Challenging a G8 Sorcery

Burning Wheel Subsystem Advice and Guidance
1

So as of session 50?, the uber-mage in my game has made his way to a G8 Sorcery. He started at B5, and through clever applications of casting quickly, and the addition of facets, gamed his way to a B8. A few Aristeas later (at dramatically appropriate moments) and some miscellaneous Artha expenditures, and BAM! G8

Now, fortunately, I can still hit him the old-fashioned way: arrows, crossbows, fast guys who close to the inside, and hordes of mooks that he can’t destroy fast enough, and the classic “It’s illegal to cast that magic in the city.” That’s all good and well.

Eldritch Sink is an option that I will be pursuing soon, by way of an ancient guardians awakened by the gods to teach wayward sorcerers a lesson. Maybe something like a B’hema, with Eldritch Sink.

Up until now, I’ve been using a made-up trait that I’m calling Resistant to Magic. It’s like Resistant to Fire, except it applies to all Sorcery. So, black-shade magic doesn’t affect the creature. Gray-shade magic has its effect reduced by a margin equal to the creature’s Forte. White-shade magic is unaffected.

I think that’s a neat, somewhat mellowed version of Eldritch Sink. I’m not a huge fan of challenging by simple negation - I think it’d get old after a while.

So I’m looking for innovative ways that people have challenged very powerful sorcerers in their games - unique situations and stories of things that presented good obstacles.

Until he shade-shifts his Will, he won’t be able to just level things willy-nilly. Once he does, I think my capacity to reasonably challenge him will force the character into somewhat ridiculous situations that the rest of the party won’t be able to handle.

2

Have his friends and family become targets of his enemies.

His enemies also start provoking him, even better if such provocations are big red herrings.

Engineer situations where he starts being “the bad guy” when he comes magic a’blazin’ to save the day.

3

Anthony once used a mix of resistant and nonresistant creatures against us and it nearly killed us all. The resistant creatures attacked me in force and I needed help, but the sorcerer was busy blasting everything else AND he couldn’t just hurl a spell to save me. It was a very close fought situation.

4

Powerful enemy sorcerers are also a great option.

5

I’m thinking that rival sorcerers, or Faithful members of a sorcerer-hunting religion, would be the way to go. I introduced something like that once before - maybe it’s time to revisit that. Maybe his brother was brainwashed and is now hunting him down.

I like the idea of the mixed bag of challenges - orcs riding in on a swarm of resistant mounts or something.

6

He’s now his enemies’ big bad. They can’t just charge him, or they’ll fry. So they go off and retrieve the artifacts that will ward off hugely powerful sorceries, they undergo protective rituals, and they turn to politics, assassination, and other forms of non-frontal assault.

Let the guy keep blasting mooks, though; he’s earned his blasting. Just make the big conflicts the ones where enemies have done their homework and are credible threats. And make sure he’s aware of it. A sudden rash of resistant foes is GM cheating. A sudden rash of very careful enemies means his sorcerer is terrifying oppositiion who inspires quests.

7

Second the “target friends and family” idea. He’s basically a super hero, get him like the villain goes after Batman or Superman.

Also, fanatics who aren’t afraid of death? You can do a lot of damage if you aren’t scared of the G8 Sorcery. Also, poison.

Or someone with a G8 Faith? It’s hard to out magic an act of god.

–Victor

8

It’s my style to place powerful pcs in political situations in which brute force has limited utility. I love giving the pcs political power that they dont want and then confronting them with something that they do want and can only get by playing the game.

9

I like the poison idea, ones that target Will and Forte. Heck, a long lasting one that requires a quest to cure as well.