Adept Ways

Adepts begin following a way by selecting it as a Quality which gives them the Innate Way, Focused Channeling, and Spark of Brilliance abilities. They also gain a minor benefit based on the specific Way they follow.

Innate Talent

The focus and dedication that come from traveling on a Way grant an adept the ability to routinely bolster their adept abilities in small ways.

Game Effect: Once per encounter, the adept gains +1 Dice Reroll on any test that is modified in any way by an adept power or metamagic techniques.

For every level of initiation this ability can be used one additional time per encounter.

Focused Channeling

Adepts focused on a Way may resist the hardships of using mana by relying on their way-specific training and mindset instead of the default fortitude attributes of basic adepts.

Game Effect: Once an adept way is chosen, the Adept is able to use their training to more readily resist Drain.

All Drain thresholds are reduced by 1, and this bonus is increased for every level of initiation.

Spark Of Brilliance

Followers of Ways may receive some other minor enhancement to their magical power, generally reflecting a greater trust in their magical ability that may prove inconsistent at times but truly impressive when innate knacks and experiences align properly.

Game Effect: These bonuses are specific and described below within each adept way.

The Artisan's Way

Most practitioners were once considered followers of the Artist's Way but with an affinity towards modern technological devices, they put themselves in a specialized niche as master technicians and fabricators. They boost their mundane bodies with magical abilities to design, build, and maintain technological devices.

What separates them from followers of the Artist's Way is that they chiefly focus on function over form with a focus that borders on obsessiveness to get every milligram of performance.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Biotech, Cracking, Electronics, Engineering, or Piloting.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

Artisans are also able to alter the standard Adept Centering metamagic ability to grant bonuses for vehicle and technical skills.

The Artist's Way

Followers of the Artist's Way are creators of wondrous things or are master showpeople. Their goal and purpose in life is to use their magic and share the beauty they perceive in the world around them. Some do it through a classical medium, such as painting or sculpture, and some tirelessly compose poetry, songs, or stories to capture and inspire the imagination.

Others stand before crowds, feel the ebb and flow of their emotions, and use their magic to play just the right note or sing just the right word for maximum effect.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Athletics, Con, or Influence in relation to the adept's chosen artform.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

An Artist's Way adept also can draw others into a mild trance, targeting a person or a group of people to do nothing else but experience the performance so long as they have line of sight and succeed an opposed Con + Charisma vs Willpower + Charisma test. If the test is successful the target(s) follow the adept as they perform for (Charisma x 10) minutes, and the trance can be interrupted by loud noises, a hard shove, or similar distractions.

The adept possesses finer control over skin pigmentation, including the formation of non-natural colors such as red, black, and blue. They can create a variety of tattoo-like markings anywhere on their body or change their skin tone to an unnatural hue.

Artists are also able to alter the standard Adept Centering metamagic to negate any negative modifiers during a performance test or for the creation of an artwork.

The Athlete's Way

The drive to be the best is what sets the athlete apart from others. Since the first Olympic games millennia ago, there have always been focused competitors who wish to be nothing more than the best in their chosen physical field. To an athlete, the challenge is what matters most.

Whether they are an MMA fighter going for a title match, a sprinter going for the gold medal, or a baseball player attempting to set a record, the Athlete uses their magic to enhance their athletic skill and push beyond the normal limitations all for the sake of going one more round, crossing one more kilometer, or gaining just one more second.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Athletics tests.

The adept may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

Athletes are also able to alter the standard Adept Centering metamagic and receive an effective initiate grade when using the technique when applied to any Athletics-based test.

[Prerequisite: Great Leap]: An Athlete's Way Adept also can briefly step on air as if they would on stone, adding an additional three meters of movement per Initiate grade when calculating jumping distance.

The Beast's Way

Some say that the person does not choose the mentor spirit but that the mentor spirit chooses the person. This is true for those who follow the Beast's Way. Like their shaman brethren, followers of this way have heard an answered the call of an animal spirit for they have been found worthy of that spirit's guidance, wisdom, and power.

For these adepts simply following this way is not enough because their patrons can be demanding or fickle. The adept must adhere to the strict code of conduct less they offend their patron and risk having their abilities taken from them. For most, this is not a problem.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Outdoors or Perception tests or they may choose to receive both the adept and the magician benefits of their mentor spirit.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

Because of their unique outlook, followers of the Beast's Way have an above-average rapport with nature and gain a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to all animal handling tests unless their mentor spirit is a predator to that spirit.

When dealing with the same animal as their mentor spirit, this bonus becomes a +4.

[Prerequisite: Cosmetic Control]: Adepts of this Way tap into their animalistic side and can grow sharp nails like some sort of beast. The damage value of their unarmed attacks increases by 1.

The Burnout's Way

Considered by many a corruption or aberration than an actual adept way, the Burnout's Way represents adepts that have lost or forsaken their magical abilities for technological augmentations. These adepts are often held in contempt or pitied by holier-than-thou magic users.

The reasons an adept may find themselves on this Way are myriad; some may have lost Magic due to an injury or Essence drain, others may not have had the discipline to develop their powers properly and sought out other means of power and even some have been driven to fear by their magical talent and seek to excise it like a cancer.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may use their Innate Talent ability one additional time per encounter for every full Essence point they are below 6.

