Rotes
When an Awakened Mage uses their magic, they are taking their understanding of one or more of the ten nine spheres of magic and with their Will, guided by their Avatar, changing reality. Over the centuries, different Traditions have found ways to use specific spheres in order to create results that are both predictable and repeatable.
Although two different Traditions might come up with the same effect, creating a Rote that is mechanically identical, role play wise the rotes are quite different and unique.
Within Mage: Phoenix, there is no benefit to using a rote versus an ad hoc spell in which the spheres are thrown together on the fly and one hopes for the best. However, players do have an option to invest in their Art/Practice, and use experience points to personalize rotes that might be commonly used.
In Mage: Phoenix, Mages who invest time, energy, and experience into a rote may roll Arete + Highest Rote Sphere for spell casting, So someone who has learned a rote of Forces 3, Prime 2 with an Arete of 3 gets to roll 6 dice (Arete 3 + Forces 3 = 6) instead of just 3.
Purchase price of a rote is 1 XP per Sphere dot, and requires a Lit post of the Mage learning/developing the rote.
Rules for this have been adapted from the Enlightened Grimoire, available through the Storyteller’s Vault. Link has been provided for those interested.
Additionally, for the cost of highest sphere x 3, a Mage can further personalize the rote with one of the following specializations:
• Improved Casting: -1 difficulty to casting (May be purchased up to 3 times. Difficulty cannot drop below 3)
• Backlash Resistance: +1 difficulty on paradox backlashes
• Stabilized: Negate one permanent Paradox from the rote
• Penetration: +1 difficulty on target’s countermagick
• Reinforced: One botch die is considered a failure instead
• Strengthened: One automatic success
• Specialized: May reroll 10s
For example, Michelle Wu is becoming something of a world traveler. It's an idea I want to explore more in game. She uses Correspondence (a rote she nicknamed Blink) to travel around the world, usually alone but often with her girlfriend Amy. She wants to be free to roam the world and so invests time, energy, and research into perfecting the spell. She works closely with Nick Mathewson, who uses the spell the same way. Teleporting is a Correspondence 3 effect, so costs 3 experience points. Because the spell is almost always vulgar she wants to Stabilize the effect so that it generates 1 less point of paradox. If she can avoid witnesses there will be no paradox at all. This costs 9 XP. Total cost is 12 experience points.
Nick, on the other hand, has invested in a Correspondence 4 version of this spell, Herme’s Portal, which costs 4 XP. It allows him to Teleport other people as well as himself, whether sending Bryn (Jez's PC) to Washington State or taking Raven (his future wife) to Paris for dinner. Like Michelle, he Stabilizes the spell so that even though it's vulgar, he pays 1 less point in paradox. Because this is a Level 4 effect it costs 12 XP. He also adds Improved Casting, lowering the difficulty for the spell by 1. This costs 12 XP more, paying a total of 24 28 experience points for both the rote and the specializations.
Blink
Mage: Michelle Wu
Blink - Correspondence 3, Difficulty 7 - Vulgar - minus 1 paradox point
Teleport caster anywhere in the world. Required successes: varies
Hermes Portal
Mage: Nick Mathewson
Hermes Portal - Correspondence 4, Difficulty 7 - Vulgar - minus 1 Paradox
Teleport caster and/or others anywhere in the world. Required successes: varies
Note that even though Nick is using a Correspondence 4 Rote and Michelle a Correspondence 3, because Nick stabilized his rote with XP the difficulty is the same. But this lower difficulty for Nick only applies to Hermes Portal specifically, not all Correspondence spells or any other teleport spells.
Personalizing a Rote requires both time and resources on the part of the Mage: Library, a mentor/teacher, time, experimentation, etc. In addition to XP cost I’d like a short description of what a PC did to personalize the Rote. I don’t need a Lit Post or anything like that, an Out-of-Character description will be fine.