There are four schools of magic in Qin<br/><br/><strong>External Alchemy</strong><br/>Just what it sounds, brew potions, make poisons, etc.  The ultimate goal of Taoist alchemy is the elixir or immortality, bunch of recipes exist already but somehow they all fail to provide immortality.  The good news is that along the way alchemists learned how to make a lot of other useful things.<br/><br/>Requirements<br/>Character must posses skills of Taoism and External Alchemy naturally but also he/she must be at least Apprentice in Calligraphy and Herbalism.<br/>Making potions takes time so you can’t whip one out in the mist of combat, you will have to prepare those before hand for the later use.  Finally making potions requires alchemist to spend Chi and there is a chance the process will fail… and you end up spending chi and time for nothing.<br/><br/>Potions<br/>You can make liquids and powders (for simplicity I will refer to both as potions), you carry the results in terracotta jars, bamboo tubes, small leather or fabric bags, etc.  The potions have different actions, some has to be consumed, some breathed, some act on a contact with a skin.<br/>Offensive potions can be thrown at the enemy.  The rules don’t seem to cover splashing liquid or blowing powder toward the opponent but you can if you wish, I’ll find a way to accommodate such actions.<br/>It is generally not a good idea to block or parry the potion thrown at you, a jar smashing on you blade is generally just as bad as if it hits you.<br/>Note about preparation time… I do not intend to strictly follow time requirements, I’ll just use it a rough guide to see how often and with how many potions can alchemist replenish his inventory.<br/>One last thing, even if you don’t plan to be alchemist, look through the potions, perhaps you would like to purchase some from NPC alchemists.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Internal Alchemy</strong><br/><br/>Nei Dan, which is another name for internal alchemy, is similar to the external alchemy is principle and in goal.  Just like the external alchemy, internal one attempts to achieve personal immortality and it tries to do that by creating substances and compounds with special properties.  The difference is that internal alchemist is using his own body as a lab, elements within it as materials and meditation and special exercises as a brewing process.<br/><br/>Such control over energies and elements of one’s own body allows a  practitioner to achieve all kind of amazing affects from increasing power of his/her attacks, to generating fire shield and more.<br/><br/>Also while not require it is recommended for the practitioners to follow strict diet.  What you can produce within your body relies on the material present inside; if you want results you shouldn’t stuff yourself with junk.   Some deny themselves meat, others grain, others alcohol… some all of the above… but then again some believe that the richer and bigger your body’s “chemical storage closet” is the better. :)<br/><br/>Requirements<br/>The character needs the skills of Taoism and Internal Alchemy, as well as at least Apprentice in Meditation and Medicine.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Divination</strong><br/>Divination obviously deals with predicting the future, but there is also a religious and spiritual aspects as the school also deals with communing with divine and spiritual worlds.  Finally the art of Feng Shui is also part of this School.<br/>In many ways divination is a priestly/clerical magic rather then sorcery/wizardry.<br/>Keep in mind generally speaking this school doesn’t allow you to effect your environment, rather it allows you to read the signs to gain knowledge of that environment.  In combat divination is pretty much useless… out of the combat though knowledge can be power.<br/>Also keep in mind Taoism is not a fatalistic philosophy, nothing is certain, the fate of a man can be changed; any prediction of doom can be averted.  Mostly you will not even get a precise answers, just probabilities.  But even if you horoscope says “today you are going to die” know that there are always ways to prevent that from coming true.<br/><br/>Requirements<br/>Naturally you need skills of Taoism and Divination.  You also need at least apprentice in Theology, and apprentice in Calligraphy for the spells that require reading the symbols, and apprentice in Architecture for geomancy/feng shui.<br/><br/><br/><strong>Exorcism</strong><br/>This school is focusing on battling malevolent ghosts, undead, demons and other supernatural threats to the world of living.<br/>Exorcists tend to travel around, since such threats tend to be unwilling to oblige by come to exorcists.<br/>Also school requires some essential equipment to perform the techniques and rights correctly.  Things like a wooden sword, a mirror, a bell, ritual masks and so on<br/><br/>Requirements<br/>You will need skills of Taoism and Exorcism, and at least apprentice skill if Calligraphy, Theology and Legends. Actually number of spell does not require calligraphy so that one is optional.<br/><br/>If anyone is interested in learning any of these, I will go through specific stuff with them.