[Prerequisite: Living Focus]: As the adept burns out, they normally become unable to use some foci because of their lowered Essence, but thanks to a Burnout's Hot Qi they can still use a qi focus, but they take unresisted Stun damage upon its creation.

The Invisible Way

Stealth. Silence. Secrecy. These are the objectives of the Invisible Way's followers. Favored by adept assassins, infiltrators, and spies, this Way allows adepts to perfect their ability to remain unseen or unnoticed when going about their work.

These adepts could be anywhere at any time and if they have truly perfected their craft no one will ever know what happened until after the adept is long gone. While this way is associated with criminal pursuits, not all those who follow the Invisible Way have this intent.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Stealth or Perception tests.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

[Prerequisite: Traceless Walk]: Adepts following the Invisible Way can learn to avoid leaving fingerprints on items they touch. This ability can also be used to avoid triggering alchemical preparations that use a contact trigger. The latter requires a successful opposed test between the adept's Magic rating and the current potency of the preparation.

The Warrior's Way

As the Athlete puts their body past its limits for glory, Warriors do the same for victory. The most prolific physical magicians in the Sixth World, Warriors are the ones most associated with the term "adept." From professional soldiers to street fighters and everything in between, Warriors come from countless backgrounds and fight for any number of reasons.

In combat the Warrior is truly in their element. Despite what many think, not all Warriors are bloodthirsty machines. In truth, some are lured by the bloodlust of a fight but Warriors also count among the most honorable metahumans in existence among their number. When a Warrior fights, they fight to win.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Close Combat, Firearms, or a specific Exotic Weapon skill.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

[Prerequisite: Missile Mastery]: The adept can loose a handful of readied, improvised throwing weapons with ease, giving them a +2 Dice Pool Modifier when you intend to use more than one improvised throwing weapon.
[Prerequisite: Counterstrike]: An adept of this way can use the attackers' strengths to maneuver their strikes against each other. After successfully blocking an attack with Counterstrike, he may choose instead to redirect that attack against a second nearby attacker. The second attacker must defend against the first attack and this only works against multiple opponents.

The Magician's Way

This Way is almost exclusively composed of mystic adepts and those who follow the Magician's Way strive to develop both their magician and adept abilities. Because of the tremendous amounts of effort required to fully develop both talents at the same time, most mystic adept often favor either their adept or magical powers depending on which path they have chosen.

Followers of this Way also tend to be more focused or obsessive than other mystic adepts when it comes to training and power development which is understandable when one considers the unique challenges they face as spellcasters.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Astral, Conjuring, Enchanting, or Sorcery or they may choose to receive both the Adept and Magician benefits of their mentor spirit.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

[Prerequisite: Nimble Fingers]: Magician's Way adepts also gain greater control in palming or pickpocketing objects and preventing others from noticing the act. This is the true sleight of hand that mundane magicians hope to attain. It imposes an additional -1 Dice Pool Modifier per level of Nimble Fingers to anyone observing or targeted by the adept.
[Prerequisite: Nerve Strike]: This adept has a better understanding of how magic flows in a person's vital energy. The adept can strike specific spots of energy concentration, causing disruption of this flow and temporarily reducing the target's Magic attribute.

The Speaker's Way

Sometimes the Speaker is the nice person you just had an easy conversation with who convinced you of something you normally wouldn't agree with or someone who talked you into doing something normally wouldn't do.

Other times they stand at the front of a crowd and their fiery, impassioned, or compelling speech moves the onlookers into direct action. And when it's all over, if they've done their job right, you'll have no idea you've been influenced by magic at all.

That's how Speakers operate: their weapon of choice is their voice, and their influencing magic is their ammunition. Of all the Ways, these adepts are the most subtle because of the way their influence melds into mundane society so easily.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers may swap in a wild die on any roll made for Con or Influence tests regarding persuasion, intimidation, and speechcraft.

The choice of one skill is permanent when this way is taken but you may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

Speakers also gain a +1 Dice Pool Modifier when using the Flexible Signature and Masking metamagical techniques.

[Prerequisite: Commanding Voice]: This adept can create a longer-lasting impression on subjects when using Commanding Voice. If the adept wins the opposed test, the target continues to carry out the action for one minute before they realize what they're doing. This is not usable in combat scenarios due to the verboseness required and the adept suffers Stun damage equal to the hits (not net hits) from the target's opposed test. This Stun damage is resisted by Body + willpower.

The Spiritual Way

Similar in many respects to the Beast's Way, followers of the Spiritual Way have been blessed - or cursed - with the patronage of a mentor spirit. Spiritual Way adepts seek to follow their path with the guidance of their mentor spirits.

Some mentor spirits are very demanding but the adept's rewards for diligence are significant.

Cost: 20 Karma

Game Effect: Followers of this Way may swap in a wild die on any rolls made for the Astral skill.

The adept may choose whether or not to include the wild die on any given test.

They also benefit from their more spiritual outlook and have an above-average rapport with spirits, which conveys a +1 Dice Pool Modifier to all Conjuring tests.

The adepts of this way also gain a +2 Dice Pool Modifier on social tests involving other magicians who follow their mentor spirit.