Repressed Sorcery

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Suppose a sorceress is born to a member of the Syndicate of Enlightened Citizens. When the child's talents manifest, the family spares no expense getting her "fixed," perhaps even having her institutionalized and rehabilitated. What are the consequences of repressing sorcerous ability? How would this be reflected in game terms?

Among the various possibilities, I'm imagining an ability that would allow her to express sorcerous powers unconsciously. Those of you familiar with the repression theory of poltergeists can see where I'm going with this. But again, how to reflect it in game terms? Would you give her feats for silent, stilled, and component-free spellcasting? House rule that she can only cast when she fails a fear check? What?

[DeepShadow of FoS]

Okay, I guess I wasn't done, cause I just hammered this out:

Unconscious Spellcasting--You can use spells even when unaware that you are a spellcaster.
On certain occasions spells spontaneously occur in your presence. Whenever you suffer an injury, fail a fear or horror check, or are otherwise in peril, your unconscious rallies magical forces to your aid. The result is a situationally appropriate spell from your normal list, chosen by the DM and activated as a spell-like ability (i.e. no components). This only works against threats you are aware of; your spells cannot target a foe you cannot see, nor can they work when you are already unconscious or asleep.
Special: You must have failed a Madness check to take this feat.

Whaddya think?

[alhoon]

Sounds good. On the other hand, I would say that the player decides what "manifests" from the spells "known". Edible spells for the player to pick should be spells with material components of less than 1 gp cost and easy to find.
The player gets +1 spell known for every level.
PS. Still, I can't think of many players getting this. NPCs sure, but players?

About other things that repressed spellcasting can do: Her children may be callibans or she may turn to hag later.

[Troile]

Is the idea that she can also cast spells normally too? Because the feat does not prohibit normal spellcasting.

This is a very specific situation, I would just houserule the sorcerer into a class specifically for her. It's going to be too hard to design a feat or replacement ability that is balanced. Casting spells without needing to use an action (and thus also avoiding AoO) is very powerful.

I would let her pick her spells known and pick the spells that manifest and then modify the sorcerer to let her do non-spell things like being a battle sorcerer or having more skill points.

Does she want to single class the sorcerer or just have it as a latent ability? If all she wants is 1st level powers and to progress in another class a feat similar to redhead would be the fix I would think.

[brass]

Perhaps working it like a template, that can be dropped if the character has some major catharsis.

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

As an NPC, it's great. As a PC... troublesome. It's a fantastic character concept, and a very good roleplayer might be able to pull it off just with a standard sorcerer with appropriate feat selection. The problem is a sorcerer who doesn't cast most of the time is a lousy addition to the party. If you truly make it only happen in the most dire of circumstances, the rest of the time, they are no better than a charismatic commoner.

brass's idea of a template is an interesting one. Even easier: multiclass. A Sor1/Ftr5 who only uses their spells in dire need might be workable. Then working through "the block" would just be gaining more Sor levels.

Other alternatives:

1 - split personality. Make two characters of the same level (and maybe same ability scores too). One magical, one not. Play the non-magical one. In times of stress (failed fear/horror/madness, failed Will save upon taking X% damage) switch to the magical one for a fixed period of time. (might need some balancing in terms of spell recharge, lest it be way better than any straight mages in the party)

2 - If level is high enough: "poltergeist" cohort. A 7th level character with the Leadership feat could have a 1st level sorcerer with the ghost template as a cohort. A bit of digging might turn up a less powerful template than ghost that's also incorporeal so you can have more Sor levels . In flavor terms, the "ghost" is just a manifestation of the PC's subconscious, but he/she may not know that.

[hidajiremi]

Here's an elegant solution:

When the player wants a spell to occur, the character must roll a concentration check. Set a DC something like a distraction (so 15 + spell level). If the concentration check succeeds, the character has a moment of dizziness and vertigo in which she sings to herself, waves her hands around in panic--essentially, has a nasty flashback to her "retraining" experiences--and then magic happens. It doesn't necessarily visibly come from her unless onlookers have Knowledge (arcana) or Spellcraft; remember, you need to be trained in those two skills to identify spellcasting at all. Sorcerers already don't cast magic the same way as wizards; they may use the same rules for it, but it's always been my understanding for my game that a sorcerer is just "doing what comes naturally" when it comes to magic. Also, if she was sent to a "retraining" facility, that tends to leave psychological scars; she might not even consciously remember what she did that was "bad," only that she was sent away for a while and she got to come back when the people there decided she was "good."

If the check fails, then the training holds, the character has a brief dizzy spell from the excitement, and the player must pick a non-spellcasting action for that round.

It's a neat concept, so don't over-punish the player mechanically for wanting to do it. Setting a basic concentration check means that it's something that all spellcasters are innately good at (assuming you're using Pathfinder--if not, YMMV). Just reflavoring it as nursery rhymes and other mnemonic devices gives it a feeling of narrative authenticity, while it also means that anyone who is trained at magic would recognize what she's doing, as well as the fact that she's not doing it consciously. Then, there could be a subplot about the other magic-user attempting to either gently convince her of the truth (if he's nice) or shatter her mind so she can achieve her true power (if he's not).

Hope that helps!


Jeremy Puckett

[Nathan of the FoS]

Among the various possibilities, I'm imagining an ability that would allow her to express sorcerous powers unconsciously. Those of you familiar with the repression theory of poltergeists can see where I'm going with this. But again, how to reflect it in game terms? Would you give her feats for silent, stilled, and component-free spellcasting? House rule that she can only cast when she fails a fear check? What?

The Whistler's PC in the Shattered City campaign is doing essentially this, but since we're using 4e rules the question of metamagic feats isn't relevant; Whistler just explains how the universe somehow, miraculously, just happens to hate whoever the PC is in combat with at the time. (And since magic, non-ritual division, can do so much less in 4e, there's not much to explain in non-combat situations.) This is pretty far outside the box, so I would probably just sit down with the PC and just hammer out the details of what they want to be able to do and how it happens and go from there, rather than trying to create a general system for it.

[brass]

Another solution could be using the Wilder Psionic class with the cast under stress condition. Mechanics wise expending your psionic focus for metapsionic feats does show a loss of control. Also everytime there's the moment of stress casting have the PC use a the wild surge ability, which can really knock them for six.

There again alot of people aren't comfortable with psionic in their game, but I've always thought of it as a spell point system for d&d. This isn't the easiest way to do this either, but it could be fun.

[DasSoviet]

Another solution could be using the Wilder Psionic class with the cast under stress condition. Mechanics wise expending your psionic focus for metapsionic feats does show a loss of control. Also everytime there's the moment of stress casting have the PC use a the wild surge ability, which can really knock them for six.

Aye, I was thinking that wild talent would be a decent representation of this ability... only using sorcerer spells instead of psion powers.

Another option would be to use an "innate magic feat" like the ones from complete arcane, which gives the character access to three low level sorcerer spells as one/day spell-like abilities (necropolis born gives you cause fear, ghost sound, and touch of fatigue, for example). Rule that the PC has to make a concentration check or whathaveyou to activate said abilities, and you get rid of the multiclassing issue brought up earlier!

[Joël of the FoS]

Fun caracter idea. As Ron, I also think it would be better for a NPC and a bit frustrating for a PC.

Joël