[Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition] Mechanics Errata

Mechanics Errata

My comments are in orange...

Sources: Errata provided by Onyx Path for the Mage: The Awakening 2nd Edition.

Character Creation

• Mages do, indeed, have a Virtue and a Vice. This should have been pointed out in character creation.

• Mages also, like most living beings, regain a point of Willpower for having a full night's sleep.

• Obsessions are like long-term Aspirations: you earn Arcane Beats for making progress toward them, not just fully resolving them.

• Rotes, Legacy Attainments, and Praxes are not 1 Experience or Arcane Experience per dot, they're a flat 1 each.

• Instead of being dot-rated as they were in first edition in character creation, given that their Experiences cost after charging is flat, we have changed "six dots of rotes" in character creation to "three rotes".  Since we already converted the active PCs I don't have any intention of converting the current characters, just new ones.

Core Rules

• Unless it says otherwise for a specific use, spending Mana is a reflexive action

• Pattern Restoration is an instant action (That certainly changes things.)

• Opacity in Mage Sight is separate for each character

• Imbued Items use their user's Gnosis-derived Paradox dice for Paradox, or 1 die per Reach if used by a Sleeper or Sleepwalker

Magic Rules

• Change the second 1 Reach option on the Paradox Anomaly chart to "Impose a Condition on the subject of the spell"

• Paradox Containment rolls may not be modified by Willpower, magic, or other means.

• Combined Spells: You get one set of free Reach determined as normal. If you spend Reach to alter a spell factor, it gets altered for all the spells within the combined spell, but additional Reach effects in a spell's listing must be bought separately. Spell stacking applies if the constituent spells affect the same thing, which even affects instantaneous results like damage - you can't combine two attack spells to do two sets of damage, but you can combine two attack spells to do one set of damage and spend reach on two different secondary effects those attack spells might have.

• Mudra Yantras cap at +5 each. It's still possible to, say, give yourself Athletics 5 with one spell before casting an Athletics-based rote for maximum effect, or buy a superhuman skill with a Gnosis above 5, but it won't benefit rotes.  (Suck, being able to do that was the good thing about Rotes)

• Resonant Mana allows the use of a Persona Yantra worth 1 die, it doesn't increase existing persona yantra sources by 1. (This might not sound like a big difference, but trust me, it works out!)

• We have changed the creative thaumaturgy rules to reflect direct attacks not always being Fraying or Unraveling and Healing not always being Perfecting and Patterning.

ATTAINMENTS

Remove the reference to Hanging spells in the intro

Forces 2: Precise Force: Works on physical attacks or spells that use a projectile

Time 2: Temporal Sympathy: Only works on Time spells that call for it, or other spells Combined with a suitable Time spell.

Mage Armor: Activating Mage Armor is a reflexive action. Mage armors that increase Defense work against surprise attacks.

Death Armor: downgrades all lethal damage from kinetic sources, not just equal to Death dots. It removes the requirement to roll to stay conscious no matter how much damage has been taken. 

Fate Armor: the Dodge bonus is for your next physical attack

Space Armor: Works on all attacks, not just ones you're aware of. remove the reference to Dodge dice pools as it's redundant.

Spirit Armor: downgrades all lethal damage from kinetic and ephemeral sources, not just Spirit dots.

Arcana & Spells

1. DEATH

Ghost Shield: The spell also protects from Death spells and the powers of death-based entities (like cthonians, Strix, maybe vampires, Mummies and Sin-Eaters if your Storyteller decides so.) for +1 Reach t protects from the physical attacks of ghosts.

Suppress Aura: Primary factor is Duration

Suppress Life: This is a veiling spell; it halts the subject's life signs. It doesn't drop people into comas.

Ghost Gate: Twilight isn't a place - the spell makes a 2-dimensional plane that converts anything passing through it into Twilight.

Quicken Corpse: Add 5 to the zombies' speed - 6 with a regular casting, 8 with the reach effect

Rotting Flesh: Is a Perfecting spell

Exorcism: The spirit and mind add ons are four dots, not two

Revenant: The spirit and mind add ons are four dots, not two

Create Anchor: the reach option is being deleted. The spell's magically-created anchor is a "universal" one, usuable by any ghost.

Open Avernian Gate: is being renamed to "Create Avernian Gate"

Sever the Awakened Soul: Is having descriptive changes to explain why it's a different spell to Sever Soul (you're Unmaking the grip the subject's Gnosis has on their soul)

2. FATE

Quantum Flux: The limitation on only affecting mundane actions is for the whole spell, not just the bonuses it gives.

Reading the Outmost Eddies: Replace the three-bullet list entirely with:

"As long as the spell remains active the subject experiences an event within the next 24 hours, such as finding $20 or dropping his wallet in a puddle. The mage can exert limited control over the nature of the fortune (or misfortune), but ultimately fate decides the detail."

