Celerity

Speed is Key!

• to ••••• Cost: 1 mana per turn
Dice Pool: Celerity is unlike many other spells in that it is not actively rolled. Rather, it provides a group of benefits, many of which affect other rolls. Celerity cannot be invoked more than once per turn. That is, you may not spend a second mana and double the benefits of Celerity in a given turn, though you may spend mana across multiple turns to enjoy the benefits over those turns. In turns when a character activates her Celerity, her dots in the spell are subtracted from any and all attacking characters’ dice pools, as the magic user moves much more quickly than normal and is harder to hit. This penalty to attackers’ pools applies in addition to any armor the Celerity using character may have, as well as to Defense (though note, like armor, Celerity’s benefits do not diminish based on how many attacks the character faces). Celerity’s protection even applies against ranged weapons. For example, if a character has Celerity 3 and activates the spell, three dice are subtracted from any assailants’ dice pools. Celerity also adds to a character’s Initiative during the turn in which it is active. The aforementioned character with Celerity 3 and Initiative 5 would have a basic Initiative modifier of 8 during turns in which his Celerity is active. Finally, Celerity acts as a modifier to a character’s Speed while it is active. His Speed increases by itself again for each dot of Celerity he possesses. (Simply add one to the value of the character’s Celerity and multiply that number by his Speed.) Characters running while Celerity is active double this figure, as well. Assuming the sample character with Celerity 3 has a Speed of 12, he has an effective Speed of 48 — [(1+3) x 12] — during turns in which he activates Celerity. If he runs while his Celerity is active, his Speed is 96 — almost 65 miles per hour!
Action: Reflexive. A character may “pre-empt” her own action in a turn to activate Celerity if an opponent acts before her and the magic user wishes to call upon Celerity before the rival’s action is performed. The magic user therefore gets Celerity’s protection bonus early in the turn. Celerity’s Initiative bonus is also added immediately in the turn, potentially moving the magic user’s action before her attacker’s in the Initiative roster. The magic user also gains the benefit of additional Speed for the turn. If one mana is spent to keep Celerity active into the next turn, all of these benefits carry over.