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Magma Armor0
2016-02-02, 03:47 PM
Howdy, Playground. I've come to you with a request for ideas better than the ones I've already thought up.
The setting I'm in has a few parallel planes, one of which being the normal one that we are all (presumably) in. Other planes have magic, we have technology, etc.
In the (homebrewed) setting, when a human from our plane ingests magic from another plane, they become a witch with their own magical powers. :smallbiggrin: But the magic that they can do is (seemingly) randomly chosen. :smallfrown:
Now, I'm no stranger to advanced magical theory: I know that not all magics are created equal, and some (time, etc.) are stronger than others (water, etc.). Thus I want to find a way to...influence the outcome.
I think my GM is throwing me a bone, because I have recently acquired a magic staff that has a bunch of energy from another plane stored in it, with the added bonus of draining the magic from any other magic item it touches. But, now that I have it on our plane (And relatively full of magic), I'm not sure what kinds of tests to run on it to determine if there is a way to A) figure out if the magic stored in the staff can be ingested, and B) figure out if I can influence the type of magic that I can get from doing so.
Assume I have access to a decently well-stocked scientific laboratory, and that I'm trying to do this in a Lawful Good manner. (No experimenting on innocent victims, please?)
I told her that I am asking on the forums in-game, and she approved it. So can people here help me play mad (magic) scientist? What suggestions does the Playground have for me?

nedz
2016-02-02, 05:15 PM
It's hard to say because we are less able to read your DM's mind than you are.

Also, what system are you playing in ? This may be important.

Thrudd
2016-02-02, 05:29 PM
Is your character a scientist or scholar or resarcher of some kind, that he would have the expertise or access to facilities and equipment to conduct such experiments? If not, maybe your character needs to go to a university, seek out an expert, to ask those questions. Tell the GM that you bring the artifact to the lab and run tests on it for x-number of days, weeks or months, and you research everything you can possibly find from scholarly articles or libraries about these types of artifacts. Then she should tell you what the results of your research is.

Or is your character a mystic or expert in meditation or have knowledge of spirits and magic? Then spend some time isolated with the artifact in meditation, with the intent of communing with it or receiving some information about it from the "spirit world", or whatever there is in your setting. Tell her you are willing to spend x number of days or weeks in focused meditation and she should tell you what if anything is discovered.

What is possible really depends entirely on the setting and the DM, so it's weird you would ask the forum, or that she would accept anything you heard here. Chances are nothing we say will apply to your game.

Anonymouswizard
2016-02-02, 05:39 PM
Alrighty, I'm going to focus on part B, a few questions that shouldn't require in-character actions first:

1) What does 'ingesting' magic entail?
2) What does the staff do other than store magic? (only applications that you know of)
3) Can animals other than humans ingest magic?
4) What are your character's views on using animals in clinical trials?
5) What kinds of magic are there? (gives an idea of what might effect magic received)

If the answer to question 4 is yes, it makes things a lot easier. First work out a way to get magic into an ingestible form (this is where question 2 might come in handy, especially if the staff can also shove magic into things), then get a bunch of lab rats. Feed them magic to get an answer to question 3, and also to see if animals with magic are particularly dangerous (if they are, it makes this whole sequence skirt definitively out of lawful good and into lawful neutral). Assuming animal mages aren't too dangerous start having lab rats ingest magic under controlled conditions and record the powers they exhibit. At this point you decide how far you go, this can be anything from putting them in altered environments and trying to get them in a specific mood to putting them in fight or flight situations and then having them ingest magic. If any of them are particularly dangerous as a result of your experiments you should do what you can to keep people safe (maybe keep a knife on hand?). Another thing you could do is see if having magic changes their body in any way, but at this point you have to cut them open and have a good look, so it might be too non-LG for you.

