through themselves under normal circumstances at all.
Combined Adepts are Magic Priority A. No more than two Active Adepts may be combined in any given character. The following combinations are possible, but are not necessarily the only combinations that may exist:
Two Active Adepts may be combined with no penalties (bear in mind that some combinations may be deemed incompatible, depending on the GM's interpretation of how they work).
One Active Adept and three Passive Adepts may be combined without penalty. For example, Sorcerer+Conjuror+Enchanter+Astral Adept (Congratulations! You've got a full magician!).
Two Active Adepts and two Passive Adepts may be combined, but with some restriction on the use of Active Magical Abilities (restrictions may include only spells that bonuses are received for, or the division of the Magic Attribute between the two abilities, as Physical Magician). Passive abilities should be based off the Magic Attribute of the most Sorcery-oriented portion of the character.
Note that these combinations are fairly well balanced (the first has no access to the Passive abilities without being a combo of an Elementalist and something else, the third does not have access to the Astral unless those abilities are chosen over others). Also keep in mind that some combinations may be more offensively geared than others (like a Fire Elementalist or Wolf Shamanic Adept combo'ed with a Physad) and may be deemed unbalanced.
*Banishing may be considered to be an active use of the Magic Attribute, but it should be remembered that even mundanes can summon and banish Free Spirits. An explanation is thus:
A Conjuror, by himself, does make Active use of the magic Attribute for the magically exclusive act of banishing. Because no other magical abilities may be used while attempting to banish a spirit, it can be assumed that the Conjuror may channel enough energy through the link created by the Active portion of the magician, thereby relieving the need for a special or exclusive astral link for the use of conjuring.
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