Humans - The Arcanist Path
Arcanists are the witches and wizards of the world. They are also shamans, priestesses, witch doctors, sorcerers, and enchantresses. They are every kind of human magic-user, from every culture. There are countless variations of magic in the world--what sets arcanists apart, what makes their magic work is a set of magical fundamentals. These are the building blocks of ritual magic, a powerful form of magic invented by humans.
While beginner arcanists are just like their mundane human counterparts, as the arcanist uses magic and develops their skill, the magic does change them in small ways. An experienced arcanist, with countless rituals under their belt and careful study of the metaphysical is known to be a little more resistant than mundane humans, with an ability to recover from wounds far better than humans, although still at a slow healing rate. Arcanists who aren't careful can also find the marks of their rituals gone wrong showing through in more peculiar ways, from interesting scar patterns to other permanent marks.
Unlike humans, arcanists slowly develop the mental fortitude to deal with magic to wield and resist. Their encounters with magic may also shift their perspective from their previous mundane lives, as magic blows open the doors on everything thought to be unreal and make-believe. How an arcanist deals with this varies between them.
However, as they are very much human, they do not have any special sense for magic in the beginning. They use their knowledge through study and scholarship combined with careful observation to pinpoint magic and identify enchantments through the physical marks it leaves behind. An arcanist who has honed their skills carefully is slowly able to pick up more through the exposure to magic in their work. This manifests as the Third Eye ability.
Like any human, an arcanist is vulnerable to curses, afflictions, and death. Perhaps one might argue they are more vulnerable, considering their work with rituals and spellwork, often known to be unstable. The drawbacks of using ritual magic are as myriad as its uses. Magical corruption, insanity, and the risk of backfire are just a few unintended (most of the time) consequences.
Most accidents during casting stem from an arcanist being rushed while drawing the sigil circle or runes or during experimentation. With enough precision and care, an arcanist can avoid the more dangerous side effects of using magic, though this does not preclude a successful result from hurting an arcanist if they don't safeguard against more mundane forms of danger. A fireball is still a fireball, no matter who cast it.
While there are no limits to the ways these things can happen, a ritual can end in both a curse or an affliction of undeath. A violent encounter with a shifter may end in the arcanist turning into a shifter themselves, if they survive to the full moon.
Arcanists are not subject to the Codes of Conduct, but if they're aware of them, they would do well to heed them. They will only suffer the ill-effects of breaking Hospitium laws.
With a ritual and an appropriately hardy vessel, you are able to enchant an item with a specific spell, allowing you to cast that spell when you activate the item. This is the favored method of magic use for most arcanists as it helps them sidestep the ill-effects of Resonance.
With a ritual circle and a rune or series of runes, you are able to inscribe magic onto a surface. After activating it with a drop of blood, you can create a trap, ward an area, or layer enchantments.
With components, a bit of cooking knowledge, and a ritual circle, an arcanist is able to create a consumable spell. The effect is temporary, but they are able to use their keywords to to create any effect.
An arcanist's ritual lives and dies by their spellcraft. When rolling Spellcraft at the end of three preparation posts of ritual casting, it describes an arcanist's grasp on the fundamentals of their arcane work from the neatness of their runes to their concentration while casting. If a spell fails due to a poor spellcraft roll, you can flavor it in a myriad of ways, considering what goes into it. More information is found on the Rituals Guidebook page.
It can also be used to measure the physical toll or the strength of the backfire.
Creative takes on spell casting methods, effects, and other such details, are welcome and encouraged. The fundamentals are listed below so everyone can have a similar jumping off point.
Earned, developed, or discovered, as they grow in knowledge and power, an arcanist's magical abilities are focused on supporting their ritual magic. They're not as flashy as those in the other Paths, but a clever arcanist can likely find multiple uses for each one.
Note: Arcanists only begin with Collector and one Charm. As they go up in the ranks, they gain more.
Although arcanists aren't subject to the physical limitations that plague blood magic users, their work still takes time. Unless an arcanist has created an enchanted item or potion with their desired effect ahead of time, a ritual casting may take no fewer than 3 posts. Any less than this and it is considered a rushed ritual with its own drawbacks.
There is a reason wizards live longer! You've dusted yourself with just enough magic that traces of it have rooted in your physical form. Although you still healing at human rate to your body will continuously repair itself, reaching for the maximum of human potential physical fitness. This does not mean you don't need to hit the gym. Instead, your bones will heal completely, scars will continue to soften and fade, and other injuries will eventually stop ailing you, given enough time.
Components are an essential part of every spell. A vast majority are mundane, but some call for something that cannot be easily stored. An arcanist could certainly store a sound on a recorder, or take the journal entry recount of a good evening, and use that, but most are able to utilize a another way. An arcanist can capture what seems like the intangible in their hands to be stored in a bottle, a handkerchief, or a wooden box. Any kind of container. These are very small things: a sad sigh, a ray of sunlight, the feeling of a wonderful dinner conversation with close friends. An arcanist can collect with or without Cinder dice, but should they collect with Cinder dice their results reflect on the quality of the component. The quality of components used in rituals is a factor in the quality of the end result of the ritual, whether it is longevity of the enchantment, more than one time use, or strength of the magic.
Ever inventive, arcanists are famous for creating minor magic charms that they can perform on a whim. Although they can't begin to compare with the half-blood boons, arcanists receive one new charm at each rank. These are very minor harmless utility abilities based on a keyword they have.