Shifting the Odds: The spell has to still be active when the 24 hours come up. Replace the reference to Fate Dots with Potency

Atonement: The spell doesn't "reveal" a means of getting out of a curse, it makmakes one by Patterning Fate to provide an escape clause for the subject. The casting mage chooses what the means of atonement is, but it still has to follow the guidelines for severity in the advance pdf.

Chaos Mastery: Replace this entire spell with

Chaos Mastery (Fate ••••)

Primary Factor: Potency

Suggested Rote Skills: Empathy, Occult, Science

The mage can Pattern Fate to manipulate complex probabilities within the spell's subject or area of effect. This spell allows the mage to dictate any physically possible outcome within the bounds of the spell's subject, no matter how unlikely.

The spell cannot create supernatural effects, but within the bounds of improbability the mage can cause a number of effects equal to Potency, such as:

* Create a narrative effect such as controlling how vehicles behave in a multiple-car crash.

* By directing once-random biochemical changes within a subject, cause seizures, hallucinations, and physical events, imposing suitable Conditions such as Blind or Disabled.

* The mage reduces a subject's next action to a chance die.

* Attack a subject by directing chance around them, or protect a subject from dangerous circumstances; this is not a direct-attack spell, and should use any rules for the hazard.

Strings of Fate: The spell has to stay active until the event transpires

Sever Oaths: Remove the word "unbroken" from the third bullet option. Sever Oaths can absolutely delete a magical promise you've violated and are now suffering the consequences therof.

Pariah: Change the reference to Fate dots to Potency

3. FORCES

Kinetic Efficiency: Change the reference to Forces dots to Potency

Tune In: Is a Knowing Spell

Control Gravity: Primary Factor is Duration

Control Weather: Environmental Tilts, not Environmental Conditions.

Kinetic Blow: reword so it affects "the subject" instead of the caster. It was implicit before (all weapons do lethal damage in Storytelling 2nd edition) but just to be clear - this spell turns the subject's physical attacks into lethal damage.

Transmission: can change the frequency.

Gravitic Supremacy: Is Fraying or Perfecting. Change the "distance equal to Strength" to "distance equal to Potency"

Telekinesis: Instead of assigning Potency to Strength or Dexterity and having the other be 1 and the Speed determined by Gnosis, the spell now assigns Potency to Strength, Dexterity, or Speed and has the other two be 1. The reach effect lets you divide Potency between two of the three, and you can reach twice to divide Potency as you like.

Telekinetic Strike: Is a Weaving spell

Electromagnetic Pulse: Has a Primary Factor of Potency, and has been reworded so it's clearer what the spell's doing (unraveling electricty in the subject). If you use it on a living being, it acts as a direct attack spell.

Levitation: Air speed is Potency, not Gnosis + Potency. It's still Gnosis + Potency for the +1 Reach effect, though.

Rend Friction: Is a Patterning spell. Damage is capped at Potency.

Thunderbolt: Is a Patterning spell, and has been reworded to make it clear that it works by Patterning ambient energies to gather and strike at the subject.

Adverse Weather: Extreme Environments only go up to 4

Create Energy: Fills the subject or Scale factor.

Eradicate Energy: Removes energy from a subject or Scale factor

Earthquake: Is a Making spell. Modern buildings are built to endure earthquakes ("Withstand" was an unfortunate choice of word here, huh?)

4. LIFE

Analyze Life: Reveals sex, not gender

Heightened Senses: This is an Unveiling Spell, and is therefore now moved to Life 1

Purge Illness: This is a Ruling spell

Knit: Has an extra Reach effect;  "+1 Reach: the spell heals one lethal damage per Potency instead of two bashing"

Mend: Every level of Potency heals two lethal damage

Contagion: Life Masters, not Life Adepts

5. MATTER

Alter Conductivity: Is a Weaving spell

State Change: Primary factor is Duration

Windstrike: Is a Weaving spell

Golem: The death and spirit options require 4 dots, not 3

Piercing Earth: Is a Patterning spell

6. MIND

Know Nature: Works like Analyze Life does: you learn Virtue, Vice, how many dots in Mental Attributes, and how many dots in Social Attributes, and may Reach to learn a specific Attribute's rating.

Incognito Presence: Replace this entire spell with:

Incognito Presence (Mind ••)

Practice: Veiling

Primary Factor: Duration

Withstand: Resolve

Cost: 1 Mana

The mage hides the subject's psychic presence, causing onlookers to ignore her. When people look at her, they want to avert their eyes, or barely notice her. People cannot remember seeing her when they are no longer looking her way. Beings using supernatural abilities to concentrate on her, including Active Mage Sight, provoke a Clash of Wills.

Memory Hole: Is a Veiling spell, and hides one memory per Potency.

Mental Shield: Primary factor is Duration. It protects its subject from mental attack not just goetic: goetia powers, Mind spells, and the mental powers of other supernatural creatures by default, not just with a reach. The spell has a Reach effect to affect the physical (or "physical" if you're in the astral) attacks of goetia.

