Mage OOC Talk and Questions

[Vincent]

Unless she has this rote http://nwod.org/wiki/index.php/Organic_Shield it's gonna be Gnosis + Life - 2 (for 2 targets or - 4 for 4 targets)
It's a 3 dot spell for the purpose of Paradox

[Yumyumcrow]

Also -

Remember that Shielding spells do not stack. If a character has two Shielding spells active, only the one with the most Potency is counted as Armor.

Unless the spell effects are very different and target different things. Unseen Aegis (Matter) Unseen Shield (Forces) and something like Misperception (Mind) won't stack because they all protect against physical damage (the Mind spell, like its Death, Fate, and Time equivalents affect Dodging physical attacks, so the same thing).

Spells that protect against Magic (Prime) and spells that protect against the workings of particular Arcana (such as Mind's Mental Shield and Time's Shield of Chronos) could be layered because they focus on different things.

[Vincent]

Just a reminder about Incognito Presence. Unless you have a type of Mental shield up and win a contested Gnosis + Mind roll against spell potency on first seeing the mage, you can't register the presence of the caster as any different from a common Sleeper, part of the crowd. That's it, unless the caster of the spell has performed something attention grabbing. Each success also adds to the difficulty of noticing or remembering the mage. I'm pointing this out because I can realize the spell can be somewhat tricky to deal with.
In this case it's up to matrix to define whether talking with a officer on a crowded crime scene is attention grabbing or not.
As per Errata, a non cloaked incognito presence does even trump Unseen sense

[Yumyumcrow]

Orianna - Your two Targets will get +5 Dexterity for the scene. Aurora accounted for Targets in her spell factors, so the spell will affect the two target's she designates.
Woland - yep. I'll accept that spell. 1 success and Shodan will be able to start pulling the bars off the door. The nails will simply pop out

[Vincent]

Woland Shodan

You can perform a Concentration spell without maintaining active concentration by attaching to it a duration factor.
Take Invisibility for example, by taking a 8 dice penalty on the spell-casting pool you can keep it up for 10 turns at Forces 3.

[Orianna]

I have a question about Greater Shapechanging, the Wiki doesn't say, but does the mage retain their ability to cast magic while in a different form? It says they retain full control of their reason, but I just wanted to check.

[Yumyumcrow]

Yes.

With Great Shapechanging the mage keeps their faculties and with it, the ability to cast spells.

The 4-dot version carries with it the possibility of the mage (or anyone else) loosing themselves in the beast's instincts (its a Resolve+Composure roll dependent upon the circumstance).

The5-dot version keeps the "human" intellect intact.