starting divine magic

[p_clapham]

How many divine magic spells does a initiate start off knowing? I'm not seeing the rules for that in the MRQ2 book.

[Warlock]

While I play Legend, it should be similar. In the Guilds, Factions and Cults section on page 213, it mentions the following under Divine Magic:

 

"The number of Divine Spells a cult offers depends on the cult’s size and standing. However most cults will offer around four or five Divine Spells to Pious Members or above." 

 

I hope that helps?

[deleriad]

How many divine magic spells does a initiate start off knowing? I'm not seeing the rules for that in the MRQ2 book.

 

I believe it's setting specific; i.e. it's up to you. Different cults will have different ideas about when an initiate is allowed to gain spells and so on. Bear in mind that many cults may require initiates to always learn certain spells first or may require various actions before certain (or any) spells can be learned. If you're not playing with a fleshed-out setting then 1-3 spells is probably a reasonable number for a fairly generic starting character. 

[TRose]

I agree its up to a Cult to decide which spells an initiate can learn. An agricultural deity will not have trouble with people learning bless Crops for example, But a Cult might want to get to know you better before they let you learn spells like Sunspear and Sever Spirit.

[Prime Evil]

My homebrew variant of Legend replaces the text about starting Divine Magic for Priests on p35 of the Legend rulebook with the following:
 

 
Priests gain Divine spells appropriate to their cult as defined in the Divine Magic chapter. The number of Divine Spells a cult offers depends upon the size and prestige of the cult. A minor local cult will only offer 1-2 Divine Spells, a medium-sized cult will offer 3-4 Divine Spells, and a major cult will offer 4-5 Divine Spells. However, the number of Divine Spells taught to an Adventurer cannot exceed the amount of POW dedicated to the deity. Thus a character who dedicated two points of POW to a deity cannot learn more than two Divine Spells - even if the deity's cult teaches more than this. In most campaigns, it is recommended that new adventurers should not start play with more than four Divine Spells. To complicate matters, most cults restrict potent spells to senior members of the religious hierarchy. The GM is encouraged to assign a minimum Faction Rank to Divine Spells taught by each cult in the campaign and restrict the choice available to new adventurers on this basis. Many Divine Spells already specify a minimum cult rank the spell is available to, but the GM should feel free to adjust this for individual cults based upon the needs of the campaign setting. As a general rule, the larger a cult is, the more restrictive it should be when it comes to teaching Divine Spells. A minor cult offers fewer Divine Spells to members, but is more relaxed about sharing its inner secrets than a prestigious cult with dozens of temples and a formal internal hierarchy.

The whole section on starting magic in the Legend rulebook is a bit vague. RQ 6 is a bit better in this area, but still not perfect. On p259 of the RQ rulebook, the rules for starting Theists specify:

 

 

If you are playing Legend and using the Piety skill from Arcania of Legend: Blood Magic rather than the core rules for Divine Magic, this might be a viable approach. I get the feeling that Pete's rules for Divine Magic in Blood Magic mark a stepping stone between the approach pioneered in MRQII and the way that the Devotion skill works for theism in RQ6.

[Marrethiel]

I give players one spell per 20% round up (ie 21 skill gives two spells) in their relevant magic skill (Devotion, Folk Magic etc) and let them buy more with exp.

It's not a rules thing but I feel it is nice to have a set rule.

[Nevun]

From RQ6 - pg 259 "

Edited October 23, 2015 by Nevun
Premature submit.

[Nevun]

Try again. Wouldn't save my edits.

From RQ6. Pg 259 "Starting Theists"

Theist characters start with knowing those miracles available to someone of their cult rank, but not exceeding a number equal to one twentieth of their Devotion skill.