Akhôrahil

Since Dorastor: Land of Doom is placed (as far as the Risklands campaign goes) in (IIRC) 1617, it means that they stepped back from the CoT timeline (Hahlgrim's War takes place in 1623-25, so when the RQG timeline starts, it's just about to end), and the war is in the future (as was almost all the HeroWars stuff at that point). The upside to this is that if you start in 1617, PCs will be seriously experienced by the time Hahlgrim's War gets going. And it's much more extreme that you suggest - Cults of Terror was published back in 1981!

I don't believe that at all - he belonged to the Osteri clan of the Bilini and (presumably) had Ironbreaker as an heirloom. (It originally belonged to one of Hahlgrim's ancestors, so there's probably a story about how it ended up there.) I say very early 1625 (or the Sacred Time between 1624 and 25, or possibly very late 1624). It seems related to people gathering at the Hold for Sacred Time celebrations. The best way to time it is to note that the offensive against Ralzakark is renewed by Oddi in late Sea Season of what must be 1625. Speaking of queens, I'm a bit unclear on whether (the positively awesome!) Gudmund the Golden stayed in Biliniland after king Hakon was killed, or returned to her clan in Skanthiland.

While a Rune Spell is the standard format, I think it's completely legit to make up a special ability or something instead. They will only keep the ability as long as the spirit is being correctly worshiped anyway, so they can't just forget about that part. (Most PCs in my campaign recently picked up a +5 to CON for purposes of resisting cold.) ((A Spirit Cult doesn't even have to be Associated - you can join them without the regular cult restrictions. But it could be, if that makes sense.))

No, I agree. I would call them "rules" but not "the (currently applying) rules". 🙂 That's how I run it. As long as there are non-CA spirits with Sleep - which seems like a certainty to me, unless we want to say that no spirits can put anyone to sleep outside CA-spirits - shamans can obtain it, if possibly with more hassle. I had a CA spirit show up and browbeat the shaman into swearing to uphold CA restrictions when using Sleep, only teach it to other swearing the same, and taking responsibility for the spell-related actions of those he teaches it to (it's interesting how players seem a lot more nervous about a CA spirit asking nicely than they would towards most actual threats backed by violence...) and even decided to be very restrictive with teaching it in case a student later would misbehave and he'd take the blame from CA. So I can see how Sleep could be somewhat available but not widespread.

The best symmetry would be if one spell boosted sharp weapons and penalized blunt ones, and the other was the opposite!

I need a "Lokamayadon Was Right" t-shirt!

"She began as a dark troll" says the Guide.

What you define as "the rules" is exactly what I define as "not the rules". 🙂

What other rules applied when only the rulebook was out? 😉 The one that said repeatedly you could learn any spirit magic spell?

If it's passionate enough to do actual HP damage. Which might not be every kiss, at least? Once the enemy has been broken up and can no longer easily assist each other, or if your side merely outnumber them, or if they don't know the mechanics of Sleep (like animals), Sleep is devastating.

I think the Invocation idea is productive - Yavor doesn’t have a subcult, but he is who you call on when casting (or learning) Lightning, and so on. Although in this case, Lightning already almost has a subcult, depending on your interpretation of the Four Weapons.

It’s a lot stronger than Befuddle.

The player in question made the character while Sleep was still freely available. But yes, I had a CA spirit show up later that asked for that kind of commitment (and got it). That said, I have a hard time imagining that only CA cult spirits know Sleep. Surely there are various sleep-related spirits a shaman could seek out and beat up for the spell? In fact, we know that this is the case, I think, with one at least in a published adventure?

Shamans are viciously strong, but I'm thinking the Hero Soul mechanic that will arrive with the Hero rules will kinda balance this? Although it still means that you have to be a hero in order to resist POW vs. POW from a decent Shaman... Irresistible Sleep = stronk. (IMO, Sleep should have been a Rune spell. It's stronger than most of them anyway.)

Doesn't Mythras have a good solution for this, with optimal distance for various weapons, and maneuvering for it?

I would even say it's fairly likely it only has one out of Adventurous and Thunderous.

Is it planned for the Hero rules, then?

Virtually but not completely none; and no.

This makes sense to me - you can get it (we wouldn't want to deny that bear transformation, after all, and it's very underpowered anyway so it's not a balancing issue), but not trivially.

If it's their home temple, sure. But if they have trekked somewhere to find a subcult that doesn't exist at their own temple (many won't), then they need to either pass the test again or become familiar. I think the GM should be free and liberal to even enforce the latter, as it's more interesting, or to replace a simple skill roll-off with having to on a quest as the test.

BTW, I believe there's a standalone Mastakos cult coming in the Cults book? How does this one relate to Orlanth? Subservient cult, Subcult, or merely Associate? And does this differ by location the way Heler and Barntar does?

It's enough if they can attack it through spellcasting or (in the case of allied spirits in animate bodies) attack it using natural weapons that could damage a spirit (through whatever magic supports that, if they have access to it), though? The spirit has to be manifested to initiate spirit combat, after all. So an OA allied spirit could probably cast Lightning at the spirit (brutally effective when it works), if either it or the PC has that spell.

I don't think the rules actually support the outnumbered penalty in Spirit Combat, but I also think it makes sense as ruling that it applies.

Another question, then: Does subcult-Odayla receive the spell(s?) standalone-Odayla gets from its associated cults? If not, that's a major difference, since now you no longer receive Transform Self in subcult-Odayla (it's from an associated cult), and can't do the full bear transformation.

OK, new question: "A candidate for initiation not familiar to the temple hierarchy must pass a test equivalent to that of initiation" If you want to join OA or OT, this is surely the Orlanth initiation test, but with subcult-Odayla, is it the Odayla initiation test instead, then? If so, I like it a lot - that can be a real challenge for the average Orlanthi. (I don't like how subcult-Odayla being just better makes standalone-Odayla a sucker's choice because how dramatically inefficient it is in comparison, but I guess this can be handled by roleplay as well.)