What are sympathetic ocomponents?

Sympathetic components are objects, reagents, and materials that help connect the sorcerer to the spell that they’re casting; they should form a link between the caster and the effect, the effect and the effect’s target, or between all three; the link can be physical, metaphorical, or symbolic. They work through one of two magical laws:

  • The Law of Similarity
  • The Law of Contagion
The Law of Similarity
“Like makes like.” Components that resemble a spell effect can help produce that effect.
The Law of Contagion
Components that have been in physical contact with a target continue to provide a link to that target, even at a distance, after that physical contact has been broken.

Tokens

Tokens are sympathetic components that consist, in whole or in part, of a physical element of a subject. An example is a lock of hair from a person, a bear’s hide, or the wing of a bat.

Using sympathetic components

There are two ways for a sorcerer to use components:

  • Increase their dice pool
  • Decrease their strain
Increasing the dice pool
The component adds one die to the dice pool; a particularly strong component may add more dice, at the discretion of the referee.
Decreasing the strain cost
The component reduces the strain from casting by one; a particularly strong component may reduce more strain, at the discretion of the referee.

Sacrificing components

The effect of a component can be doubled if the sorcerer chooses to destroy it as part of the casting; this choice must be made before any dice are rolled in the challenge.