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Thought/Mind (Color = Blue, Associated Stat = Perception): The school of Thought deals with control over one's own thoughts and emotions, the reading and influencing of other’s thoughts and emotions, and a variety of other applications such as dream travel and Psychometry. Mages skilled in Thought can bring out hidden mental talents or create new ones at mastery levels. Masters of Thought can create new, complete ideas or completely rework existing ones in the minds of others. Given time, they can also completely rework memories or erase years of memory from a target mind. Masters of Thought can create a mind independent of a body, allowing them to make intelligent magical items or aid in the creation of sentient life forms.
In the realm of magic, where schools of mystic arts flourish and intertwine, there exists the enigmatic School of Thought. It is a place where the boundaries of the physical world blur, and the vast landscape of the mind becomes a canvas for powerful magic. The adepts of the School of Thought are sometimes known as Cognitive Sorcerers, and their mastery lies in the manipulation of thoughts, emotions, and ideas. Unlike their counterparts in other magical schools, these mages do not wield destructive forces or conjure tangible illusions. Instead, they navigate the intricate tapestry of the mind, where the threads of consciousness weave the very fabric of reality. Students are taught the delicate art of reading minds. They learn to discern the unspoken thoughts and hidden desires that dwell within the recesses of the human psyche. The adept can pluck thoughts like ripe fruit from a tree, deciphering the most guarded secrets with a mere glance.
Masters of the School of Thought can also influence, augment, project, redirect, and even block mental thoughts and emotions. With a subtle gesture or a whispered incantation, they can flood an area with any emotion they desire. Joy, sorrow, fear – all become tools in the hands of these cerebral manipulators, shaping the reality of those around them.
One of the most remarkable abilities of the Cognitive Sorcerers is the disconnection of the flow of thoughts from the body. They can create an eerie separation, rendering a person a mere observer to their own inner workings. This detachment allows the mage to take control of another's mind and, by association, their body. As puppet masters of the mind, they dance through the world, orchestrating actions with mere thought.
The magic of the School of Thought is non-physical, and as such, it doesn't cause harm to the body. However, it possesses a subtle potency. The sorcerers can mesmerize stunning creatures with the sheer force of their mental influence. They can hold beings in place, frozen by the weight of their own thoughts. Intricately skilled in the art of mental warfare, Cognitive Sorcerers can pierce the minds of others like a surgeon's scalpel, exposing vulnerabilities and exploiting psychological flaws. They can erect mental shields to block intrusion, creating impenetrable fortresses in the mindscape.
The ethics of the School of Thought are often debated, for its practitioners can ferret out secrets with ease, choosing to wield their knowledge benevolently or exploit it for personal gain. They have the power to implant ideas and suggestions, subtly molding the thoughts of others to suit their own agenda.
In the grand tapestry of magical disciplines, the School of Thought stands as a testament to the boundless complexity of the human mind. Its practitioners navigate the intricate dance of consciousness, leaving an indelible mark on the perceptions and emotions of all those who fall under their enchanting influence.
Rank-1
Rank-1
First Rank - The mage has become attuned to the thoughts around him. With a look, a mage can get a gut feeling or empathic hunch about a subject’s mood or can tell if an object has a powerful emotional Resonance attached to it. The Mage can’t read the specifics of these emotions yet, just good vibes and bad vibes. Nevertheless, he can pick out the knife used for a bloody murder among a row of identical knives. Furthermore, the mage has learned to categorize his own thoughts, accelerating his mental capacity and defending his thoughts from sensing and mental intrusion.
Examples of 1st Rank:
Detect Possession - determine if a creature/individual is possessed or mentally controlled
Calm Self - repress internal emotions and focus on a task at hand (gain a +1 to concentration-based skill checks).
Detect Dream Portal - Detect portals that link reality to the dream realm
Lightning Calculator - unlock personal calculating abilities (+1 to any skill checks that heavily rely on calculations in half the normal time).
Rank-2
Rank-2
Second Rank - The mage can now erect mental shields that protect his mind, making it harder for others to read his thoughts and emotions or make possession or mind control more difficult. The mage can now begin to have some control over his dreams. He can remember his own dreams with clarity when he awakens.
Examples of 2nd Rank:
Simple Personal Mental Shield - a magical barrier that protects the mage's mind (+2 difficulty to read/influence the shield mind).
Dream Memory - allows the mage to recall his own dreams with clarity
Detect Dream Creatures - identify creatures that are spawned from the dream realm
Resist Fear - allows the mage to suppress fear (+2 to resist fear-based attacks)
Rank-3
Rank-3
Third Rank - The mage still cannot invade the thoughts of others, but just reading what thoughts are on the surface is useful enough. The mage can get brief glimpses of memories associated with objects and get a brief insight into the emotions of others – still unable to get specific, complete thoughts, but able to get an insight into what they’re thinking. A mage can also send forceful emotional impressions to another’s thoughts – making a person happy, sad, hungry, or tired. By making a mental ‘scream,’ the mage can also cause stun damage to a target. As of yet, the mage cannot read detailed thoughts, nor can he create those thoughts in the minds of others. At this rank, the Mage cannot override his subject’s will. He can make someone feel a wave of hunger, anger, or depression, but that doesn’t mean they’ll stop doing what they’re doing. They still have full conscious control of themselves.
