FASA Games, Inc.

Hi I had dismissed the Wizards Cloak spell as being useless (only protects you from detection spells and abilities for a few minutes). However I then reread it and now am not so sure. How do people play its effects? Does it just protect you from magical detection or does it also mask your physical presence making you invisible, silent, odour free etc?

(BTW I'll preface my useless comment with a campaign note that casters in our campaign must pay LP & SP to buy a spell and spend days searching for someone willing to teach them so you only get spells you really really want them and not just for versatility, I'm not paying 500LP for a spell that I might use one day to make magical detection harder, though if its invisibility, silence and odour eaters in one etc its incredible powerful)

"This spell creates a magical cloak that masks the target’s presence. The magician pantomimes placing a cloak over his shoulders and drawing the hood over his head, then touches the target and makes a Spellcasting Test against the target’s Spell Defense. If successful, a faintly shimmering cloak of mystical energy momentarily appears, then vanishes into the target’s body. The magician’s Effect Test determines the target’s SpellDefense against any spells or abilities intended to detect his presence or gain information about him."

Hey thanks for that, as I originally thought protects against detecting but not seeing, hearing, smelling etc.

I will have to revise the useless bit though if you can cast it on objects to make them not detectable still has some use but within our campaign not worth the LP & SP to me (I'd take karma connection as the free 4th circle spell every time over this)

IF you play with LP to buy spells, there'll eventually be a point where they' cost won't be noteworthy any more and it'll be wise to have the spell handy just in case. A lot of the lower-circle spells stay useful all throughout the game.
At about 4th Circle, maybe not yet. But you'll be getting into magic items sooner or later, and being able to sneak them past magical defenses or astral guardians...

True but remember on the old forum I conducted a little survey? 75% of people on the forums had never got a character to Circle 5 I think I recall so figure it may be quite sometime before 500LP, 400SP and a week to find someone to teach me the spell is going to be a throw away investment. Our group is still in the situation of having to leave town because we ran out of money and cant afford a bed to sleep in...

I figure bringing back dead party memebers (well at least the ones smart enough to not spend their last 5 karma) is going to be more useful in the immediately forseeable future

Remember you can always steal money, grimoires, etc... ;D

That only covers the cash cost.

if you steel or loot a grimoire with a spell you can grim grimoire war cast it but until you learn it yourself you couldn’t matrix cast (or raw cast if you would ever want to)

Hmmmm...
...then the theft needs to be a heroic act that also awards the LP to learn it! ;D
Like stealing a grimoire from a dragon's hoard. You may also be able to grab a few other things on the way out.
See, the dilemma quickly turns into a beneficial situation!