Akhôrahil

I kinda like the idea that the dragons want something done about the red moon and the gods, but since they're not supposed to get involved in worldly matters, they merely pull Argrath's strings instead. Win-win (but everyone else loses).

I do think it’s a bit dubious that the EWF were thousands of people doing stuff over hundreds of years and still ultimately failing, but then Argrath comes along and gets everything right on his first try and is better at it than the EWF ever were.

Since I used the previous experience rules, some of the PCs have pretty gross Rune Point amounts without being Rune Levels (starting at 9 is a lot, and I would have cut it down had I realized the implications). The more Rune Points PCs have, especially without being Rune Levels, the more difficult it is to actually manage a full seasonal regain. Especially when some use Rune Points for downtime actions, like Bless Crops. Emptying the tank is pretty different when you have 9 Rune Points compared to 3...

Kralorelan Celestial Bureaucracy ought to be awesome!

Question thread 2.

I think it's very hard to read the Net ritual as anything except removing the competition. Interestingly, it's also hard not to see the dragons as the ultimate winners of the HeroWars. Should we really believe that Argrath was using them rather than the other way around?

Word of Scott disagrees: "Everything has a spirit, so when you discorporate, everything you carry appears as its spirit form (this needn't look the same). Those items unless specially prepared are unlikely to function as they did in the Middle World. Generally speaking, magic items and enchanted metals, function as expected. Weapons are already covered in the spirit magic section. If you want armour - Spirit Armor Enchantment."

If you're fighting one big spirit and someone has both a decent weapon skill and a suitable weapon, this is bound to happen though. A starting Humakti PC has all the necessary tools.

I would agree, but the rules aren't written that way.

This makes sense - Rune Magic and Sorcery seem to be at the same "level", so to speak, while Spirit Magic isn't.

The steadwife PC in my campaign started off by critting first a HD and then a HHD Worship roll, and then also critting a Manage Household roll on Ancestor Day (basically the only way the Ancestors won't find something to complain about). There's now a large faction wanting to fast-track her for priestesshood due to her obvious holiness.

Thi is both my reading and what seems to be the official ruling. You can't "overwhelm" a spirit with attacks (at least not to the point where it can't effectively fight back). Spellcasting works, though.

If so, it happened super early, as in before PIE migrations. The Aesir/Vanir divide is present in Indian and Persian religion as well (Devas and Asuras, where hilariously they each decided differently on which are the good guys).

1. Unless it's an in-world thing that enemies like to strike at their enemies holy days when they are guaranteed to be fresh on Rune Points and generally up on magic, this seems to be just a dick move if practiced more than rarely by the GM. 2. Any PC with a couple of adventures under his or her belt is likely to have some kind of MP storage, making the expenditure of a few MPs from storage completely unimportant.

It trivializes Worship, makes the Worship skill meaningless apart from qualifying for Rune Levels, has a trivial cost, and means that characters will virtually always succeed at Worship. It also means that other sacrifices are completely unimportant - those cost money, MPs are essentially free. All in all, perhaps not the most successful design.

If the cosmos consistently slaps down munchkins, how do you explain Argrath? 🙂

Further, when a spirit turns visible like this, presumably in order to attack, can you attack it with weapons in the turn it manifests, or do you have to wait for it to start spirit combat? Can you attack it with spells?

I read this as that it has to be visible, which it would typically do in order to initiate Spirit combat. Even then, regular characters can’t jump into regular spirit combat with it. A shaman can discorporate and go get it on his own, even when not visible. The big question is whether other characters with suitable weapons can take swings at the spirit. It’s not obvious from in-game reasoning why they shouldn’t be able to.

I have this idea that spirits on the Spirit Plane will have a much worse MP regeneration, similar to how they have a really poor POW gain. That way, having MPs sacrificed to them actually matters. It makes sense that the Material Plane is much better for MP regeneration.

I know, but it's a pretty personal and wild interpretation, you must agree? I would picture a Humakti simply cutting the ghost, that's manifested there, with his actual sword. Which wouldn't work, except for magics and gifts.

Like this: If others can't hit the spirit because it occupies the same space as your body, how come this isn't a problem for you when it comes to hitting it?

This seems completely reasonable. (Reminder though - Bladesharp along won’t cut it.)

Possibly, but wouldn't it be hard to hit with a sword yourself in that case (let alone a bow 🙂 )? Plus why would there be a requirement to be visible if it will then take up your own space anyway? It could make sense if the spirit only makes itself visible to the target, though? That way, you could struggle with a disease spirit while others merely see you writhe and sweat.

In order to use Spirit Combat, I agree with this. (You can also get yourself into spirit combat by casting Distraction on the spirit and pulling its attack to you.) This seems to be what the rules suggest, but I'm not sure how it makes sense. The spirit is right there, visible, and vulnerable to certain weapons. Why couldn't others strike at it with said weapons? They are allowed to cast spells on it, surely?

Before you make your shamanistic initiation, make sure to Spell Trade for Sword Trance and get yourself something that allows your sword to work in Spirit Combat (this could be enchantment or a spell-traded Truesword), and borrow all the MP crystals and other MP storage you can get your hand on. Then, when you face the Bad Man, throw up a 30+ point Sword Trance and win every round of Spirit Combat against him (the sucker only has 175% Spirit Combat, not nearly enough), earning six Shaman Gifts in the process. You don't actually need to have any skill in swords for this to work.