A character with the True Faith Merit (described in Mage 20, Appendix II) can try to exorcise spirits even if she’s not a mage, or if she’s a mage who’s not normally strong enough to do such things. Essentially, the Merit acts as Spirit 4 if that character tries to drive out an enemy of her faith. For an unAwakened exorcist, every dot in True Faith acts as two points of Arete (exorcisms only); for a Faith-full mage, each dot adds two dice to her Willpower pool as she strives to defeat the entity.

A spirit that’s opposed to the character’s Faith must also overwhelm that Trait. For each dot in True Faith, the spirit needs two additional successes before the exorcist loses the fight. An exorcist with three dots in the Merit, for instance, would take six more successes to defeat than an opponent who had no Faith at all.

True Faith also adds its rating to an attempt to resist spirit possession. (Described in Fighting Back Against Possession, above.) Each dot in True Faith adds two dice to the character’s dice pool when rolling to resist possession.

Note that True Faith is not the same thing as the practice called Faith (Described in Mage 20, Chapter Ten, p. 577), and that an “enemy of the faith” is a spirit whose nature is anathema to the character’s beliefs. A Shinto priest, for instance, could try to drive out a malicious neko-mata but not a gentle zashiki warashi.

Knowing truth from falsehood provides a monumental lever when you’re trying to influence people. And so, skilled manipulators learn how to tell one from the other while also perfecting their own techniques of deception.

Characters who understand the subtleties of deception generally have the Subterfuge Talent whether or not they understand magick as well. As shown on the Social Occasions