Only Brotherhood characters are allowed to utilize the Art. (In the RPG, the sourcebooks introduce numerous exceptions to this rule, but I'm not going to be honoring those "exceptions" in this setting. For now, if you want to be a spellcaster, and you don't want to be some sort of Heretic or Apostate that will be in trouble as soon as the authorities find out, you will be in the Brotherhood.) With membership in the Brotherhood comes numerous restrictions, not the least of which being that you are not your own person anymore -- Any possessions you acquire during adventuring must be donated to the Brotherhood, and you are subject to the dictates of the Brotherhood as to your personal assignments.

Magical Abilities

By and large, the only way to develop magical abilities is to sign on with the Brotherhood. The abilities required to become an Inquisitor may be so expensive as to be prohibitive, but these powers are catalogued here anyway, for the sake of completeness, and so the GM can have a guideline for magic use by NPCs.

Mental Strength ("MST") (Special)

Mental Strength can be purchased by magic users and non-magic users alike, but is especially useful for the former. In the Mutant Chronicles RPG, there is a characteristic known as "MST", which represents one's ability to resist magic, as well as how well one does in things magical, provided one has the training. This ability replaces the "Spell Resistance" ability from the Sinai universe.

The "MST" rating listed on the table below is important to spell-users. First off, many magical effects test against the defender's current MST rating. The higher this is, the more resistant the person is to the effect. Second, the character can "use up" MST in order to cast spells. Each MST point spent adds a "Magnitude" of power to the spell, and may change the effects of the spell. Of course, the more MST one spends, the weaker one gets, and the more susceptible one is to hostile magic. If MST drops low enough, the caster will lose consciousness, and there are even more horrible things that can happen, if someone is not wearing a power stabilizer (a piece of equipment used by the Brotherhood). MST points are regained (up to the user's maximum) by getting a good night's sleep.

Level of Perfection (Special)

The Level of Perfection of a spellcaster is a measure of how accomplished a spellcaster is in any given Aspect of the Art. If you are playing a Mystic, you may use more than one Aspect of the Art, and you will need to purchase multiple Levels of Perfection, for each Aspect you desire proficiency in. Most other professions require that you focus on only a single Aspect of the Art throughout your entire life, and thus you may only buy this skill once.

Rather than following the normal points progression for costs of skills, one's Level of Perfection in a given Art is equal to the number of points spent on it. Level 5 costs 5 points. It should be noted that anyone other than a Mystic quite rarely gets higher than 5 Levels of Perfection in any Aspect of the Art.

The importance of a Level of Perfection is that, when you cast a spell, you can choose to throw additional MST points into the spell for greater effects. The number of points you throw into the spell is the Magnitude of the spell, and may affect how potent it is. You may not cast spells at a higher Magnitude than your Level of Perfection in that given Aspect.

The following is a chart that lists titles associated with Perfection Levels for Mystics. The title may be modified to substitute "Inquisitor" in place of "Mystic".

Spells (Trivial)

Each spell costs at least 1 point to learn. The exact spells available to the Brotherhood are detailed elsewhere. You cannot learn any spell unless you have at least 1 Level of Perfection within the Aspect of the Art that the spell belongs to. The level at which you buy a spell determines your base chance of success, as follows: