I am going to storyguide an adventure in Iberia and I wanted to add some brutal exchange between magical traditions. I am searching for inspiration.
I am totally ignorant about sahir abilities., but as summoners they can have some nasty djin on their side for sure if you want supernatural enemies. Having a trained combat group of djinn (or more than one) can be nasty.
1 Like
The sahir aren't necessarily the most warlike of traditions so I don't have any fully stated characters of that description, but I did write up a few naranj of a martial nature a few years ago for my Non-Hermetic Grimoire thread - it was unpinned recently, but you should be able to find via the 'Search' function.
Anyway, the thing about the Sahir is that, except when summoning spirits, they're going to have crap Penetration so if they know they're up against Magi, they need to circumvent that in some way. They can boost it somewhat via Khuddam Bonds or Solomonic Astrology, but it's still not optimal and typically requires stronger spirits which correspondingly reduces their Summoning Strength.
The first methods, as Xavi mentioned, is simply summoning Jinn and having them attack the magi in a mundane fashion. This not only ignores MR, but unless the magi know the Form or Realm the spirit is aligned with they could have a hard time fighting back. If the Jinn is powerful enough, it might be able to breach Parma Magica with its own innate powers as well.
The next method is using methods that don't interact with MR.
- Solomonic Alchemy is good for creating Aimed effects such as making rain as hot as boiling oil or turning a gentle breeze into a bitter sirocco (the effect is magical, but momentary and thus can affect characters protected by Magic Resistance.
- Solomonic Astrology is nice for intelligence gathering and, if used in conjunction with mundane astronomy, ignores MR.
- Solomonic Physic can be used to enhance an ally's Characteristics prior to battle or afflict grogs with Personality Traits like Disloyal or Cowardly.
- Solomonic Storytelling can cause those without MR to harm the magus or themselves. Their illusions are mental and thus need to Penetrate, but can be feeding magi false intelligence via grogs.
- Solomonic Travel can let you move troops long distances almost instantly although it does require a bit of lead time.
4 Likes
Some interesting ideas there. Thank you!
Although sahir aren't particularly combat oriented, Iberia is full of conflict in this age. And I imagine that Order of Hermes and Order of Solomon wouldn't be idle in that conflict.
It seems that I will have to produce the stat block myself. Perhaps, with the limitations that you pointed, I will try a physically oriented magus that uses magic to move, predict and other things.
hermetics still depend on mundanes for a lot of stuff. Send djinn, mundane forces or yourself to mess up with their supply lines and refuges and well, you can mess up nicely with them. Strategic mobility is very important in warfare.
1 Like
From doing a lot of reading of Cradle and Crescent, the OoS does not want to confront the OoH directly. They have done that before and lost badly. Rather they can use their powers in a more covert way. Using Astrology they can know when the Magi will be at their weakest or what their weak point is. Using the Travel power they can move troops to ambush. They would strike at a Covenants supply lines rather directly at the Magi.
It is basically using the blitzkrieg of Nazi Germany: the enemy has a lot of strong troops up front (magi). Those troops are good and more.powetgul than ours in a frontal battle. But we concentrate force and strike at a certain point and then flood their rearguard with highly mobile units of our own. Once you wreck their supply lines, those frontline monsters can fight for a very short time before being depleted.
Do the same here. Non is, no grogs, no specialists, no books, no food. Magi suddenly start looking at a situation less confidently and thinking that being there maybe is not a great idea.
The Nazis (well the wermacht) named it, but this has been done for centuries before that. Like "guerrilla", that is from the XIX century but is as old as warfare itself.
I forgot to mention it earlier, but the Dominion could be decisive too - Gifted Sahirs can deliberately summon very weak spirits and allow a high Summoning Strength to absorb the Aura Interaction penalty and if spirits are summoned in advance, bargaining with them is not considered a magical act.
They still have to contend with the additional Botch Dice, but having a dedicated spirit with a strong Safety Khuddam bond for such situations is very achievable and since sahir can bond with multiple spirits, they don't have to compete with other powers the way the Golden Cord does..
Finally, should all those precautions fail and the sahir does botch, Fatra Bayna is generally less detrimental than Twilight - at the very least it doesn't have a 'Final Twilight' equivalent.
Hi,
Sahirs have no restrictions about dealing with the mundane, and are often involved in the life of their larger community. Hermetic magi are constrained by Oath and Gift. Nothing ruins a covenant's day like being hit with a small crusade or (in this case) jihad, in this case backed by Sahirs, some of whom are themselves very religious. A more subtle approach can induce the target magi to break the Code, about dealing with mundanes, and then have said privileged mundanes bring this to the attention of the Quaesitors, and let the magi fight among themselves. Or maybe trafficking with demons: Some Sahirs have an inside track there.
IIRC, even though Gifted Sahirs have more overt magical power, it is the un-Gifted who rule them. This makes a kind of sense: At heart, Sahir power comes from minion-mancy, and sometimes humans are the best minions of all.
So maybe hit the magi with a +3 Army of Wrath. And when they dare to defend themselves, have them charged with interfering with a totally mundane religious war.
Anyway,
Ken