Magic: Quality: Spell/Spirit Knack

Spell/Spirit Knack
(replaces the quality descibed on pg 26, Street Magic)
Cost: 5 BP

Characters with spell or spirit knacks have an extremely limited magical ability: the ability to cast only one spell, or summon one type of spirit. This quality may not be taken by characters who also possess the Adept, Latent Awakening, Magician, Mystic Adept, or Technomancer quality. This quality may only be taken during character creation and cannot be obtained using Karma.When a character takes this quality, he gains a Magic attribute of 1 that may be increased at character creation or raised with Karma. It is subject to normal rules for the impact of Essence loss on Magic. The player must declare whether this knack is a spell knack or a spirit knack, and the one specific spell or spirit the character can affect.

The character may learn and use either the Sorcery or Conjuring skills (as appropriate) as normal, but may not learn other skills in the sorcery or conjuring groups. Alternately, because the ability in innate, characters may opt to not learn the sorcery or conjuring skills, choosing instead to default to their Magic attribute, in which case they will roll Magic+(Magic-1) dice to cast or conjure.

Regardless of the method used, characters resist Drain  by rolling Willpower+Intuition.  However, because the character is genetically geared to innately channel this one specific type of magic, the Drain Value is reduced by 1.  Characters may over-cast or over-conjure, up to twice their Magic in Force, but Drain will cause physical damage instead of stun.

Characters with knacks may initiate and learn Centering, Quickening, or Invoking metamagic, but considering how rare knacks are to begin with, a knack initiate is practically unheard of. Characters with knacks cannot interact with astral space (unless the character also has the Astral Sight quality.)  A character may only take the Knack quality once, and may not have both a spell and spirit knack.  Characters may sustain their spell, incurring only a -1 die penalty, due to the fact that the ability is innate and they are genetically geared to better handle the mental strain of sustaining the spell.  They may bond a sorcery, sustaining, or conjuring foci, and may choose a mentor spirit if desired.  Spells cannot be cast as festish-based.

If a spell knack is chosen, unless it is a spell that is designed specifically to target another (such as a combat spell, mental manipulation, or a detrimental health spell,) the spell is considered to be a personal use spell, affecting only the caster.  It may not be used on anyone else, which limits the usefulness of the knack, but also reduces the Drain Value of most spells by -2 (subject to gamemaster approval.)  For Instance, an Elemetal Aura spell normally has a Drain Code of (F/2)-3.  As a spirit knack, the Drain Code is reduced to (F/2), (-1 DV due to the innate drain resistance, -2 more because it is a caster-only version of the spell.)

If this quality is taken with Astral Sight, the character still starts with a Magic of 1 (the qualities don't cumulate for a Magic of 2.)

If properly used, these knacks can be game changers.  Astral sight combined with an elemental arua spell knack could allow a cybered street samurai to track spirits and fight them with a mundane melee weapon.  An infilration specialist could really benefit from a levitate or improved invisibility knack.  A rigger or  a hacker could have their own personal spirit to watch over thier bodies while they're jacked in, Concealling them from hostiles.  Any character could benefit from an Armor,Heal, or Mana Barrier knack.  A martial arts specialist could overcast a Knockout spell as a way of having an ace up his sleeve, forcing his opponent to resist will Willpower and no armor, instead of with Body and full armor.  Even if it didn't do enough stun damage to knock him out, it could easily do enough damage to slow him down and soften him up for subsequent attacks.  Imagine how beneficial it could be for a street samurai to have his own spirit when he's pinned down by a sniper with little cover or concealment.  The spirit could flush out the sniper, mayeb even kill him, while the street sam keeps his head down and conserves ammo. Who needs a survial or tracking skill when they can have a spirit with the Search power?  Just conjure it and tell it to find you something to eat.  Before you know it, it's returned with a rabbit, squirrel, rat, cat, dog, or something else just as tasty!  Why worry about posting guards when you could conjure a spirit, have it use its Concealment power on you, and command it to keep watch and wake you if anything dangerous approaches.