Essence Magic

Essence Attacks

Essences powers that are attacks use the following rules and skills:

Ranged powers:

Essence Powers that produce projectiles or spell effects that make ranged attacks use the Innate Attack skill to target their subjects, unless they mimic weapons like bows or guns, in which case use the appropriate weapon skills.

Innate Attack (DX/E),  

Default: DX -4

• This Skill used to make ranged attacks with Essence abilities

• You MUST specialize (Beam, Breath, Gaze, Projectile)

• Each Specialization Defaults to the others at -2

Aim Maneuver:

Essences that create ranged attacks may be subject to the Aim maneuver.  After the power has been manifested the magic can be held while the Aim Maneuver is taken to enhance the accuracy of the attack. 
The Standard Accuracy of an Essence power is 3, but this may vary from power to power.

Melee powers: 

These Essence Powers use appropriate melee attack skills to deliver their effects.  If the power emulates a weapon, use the weapon skill, if it’s a touch attack use brawl or boxing or the like.  The Default for this untrained would be Brawling at DX -2

Aura

Another core element of being an Essence Magician and really any living thing or magical manifestation that makes its way into the world, is that they have an Aura.  These auras are of different strength and quality depending on their source. With training and experience it is possible to use your aura for a number of different things and to read elements of the aura's you come across.

Uncontrolled Auras

Normal living things below Iron rank have an aura but it is very weak and they have no aura senses to percieve or detect the aura of those around them.

An Untrained Creature or Object of power uses Will -3 as the Base Number in place of the Manipulater Aura Skill to determine the Size and Strength of their aura, to a minimum of 1.  

Beings without training in aura manipulation are incapable of controlling their auras.

When an untrained creature is exposed to an uncontrolled aura they make a Will roll against the power of the aura with a penalty to their roll equal to the Rank Modifier of the uncontrolled aura.  

Those with Aura training roll against their Manipulate Aura skill as normal.

• Creatures failing their will save against exposure to an uncontrolled aura that is more than twice their own aura strength become magically encumbered, reducing their ST by 1/2, and reducing their DX and IQ skills by 1/2

• Creatures failing their will save against exposure to an uncontrolled aura that is more than three times the strength of their own aura become magically incapacitated, falling prone and reduced to crawling movement, they also suffer 1 damage per minute while within the aura.

Those with a trained aura use their Manipulate Aura Skill number as the base for the size and strength of their aura, then they add their Rank Modifier to find their Aura Strength and multiply their Base Aura Skill number by their Rank Modifier to find their Range in yards.

Aura Size and Strength

Use the following table to determine the Size and Strength of an Aura:

Essence Skills

There are few skills associate with Essence Use in GURPS.

Manipulate Aura (Will/H)

Defaults:  None, 
specialized skill, must be learned, requires an Essence Power that grants an aura.

The formula for your aura strength is: Manipulate Aura Skill rank + Magery Level + Rank Modifier

The formula for the size of your aura is: (Manipulate Aura Skill rank + Magery Level) x Rank Modifier

Description:
This skill represents a character’s ability to perceive, control, and interact with the magical auras that suffuse all beings in the world. It allows for a wide range of aura-related actions, from subtle concealment to direct suppression of another’s aura.

This Skill replaces the Untrained Base Number when determining the Strength and Size of a user's aura.

When Making a Manipulate Aura roll add your Rank Modifier to the skill roll.

Manipulate Aura has a number of aspects detailed below:

Passive Aura Control

• Passive Aura Control is equal to your Manipulate Aura Skill, excluding your rank modifier as your skill with your aura has little to do with it's strength.

• While your Aura is under control you can alter the size of it at will between Close (the space you occupy) and the maximum size of your aura.

• You can modify the Strength of your aura between ½ your Aura Strength and your full Aura Strength

• Those who perceive your aura get a sense of your level of control regardless of the strength you portray

Aura Scanning

• Push your senses out in an attempt to detect auras in your vicinity.  

• This doesn’t apply your Aura Power’s effects to anyone beyond your normal Aura Size.

• This also reveals your presence to any aura within range of your attempt.  

• Range: Up to (Degree of Success + Base Aura Skill) x Rank Modifier, add your degree of success to you skill level before multiplying by your Rank Modifier to determine the size of the area scanned. On a failed roll your aura size isn't reduced.

• Once the aura is expanded (or not) roll an Aura Perception Skill Check

• Detected Aura’s give no information beyond their approximate direction and distance.

• More powerful Aura's are more easy to detect.  

Expand Aura

• Those within the range of your Aura are affected by the Aura’s Effects unless your aura has been suppressed

• Range: (Degree of Success + Aura Size) x 2

• Duration: Degree of Success in minutes

• Failure: Cooldown = Degree of Failure x 3 seconds.

Aura Suppression

• Quick Contest of Manipulate Aura vs. target’s Will or Manipulate Aura (their choice).

• On success, you dampen or suppress the target’s aura for a short time (duration based on margin of victory, in minutes). A suppressed aura negates aura powers, and some Essence Powers may require a suppressed aura to affect their targets.

