Characters: Sorcerer
This week’s characters column features the sorcerer — not quite a wizard, but close enough to give them a run for their money.
Sorcerer
“Sorcerer” is a near-pejorative term that many on the White Council use to describe “full spectrum” spell practitioners who don’t have the bloodline, access, resources, and training that a Wizard of the White Council has. The inherent sneer has perhaps a little merit, as often these versatile spell-slingers are self-taught or-let’s face it-at least dabbling in some grey if not outright black areas of magic in order to get a leg up. This fairly common moral flexibility turns into a slippery slope in short order. Victor “Shadowman” Sells from the Storm Front casefile is one such example of a sorcerer gone too far into the nasty to make it back out with his soul intact.
As such, sorcerers are either known to the White Council and walking the straight and narrow, or tend to be in hiding from them (or at least hiding their talents) in the interests of avoiding the pointy proclivities of the White Council Wardens. Player characters may be of either type-but regardless, the White Council, even when stretched thin, cannot be ignored.
Nor, really, can one ignore sorcerers themselves. While not wizards, the can still be subtle, quick to anger, and all that jazz. They have incredible flexibility in their capacity for spellcraft, and while it is very rare to find one as broadly expert as a wizard, they can still specialize in a few areas and can in a pinch draw from the full range of evocation and thaumaturgical castings. And while they are watched over by the White Council in part, they are not a part of that club, and that lack of proximity does mean they can occasionally get away with doing something that the Council wouldn’t be too happy about.
For many sorcerers, lack of access to the White Council’s resources is just fine by them in exchange for this kind of freedom. And so long as they can keep their heads down (if not their noses clean), sorcerers are numbered among the bigger players from the mortal side of supernatural affairs.
Musts: A sorcerer must have a high concept aspect that declares his or her nature as a free-agent spell-slinger (e.g., SORCERER COP or SPELL-SLINGING TROUBADOUR). In addition, the character must take the following supernatural abilities:
- Evocation
- Thaumaturgy
See the power descriptions for more details. Players of spellcasting characters should take some time to work out their most often used, practiced spells before play-see page XX for the particulars.
Options: Nearly every sorcerer also takes up The Sight (and would be considered “flying blind” without it). Sorcerers may take Refinement once per spell-ability (once for Thaumaturgy, once for Evocation), but may not take it multiple times per ability — there’s only so far they can develop without being full on wizards.
Tune in towards the end of April when we talk true believers.
I love Sorcerers almost as much as true Wizards. I still stand that my first Character for TDFRPG will be a Sorcerer that has a high Academics score instead of high Lore. He may not know about what goes bump like true Wizards do, but he can use the words “Thaumaturgy” and “Particle Accelerator” in the same sentence….
Maybe it’s just me getting the terms mixed up, but what exactly is the difference between a wizard and a sorcerer? If it’s because sorcerers lack the resources and access of wizards on the White Council, would Elaine qualify?
@Atomsk, nope, up to a point Elaine got the same training that Harry did — from Justin DuMorne. That implies heavily that she’s got some of the wizard bloodline and mojo going, which comes along with the overall potential.
Sorcerers don’t (necessarily) even get that. For sorcerers, think about Victor Sells and Kravos.
That’s not entirely fair. Not every sorcerer is going to be an evil sadist.
@ludomastro
True, but there have been precious few sorcerers (like this) in the books. All I can think of are Elaine (who had some training), Kim (who was more of a hedge mage, it seems), and maybe whats-his-name the Ectomancer (but he was pretty much a one trick pony). Maybe Charity could have been considered a sorceress, and Molly probably would have been without Harry, but it seems Butcher hasn’t explored the non-evil sorcerer angle too much.
@ludomastro
Which “that” are you saying isn’t particularly fair? Nowhere am I (and nowhere is this entry) particularly suggesting that every sorcerer is an evil sadist.
Cris is right, though — the BOOKS have not exactly given us examples of non-evil sorcerers. Which just sounds like a fruitful void for generating good-sorcerer PCs to me.
Even though they’re not members of the WC, sorcerers are still bound by the Laws right?
One more question, I’m not sure if you’ve already mentioned it elsewhere; but is there any talk of implementing magic’s effect on tech? We know it’s pretty much impossible for Harry or any other full blown wizard to use something like a DVD player or a laptop, but where would the lesser powers stand?
Could someone like a sorcerer, minor talent, or focused practitioner say…pick up a cell phone and call for backup?
Excellent question, atomsk. While I would like to play a full wizard I would take that flaw, unable to work with modern technology. But I also know one player of my rpg group who would like to go some sort of a middle way.
About the difference between sorcerer and wizard, I also think it’s got something to do with bloodlines and the will to grasp the talent. I think Molly Carpenter. I think one of the book says that her mother also had some minor powers (precognition?) but chose not to use it, so it withered away? Maybe anyone with the right books and determination can be a sorcerer, but you have to be a born wizard.
Any human who uses magic is bound by the laws. The White Council claims authority over all humanity.
Storm Front at least implies that Sorcerers have similar problems with technology that Wizards do.
Awsum idea ^_^ i may have a backup npc in this area just for kicks. oh and about the white council finding out… i think that sorcerers can do just about anything they like, but they have to be lucky (or smart) and not get caught with the smoking gun as it were, but if they do they’d probably have to face a few members of the white council which there likely not to win (on there own anyway)… i’d also think at this level of magic they probably have some technical problems, while they may not be instantanious like full wizards, i wouldn’t doubt if after a day or two things started breaking around them.
