Possible Holy Magic Breakthroughs

Ideas for breakthroughs that could be pursued within Holy Magic. See discussion on the Atlas Games Forum:

https://forum.atlas-games.com/t/holy-magic-and-breakthroughs/167819?u=idiotsavant

Holy words and gestures
Holy mages cannot use Hermetic gestures and words as they are idolatrous. This results in significant casting penalties. These can be avoid with appropriate prayer (very difficult - Pre + Theology vs 15, so you basicly need to be a charismatic expert theologian to have any chance), or by using the words and actions associated with a Holy Method such as Invocation.

There are two possible forms of this breakthrough:

  • casting via prayer, which would effectively mean standardising a new magical vocabulary to replace the Hermetic words and gestures. This would require original research, and possibly a breakthrough for each (3 minor, or 1 minor and 1 major?)
  • casting via method. This would be a different breakthrough for each method, and not all methods are appropriate. The most obvious - and accessible for Sevorum Dei - method is Invocation, which could be studied for Insight. Successful effects would replace Hermetic casting with Invoking, allowing that particular spell to be cast without penalty, but only by spending a confidence point. A general breakthrough would allow the method to be substituted on the fly, allowing confidence to be spent to avoid the penalty.

Incorporation of Ceremony
Ceremony can be used to boost holy methods and powers. Could it also be used to boost Holy Magic (replacing the idolatrous Wizard's Communion)? Or vice versa?

Holy magi with Ceremony and other methods and powers can already use Ceremony to boost their casting totals when casting a ritual spell using Method / Power guidelines (RoP:D, p. 69).

  • Using Ceremony to boost Holy Magic: the goal would be to effectively treat Ceremony as a magnitude of Wizard's Communion, allowing a ceremony group to boost casting of any ritual spell. Experimental effects would likely require special design, possibly for specific-sized groups?
  • Using Holy Magic as Ceremony: The goal would be to create a general MuVi effect similar to Wizard's Communion which treated its magnitude as levels of Ceremony. Experimental effects could be designed to work with specific Method / Power combinations.

Incorporation of Holy Powers
Holy mages can cast holy spells using the Method / Power guidelines, but only if they possess those Methods and Powers (effectively this means they use their arts to generate a higher casting total). The powers could be studied for Insight, allowing them to be incorporated into Holy Magic, and allowing these guidelines to be used by any Holy Magician. This would require a separate breakthrough for each Power. (Note: need to check which guidelines this would give, and which ones are superior to the hermetic ones)

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