Aura Senses       (Will/H)

Defaults:   Will -5

Description:
This is your ability to percieve magical auras around you with your aura. 
Simple Detection reveals the location and quality of someones aura but not much else, further examination using the Analyze Aura Technique can reveal more information.

When using the Aura Perception skill add your Rank Modifier to your skill level to detect and analyze auras.

Anyone attempting to conceal, or mask their aura adds their Rank Modifier to their roll aswell.

Aura Skill Techniques

These techniques all require the Manipulate Aura  or Aura Perception Skill to be learned prior to their advancement.

Buying a technique is a lot like buying a skill – point cost depends on difficulty and desired relative skill level – but there are two differences. 

You buy up a technique relative to its default, not relative to a controlling attribute, and you determine its point cost using the Technique Cost Table instead of the Skill Cost Table.

To improve a technique, pay the difference in point cost between the desired level and your current level – exactly as for a skill. And just as skills increase for free when you raise attributes, techniques improve for free when you raise the skill on which they are based. For instance, if you have Karate-15 and Kicking-15, and raise Karate to 16, Kicking also goes to 16 at no extra charge!

You need not buy a technique to use it. If you have even one point in a skill, you may use all that skill’s techniques at default. To avoid a cluttered character sheet, though, only note techniques that you know at better than default level.

Analyze Aura

Average

Default: Aura Perception -5

Prerequisites: Aura Senses; Cannot Exceed Aura Senses Skill

This skill represents an intentional focus on reading and understanding the feel of different elements of an aura and how people's nature and feelings can be sensed through their aura. Learning this technique requires knowing the Manipulate Aura skill.

Specialization of the Manipulate Aura skill, allowing the user to gather information about their opponents Emotional state, Essences, and more subtle aspects of a person's Aura, requiring some knowledge and experience to recognize and understand the more subtle aspects of a person's aura.

This skill is rolled in opposition to the Manipulate Aura or Aura Mask skill if the target is attempting to conceal aspects of their aura or decieve the viewer with their aura.

Reading an aura can reveal the emotional state of a creature, their emediate intentions, if they're lying, their level of aggression. You can reveal more subtle aspects of a creature's nature,  their essences, hidden elements of their soul, elemental affinities.

Reading an object can reveal the nature of the object.

• Roll: Analyze Aura (Will-based).

• Effect: Success reveals information about the target’s power, magical nature, or emotional state. Higher margin of success = more detail.

Aura Concealment 

Hard

Default:  Manipulate Aura -3

Prerequisites: Manipulate Aura; can Exceed Manipulate Aura Skill to a total of +3

Learning this skill requires knowing the Manipulate Aura skill.

This represents a significant Specialization in Aura Manipulation, this is the ability of stealth specialists to completely Conceal their aura from the Aura Senses of others.

People that can visually see you but not percieve your aura will feel an uncomfortable dissonance between their senses.

• Roll: Aura Concealment vs Aura Detection 

• Effect: Conceal your presence from the aura Perception of others.  You may dampen the percieved strength of your aura beyond 1/2 all the way down to none, which completely conceals your aura.  

Aura Mask 

Hard

Default: Manipulate Aura -4

Prerequisites: Manipulate Aura; Cannot Exceed Manipulate Aura Skill

Learning this skill requires knowing the Manipulate Aura skill.

This represents a significant Specialization in Aura Manipulation, the ability to Disguise your Aura by alter aspects of your it or  presenting an entirely false one to those who perceive you with Aura senses.

• Roll: To deceive the aura senses of others vs their Sense Aura

• Effect: Deceive the aura senses of others

Consealed Aura Scanning

Hard

Default: Manipulate Aura - 5

Prerequisites: Manipulate Aura; Cannot Exceed Manipulate Aura Skill

Through practice and training you can push out your senses in an attempt to Detect the Aura's of others while concealing your own aura.

• Roll: As Detect Aura

• Effect: As Detect Aura, except you don't reveal your presence to others

Soul Attack

Hard

Default: Manipulate Aura -6

Prerequisites: Specialized Training, Manipulate Aura; Cannot Exceed Manipulate Aura Skill

After being made aware of your soul and how it interacts with aura you learn how to use your soul to make attacks against the souls of others.  You cannot use this technique without special training.

The target must be within the range of your own aura and you must first Suppress their aura.  Once this is done make a Manipulate Aura attack roll against the target opposed by their Will added to their Rank Modifier.  If you succeed you reduce their Will score by 1 temporarily. 

• Roll: As Manipulate Aura opposed by targets Will -3 + Rank Modifier.

• Effect: Deal 1 temporary Will damage.

Resiliant Soul

Average

Default: Will

Prerequisites: Specialized Training, Cannot exceed Will +6

After being made aware of your sould and how it interacts with aura you learn to resist attacks made against your soul.  You cannot train this resistance without first being exposed to such an attack and finding a way or a teacher to assist in such training.

This is a very specialized form of resistance to a very specialized form of attack employed by very few.  All this skill does is grant a bonus to the will roll to resist such attacks.