Transmute Gold

Re. my last entry, this was found on the WoD-wiki

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Q: The description for Adept of Matter states "I can turn lead into gold to satisfy their trite expectations." However, Transmute Gold only allows for the mage to transmute the precious material into a non-precious material, not the other way around. Is that supposed to be how it works?

A: Yes, there's missing text with the Transmute Gold description. The mage can transform a common substance into a precious one. Success determines the purity of the transformation. Even though the Size of the object doesn't change, only a portion of it is of a good quality. For instance, with one success, one quarter of the object might become decent karat gold, while the rest is cheap karat. With an exceptional success, the whole thing is pure.

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So for a permanent transformation, go with Matter 4, and add 1 level for Advanced Prolongation.

Turning lead into gold

This is a short look at how to turn lead into gold in Mage: The Awakening by White Wolf.

Now, there is no set rote for transforming something into gold, but there is one for transforming gold or other precious metals to an ordinary metal (Transmute Gold, p202) which is a Matter 4-rote.

Question is, would transform ordinary matter into gold be the same arcana and level? Judging from the Matter 5 rotes Raw Creation and Greater Transmogrification where you can either create gold from nothing, or change liquids into gold, I'd say that it is a Matter 4 rote.

However, for the sake of argument I'll look into both versions, starting with it being a Matter 4 rote, quite similar to Transmute Gold.

The spell is prolonged (1 scene), and to make it permanent he needs a Matter of 5 (or 6 if we go by the Matter5-version).

Also, there is a -10 dice modifier on the rote. It is possible for a powerful willworker to have a dice-pool large enough, but in most cases, extended casting is the way to go.

Looking at p120, we see that to make something Indefinite, we need 5 more successes than the base success, which gives us 6 successes. If we say that we need Matter 4 to transform something into gold, we need at least a Gnosis of 3 (remember that we acually need Matter 5, since advanced prolongation requires your arcanum to be 1 higher). With a Gnosis of 3, each roll in an extended casting takes 1 hr.

If we on the other hand say that we need Matter 5 to make Gold out of other materials, we actually need Matter 6 (see above), which requires a Gnosis of 6. Each roll will now take 30 minutes.

I havn't seen any offical stand on what level of Matter is required, but my research continues.

Mage-statements

There was a war.

You Lost

You where driven from your paradise.

Your knowledge and your art destroyed, shattered all over the world

You are hunted, the agents of your enemy hunts you down, try to make give up, or die

They steal your knowledge, make sure that no one ever sees it again.

They destroy it, they hunt you.

You want to build, you want to get back you the promised land.

Some of you want to fight back. They are warriors, longing for the day they can take back what’s theirs.

Others believe in power through knowledge. Only by finding the secrets lost can you be victorious

Some of you moves in the shadows. They know that you are hunted, that brute force cannot win the war. They hide in the shadows, defending what’s yours through stealth and cunning

In recent days, there has been a growing movement stating that this all happened in the past. Yes, we should find the secrets, but only to make a better place here and now. The old stories are gone, we are creating new stories today. Let’s face them with open minds.

Feint in Dungeons and Dragons

In my quest for a nice, thematic swashbuckler, I stumbled upon the feint-rules, which I havn't given much thought before. It turned out that a succesfull feint takes away the dex-bonus from your opponents AC for your next attack.

Now, combine this with the fact that a Rogues sneak attack is applicable whenever the opponent has lost his Dex-bonus to AC in any way.

So, for my Swashbuckler character that I have posted below, I'll add improved initiative and a couple of levels of bluff. Improved initiative lets you do a feint maneuver as a move action. Consider for instance this best-case scenario for him when he has reached 2nd level, taking a level of Rogue. He is in a fight, and it is his turn to go. In his move action, he feints. Let's assume that he succeeds and his opponent is now only using his flat-footed AC. For his attack, he uses combat expertise to incerase his AC and lower his attack bonus. Since his opponent is flat footed, that should be OK. If this attack would hit, the damage would be 3D6 (1 from the weapon, 1 from sneak attack and 1 from the feat Deadly Defence). Not bad for a 2nd level character.

A fencer in DnD

After some searching and tweaking, I found something that I do believe will make a fair swordsman, Pirates-style. So far he is only a lvl 1 character, but I'll show him as is, and then write a little about my thoughts on how to progress him. The idea is an agile, tricky fencer that wins through cunning and speed over power. He may be a bit on the dark side as well, more pirate than musketeer.

Nagea Hamden
Human Swashbuckler 1
Str: 10/+0
Dex: 16/+3
Con: 10/+0
Int: 14/+2
Wis: 14/+2
Cha: 10/+0

For: +2; Ref: +3; Will: +2
HP: 10
AC: 15 (Touch: 13, Flat-Foot: 12)
BAB: +1 Melee: +1 Range: +4

Feats:
Proficient Light Armor, Proficient with simple and martial weapons,
Weapon Finesse (From swashbuckler), Combat Expertise, Deadly Defense

The last one is from Complete Scoundrel, and gives an additional +1D6 damage when fighting defensivly OR when using Combat Expertise to give yourself at least a +2 to AC (and hence, -2 to attack)

His skills are fairly standard. He put maximum skillpoints into tumble, jump, bluff, climb, sense motive, use rope, balance, climb. His bluff will come in handy when trying to feint, and tumble is always nice for moving around the scene of combat.

He is using a rapier as a weapon (+4 ,1D6, 18-20/x2).

The plan is to multiclass him swashbuckler/ rogue. The main thing with the rogue is the sneak attack. In a couple of levels there are a couple of nice feats to get (and, not having the books here, I cannot remember their names). One lets you add your sneak attack damage in case of a critical hit, which is nice. Especially if you are using a rapier (threat range 18-20) and then make it keen (making the threat range 15-20).

Other nice feats to choose from is one that lets you stack you levels in Swashbuckler and Rogue when you are calculating things like sneak attack damage or the Grace feat.

So, while not a fighter (in my view still the most effective character to start with. Str 18, Greatsword, power attack and weapon focus. All of a sudden you are dealing damage in the 10-20 range as a level 1 character, which is quite good), he is still a competent character. Hard to hit, and capable of dealing some damage on his own. There are a couple of ways for him to go higher up. Want him to be a defensive fighter that is dangerous to approach: Give him combat reflexes and the feat that gives +4 to all AoO. (also from Complete Scoundrel). Or go a slighly darker way, where you are using your sneak attack to give bleeding wounds, for instance.

As said, there are some variations on this character, but all in all, it is possible to make a decent fencer that can hold his own and deal some damage.