PhoenixScientist Character Creation

Updating that bottom section, we've got:

Alignment: Undecided
Skill Ranks: Appraise 1, Diplomacy 2, Guile 3, Hide 1, Knowledge (occult) 1, Knowledge (religion) 1, Oratory 1, Posture 2, Soft Steps 3
Engagement Style: Art of Being Nice
Special Trait: Duplicitous


What do you want for your Alignment?

I think I'll be Dissent actually.

Focusing on Porph...

By the way, I do have to say. I checked out some of that item purchasing and stuff and it looks nice.

Ah, an interesting choice indeed!

Next on our list is your Focus. A special feature with no direct parallel in any system I've played, the Focus is kinda like a background, an archetype, and the specialization feature of WoW all rolled into one. Your character might be an Escort who plays nice and works from the shadows, but your Focus is the thing your character has spent their life working on so far, and will continue to do so. Perhaps she is also a talented pressure-point striker, or good with chain weapons, or well-versed in navigating urban environments, or maybe she's a great swimmer! The options are many, but you only get one.

Do you see your character having a Non-Magical or Magical Focus? Note that mages are not required to take Magical, and can Focus on other things, but a non-magical character cannot pick a Magical Focus.

Just saw your note about the items. Thanks! I worked really hard on that.

I do actually think they'd have a magical focus.
I think they'd focus on manipulation, trickery, and (in combat) stealthy attacks to support others.

I listed multiple options because i dont know how the Focus works and what I can choose.

Lots of ways we can do that. Your Magical Foci options are Adept of Lithosphere, Adept of Hydrosphere, Adept of Atmosphere, Adept of Radiance, Adept of Creation, Adept of Mutation, Adept of Authority, Adept of Bedlam, Adept of Space, Adept of Time, Adept of Void, Adept of Body, Adept of Mind, Adept of Soul, and School Sage.

Quick breakdown. The Adept gives you a variety of magics in a related discipline. The School Sage focuses you on one subschool of magic for the time being, but you get lots more levels in it than you normally would. Stow that one in the back of your head, and we'll come back to it if Adept doesn't sound like what you want.

(explanations to follow)

Adept of Lithosphere gives you one level each in the Earth, Dust, Seismic, and Acid subschools under the Lithosphere school. Earth is a basic elemental magic, Dust is healing, Seismic is earthquakes, and Acid lets you melt stuff.

Adept of Hydrosphere gives you one level each in the Water, Vitae, Ice, and Venom subschools under the Hydrosphere school. Water is another basic, Vitae is healing, Ice is what it sounds like, and Venom lets you extract and apply poisons safely.

Adept of Atmosphere gives you one level each in the Air, Breath, Lightning, and Smoke subschools under the Atmosphere school. Air is another basic, Smoke is the nasty suffocate version, Breath is healing, and Lightning is what it sounds like.

Adept of Radiance gives you one level each in the Fire, Vigor, Lumina, and Plasma subschools under the Radiance school. These will take a sec to explain, so I'll go ahead and post.

Fire Magic is similar in principle to Air Magic, but it controls burning gases instead. It allows you to ignite things, and control varying kinds of magical flames.

Vigor Magic is also healing, but it's special. Instead of drawing from the environment and being able to control its inhabitants, Vigor Magic draws your healing from someone or something that is burning, typically not because they want to be.

Lumina Magic is control over light. Basic in principle, but as you get stronger, you will be contacted by secret societies who master the manipulation of invisible frequencies with special powers. Join one of them, and you can learn to manipulate unseen death rays!

Finally, Plasma Magic controls something that is in very sparse supply in the natural world: superheated plasma. Typically found in lightning and the solar corona, you instead generate what is called a "Plasma Ghost" around yourself, a deadly aura that you can shape into beam swords and explosive plasma blasts. Very fun, very dangerous, especially for you. One wrong step and you could boil yourself alive!

As an Adept of Creation, you would start with one level in Genesis Magic, and one in Order Magic. These fields of effect would allow you to create objects (seemingly from nothing), or alter the properties of existing objects, as well as control the order that binds them. You could stop a rope bridge from snapping, repair damage that was just done to your shield, armor, or even your body, and compel fleeing enemies to stay.

As an Adept of Mutation, you get one level of Chaos Magic instead of the Order level shown above; still get Genesis though. Now, you can cause increased damage to objects or people, pervert existence with unnatural mutations, and force your enemies to depart!

As an Adept of Authority, you get one level of Order Magic, and one level of Destruction magic; no Genesis this time. With the power of Destruction at your fingertips, you can simply will an object to shatter, and it will obey. With the power of Order, you can put it back together again, good as new.

As an Adept of Bedlam, you get one level of Chaos Magic, and one level of Destruction magic. Gone are the powers of creation and command. Now there is only madness! Wield the terrifying tools of torment and despair to your heart's content, and the terror of your insipid enemies...

Almost done!

As the Adept of Space, you would hold powers of Sector, Motion, Dimension, and Parameter magic.
Sector is teleportation and repositioning magic.
Motion controls how fast things go, and in what direction.
Dimension plays with the planes of existence, and lets you phase things partially or completely out of this one!
Parameter magic is the most meta of the four, but essentially controls how the other three behave. If you set the parameters of a doorway so that it is impassable, people will not be able to walk through, as if it were a wall. That is only one of thousands of applications.

As the Adept of Time, you wield the powers of Duration, Perception, Action, and Entropy.
Duration deals with the beginning, middle, and end of a person's life. You can view them and control them as you like, so long as you maintain physical contact with their body.
Perception deals with how people see time moving. You can look into the past or future, or even change how you or others perceive the motion of time. Speed it up? Slow it down? Stop it altogether? Your choice!
Action is the meta one out of this bunch, and deals with the literal action economy of our battle mechanics. If something would take a cludgy Full Round Action, you can make it go faster. If something quick and simple could be accomplished as a Free Action, you could force someone to put actual effort into it.
Entropy is the inevitable destroyer that consumes the universe. You can abate its hunger for a brief moment to offer protection, or call it on to witness your enemies turn to dust.

Adept of Void grants you the powers of the solar system, the stars, and the hungry void. Full explanation is too long for right now.

An Adept of Body gets to select one subschool of their choice from the Soma school (controlling physical attributes), one from the Anatomy school (controlling literal anatomy like bones and muscles), and one from the Temperament school (which controls the magic of the four humors).

Lastly, we have the Adept of Mind and the Adept of Soul.

Adept of Mind works similarly to body, giving you one subschool from the Psyche school (mental features), one subschool from Mentality (things like memory, motor skills, and senses), and one subschool from Aptitude (hard to explain in short).

Adept of Soul grants you one subschool of Spirit Magic (the bridge between Body and Mind), and also allows you to tap into your true self and the spirits of your ancestors.

So, now that you have all your options, what do you think?

Im interested in the Adept of Atmosphere and Adept of Time and Lumina Magic.
Considering....

I like the Atmosphere because it gives me a mix of boost and nasty that seems to fit my character.
I may just pick up Lumina later (that secret society thing seems cool).
And the Time for the same reason I like Atmosphere....

Black hair, brown eyes and medium moca skin.

The jump from Atmosphere to Radiance (and thus to Lumina) isn't that big, so it's a good plan. I like the appearance details.

So are we putting you down for Adept of Atmosphere?

Yeah, I'll start with Adept of Atmosphere.