Magma Armor0
2016-02-02, 07:18 PM
Alrighty, I'm going to focus on part B, a few questions that shouldn't require in-character actions first:

1) What does 'ingesting' magic entail?
2) What does the staff do other than store magic? (only applications that you know of)
3) Can animals other than humans ingest magic?
4) What are your character's views on using animals in clinical trials?
5) What kinds of magic are there? (gives an idea of what might effect magic received)

If the answer to question 4 is yes, it makes things a lot easier. First work out a way to get magic into an ingestible form (this is where question 2 might come in handy, especially if the staff can also shove magic into things), then get a bunch of lab rats. Feed them magic to get an answer to question 3, and also to see if animals with magic are particularly dangerous (if they are, it makes this whole sequence skirt definitively out of lawful good and into lawful neutral). Assuming animal mages aren't too dangerous start having lab rats ingest magic under controlled conditions and record the powers they exhibit. At this point you decide how far you go, this can be anything from putting them in altered environments and trying to get them in a specific mood to putting them in fight or flight situations and then having them ingest magic. If any of them are particularly dangerous as a result of your experiments you should do what you can to keep people safe (maybe keep a knife on hand?). Another thing you could do is see if having magic changes their body in any way, but at this point you have to cut them open and have a good look, so it might be too non-LG for you.

Hmm...hadn't considered the animal side of things. Might work.
As for your questions...


1) What does 'ingesting' magic entail?
Typically, running water over a magical artifact "infuses" the water (or something) which is then drunk. This staff doesn't seem to be doing that though--not sure why, maybe contact with the staff (which I have avoided) is all that is needed?

2) What does the staff do other than store magic? (only applications that you know of)
Drain other magical objects. That's all I know thus far.

3) Can animals other than humans ingest magic?
I know vampires cannot. Will check back after tests.
Hmm...could human corpses change? DNA analysis incoming, maybe.

4) What are your character's views on using animals in clinical trials? I would prefer to avoid it but I'm not overly opposed to it. Lab rats shouldn't be too big a deal.

5) What kinds of magic are there? (gives an idea of what might effect magic received)
That I've seen thus far? Fire, ice, water, earth, (something that made someone invisible), mind (fear and charm subsets, specifically), teleportation.


Also, what system are you playing in ? This may be important. system is homebrew-freeformish. DM won't tell me what it's based off of for fear of metagaming.


Is your character a scientist or scholar or resarcher of some kind, that he would have the expertise or access to facilities and equipment to conduct such experiments? If not, maybe your character needs to go to a university, seek out an expert, to ask those questions. Tell the GM that you bring the artifact to the lab and run tests on it for x-number of days, weeks or months, and you research everything you can possibly find from scholarly articles or libraries about these types of artifacts. Then she should tell you what the results of your research is.

What is possible really depends entirely on the setting and the DM, so it's weird you would ask the forum, or that she would accept anything you heard here. Chances are nothing we say will apply to your game.
I have access to expert scientists and their labs, but am not one myself. I was hoping for ideas on what kinds of tests to run--I've got a DNA analysis running now. And I realize that it might be that nothing anyone here says will help. But I figure I might get lucky! :smallwink:

Thanks for the help thus far! If y'all think of anything else, let me know!

Thrudd
2016-02-02, 07:36 PM
Hmm...hadn't considered the animal side of things. Might work.
As for your questions...


Typically, running water over a magical artifact "infuses" the water (or something) which is then drunk. This staff doesn't seem to be doing that though--not sure why, maybe contact with the staff (which I have avoided) is all that is needed?

Drain other magical objects. That's all I know thus far.

I know vampires cannot. Will check back after tests.
Hmm...could human corpses change? DNA analysis incoming, maybe.
I would prefer to avoid it but I'm not overly opposed to it. Lab rats shouldn't be too big a deal.

That I've seen thus far? Fire, ice, water, earth, (something that made someone invisible), mind (fear and charm subsets, specifically), teleportation.

. system is homebrew-freeformish. DM won't tell me what it's based off of for fear of metagaming.


I have access to expert scientists and their labs, but am not one myself. I was hoping for ideas on what kinds of tests to run--I've got a DNA analysis running now. And I realize that it might be that nothing anyone here says will help. But I figure I might get lucky! :smallwink:

Thanks for the help thus far! If y'all think of anything else, let me know!

I don't think you should need to specify what sorts of experiments to do. I mean, how could you even guess? What hypotheses have you arrived at so far regarding its functioning? It isn't as though this is a real thing. Your character isn't even a scientist, so you can't even roll for knowledge or whatever to make guesses on how to experiment. You should be able to say: "I take it into the lab and ask the expert scientist to run tests on it until they figure something out." Then the GM should tell you how long the scientist needs to work on it, and what thay can find out. Or say you will leave it in the lab for two weeks, come back and the GM will tell you what the scientist found in that time, and if they need more time to find more. I expect it should cost your character some money or favors or other resources to do this.