[Annael]

Have any of you lot ever created characters who are limited in their Sphere use in some way?

For a lot of Mage players, it seems to go against conventional wisdom to somehow limit their powers, but I once saw an awesome Hermetic character who had the Sphere Inept: Correspondence flaw. I don't know what the story behind it was, but not only was she unable to use the Sphere, but the player interpreted it as being an essential part of her. Thus, she had an absolutely abysmal sense of direction. She was forever getting lost. And I've been thinking of creating a character who has a phobia about the Mind sphere, because they're so creeped out by the idea of blurring lines of identity. Imagine how spooky it must be to have total strangers in your head!

So I wonder if anybody else has done something interesting along those lines. Maybe a character who has sworn off the use of a Sphere for some reason, or whose paradigm tells them that it can't or shouldn't be used?

[Jagash]

I had a subset of that for one of my Verbenae. He knew that it was impossible to heal people with magic. I mean, Odin did it once and it knocked him out of commission for a hell of a long time. Like hell any mortal could stitch flesh and mend bone. Hell, he even got to the point of preforming reflexive countermagic on the choruster in the group who tried a laying on of hands.

Now what he _could_ do was change damage. 1 agg into 2 lethal into 4 bashing damage, turning a candle burn into a full body beating.

[Krieg]

"Ow!"(suck finger)"that kinda hurt. oh well. i'll get over it."
"Hang on! I'll fix it!"
(falls over unconcious and bleeding)

[Jagash]

Aye, he had lots of fun casting it on himself.

Have i mentioned that his resonance was entropic (sacrificial)?

[Peter K.]

These sound like much more interesting interpretations of the Sphere Inept flaw than the text of the revised edition describes.
I like the idea that they're an extension of mundane conditions and beliefs. Just a mechanical justification of the flaws in a personal Paradigm and self image.

As a sort of side note: Any merits or flaws whose primary function is to affect XP accrual or spending always seem kind of ho-hum to me (25% higher XP cost? But I want my penalties now!).

I'm wondering if a workable hack might be to allow normal Sphere advancement for the individual but always treat their Arete as half it's normal value when using the sphere.

[agasha kumiko]

I haven't done it for MtAs for some reason (I think it was the basic vagueness of the rules that stopped me from auto-limiting myself given it was all in the ST's hands after that, and well I have met few ST's worth the name). Concerning MtAs I have met two and I don't include myself in that number.

I have done it for both DnD and Gurps. Some of my favorite flaws that I have used number among Night/Day use, music based, and seasonal based. Other favorites are a certain Geas (Oath MtAw style which can include nearly anything such as clothing, non speaking, eating at certain times or only a certain thing, codes of honor...the list goes on). I do it all the time for MtAw given you get massive tangible benefits for limiting yourself, in so many ways. I cannot start to describe it.

Basically talking on flaws like these build a paradigm that the player is willing to play full on. Myself included when I get the chance to be a player. Some people like to research and play cultural tropes, others like me, prefer a more personal approach, we happen to be in the majority. Games should not be a litmus test on how many Degrees you have, or if you have a liking for cultural anthropology.

[sandchigger]

I've played a Hem-ka Sobk. They're not allowed to take Entropy, Forces, Matter or Prime.

[Deflare]

It occurs to me that if Harry Dresden were made into a Mage character (old or new game), he would have little to no knowledge of Mind; in the Dresdenverse, one of the Big Bad Capital Sins of magic is controlling someone's mind through magic. Thus, while Harry might be able to sense the presence of minds and develop ways to affect his own mind (he makes a potion at one point that prevents him from being affected by vampires' narcotic saliva), he wouldn't have the ability to affect other human minds.

It seems like various elements of belief could make people shy away from certain Sphere. Someone who find the idea of messing with death and fate blasphemous avoids Entropy; one who believes in the total non-interference with life avoids Life, those whose paradigms don't make room for 'universal mystical energy' might have trouble with Prime. A Technocrat who's severely devout about the conservation of energy and mass might need to go through a lot of work convincing themselves that their 'free matter/energy machine' does indeed work on scientific principles, representing a lack of faculty at Matter and/or Forces. Another Technocrat (or a Son of Ether; this sounds like their kind of concern) might stay the hell away from Time, believing that tinkering with it could lead to paradoxical badness.

These sorts of limitations can be quite fun; they make good twists on an otherwise stock-standard character.