4.2.3 Concealment enchantments

Enchantment nature: Concealment

Magical skill used: Darkness, Earth, Illusion; Illusion magic is best.

Characteristic used: WP

Description: A concealment enchantment is one that makes the target of the enchantment harder for others to sense.

Power: The power of a concealment enchantment determines how well concealed the target becomes. Each point of Power of the concealment adds a +1 bonus to all affected Stealth dice rolls.

The minimum Power of a concealment enchantment is 1.

Finesse: The finesse of a concealment enchantment determines which types of dice rolls are affected by the enchantment, as follows:

Finesse Situations covered
0 Single sense. Either hiding (i.e. magic conceals a motionless character from sight) or moving quietly (i.e. magic conceals the sounds made by a moving character).
2 Stealth. Both hiding and moving quietly.
4 Invisibility. As 2, plus hiding dice rolls are allowed (at heavy penalty, typically -5) even if character is looked at directly while moving in the open (i.e. the magic may conceal his/her movements from sight), and moving quietly dice rolls are allowed (at a heavy penalty, typically -5) even if the character makes loud noises.
6 Neutral scent. As 4, plus hiding dice rolls are allowed to avoid detection by scent/smell (e.g. magic conceals character's scent).
8 Full invisibility. As 6, plus hiding dice rolls are allowed to avoid detection by touch (e.g. magic conceals the character even if he/she touches or strikes another person. There will be a penalty on the dice roll that depends on whether the touch is a gentle brush (say -5), a touch (say -7) or a full-bodied blow (say -10).
10 Full concealment. As 8, plus hiding dice rolls are allowed to avoid detection through electromagnetic pulses or sonar (e.g. magic conceals character from all senses, no matter what the character's behaviour is).

Concealment: It is a good idea for the caster of a concealment enchantment to allocate a significant amount of concealment to the enchantment itself. Otherwise, the obviousness of the enchantment can draw attention to the character that the enchantment is trying to conceal.

Limitations: The nature of the concealment is limited by the magical skill used. The referee should apply discretion, but the following list may help.

Skill Concealment limitations
Darkness Cloak of darkness. A cloak of shadows makes it harder to see the target while they remain motionless. Single sense hiding only (i.e. maximum Finesse is zero).
Earth Walk unseen. Character can become un-noticed as long as he/she does not touch an onlooker (i.e. maximum Finesse is 6).
Illusion Concealment. No restrictions.

Examples:

Alfredo has an Illusion magic skill of 4 (with no specialism in concealment), a WP score of +3 and a talent for Illusion magic. Hiding from a mob, having distracted them with an illusion, Alfredo wants to cast a concealment enchantment over himself so that he can quietly walk away without anyone noticing him. He, therefore, seeks to cast an Illusion enchantment with Power 6 (to give him +6 of Stealth dice rolls), Finesse 4 (covering him moving and making noises in front of observers), Range Self (i.e. 0), Concealment 3 (so that it is not obviously magical), Duration 1 Hour (i.e. 3), Area of effect Single target (i.e. 0), Investment 0 = Difficulty 15 in total. His basic value is 4 + 3 + 2 = 9. He decides to spend 1 minute preparing the enchantment and to use hand gestures and words when casting to give a modifier of +4, giving a basic value of 13. He risks 12 points to get a dice roll of 4D+1 and rolls a 4, 4, 3 and a 5, giving a dice roll result of 17. The enchantment succeeds. When Alfredo walks out into the street, he is able to make a hiding dice roll at a net bonus of +1 (made up of a penalty of -5 (for complete absence of cover) but compensating bonus of +6 (for the concealment enchantment)) to walk off without being noticed. Provided no-one in the crowd gets a better dice roll result with their spot hidden dice roll, he will be un-noticed. An onlooker might also sense the concealment enchantment itself by making a dice roll against PE + Illusion, Truth, Enhancement or Counter magic skill at a difficulty of 8 -based on the illusion's degree of concealment. In the event, none of the onlookers spot Alfredo slipping off.