How does Phantasmal Arms work?

Question

I will provide a set-up situation and then ask how it works. I have a Chronicles of Darkness 1e character within the Mage: the Awakening source. He has Intelligence 4, Crafts 3, and Prime 4.

He casts the spell Phantasmal Arms as a rote, using the above attribute, skill, and arcana. This gives the spell a 11d10 dice pool. Though unlikely, assume every d10 rolled is a Success. With 11 Successes, I can place each Success into an Equipment bonus.

For Weapons, this is simple, as I place Successes into Equipment bonuses on a 1 for 1 basis, but what happens with the Potency of the spell? Do I need to then split the Successes between the Equipment bonus wanted in the weapon and the Potency I want the spell to have?

If so, then what about armor? Do I need to then split the Successes between Standard Armor and Firearms Armor, and then the Potency of the spell?

Answer 1

Penalties on the Dice Pool

On the base of your example (11 dice pool), since Phantasmal Weapons is an Instant spell, the standard Potency is 1. To increase it, you must take dice penalties based on the target Potency (page 118 of the M:tAw Rulebook), imposing a -2 penalty on your casting pool for each point of Potency you want to have for your spell.

Still using your example:
- to reach Potency 2, the dice pool will lower to 9 (-2 dice penalty);
- to reach Potency 3, the dice pool will lower to 7 (-4 dice penalty);
- and so on, adding a -2 dice penalty for every increasing point of Potency.

The resulting successes can be divided into Equipment bonuses, as stated by the spell.