[2E Legacy update] Storm Keepers

[Caladriu]

Here's another simple update, this time for the Storm Keepers, who originally appeared in Tome of the Watchtowers. As Inferior-turned-Ruling Legacies go, I'm more partial to the Dreamspeakers, but the Weather Witches are cool too. Of course their signature power is embodied by Control Weather, so I had to do some tinkering and redrafting to figure out the best way to pump up Reach for it without gating off their main trick until too late. Let me know what you think!

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Storm Keepers

Parentage: Acanthus
Prerequisites: Forces 2, two of the following Skills at 2 dots or higher: Academics, Occult, Science, or Survival
Ruling Arcanum: Forces
Yantras: Succeeding on an Academics/Occult/Science/Survival roll relevant to the spell (+2), predicting the weather in front of witnesses (+1), formally recording the weather using scientific and/or traditional techniques (+2), being outside in a weather-based Condition or Tilt without magical protection (+1, or +2 if the mage takes damage)
Oblations: Weather-watching (maintaining a survey of changing weather over the course of a day, a week or a month); predicting the weather (a practice which must be done in front of witnesses who need not be aware of the magical purpose of the prediction); experiencing extreme weather conditions (such as walking in a blizzard or driving through heavy rains); participating in a ceremonial rain dance as part of a tribal cultural meet; chanting or making offerings to ancient weather gods

First: Shading the Pattern
Prerequisites: Initiation
While others must rely on Doppler radar and networks of sophisticated temperature sensors coupled with complex models run by computers to predict the weather, you can simply glance outside and see the energy patterns (or feel them in your bones). This Attainment allows you to instantly predict what the weather will be like for a number of hours equal to your dots in Forces. The assessment is based on current conditions - if current or future magic is altering the baseline weather patterns your prediction might be off. If magic is currently altering the weather you can predict what the natural weather state will be like with a successful Clash of Wills.

Optional: Time 1
The mage knows whether her own manipulation of the weather will prove helpful or harmful in the near future, emulating "Momentary Flux."

Second: Storm Shelter
Prerequisites: Forces 2, one of the two Initiation Skills at 3 dots
The mage is not harmed by the weather. After spending an hour outdoors, the mage activates an "Environmental Shield" with Advanced Duration on herself and anyone she is touching.

Optional: Time 2
The mage may ask more detailed questions about the impact of her weather manipulation, or predict the weather closely. This Attainment emulates "Divination" with Reach spent on instant casting and detailed questions.

Third: Weather Making
Prerequisites: Forces 3, the second Initiation Skill at 3 dots OR a third Initiation Skill at 2 dots
The greatest trick of the Weather Witches is, of course, manipulating the weather directly. After spending an hour outdoors, which may be done at the same time as Storm Shelter, the mage may emulate "Control Weather" with Reach spent on Advanced Duration and, if she wishes, making the change over hours rather than minutes. If she wishes to make the change more quickly, she may instead choose to emulate "Control Weather" with instant casting and Advanced Duration.

Optional: Time 3
The Weather Witch may call up the old storms or restore yesterday's calm. If she possesses at least a Representational sympathetic Yantra of a weather pattern that was previously on her current location, such as a preserved hailstone or a photo of a clear day, she may spend an hour outdoors to restore that weather pattern within minutes. This emulates "Temporal Summoning" with a Forces 2 component to affect the weather, with Reach spent on Advanced Duration.

Fourth: Direct Storms
Prerequisites: Forces 4, one of the two Initiation Skills at 4 dots
Nothing embodies the power of storms like lightning. This Attainment emulates "Call Lightning" with Reach spent on sensory range. As usual, this Attainment requires stormy skies, either naturally or through an Attainment or spell.

Optional: Time 4
The mage may ask complex, conditional questions about the long-term impact of her weather manipulation on a region or the effects of future weather patterns. This Attainment emulates "Prophecy" as an instant action.

Fifth: Aeolian Bag
Prerequisites: Forces 5, the second Initiation Skill at 4 dots OR the third Initiation Skill at 3 dots OR the fourth Initiation Skill at 2 dots
Summoning and dismissing tornadoes and monsoons is within the Weather Witch's power. After spending an hour outdoors, which may be done at the same time as Storm Shelter, he mage may emulate "Adverse Weather" with Reach spent on Advanced Duration.