Psychic Domination: The spell has to still be active until the subject acts on the compulsion. remove the third reach effect

Befuddle: This is a Fraying spell, and has moved to Mind 3

Terrorize: This is a Patterning spell

No Exit: This is a Making spell

Possession: This is a Patterning spell, and has moved to Mind 4

7. PRIME

Aetheric Winds: Is a Weaving spell

Ephemeral Enchantment: The +2 Reach option enchants a weapon to act as thePla bane of the specified entity

Platonic Form: replace its text with:

Platonic Form (Prime •••)

Practice: Weaving

Primary Factor: Potency

Cost: 1+ Mana

Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Crafts, Expression

The mage may Pattern Mana into behaving as it does within tass, creating a magical object formed of pure Mana. The object must be a simple object or tool (swords and gemstones are allowable, guns and cars are not.) It is obviously magical, has a default Durability of 1 and consists of one point of Mana (which the mage must pay as part of the casting).

Potency may be allocated to the following effects:

• Increase Durability by +1

• increase Mana capacity by +1 (the mage may fill this Mana capacity by spending Mana as part of the casting or leave the object partially empty)

• If the object can be used as a tool or weapon, add +1 equipment bonus or weapon damage. Each action using the construct as a tool or weapon uses up 1 Mana from its supply.

When all Mana is withdrawn from the object, it crumbles to nothing. A mage may "refill" it with the Channel Mana spell or similar effects. When the spell's Duration runs out, any unused Mana sublimates back into the world and is lost.

Add Forces •••: The object is not obviously magical

+1 Reach: If the object is a tool, it is a perfected ideal of that tool. It grants 8-again

+2 Reach: The mana construct can be a complex device

Celestial Fire: is a Patterning spell

Eidolon: Replace this spell with:

Eidolon (Prime •••••)

Practice: Making

Primary Factor: Potency

Cost: 1+ Mana

Suggested Rote Skills: Academics, Crafts, Occult

Where disciples of Prime can create platonic objects by forcing Mana into the pattern it wears within tass, a master can create the complex Prime patterns within living beings and the environment. When fuelled with Mana, this spell creates an obviously-magical construct much like Platonic Form, except that the construct is not limited to single physical objects. Eidolons may imitate fire, fog, and even entire environments, but most masters use it to create "living" constructs. Eidolons are still made of solidified Mana, have Durability and Structure instead of Health, and when mimiking environmental hazards do not inflict damage as they do (Eidolon fire does not burn, for example.) They follow the Potency rules for Platonic Form (p.169) but Potency may also be allocated to grant dots of the Retainer Merit.

Though animate, the construct is mindless. If used as a Retainer, the Eidolon’s “field” includes simple physical labor, combat, and other uncomplicated tasks. The Eidolon can only execute whatever order the caster gave it last. Orders must be very simple. If attacked, the Eidolon has no Defense.

Unlike Platonic forms, Eidolons do not crumble when all Mana is withdrawn. A mage may refill the Eidolon as per Platonic Form. When the spell's Duration runs out, any unused Mana sublimates back into the world and is lost.

Add Forces ••• The construct is not obviously magical.

Add Mind ••••• The construct may be given a mind of its own. See p. 165 for details.

Word of Unmaking: The reach effect destroys "the item" not "the artifact"

8. SPACE

Ward: Primary factor is Duration

9. SPIRIT

Ephemeral Shield: As with Ghost Shield and Mental Shield, this works on Spirit spells and the powers of spiritual monsters like werewolves by default. Remove the mind or death option.

Spirit Summons: affects spirits, not ghosts

Banishment: change the Mind option to "Add Death or Mind ••••: The spell’s effects extend to ghosts or Goetia.

Bind Spirit: change the Mind option to "Add Death or Mind ••••: The spell’s effects extend to ghosts or Goetia.

Shadow Scream: Is an Unraveling spell

Birth Spirit: Primary factor is Duration

10. TIME

(see important Temporal Sympathy erratum, above)

Temporal Summoning: add this to the end of the text:

"The spell does have limits, however; it cannot bring the dead back to life or undo transformation into supernatural beings, though it still changes the subject physically - a vampire returned to "childhood" becomes a vampiric child, and a corpse stripped of decades becomes a younger-looking corpse with no cause of death."

 Also remove the references to bringing people back from the dead earlier in the spell.

Corridors of Time: The subject inhabits their own past self - there's not two of them running around. Spell has been reworded to make that clear.

LEGACIES

• Automatic Activation: Attainments gain primary ranks equal to dots in the Arcanum *minus one*, and secondary factor penalties *up to* the Arcanum

• Add the following to the end of Attainment benefit lists:

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.

SLEEPWALKER APPENDIX

• Proximi have 1 free Reach for casting their blessings, and add 1 die of Paradox for every additional Reach.

I'll add these changes when they are mentioned in our blog...