Stigma

All mages have a Stigma statistic. Stigma represents how acceptable the mage is to others in society; as Stigma increases, the willingness of others to aid or even speak with the mage decreases. Arcane mutations and "vulgar" magic usage both increase Stigma.

Stigma is opposed by the statistic Tolerance, which is equal to Resilience + Will + Knowledge: Magic. If a mage is in the area of another individual, compare that individual's Tolerance to the mage's Stigma; if the mage's Stigma is higher, the mundane individual must make a successful Will check or be affected by Fear, or attempt to kill the mage on sight, as befitting the individual. Mages are immune to the Stigma of other mages, due to their shared familiarity with the nature of magic. Particularly horrific monsters may also possess Stigma, which mages are not immune to.

A sufficiently high Stigma (6 or greater) will also cause a -1 to all Speechcraft rolls in all situations regardless of Tolerance, and others will begin to distrust the mage solely on principle.

If an individual succeeds at their Will check versus Stigma, they do not need to make this check again for that mage, unless the mage's Stigma increases. A mage's traveling companions can, for story purposes, be considered immune to their ally's Stigma, but ignoring this rule should be taken into consideration for stories where the conflict between mages and non-mages is a key factor.

"Vulgar" use of magic, such as grandiose displays of power in public or maintaining an army of magical abominations, should drastically increase the mage's Stigma temporarily for anyone witnessing the event, but should not carry over into other interactions.

When dealing with groups of mages, rather than checking against their Stigma individually, the sum of their Stigma scores can be compared against Tolerance. For groups of non-mages, one can compare against Stigma with the average of their Tolerance rather than make each check separately.