Chapter III: Blue Magic

Note: If you have chosen to use Techs, skip this section.

Blue Magic is the art of learning and using the attacks used on you by your enemies. Practitioners of Blue Magic often wield exotic powers with very strange effects, far different than anything used by more traditional fighters and mages. A small list of sample Enemy Skills is provided below, as a demonstration of what Blue Magic is all about, but Masters should feel free to invent completely new and unusual powers.

Learning Enemy Skills

There are three different methods of learning Blue Magic. You must choose one, and only one, at character creation. A character can have a maximum number of Tech Levels equal to 5 + (MAG / 2). Learning an Enemy Skill is permanent - it cannot be unlearned. Unlike Techs, Enemy Skills may never be upgraded.

Memory
Characters who choose the Memory method learn their powers by experiencing them directly. A Memory character who is struck by a monster’s special ability automatically has the option of learning that power - assuming he survives the blow! In addition, a Memory character has a 20% chance to learn any power that he observes, but is not targeted with directly - for example, an attack on an ally, or a monster’s healing magic.

Lore
Characters who choose the Lore method learn their powers by study and observation, rather than placing themselves directly in harm’s way. As a normal action, a character with Lore can study a monster, and has a 50% chance to learn one of its special powersselected randomly or chosen by the Master. He may also choose to single out a particular power that he has already seen, with a 70% chance to learn that specific power.

Assimilate
Characters who choose the Assimilate method learn their powers by somehow assimilating or consuming the monster itself. An Assimilate character may eat the monster, drain its life force, or, in some cases, such as with cyborgs, attach some part of the monster to himself. To Assimilate a monster, the character makes a normal attack, dealing 1/5 of his normal damage. If the blow is enough to kill the monster, the assimilation is successful, and the character may select one of its special powers to learn. Only one power may be learned from an individual monster, but the character can Assimilate multiple monsters of the same species in order to learn several different powers.

Sample Enemy Skills

Some of the sample skills listed here are simply Power Attacks or Attack Magic, as explained in Chapter II: Tech Creation. Notation for these skills is given as #PX or #MX. The number indicates the level of the attack. Find this number on the appropriate chart in Chapter II to determine the amount of damage dealt. Following the number is a letter - a P indicates that the skill is a Power Attack; an M indicates that the skill is Attack Magic. Finally, there is another number that indicates the Power Level of the attack. A 1 indicates Weak, 2 indicates Medium, and 3 indicates Strong.

1,000 Needles
MP: 6
Deals exactly 100 points of damage to a single target.

Angel’s Breath
MP: 49
All allies are cured of all negative status effects.

Aqualung
MP: 19
A violent maelstrom deals 3M2 points of Water damage to all enemies.

Beta
MP: 29
An explosion of fire deals 4M3 points of Fire damage to all enemies.

Black Hole
MP: 23
Removes all status effects- positive and negative- from all combatants, and cancels any other effects such as Break Arts.

Goblin Punch
MP: 3
You assault a single enemy with your equipped weapon, dealing 1P2 damage. If the target is exactly the same experience level as you, the damage is doubled.

Hug
MP: 17
An unusual skill sometimes used by Medusa, Hug restores the target to full HP, but petrifies it as well.

Level 5 Death
MP: 26
ALL combatants whose experience level is a multiple of 5 are instantly killed.

Limit Glove
MP: 26
If your HP is below 10%, Limit Glove deals 8M3 points of physical, non-elemental damage to a single target. Otherwise, nothing happens.

Lucky Seven
MP: 6
Roll 1d10. If the result is a 7, a random enemy target takes 999 damage; otherwise, the target takes 1 damage.

Magic Hammer
MP: 4
Reduces the target’s current MP by 1 / 5, and restores the caster’s MP by the same amount.

Mighty Guard
MP: 49
All allies are placed under the effects of Barrier and MBarrier for 1d4+1 rounds.

Pumpkin Head
MP: 21
Deals damage to one enemy equal to your maximum HP minus your current HP.

Roulette
MP: 14
One randomly chosen combatant- friend, foe, or the caster himself- is instantly reduced to zero HP and eliminated.

Suicide
MP: 0
The aggressive Bombs and their Exploder attack have made this last-resort tactic infamous among adventurers. The user of Suicide sacrifices himself, dropping to zero HP, to deal an amount of damage to a single target equal to twice the amount of HP he had remaining.

Trine
MP: 12
Electrocutes a single enemy with three bolts of lightning, dealing 3M2 points of Lightning damage.

White Wind
MP: 21
Releases a soothing wind that blows around and through the area, restoring an amount of HP to all allies equal to your current HP.