This is the ability to scribe spells into your spellbook after creating and casting them as a ritual first. Unlike the spontaneous casters, these spells are very specific, with the same effects every time, but this is the way arcanists are able to quickly cast their magic. In honing their mind and their craft, the arcanist has become quite adept at recalling spells they've crafted on their own. They are able to hold runes and the all-important ritual circle in their mind's eye. After all, a circle in the mind is still a circle.
With this ability, after casting a spell with a ritual (played out on-screen) an arcanist can scribe it into their spellbook. Then, so long as they have their spellbook on hand to guide them and the necessary components, they're able to cast that spell with a thought. It still takes a drop of blood and although the spell will default in taking energy from external sources, if there are none, the magic will take from the arcanist's Luck as listed below. The ritual scribing must be done with each spell they scribe in their spellbook and the spell will function in the same way every time, unless they retool it on screen. It is far less flexible than the slow-casted rituals, but what it lacks in flexibility, it makes up for in speed.
The other limitation is that using magic in this way leads to a phenomenon called Resonance. An arcanist's body is not meant to contain magic power and in using their mind alone to cast spells, they're inviting contamination. It's usually a temporary effect, but often painful or crippling while it lasts.
You're able to blink open your metaphorical third eye. In short bursts, the fabric of magic around you. The rush of information is often too great to hold your eye open for longer than a moment, but with it, if you're able to interpret what you see, you can make out auras around other beings, if they are magical themselves. You're also able to see the outlines of enchantments.
At Conjurer rank, an Arcanist gains either an Animal Familiar or a Focus Object to help in their work.
A familiar can be discovered or created through ritual, based on what suits the character. An animal Familiar is highly intelligent and can speak either naturally or via one-way telepathy. A Familiar always innately knows where their master is and often has great insight into magic and magical workings, and this allows it to use their Arcanist's Charms.
An animal Familiar can be any small earthly animal, such as a dog, cat, bird, bug, etc. They appear as normal animals–there is nothing obviously abnormal about them to an outside observer. Mechanically, having a familiar provides the arcanist with an Assistance bonus, lowering the threshold from 4 to 3. This bonus can be used once per thread.
Animal familiars can also use their Arcanists Charms in threads, as their magic is inherently linked to their human companion. As intelligent creatures, they can apply Charms to appropriate situations, to help a ritualist or frustrate an opponent. They do not change the impact of Charms as these are still minor abilities, and a familiar using a Charm does not count towards an Arcanist's Advancement.
As an alternative to an animal Familiar, an Arcanist can also choose to create, find, or inherit a Focus Object. A Focus Object replaces an animal Familiar entirely, and an Arcanist cannot have both. The object can be a family heirloom, a creation of their own, a found relic, or something else that could suit a Focus Object. . The Focus Object still provides the Arcanist with an Assistance bonus, lowering the threshold from 4 to 3 once per thread.
In Mechanics: the condition in which an object or system is subjected to an oscillating force having a frequency close to its own natural frequency.
The more prepared spells an arcanist performs in one thread, the more they run the risk of infusing themselves with magic. An arcanist is able to perform a number of prepared spells up to half their Cinder dice, rounded down in one thread. Both successes and failed rolls with a Magic Keyword counts towards the limit. After this point, the magical Resonance causes them to suffer severe side effects that reflect the keywords they utilized for each spell. Any more spellcasting after reaching Resonance will reduce their Luck by one (1) each time a spell is used. If they push too far (up to the number of dice in their Cinder pool), they run the risk of becoming Cursed or Possessed. If you would like to roll the dice on that, submit a request in the Mod Request thread.
Many arcanists choose to focus on creating enchanted items because of this risk, as enchantments are safer and more stable than prepared spells from their spellbooks.
An example of resonance in action is in the case of an arcanist that has been casting spells using the Earth keyword. Overuse of the Earth keyword leads to the possibility that their flesh begins to calcify. These effects are temporary so long as the Arcanist takes a break to let the magic fade.
Arcanists begin by drawing, carving, laying down the circle. Then they draw their runes. After that, they place the components. Once it is all set up, they activate the ritual using a drop of their own blood. It does not need to be much, only a tiny drop, but arcanists are sometimes known for their dramatics.
After that, the ritual proceeds, much like a computer program runs as directed by its code. Stopping the process at this point is often more disastrous than allowing it to play out, as it usually means that an arcanist needs to break the circle.
When performing a ritual or scribing a spell, players use the keywords they've chosen for their arcanist character. Like the other Paths, you are welcome and encouraged to come up with as many interesting spells as you'd like for your arcanist to explore, within the bounds of those keywords. In-game, arcanists are not aware of their 'keywords'. They just know they have a specialty or a focus in certain areas of magic.
Arcanists may create rituals with keywords outside of their chosen keywords, but they always roll with the Circlebreaker Cinder pool with a Threshold of 5 due to unfamiliarity.
A full explanation of Rituals can be found on the Rituals and Enchantments Guidebook page, which everyone wanting to complete a ritual should read carefully and learn the mechanics of the different steps of casting a ritual.
Naturally, human arcanists are aware of the supernatural.
Here are a few further questions you're welcome to answer as you create your character:
The Arcanists select one portfolio of Magic Keywords at creation. Any keyword in that portfolio is now available for selection as you gain ranks. At the Augur rank, you can select a second portfolio.
As an Arcanist you can choose to stay at the Circlebreaker rank and select one (1) Mundane Keyword, instead of starting at Conjuror.
At Magus rank, an Arcanist can select from the Master-Legendary keyword pool.
"Your knowledge and power are so great that you are able to dip your pen in the inkwells of the gods to scribe your runes. Time, space, and reality... These are powers that are not meant to be toyed with and although they may provide incredible rewards, the risk is extraordinary."