Psychic sight So in the movie there are a lot of supernatural beings living day to day alongside humans, and are indistinguishable from them in appearance. John, however, is able to see physical characteristics that show them as being non-human. What these characteristics are depend on the being - demons have weird shiny eyes, angels have wings, there's a very scary old lady on a bus we see in a flashback to his childhood who goes full wraithy ghost face at him. This isn't shown as being constant - the wings aren't there the entire scene he's talking to Gabriel - but he definitely doesn't have choice or control about it (or he would've had a much happier childhood). In RP where this applies to other characters I usually let the other player decide if and what, but if I were to say stick my own ex-character, Richie Gecko down in front of him, he'd probably see snake eyes or scales. Things like that.
It also seems to cover a more traditional idea of ESP in that he's able to describe the image on a card face down in order to get into Papa Midnite's club. They're more weird Beatrix Potter type cards than Zener Cards, but same principle.
Magic This is kind of hard to answer definitively, sorry. John's world is one where all the rituals, ceremonies, incantations, relics, spells, symbols or superstitions you could come across all have a chance of being 100% legit. Silver against werewolves, iron against fairies, salt for protection. Water is a universal conduit, used for astral projection, while holy water burns demons and is used to return himself from astral projection to Hell. The exorcism prayer works on possessed people, but so does trapping the possessing demon in their own reflection and then smashing the mirror into pieces. A Celtic amulet deadens a priest's psychic abilities, but could also protect someone from outside influence from a supernatural creature.
In this landscape, John is essentially analogous to a chef. He knows a whole bunch of recipes, a whole bunch of ingredients, and he knows how to apply both. Some recipes are like baking bread, and need to be followed exactly in order to not unleash something horrible, while others can have parts substituted, or fancied up - the difference between making scrambled eggs with milk, or making it with crème fraiche. He can also make something pretty mean out of last night's leftovers, or just throw some instant noodles in the microwave.
There is very much an air of macguyvering stuff. Taking what he has on hand and putting the pieces together to be effective. However, all of these things are from his version of Earth, not Thedas. So, to me, I'd probably assume that some things are multi-universal - water as a conduit, for instance. But, I would assume the exorcism prayer probably isn't going to work on Thedas demons, because they're not from that theology. On the same track, holy water won't be useful, and the spear of destiny would probably just be a rusty bit of metal. But it then becomes a question of whether he can find and use substitutes, or amalgam stuff from his world into Thedas stuff. Going back to the chef analogy, if Thedas doesn't have chicken, can he use [insert fantasy bird] instead? Can he learn Thedas native recipes? Can he learn to put Thedas native ingredients that he's never dealt with before into old recipes?
None of his magic has a real power source aside from the theology it comes from - and even then, you have things like the electric chair from a prison becoming a significant object because of how many people have died in it. And as for things being draining or him having limits, absolutely, though it's more about how much physical exertion is involved. Holding down a possessed person while reciting the exorcism prayer with no breaks is tiring. So is running through Hell. He's literally beaten at the end of the movie, has absolutely 0 options left, and it's only luck and desperation that sees him manage to save the day.
Whats in its pockets For the amulets and stuff I was mostly thinking of some symbol key things he uses to identify what demon is possessing a little girl, and maybe some random things like a couple of silver coins, a piece of bone from a hanged man, maybe some paper charms. Whether they actually do anything depends pretty much the same as the above.
Re: QUESTIONS
So in the movie there are a lot of supernatural beings living day to day alongside humans, and are indistinguishable from them in appearance. John, however, is able to see physical characteristics that show them as being non-human. What these characteristics are depend on the being - demons have weird shiny eyes, angels have wings, there's a very scary old lady on a bus we see in a flashback to his childhood who goes full wraithy ghost face at him. This isn't shown as being constant - the wings aren't there the entire scene he's talking to Gabriel - but he definitely doesn't have choice or control about it (or he would've had a much happier childhood). In RP where this applies to other characters I usually let the other player decide if and what, but if I were to say stick my own ex-character, Richie Gecko down in front of him, he'd probably see snake eyes or scales. Things like that.
It also seems to cover a more traditional idea of ESP in that he's able to describe the image on a card face down in order to get into Papa Midnite's club. They're more weird Beatrix Potter type cards than Zener Cards, but same principle.
Magic
This is kind of hard to answer definitively, sorry. John's world is one where all the rituals, ceremonies, incantations, relics, spells, symbols or superstitions you could come across all have a chance of being 100% legit. Silver against werewolves, iron against fairies, salt for protection. Water is a universal conduit, used for astral projection, while holy water burns demons and is used to return himself from astral projection to Hell. The exorcism prayer works on possessed people, but so does trapping the possessing demon in their own reflection and then smashing the mirror into pieces. A Celtic amulet deadens a priest's psychic abilities, but could also protect someone from outside influence from a supernatural creature.
In this landscape, John is essentially analogous to a chef. He knows a whole bunch of recipes, a whole bunch of ingredients, and he knows how to apply both. Some recipes are like baking bread, and need to be followed exactly in order to not unleash something horrible, while others can have parts substituted, or fancied up - the difference between making scrambled eggs with milk, or making it with crème fraiche. He can also make something pretty mean out of last night's leftovers, or just throw some instant noodles in the microwave.
There is very much an air of macguyvering stuff. Taking what he has on hand and putting the pieces together to be effective. However, all of these things are from his version of Earth, not Thedas. So, to me, I'd probably assume that some things are multi-universal - water as a conduit, for instance. But, I would assume the exorcism prayer probably isn't going to work on Thedas demons, because they're not from that theology. On the same track, holy water won't be useful, and the spear of destiny would probably just be a rusty bit of metal. But it then becomes a question of whether he can find and use substitutes, or amalgam stuff from his world into Thedas stuff. Going back to the chef analogy, if Thedas doesn't have chicken, can he use [insert fantasy bird] instead? Can he learn Thedas native recipes? Can he learn to put Thedas native ingredients that he's never dealt with before into old recipes?
None of his magic has a real power source aside from the theology it comes from - and even then, you have things like the electric chair from a prison becoming a significant object because of how many people have died in it. And as for things being draining or him having limits, absolutely, though it's more about how much physical exertion is involved. Holding down a possessed person while reciting the exorcism prayer with no breaks is tiring. So is running through Hell. He's literally beaten at the end of the movie, has absolutely 0 options left, and it's only luck and desperation that sees him manage to save the day.
Whats in its pockets
For the amulets and stuff I was mostly thinking of some symbol key things he uses to identify what demon is possessing a little girl, and maybe some random things like a couple of silver coins, a piece of bone from a hanged man, maybe some paper charms. Whether they actually do anything depends pretty much the same as the above.