Sacred catatonia.
Nickname: Statues
Placidomancy often begins with meditation or yoga. Those who discover it find that they can gain real insight and power by remaining in place.
Typically, a placidomancer is severely depressed. Inertia comes to them naturally. The idea of making this inertia sacred is appealing; suddenly inaction becomes a prayer.
It’s compellng. Just stay put and you’ll gain power. Move and it goes away.
It becomes tempting to stay still forever.
Gaining a minor charge: Remain still for an hour. Automatic and semi-automative body functions are fine, but you can’t speak, or move. Blinking, breathing, spasms and eye movements are fine, but anything more active is forbidden.
Gaining a significant charge: Remain still for twelve hours.
Gaining a major charge: Placidomancy does not generate major charges.
Taboo: Move. One finger lifted, and all charges are gone.
Symbolic Tension: Placidomancers are at their most active when they are perfectly still.
Blast: Placidomancy has no blast.
Starting Charges: A placidomancer gains no charges.
Minor Formulas
Silent Voice
1 minor charge
Everyone nearby intuitively knows your position or thoughts on a particular subject. It’s impossible to lie while using this effect, but you choose what you transmit. One complex idea can be transmitted per use of this formula.
Contemplation
2 minor charges
Get +20% to any skill which can be used without moving. These are typically skills related to thought, awareness and memory.
Unseen Hands
2 minor charges
Another person within range performs a physical action of your choice. You don’t pick who – a random person is chosen among those present. They’ll do it on their next action. This can include attacks.
Perfect Action
3 minor charges
The first motion you make after using this formula gets a +20% bonus to any relevent skill rolls. This applies only for an action that begins with your first motion. It can be an extended physical action – running, acrobatics, or even a single attack.
Garden of Men
4 minor charges
You exclude yourself from the flow of normal action and observation. This resembles the dipsomancy formula Just a Harmless Drunk, but it lasts until you move.
Significant Formulas
Purify
1 significant charge
Heal damage to yourself equal to the sum of the dice. Can also heal poisons and diseases at the cost of an additional charge.
Morphic Resonance
1 significant charge
Use Placidomancy to replace any skill that can be used without moving. This lasts for a single skill use.
Hibernation
1 significant charge
Go indefinitely without needing food, water or sleep, with magically sustained temperature. You still age normally. However, you don’t gain any more charges during this period of immobility, since you’re using magic. Lasts until you move.
Body Focus
1 significant charge
You gain a +20 to Body and Speed (and all relevent skills) from the time you start moving again until you next rest.
Serene Temple
2 significant charges
Your presence becomes tremendously serene for the next hour. Anyone within your sight range must make a Mind roll to perform a disruptive or violent act – each attempt requires a separate Mind roll. Furthermore, anyone who sits and meditates thoughtfully for the whole hour gains the option of inner peace. They can roll Mind to erase one Failed or Hardened notch. This includes you.
Hmm…. overlap, this time with an NPC-ish Archetype(The Hermit) .
You tapping into my wavelength, or catching an echo?
This is really good. First I thought the taboo was a bit harsh, but on second thought… Maybe Serene temple is a bit expensive, first you have to meditate for 24 hours, THEN you get an hour of peace. A couple of spells are less effective because of the taboo than they could have been (I’m thinking of Garden of Men, it takes four hours of sitting still, THEN you “dissappear”, not the thing for quick getaways, but quick getaways are REALLY anathema to this school, so that’s ok. They would make EXCELLENT assassins:-)
I’m gonna use this for a premade player character in my “crack buddist monks infiltrate Tibet to find the new incarnation of the Dalai Lama” oneshot!
The charging/taboo structure perfectly follows the “easy come, easy go” rule we see in things like Dipsomancy, and it’s just as natural conceptually. (Drunk magic ends when you sober-up, stillness magic ends when you move.)
Well done.
I like the idea of Minor schools with only the one level, but the idea of a Significant school strikes me as a bit odd. The Major should be either 168 or 336 ( or 333 just because it’s so close) hours, i.e. one or two weeks, of immobility. Major effects might include elimination of all notches for everyone in your presence, hibernation without aging and possibly with the ability to speak or one-way telepathy as in Slient Voice, the ability to use Garden of Men at will for a year by standing still, or, in a different direction, Hibernation with the bonus of being immovable. The last one, of course, is insane, but I like the idea of people being instantly thrown into space as the earth revolves around the sun.
Anon, there are several schools in the Rules-as-Written that don’t include a Major charge.
Interesting idea for the major effects, but I think this one’s about right without any major charges.
I actually haven’t purchased the books yet due to a lack of funds, and as such didn’t realize. In any case, you’re probably right.
But I still like the idea of a serene holy man getting flung off the planet in a show of power.
Anon, you’re right. That is an awesome image.