@Wyrdrune
I was just thinking about some other thing then it got to me: The real proof that wizards are ’special’ (apart from that magic thing) is their healing ability and capacity to live to a higher age.
So, from what I’m reading here, the difference between a Sorcerer and a Wizard is more a “sociopolitical” distinction than a “physical” one – is that the idea?
@Atomsk
In the books, minor talents were fine with tech, but they were really minor talents. The Order of the Large Cooking Pot members were able to use their cells, even the precog.
@Cris
Now i’m starting to go off-topic, but what about the focused practicioners using modern tech?
I remember Mort Lindquist being on the Larry Fowler show with Harry, but I don’t recall him causing anything to go fizz. Or like Anthony said, FP’s could have a minor effect on tech; Harry’s presence might just of turned it up a notch.
@Atomsk,
The way Jim tells it, “hexing” occurs as a side-effect of *mortal* spellcraft (has something to do with a side-effect of magical power being run through a psyche that has free will). The more powerful the spellcraft, the more powerful the hexing effect. So focused practitioners and sorcerers should still be causing the tech-hex.
@Simon
The difference is education and power. A Sorcerer might have the raw talent a Wizard does, but their not going to have the same opportunity to develop it.
@fred
I always figured Hexing was a side effect of a Wizard’s life span. If the physical laws of the universe still apply, all the entropy which should be building up in the Wizards body has to go somewhere, right?
@Dan from Chicago, certainly an interesting theory, but it doesn’t quite match up with what Jim has said on the subject.
So
So does that mean faeries and dragons get to use cell phones while they’re bringing the epic mojo while mortal wizards are stuck with their pre-60s tech?
@Peteman,
Yes, but that’s not exactly an advantage, because faeries and dragons neither understand technology (“ferromancy”, Mab calls it, I think) nor see the point of using it.
So a Knight or supernatural errand boy would be fine with tech because his magic isn’t really human. Right?
@fred
I simply noted that the article kept referring to the bad examples we have had from the books without any obvious editorial comment for counterbalance. Granted there haven’t been glowing examples of good as sorcerer either. Just saying.
I look at it more from the standpoint of “Is HE human? Is HE the conduit and controller of his magic?” If these answers are yes, the chances of a hex effect exist.
So in answer to your question: Maybe yes, maybe no.
Sure. But in-character, Billy’s the one writing the RPG. What good examples has *he* had? Some authorial bias is appropriate.
Took me a while looking through “Blood Rites,” but I found Jim’s explanation. Sorcerers are people who have at least as much power as wizards but can only really do evocation, and specifically specialize in blowing stuff up. Wizards can do sorcery “if they have to”, but they can also do thaumaturgy and apply their magic in other creative ways. While a sorcerer can use fire magic to kill people and possibly roast a pig, a wizard can use fire magic to, say, light a candle, cauterize a wound, make a precision cut as if with a plasma cutter, etc.
All depending on their ability to control the magic. So, fundamentally, sorcerers represent magic applied without much control, while wizards are magic in control.
This class looks great.
Another magic based class, just want I want to see.
Are White Court Wizards going to be playable???
Or atleast Wizards with the sort of control they posses?
Council*** Made a mistake there. o.O
Pretty big one actually. Sorry for the Multi-posting,
just I don’t want to let that mistake go uncorrected.
@Jaden Pierce, we’re only up to the “S”-es. Wait for the “W”s!
@fred
can’t wait for the Ws…
@Wyrdrune
Agreed, although we’ll have to persevere.
Im looking forward to the whole RPG, looks great.
Yeah, though that explanation has a hard time riding shotgun to the assertion that Victor Sells was a sorcerer, since the stuff he was doing with potions and rituals certainly point in the thaumaturgic direction.
@fred
This implies an alphabetical order to the list, which everything after the first entry would be consistent with. Does that mean that SCION(as in Kincaid, and Glau) will not be an character type?
i don’t think we’ll see scions on the RPG until we find out more about them in the series itself.
Until then, we could use Changelings as a model – the more they embrace their Other and become more powerful, the more the become slaves to their Other’s nature.
@Cris
lol you mean Ordo Lebes lol yeah I loved that name
In “Grave Peril”, they have an even simpler definition of a sorcerer. “The guy we’re after is a sorcerer. It’s sort of like being a wizard, only he spends all of his energy doing things that are mostly destructive. He isn’t good at anything that doesn’t fuck someone up.” Hence why even though Victor Sells “Shadowman” used thaumaturgy and alchemy along with evocation but all of it was something that would harm. So you could have a sorcerer that only hurts but is good because he only harms bad people.
Maybe Harry’s true Nature is a fierce independence and a penchant to protect women even when they’re trying to kill him.
This is incorrect according to the books. In the book Blood Rites, Mavra is referred to (incorrectly) as a sorcerer by Harry at the IHOP, and Dresden and Kincaid explain to Murphy that a sorcerer is skilled at evocations, and can pull off thaumaturgy with the help of a book and some type of rite of power, but they aren’t as versatile as wizards because A) they aren’t as powerful, and B) they can’t utilize magics with finesse. It has nothing to do with being barred from the White Council or otherwise. Sorcerers can only be magical brutes, while wizards can do much more
@Carl, that’s the White Council’s biased perspective on sorcerers. Jim likes to write characters with imperfect knowledge and perspectives on the world; the definition of what a sorcerer is is one of those things, in the novels — we get a lot of different, sometimes contradictory, definitions of it over the course of the series.