Optional: Time 5
Rain, rain, go away, come again another day. If previous Attainments reveal that dismissing a weather pattern entirely would be even more damaging, or she wants to hold a region hostage with a storm in a bottle, or she simply wishes to preserve a beautiful day for later, the mage may emulate "Temporal Stutter" with a Forces 2 component to affect the weather, with Reach spent on Advanced Duration. The mage may cancel the Attainment to bring the captured weather back in a matter of moments.

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Storytellers are encouraged to let modern Storm Keepers buy the Sky's Whispers Merit from Dark Eras page 48.

[proindrakenzol]

I love everything except the first attainment.

Weather is already a function of energy shifts and "making a prediction" that completely alters the weather is well beyond what Reading the Outermost Eddies can do, even if you throw in a Forces 2 component (which I don't think is appropriate for a 1 dot attainment). It's also the only Fate attainment, which puts it out of place with the rest of the Legacy.

Perhaps something like:

Weather Eye
Prerequisites: Initiation
While others must rely on Doppler radar and networks of sophisticated temperature sensors coupled with complex models run by computers to predict the weather, you can simply glance outside and see the energy patterns (or feel them in your bones). This merit allows you to instantly predict what the weather will be like for a number of hours equal to your dots in Forces. This assessment is based on current conditions - if current or future magic is altering the baseline weather patterns your prediction might be off. If magic is currently altering the weather you can predict what the natural weather state will be like with a successful Clash of Wills.


...

Spell I made up to base the merit on:

Assess Weather
Practice: Knowing
Primary Factor: Potency
Suggested Rote Skills: Computers, Science, Survival
With this spell the mage can see the energy levels, gradients, and divergence in the local skies and can accurately predict what the local weather will be like for a number of hours equal to potency. This spell cannot predict magically induced weather but, with a Clash of Wills, can predict what the weather will be like after any magically induced weather subsides.



...

This keeps all the primary attainments Forces-only and keeps it clearly a one-dot merit. It can also be used instantaneously, so if someone else is mucking with the weather you can get a read on what they're trying to do quickly.

The only other change I think might be beneficial is to the Control weather merit. This is slightly power-gamey, but since Attainments never risk paradox or provoke quiescence/dissonance you'd probably be better off spending the extra reach on making the weather change instantaneous rather than on it being gradual; the biggest advantage to the gradual change is that it is less likely to risk quiescence in sleepers or dissonance since it "seems more natural", with the attainment that isn't a problem and so you might as well go for broke and let the Mage snap their fingers and change the weather. The other benefit to that is it effectively buffs the fourth merit, letting you conjure up a storm one turn and call lightning the next.

Oh, I'd also just make the lightning called with Direct Storms strike that turn, that's the way the base spell works and lightning travels, well, "really fast" is a bit of an understatement.

[wyrdhamster]

Cut out Fate components if other Attainments are Time based. You can mark those 'spent one hour outside' as variant of Ritual Casting Time - remember that it is lesser with each Gnosis point, later on.

[Axelgear]

I think it's worth noting that a second Attainment only counts as having two dots in the spell, meaning that the Storm Keeper's Environmental Shield power, when instantly cast, will only last a handful of turns. Not tremendously impressive.

[Mrmdubois]

Duration will increase as dots in the arcana increase but yeah it won't last a long time, at most 10 turns.

[proindrakenzol]

You can mark those 'spent one hour outside' as variant of Ritual Casting Time - remember that it is lesser with each Gnosis point, later on.

This is false, Attainment "ritual" time does not scale with Gnosis.

Most Attainments use one Reach for instant “casting”;
those that don’t (being based on ritual spells) take one scene
of preparation to use.

[Caladriu]

I think it's worth noting that a second Attainment only counts as having two dots in the spell, meaning that the Storm Keeper's Environmental Shield power, when instantly cast, will only last a handful of turns. Not tremendously impressive.

True, but it's also an instant action with no roll, so it would be easy to continuously reactivate it. Outside of combat time they'd be fine, just occasionally distracted. If it's a situation where every instant action counts, they would potentially be vulnerable, but IMO that's a feature not a bug.

Or would it be better to move the Reach from instant casting to Advanced Duration, and say that they can choose to activate it at the same time as any other Attainment that requires an hour outdoors? I don't want them to be completely bereft of instant actions, but it also makes good sense that a Time Legacy would rely on preparation and foresight, and using Divination to see when preparation will be needed.

[Caladriu]

good stuff

Thank you for this, I updated the OP with these changes.

I'm currently letting the third Attainment have some leeway on when exactly the changed weather arrives. The original Legacy writeup in Tome of the Watchtowers went to great pains to let the Weather Witches bring on storms as slowly or quickly as they wanted, so I felt I should recreate that here.