[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Ed] Legacy Attainments

Out of Character (OOC):

Chronicle: Mage 2: The Dethroned Queen
Venue: Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition
Chronicle Storyteller: Jerad Sayler

Assistant Storytellers: Hannah Nyland & Alex Van Belkum

Legacy Attainments

My comments are in orange regarding our review of the system mechanics and any ST opinions.
Source: Taken directly from the final version of Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition corebook

All Legacies teach special Attainments, built from Praxes the Legacy’s members have internalized. The mage invokes them from her reshaped soul instead of reaching into the Supernal. Legacy Attainments have the following advantages:

Atypical: 

Legacy Attainments generally operate according to the Legacy’s traditions, which may slightly limit or expand their scope. 

For example, a Legacy of fire worshipers may be restricted to heat and fire-based versions of Attainments based on Forces spells. These adjustments shouldn’t make attainments significantly more or less powerful than they otherwise would be. 

Automatic Activation:

In most cases, a Legacy Attainment can be activated with an instant action and does not require dice rolls. Like a spell, the Attainment automatically acquire primary spell factor ranks (in Potency or Duration) equal to the mage’s dots in the Attainment’s highest prerequisite Arcanum minus one.

When required, the Attainment is also considered to have acquired additional spell factors that would incur a penalty (if cast as a spell) up to the Attainment’s lowest prerequisite Arcanum. If the Attainment would require a measurement of its successes, it automatically scores a number of successes equal to the mage’s dots in the highest prerequisite Arcanum. 

For example, if a member of a fire-summoning Legacy who possesses Forces 5 activates her Forces-based Legacy Attainment. Its primary factor is Potency. The Attainment scores 5 Potency automatically. If Duration is required, it lasts for three turns (as per Duration rating with –4 dice penalty). It scores 5 successes. If the Attainment also harnessed Spirit and the mage possessed three dots in that Arcanum, the Duration would decrease to two turns, since the secondary factor uses the lower of the two ratings.

Unless specified otherwise, activating an Attainment is an instant action. Attainments cannot be enhanced by longer “casting times.”

Fixed Reach: 

Attainments do not use Reach in the usual way. Instead, Attainments receive only the Paradox-free Reach for meeting and exceeding Arcanum requirements, equal to the dots of the prerequisite Arcanum and may not Reach further. They also use the Arcanum rating of their dot, not that of the user. 

For example, a two-dot spell that becomes a three-dot Attainment should be designed as if it automatically has 3 Reach, even if the user actually has four dots. 

This lack of dynamism is one of an Attainment’s disadvantages. To utilize a comparable power more flexibly, the mage should cast a spell instead. Most Attainments use one Reach for instant “casting”; those that don’t (being based on ritual spells) take one scene of preparation to use.

Learning Legacy Attainments

Attainment Rank (Dots)     Minimum Legacy Ruling Arcanum     Minimum Gnosis

First (•)                               1                                                         2/3* initiation

Second (••)                         2                                                         2/3

Third (•••)                           3                                                          4/5

Fourth (••••)                        4                                                         6/7

Fifth (•••••)                          5                                                         8/9

Strange Attainments

A few Legacies teach Attainments that fall outside the usual structure of magic. They might impose advantageous Conditions or confer the ability to use an unusual power. While your mage must reach the usual minimum in her Legacy’s Ruling Arcanum, any other systems must be developed by the Storyteller and player. The exact rules are up to you, but should provide a benefit on par with those of standard Legacy Attainments.

Immune to Countering and Supernal Dispellation: 

Legacy Attainments cannot be attacked with countermagic or Dispellation. They can be undone based on the specific effect they create, however, but are considered no different than natural phenomena. Forces can snuff out fire made by a Legacy Attainment as easily as it could suppress a similar ordinary fire. A Greater Utility Attainment may offer the ability to counter all supernatural powers of a kind, including the Legacy Attainment.

Legacy Wisdom: 

Using a Legacy Attainment is never considered an Act of Hubris; the mage’s mystic self is completely attuned to their use.

Mana Break: 

Legacy Attainments issue from the mage’s soul instead of the Supernal Realms, so Mana is only used to reinforce her will, not channel power from beyond. When adapting Attainments from spells, reduce any Mana cost higher than one point to one point.

Optional Effect: 

Some Legacy Attainments include an additional or alternate effect if the mage possesses dots in an additional Arcanum equal to the required Legacy Ruling Arcanum. This additional Arcanum is almost always a Ruling Arcanum from the Legacy’s originating Path.

Praxis Refund: 

If the mage knew the Legacy Attainment as a Praxis, she internalizes her understanding. She loses the Praxis, but receives a “refund” of one Arcane Experience plus one Arcane Beat. Legacy members often develop Praxes to train themselves for upcoming Legacy Attainments, including

the first, for pupils who study under a tutor but have yet to be initiated.

Free from the Lie: 

Legacy Attainments do not count as obvious magic to Sleepers, are immune to Dissonance and do not trigger Quiescence or Breaking Points in witnesses.

Transient Stacking: 

Legacy Attainments may stack with spells, but only for a short time; doing so eradicates the spell, as the Attainment’s intuitive, personal nature unravels the spell’s Supernally charged Imago. Stacking a Legacy Attainment with a spell causes the spell’s Duration to end, as if canceled, after one turn per dot the mage possesses in the spell’s highest Arcanum or its usual Duration, whichever comes first. 

For example, if a Perfected Adept with three dots of Life casts a spell that increases his Strength by three dots for the day, activating his Attainment to add another three dots of Strength increases it by six dots, but his spell disperses after three turns.

Transient stacking can only be performed on spells lingering within the mage’s own Gnosis (i.e. those that impose penalties for being actively maintained) and not spells cast by others, relinquished, or bound to enchanted items of any kind.

Learning Legacy Attainments

A mage may either develop Attainments according to the orthodox teachings of her Legacy, or invent novel Attainments based on her personal approach to the Legacy’s doctrine. Consult the accompanying chart to determine the minimum requirements.

Each Legacy Attainment costs one Experience, and they must be purchased in order. You may spend ordinary or Arcane Experiences to learn a Legacy Attainment from a tutor who already knows it, but you must spend an Arcane Experience to develop a new Attainment without a tutor — and this includes all novel Legacy Attainments. Certain Legacy Attainments (such as those of the Eleventh Question, following) impose other prerequisites, typically in the form of Skill or Merit dots.