Welcome to Gaia! :: View User's Journal | Gaia Journals

Countering Magic - Beginner/Warrior's Guide.

So, some Magi/Priest/Knight is gunning for your royal behind, right? He's got spells of the big, splashy variety that'll smear you across the landscape fast then you can say "Protectorate's Bottom Line"? Can't seem to get anything past that Rock Armor s/he's wearing? Never fear, there's ways to break the magic they use against you. It's simple: Break the power source.

I don't mean break the caster (though that works just as well, obviously). Break or cancel there Focus or Faith. If you can get a Magi to lose focus on the spell in question or a Priest to doubt the spell, the spell will falter. Granted, this is harder then it sounds, but it is doable. Magi are easier to break. Pain, distraction, feints and other physical ways to startle and force them to lose focus work wonders. Pain is usually the best (we go right back to breaking the caster), but other ways are usually more subtle.

Priests are harder to stop, but it can still be done. Again, pain is a wonderful way to break (or prevent the build up of) someones Faith. But, another way is usually used. Like certain prey animals, make yourself look more terrifying in there eyes. Make yourself seem tougher, stronger, taller, something that will rattle there faith in the spell from affecting you. Knowledge of your own Flaws and Talents can help here. After all, if you can build a bigger fire [Talent: Immolation] then the average person, it's gonna be scarier then said average persons.

---

So you can't do that. Or your facing against a Knight. (how you would be in that situation, I don't know. They don't exist anymore) Well, there's one last trick to use short getting the hell out of Spira. Counterspells. Out of all the spells used, these are the most taught. Heck, the names of them are usually similar from generation to generation to boot. Child's Focus, Shiny Distraction [Focus], Heretic's Faith, Shunned by God [Faith], Failure of Symbolism, and Loss for Words [Runic] are the usual names for the spells. Look 'em up, they are usually simple to learn. Oddly, magic types do not have general counterspells against themselves. It's a curiosity that is little researched, as they usually can combat themselves pretty well without such generalized methods.

One word of advice: Be careful when using any method to defeat spells. Elemental and Dark spells sometimes have a nasty habit of "blowing up" when Focus or Faith is lost. Doubly so if the person casting the spell holds the Backfire or one of the restricted magic flaws (Wind's Discordance, Untouchable Flame, Immutable Earth, Frozen Water, Holy Ire, Necrotic Rot, Fickle Fate, or Unforeseen Fortune)