Examples of 3rd Rank:
ESP - read surface thoughts/emotions in a subject (language required)
Urge - implant a primal urge in a subject (happiness, hunger, thirst, urination, etc.)
Detect Dreams - get shadowy glimpses of a dream from a person who is actively dreaming
Identify Resonance - thought possess a unique resonance often specific to an individual - a mage can identify such resonances and perhaps the person/creature to which they originate.
Rank-4
Rank-4
Fourth Rank - The mage’s powerful thoughts can now directly link to the thoughts of others, engaging in one-way telepathic communication, experiencing the senses of others, controlling dreams to a limited extent, and finding the true meanings behind concepts, symbols, and ideas. He can read ideas directly from the thoughts of others and transmit his own, creating illusions, false thoughts, and psychic assaults. With time, the Mage can also dig down into his subject’s subconscious and memories. With the use of additional schools such as Power/forces, those who hear him can understand. With the addition of Earth, a mage can translate written material. The Mage has also gained control over his thoughts as he sleeps – allowing him to leave his dream and enter other dreams to observe firsthand.
Examples of 4th Rank:
Mental Attack - can be used to stun other minds
Project Thoughts - one way telepathy, it allows the mage to send thoughts into the minds of others. Language is still required for understanding.
Psychic Illusions - manipulate the senses of a target to create perceptual illusions directly in the mind of a target
Read Memories - read recent memories, given time, read distant and remote memories of a subject
Create Psychic Shield - Powerful mental shields that protect versus mental intrusion, manipulation, or attack. (Provides +1 points of Psionic Damage Reduction (PsiDR)).
Make Suggestion – Compel a subject to accomplish a given suggestion, and resistance rolls apply.
Rank-5
Rank-5
Fifth Rank - A Mage can also bypass language with telepathy – making himself intuitively understood. He can transmit and receive complete thoughts, emotions, visual images, sounds, and tactile impressions. With the addition of Dimension & Distance, school telepathy can be projected beyond normal visual range to remote locations. The mage can now erase, alter, or create memories in the minds of others. Short-term memory is easy to manipulate, while long-term memory and remote memory will require more time. Finally, the mage can now enhance his own mind, boosting his mental stats (intelligence, wisdom, and, to a limited extent, perception).
Examples of 5th Rank:
Telepathy - fully functional telepathy
Alter Memories - remove, change, or create memories within the minds of others
Boost Mental Stats - temporarily boost mental stats
Rank-6
Rank-6
Sixth Rank - The mage’s consciousness is no longer limited by his body. He can send his consciousness out, potentially to any distance, with the aid of Dimension and Distance. Furthermore, he can invade the thoughts of others, dragging out secrets, possessing their body or thrashing their psyche into an unconscious state. He can alter memories, erase experiences, or implant suggestions. Unless the victim also uses thought magic, their only defense is their mental resistance. The mage can now take brief trips into the dream realm.
Examples of 6th Rank:
Dream Travel - the mage can now enter the Dream Realm
Mind Control - by overpowering the minds of others, the mage can now use mind control
Program Others - by implanting thoughts/impulses, the mage can place hidden mental triggers in the minds of other which can be activated by various stimuli.
Deny Knowledge – suppress knowledge, skills, talents, or enhancements in a host (effectively blocking use).
Rank-7
Rank-7
Seventh Rank - The Master of Thought can do anything with thought. He can create emotions and impulses independent of intelligence. With control over a target’s subconscious, the Mage can rewrite their personality entirely. The mage can also separate her own thoughts from her body entirely – moving into someone else’s body or spending long periods in the Astral realm as disembodied thought (no astral cord). The Mage can create Thoughts for people or objects, create intelligent weapons or rocks, and destroy the thoughts of others. With the use of other schools of magic, the mage can deposit a living creature’s thought into objects (Earth), magical items (Primal Essence), or animals (life).
Examples of 7th Rank:
Create Minds - create a self-sustaining intelligence
Possession - invade and possess the bodies of others
Create Emotional Zones - create an area of free-floating emotion
Transfer Mind - move minds into other creatures, objects, or places
Destroy Mind – snuff out an intelligent mind permanently.
Special Rules, Mental Damage, Magic vs Psionics
Special Rules, Mental Damage, Magic vs Psionics
Special Rule of Thought: Damage caused by the school of Thought is Stun only but bypasses physical barriers, such as armor, shields, and many magical barriers. With the conjunction of the Life school, psychic damage can result in actual brain damage (physical damage).
Curing Physical Mental Damage: Both thought & Life magic are required to cure physical damage to the brain. Curing physical damage with only Life magic is possible, but such cures often do not restore memories or cognitive ability.
Thought School vs. Psionics: Although one can detect the other, magic and psionics work on different 'wavelengths.' As a general rule, personal defenses work versus both magic and psionics. Obtaining more information will require the application of non-weapon skills (psicraft or spellcraft).
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