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The nasties evil magic ? Insect, toxic or blood ?

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Seras

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« on: <06-14-18/1806:57> »
I am reading up on differnt magic types to create a big bad.

Know mind you, all three are clearly insane, but which is the one that makes you go " Oh S**T " ?

Insect magic is clearly the horror element. Alien, Bodysnatchers..and other come to mind. oh, and in the end you' re work is in vain because you will be killed ....

Toxic magic makes for a great backstory. All the bad stuff you did is coming back to haunt you, when toxic monsters sink your ships and people take down your bases.

And it has some nasty superpowers.

Blood Magic ... is the real Black magic. The real deal. No seriously, BLACK MAGIC USER go play with dolls or something....

Of all the three this one seems to be the most about raw power, ignore drain points by killing people...oh, and you can store them for later too.

Blood Magic seems very characterful and offers lots of story oportunities ( Who wants to be Indiana Jones in Indiana Jones and the temple of death anyone  :) ), but I have a feeling it could easly kill players by going overboard.

So for me as a GM Im leaning towards Toxic mostly for my badguy...

Who has gamemastered these or played against these ?

Whats your experiance with them ?

Which gives you the most nightmares ?  ;)


Cheers Seras
I apologise for my posts beeing weird to read, I am fluent in english, but almost never write in english anymore :-(

Michael Chandra

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« Reply #1 on: <06-14-18/1909:37> »
Blood, because it damages the metaplanes and makes the Horrors Elder Gods get closer.
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Marcus

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« Reply #2 on: <06-14-18/1914:35> »
So Toxics is really the story of the twisting, Magic turned Bad. People gone crazy prepared to kill and destroy out mostly madness and to some degree the pursuit of Power. In my experience the best toxic arcs need to let say but for the grace of god there go I.  It's important that they see the random deadliness of the npc. Random Attacks, high Body counts, on totally innocent targets. Attacks that have no tangible gain beyond mass fear. A Nice way to go about it, if possible is give big bad the same Mentor spirit as parties Mage, and Explorer the twisted mentor spirit and it's relationship with the Big Bad, how it drives the big bad to kill and destroy.

Hire the PCs to kill the big bad, and then tell it's story during the legwork phase, draw it out scavenger hunt style. Have them talk to people she or he saved, have them talk to his or her mother, have them talk to her or his fixer, go through all his or her old life. Make it a good reason for him to become twisted. All the while the toxic does more crimes and gets stronger. Add some Foci in as boosts to the NPC and as loot for the party, then kick it off. If it doesn't go down like you wan't kicked in interference. Disrupt the fight, try again another run, until it goes like you want it too. 
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PiXeL01

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« Reply #3 on: <06-14-18/1928:30> »
Each is nasty in its own way, Each for a different reason. In my opinion insect shamans seek some of belonging, a home, a family if you will. It’s rarely out of greed or power, it’s more about isolation.

Blood magic is the greed for power at all costs, bar no means. It’s selfish even more than dark/black magic as it comes at the expense of others, fueled by the ultimate resource, life.

Toxics are driving by trauma and revenge. They cannot ignore the dying agonizing screams of our planet caused by humanity’s misdeeds. They lash out in rage, hoping to punish those responsible, wanting to stop the pain.

Each path is horror in the making
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PiXeL01

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« Reply #4 on: <06-14-18/1942:04> »
Blood, because it damages the metaplanes and makes the Horrors Elder Gods get closer.

Toxic magic pollutes the mana sphere making it inhabitable for the Elder Gods
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Reaver

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« Reply #5 on: <06-14-18/1948:27> »
For me, its Insect magic.

Once it goes too far, and the Queen breaks free (and it WILL!), its basically self perpetuating, with the Queen summoning more spirits to infests hosts...

Given enough time, even a weak insect shamans end up creating problems that can plague an entire city! 
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Beta

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« Reply #6 on: <06-14-18/2122:19> »
I would say look at the feeling you want to instill in your players:
- Insect:  you are the only thing stopping this evil force from sweeping forth and destroying hundreds or even far more than that lives (especially if the spirits are from inside Ares ....)
- Toxic: tragic, either innocence corrupted or good intentions become twisted.  (OK, some are just destructive jerks)
- Blood:  true evil that you can feel good about beating ... if you can beat it.  Also the most likely of all of them to be embedded in mundane power structures (the better to have a good supply of sacrifices). 

neomerlin

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« Reply #7 on: <06-17-18/1948:27> »
This thread has some wiz analysis of the three "evil" magic types and I love it.

But for me, I've got a soft spot for the insect spirits. For a start, I dig the body horror element. It's that weird kind of "I love to be frightened by this" thing. Then there's the alien-ness of it all. While insects aren't bringing horrors and elder gods closer, they are, in their own way, already a kind of Lovecraftian terror. They don't think of behave in a way we can truly comprehend. They use people, posessing them, preying on their weakness, for their own gains. These things are weird even by spirit standards. And they're here. Right now. And they've nearly taken over before, and they're still trying. They could be trying right now in your town, beneath your feet, and odds are you wouldn't notice.

ChromeCoyote

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« Reply #8 on: <06-17-18/2014:58> »
You can mix and match, too. Toxics can learn sacrifice as easily as any other metamagic, for instance.

The Wyrm Ouroboros

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« Reply #9 on: <08-23-18/1850:22> »
Horrific (IMO): Insect, twisted, blood, toxic.
Ease of bringing into the game: Blood, twisted, toxic, insect.
Likelihood of running across: Twisted, toxic, blood, insect.

Blood mages: 'He turns, cuts the bystander nearest him across the throat, and blows apart the van behind which you're taking cover.  Oh, wait, that's Joe's van?  Sorry Joe.'  Easy to pop into the game, a sudden burst of 'oh crap' scary, and can be very long-term scary as you build it up.  Not actually too frequent in the game world.

Toxic mages: 'Geez, this place is nasty.  Are you sure the guy we want is hiding heeeaaaaarrrgeezrun!!'  You generally know that you're going into a nasty zone, and a glance on the astral can tell if it's toxic or not.  Gets scary when they go out trying to make more toxic zone (or commit murder on an industrial scale).  Considering toxic zones (and types of toxic mages), far more frequent in the game world than anyone wants to admit.

Insect spirit/mage: "AAAAAAAA!!  Where's the flamethrower -- where'd you put the -- AAAAAAAIIIIGGGGHHH!!!"  Can be a wonderful, horrible combination of 'Body Snatchers' and 'Alien', what with excellent merges and full-bore flesh forms.  Usually the sort of thing you need to build up to; not something often stumbled over, so this is the sort of thing where a plan is required.

Twisted mages: "Oh my god.  What ... what happened ... these were my neighbors, I was gone two frickin' days -- get out of my way, I'm gonna *BLORT*"  Semi-toxic, semi-blood-type, warped, twisted ... shadow spirits love 'em, Son of Sam sort of serial killer stuff.  The attitude of blood magic, the power acquisition of toxic mages, and a total 115% whack-job spin at the end ...
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