General "any magic around" perception?

[Bifford]

An interesting question was just asked in my game.

"While staring at the shrine & surrounding area, does she sense any magic ?? Not sure if that's an inherent ability or not."

I replied with:

"To try to find magic areas you would use Lore (Hors) - but that would only work on something of your own god or similar.

Interesting...there isn't really a skill that could be used purely for "detect magic in general" so I would probably GM that you'd still use your Lore (Hors) but with a penalty applied depending on the circumstances. Hm. I might just ask about that in the Mongoose forums.....! "

(Hors being the Cult the person is in)

I figure "Perception" could also be used maybe?

My first instinct was "Insight", but reading the book that is all about reading peoples' feelings and facial expressions etc and not the tradition D&D Insight.


So does anyone have any other ideas on what to best use for a general all-purpose "is there magic around?" test?

 

[Matt_H]

In Elric (MRQ2) there is an advanced skill called witch sight, but surely any magic system can provide a method of magic detection.
A little self harm blood sacrifice for blood magic, a commune with ones spirit guide, common magic spells of varying power to determine basic magical aura (perhaps second sight would work for this too) to advanced information , the supernatural senses of a summoned otherworldly creature, a prayer to ones deity (soul sight perhaps?), or for sorcery, mystic vision.

Mystic Vision;
This spell allows the caster to perceive magic, by augmenting his primary senses. It allows him
to see, hear or perhaps even smell spells, enchanted items and even a creature’s Magic Points.

Other than those ideas, I don't think a non magical character should have any chance whatsoever unless they have some special trait or fate regarding the item or type of magic in question. After all it is magic, not something everyone believes in, let alone can perceive, unless of course said item emits an eerie glow/crackles with strangely coloured lightning etc.

To directly answer your question regarding lore use, was the temple of her cult? or a well know adversary of the cult? If so there may be a chance she would be attuned to such a place and detect any magical resonance. Otherwise there isn't any real reason why anything would be detected at all.

 

[Bifford]

To directly answer your question regarding lore use, was the temple of her cult? or a well know adversary of the cult? If so there may be a chance she would be attuned to such a place and detect any magical resonance. Otherwise there isn't any real reason why anything would be detected at all.

All the other points are most interesting, but this one solidifies what I myself said - a temple/item of their own cult may well be detectable (some sort of resonance?) but any other cult's items would not be.

Seems your views parallel my own

 

[Matt_H]

As you say, its just a matter of justification.
Even so I would only let it be a vague feeling, and any information acquired would be based on how high up in the cult they are (short of GM fiat) so the characters pact skill would be a useful skill to apply the test to.

 

[Tias]

It's Legend, decide on a rule for yourself?

If I needed to "detect magic", I'd say it depends on how ubiquitous magic and magic skills are in your setting. In a high fantasy world where everybody knows something, you could create a skill for it, which everybody could purchase. In a grittier campaign where only those "in the know" can detect it, I'd suggest making it a Common Magic or even Sorcerous/Divine spell.

 

[Dan True]

Common magic has: Detect(Magic)
Divine magic has: Soul sight
Sorcery has Mystic vision.

In appropriate settings, some skills can be used in my view. In Deus Vult for instance, Lore(occult) can be used to some degree.

- Dan

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

As mentioned above, it is also about the "Feel" of your game.

It might be that ordinary people can "feel" magic when it is particularly strong (Perception would be the right skill there). Maybe the hair on their arms raises or they get a tingling sensation or their stomach churns and they feel like they want to vomit.

As also mentioned, any detection that doesn't use one of the Detect Magic spells should be very vague; basically an IS or IS NOT magical kind of thing.

 

[Bifford]

Everyone is kind of saying just what I was thinking, but putting it into words in a lovely way that is really easy to grasp!


Thanks all

 

[Verderer]

How about using your Pact and/or Manipulation as a basis for 'magic sense'? Something like, 'I feel a tremor in the force' type of fing?

 

[alex_greene]

So what you're looking for is, in effect, a sort of Perception skill based solely on POW, like the Unseen Sense Merit from the Onyx Path game World of Darkness but as a skill, not a Heroic Ability or equivalent of Merits.

How about the skill of ...

Savoir (POW x 2)
Another skill of sensory acuity. Just as Perception is the skill of sensing and detecting that which has been obscured or concealed somehow; Track, the skill of hunting, locating and pursuit of a moving person or animal by perception of their traces; and Insight, the skill of detecting people's motives, so Savoir is the skill of sensing the arcane and mystical phenomena in the vicinity.

Savoir is used when one is confronted by a spell being cast, when one is examining a magical item, grimoire, scroll or similar magical object, or when one is entering a place which is haunted or steeped in magical power somehow.

Savoir is also used to perceive the emotional ambience of an area, whether it is the blissful and calm air of a place of healing and peace, the solemnity and sadness of a place of rest, or the creepy malignity of a location fouled by a dark deed committed there, or a cursed item which carries doom upon its owner.

If the aura is subtle, or has been recently cleansed magically or through a supernatural quest, Savoir is at -10% to -40% to detect. Conversely, some items or areas are more easily detected than others - the basement lair of a serial killer echoes far more strongly than the scene of a single tragic accident on a bend in the road two years before.

 

[Tias]

Dan True>> I feel dumb, now. Are all those in the Legend core rules and I somehow missed them? :s (I know Detect Magic).

To re-iterate, it really depends on exactly what you want in your game. I often let really, really strong magic fields, spirits or users give off a "vibe" - the whole "my skin crawls on the inside" thing you might expect strong magic power to give off in high fantasy.

If it's supposed to be rarer, let it be the province of magic users, or even only sorcerors.

 

[Dan True]

Dan True>> I feel dumb, now. Are all those in the Legend core rules and I somehow missed them? :s (I know Detect Magic).

Yep, they are.

- Dan

 

[alex_greene]

Yeah, but those are spells, not skills.

If the magic perception ability can be implemented as a skill, then a character can perceive nearby magic without having to cast a spell to do so. As a skill, the character can stay generally under the radar from other beings who can detect magic use themselves.

Tactically, if your sorceror character dresses like a mundane, eschews magic use until the moment it's needed and swaggers like a fighter, the enemy might not perceive that character as the team's sorceror and instead cast about for the characters who most obviously look like Divine priests and casters of Common Magic; while at the same time, said sorceror can use a mundane magic perception skill, such as Savoir above, to sense the presence of active magic in the vicinity from the enemy.

It is also to be noted that the casting of any kind of magic, from the Legend core, causes some form of detectable display of power - flash of lightning, peal of thunder, sudden heatwave, icy blast, everyone suddenly feeling nauseous - no, sorry, that's someone putting Justin Bieber on the radio - or whatever. So a mundane skill would probably serve characters best to discern not only that magic has been cast nearby, but to generally get a flavour of its rough nature and scale.

 

[Bifford]

Alex - couldn't have said it better myself! Well done that man!