Can someone explain what crystal magic is please?

[agwhohasnolife]

Hello

I was just wondering what crystal magic is and how it works, if someone could enlighten me.

Thanks

Andy

[drewkitty ~..~]

Are you talking about the Psi-Crystal magic from Island at the Edge of the world? or somewhere else?

[The Beast]

My guess is he's asking about the Psi-Crystal magic from Island at the Edge of the World.

[Goliath Strongarm]

Since that's the only thing I know of in FANTASY that could be described as "crystal magic", I'm pretty sure thats what he's talking about. There's some stuff in rifts, but we don't need to go into that...

Think magic items for psychics. Awesome and wonderful. But as far as the swords go, think more like rune weapons specifically for psychics.

[Johnathan]

A little bit more of an indepth explanation here:

Crystal Magic was something that existed during the Time of a Thousand Magicks in the Palladium World. It was all but wiped out during the Millenium of Purification. I believe the theory goes that it was an Elven magic (or I could just be using the Crystal Golem as a bias here...), and was created (as everyone as said) SOLELY for psychics. If you don't have object read as a psychic ability, most of the items of Crystal Magic are, at best, nice looking trinkets.

This particular form of magic can not be duplicated and has not had a functioning master of it for centuries, only users of already existing items that can not or will not be destroyed. The closest thing to it is The Crystal King (Found in Island at the Edge of the World), yet even HE can not create NEW Crystal Magic items and can only use the items that he currently has available to him.

In my opinion, these items had a LOT of potential to them that was basically killed by one thing. Whether your psychic has object read or not. Be they masters, major or minor psychics. You don't have object read, you can't use Crystal Magic. You do have object read, congratulations you've just acquired a potentially powerful ancient artifact.

[agwhohasnolife]

Hello

Yes, I was specifically talking about Island at the Edge of the World. Thank you for your descriptions, but I was still a little unsure where the "crystal" part came from. Are there magic crystals that go on the items (like Materia from Final Fantasy VII)? Does the magic come from the crystals/reside in the crystals? Or are the crystals just amplifiers?

Thanks

Andy

[t0m]

im pretty sure that the whole weapon/item is made from a special crystal. i think the general idea comes from the real world 'new age' or metaphysical belief that crystals are, or can be, attuned to psychic energy.

[agwhohasnolife]

Ah, so they are amplifiers, rather than storage devices. Thanks!

[The Dark Elf]

an example of a crystal device would be the swords.

they look just like the handle and hilt.

You object read and bond with it (there's no intelligence they are just objects) then you can activate it and the blade appears (with sounds of smashing glass). it does 5d6 dmage +2 per extra month.

every month for a further five months a new power presents itself which could be bonuses to combat or spells/psionics/abilities.
an example of power 6 is a psi-shield or an extra +3 vs psionics.

Further devices are crystal stars, rings, rods, a crystal goblet, golem, gateway, palace!, staff, armour. the staff has 12 powers (11 months bonding) including magic clouds.

By the book - it's awesome and crystal magic is awesome! It's also easily updated to second edition. A 5d6 sword doesnt even need to be altered (5d6 is plenty).

[FreelancerMar]

That book was designed for the First and revised editions of the PFRPG. My Take on the Crystal magic thing is that this is A version or type of Techno-Wizardry for the PFRPG. I also see no reason why a Techno wizard would not be able to duplicate these items. As others have said the First and revised editions of the PFRPG are very different than the 2nd enition which is written to be 100% compatable with Rifts. In the Older editions one could possess both Powerful Psionic abilities AND Magic Knowledge(Be a Wizard) at the same time. Of course that is a whole different can of worms.

[Johnathan]

So then, here's a question. IF Crystal Magic was designed for 1st edition PFRPG, and 2nd edition made things a little bit more compatible... Would they then be considered psionic versions of rune weapons? I.E. a character need only be psychic in order to use them and does not need to possess Object Read in order to Bond with them? Would the bonding period take the same amount of time?

The one problem I always had with Crystal Magic was that you HAD to have Object Read in order to do ANYTHING with the items.

[The Dark Elf]

they're not alike to rune weapons although with some of the larger ones the imprints (alignments an insanities) may rub off onto the new user once he bonds.

Rune weapons have actual personalities. Crystal weapons dont.

[FreelancerMar]

In no way shape or form, could Crystal Weapons even come close to being Rune Weapons. Rune Weapons are Sentient and Intelligent Artifacts able to communicate with their weilders and explain their abilities and how to use them to their owners. Many Rune weapons also tend to be much more powerfull than most crystal items. Also most powers that rune weapons possess are immediately available to their weilder/owner and one does not need to be psionic.

Crystal Items do not and cannot explain themselves which is one of the reasons it takes so long to figure them out. I Also see no reason why the science of crystal magic cannot be re-discovered by someone with the appropiate abilities.

But that is just my take on things.

[FreelancerMar]

After Doing some reading I believe I can now make an Informed Decision.

As I mentioned in a previous post, which I can now re-afirm that a TW from Rifts should have absolutely very little trouble with Duplicating or Creating and using most of these items and also be able to instruct others in the use of those that the TW created.

The same can be said of Practicioners of Stone Magic or Stone masters (Rifts Atlantis page 99), however I would give these folks a superior understanding and knowledge of how to create and use these items even if they do not have psionics. Thier abilities would superseed the need for psionics on top of the fact that they would be able to use ALL of the crystal items abilities from the moment that they picked it up. They would however still get the bonuses from taking the time to bond with the items in question. If a non-psionic, they would burn PPE insted of ISP to power these devises. Since PPE have x2 potentcy I would say that the items would also be at X2 strength as well.

Or Alternatively you could give them 1st edition Psionics levels 1-3 as a psudo Mindmage. This would not be a game breaker because the Stone Masters are not Sprll casters.