[TSOY] Three-Corner Magic Questions

[James_Nostack]

I have some questions about the Day focus of Three-Corner magic: Creation, Enhancement, and Divination.

1.  Creation - "the character can create a small amount of one of the four elements."  What is this good for, in practical terms?

2.  Enhancement - can the magician boost his own Abilities?  

2A.  If not, would it be unbalancing to permit it through a Secret?

3.  Divination - "the character can sense magic auras on an object or person he touches."  Does this serve any purpose?

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I'm asking because Destruction, Enthrallment, Transformation, and even Enhancement all accomplish something "worthwhile" even without taking secrets: they are effective skills in their own right, and may apply to many situations.  With Creation and Divination, it seems like you'd need some secrets in order to get any use out of them.

[Clay]

Creation is pretty obvious.  Water is a swell thing to be able to create when you're thirsty. Fire when you're cold.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

Creation - well, that's about the most useful one in my opinion. (Weird side note: it's a Metis gift from Werewolf: the Apocalypse.) You can make fire in your hand. Awesome, if you ask me.

Enhancement - you can absolutely not enhance yourself. Would I allow it with a Secret? Yeah, but it would probably cost 2 pool points.

Divination - you can tell if someone's got magic backing them, so that'll give you an idea of whether you really want to mess with them. It could be better defined, though.

[James_Nostack]

Thanks for clearing that up!  I'm thinking about the Three-Corner Magic system a bit these days, but wanted a clearer sense of the design philosophy before proposing new secrets.

Do these seem unbalancing to anybody?

Creation - Create Volume
You can create one cubic foot of material.  For each point of Vigor spent, octuple this volume.  When created, the material can take simple shapes.  Cost: 1 Vigor for 1 cubic foot, 2 Vigor for 8 cubic feet, 3 Vigor for 64 cubic feet and so on.  Suggested because a lot of D&D-style magic uses volume instead of mass.

Enhancement - Enhance Self
You may use Enhancement magic on your own non-magical skills.  Cost: additional 2 Instinct.

Divination - Scry
You may use a reflective surface to examine a familiar place or person.  A person may Resist this.  Cost: 1 Reason per mile.

[Clinton R. Nixon]

You totally re-created my original Creation secret! Awesome.

Those sound great, except Scrying. It costs way too much. I'd say 1 Reason per day's travel on foot.

[Ben Lehman]

I'd say 1 reason per minute.

'cause it's not like the thing your worried about with scrying is distance.  If the evil wizard wants to look in on the hero battling monsters in Distant Qek, let him!

yrs--
--Ben

[Vaxalon]

I'd say one secret for long-distance (1 reason granting any location on Near, more for locations not on Near) and one secret for long-term monitoring.