Cwitten

Per what reading i've done, not having a man rune would make you fully a spirit. HQ2 I believe had you take the spirit rune for things like following Kolat via the Seven Winds Society, but it didn't replace it. Runes seem to function a bit differently between systems though and so im not certain on how having both would function for a PC. 100% spirit and 0% man would make you a disembodied spirit that resides fully in the Spirit World for sure, but im not sure how partial percentages would fully work. As is, the PC's Fetch kind of functions as an entity with a spirit rune, as they reside in the Spirit World, and swap and partially possess you when you discorporate? I can't personally envision a PC possessing the Spirit Rune in normal play, as it would drastically shift a lot about them. (Also mechanically the man rune represents the ties to ancestor magic I believe, so replacing it as a follower of Daka Fal would be strange.) Edit: (It seems prior it was a way to associate yourself with spirits/ the spirit world, while now its more of a literal form of the character.)

After going back and forth on trying to distinguish the differences between a Rune Priest and a Shaman in the first place, i've gotten stuck on how a Shaman's occupation changes from assistant shaman once they advance in their cult/spirit society. In practical terms I know about them gaining benefits such as the POW gain increase and holy day things that other Rune Priest receive, but im more so interested in the occupation itself. Unlike some occupation switches for people who become rune level (farmer to rune priest would take the priest occupation, and if they became a rune lord would take the noble occupation), assistant shaman doesn't list a direct advancements. Cults like Daka Fal and Waha specifically mention they don't use the Priest occupation, so that definitely isn't it (ignoring you'd lose spirit occupational skills anyways by doing so.) So, where does that leave assistant shaman? Well, the occupational skills don't really need to switch, they're fine for a normal shaman anyways. So what's the issue? Well, assistant shamans receive a free point of spirit magic a season, pretty much nothing when you compare it to a Shaman's ability to venture into the spirit world freely and learn magic from the appropriate spirits. Ok, so no issue there, whats the point? Well, most notable might be the literal free point of POW at the end of each year for an Assistant Shaman. There's nothing that directly says you lose it by becoming a Full Shaman, nor is there a direct occupation switch so your occupation awkwardly stays listed as an assistant even when becoming full-fledged. Their importance and support is notably changed in the book as well, even if the assistant occupation doesn't reflect it, so thats likely fine as it seems expected for Shamans to bring in their own wealth from working (Albeit awkward to list them as poor when they would be given the best of things after the tribal chief per the book. Though they shouldn't be expected to work/manage land like a noble.) Is it just a simple snipping of the word assistant and strapping on the benefits of a full fledged shaman?

Something to consider. As a POW 16 character, I failed every single POW Gain roll aside from one (Which I then rolled for and got 0), and failed Sacred Time's as well [All at 25% chances basically, and a 20% once it goes to 17]. Playing every other week for us means getting to 18 POW is slow, and i'm not even the one going for Rune Priest in the group. Certain cults as others have said can make it especially difficult, with a good example being Lhankor Mhy. Three skills at 90% is a bit tougher, as well as two of those being knowledge skills, which can only be trained higher. Experience rolls between adventures by RAW do not allow increases for those Lore skills, so you must spend all your time training those Lore Skills (and potentially a lot of favors or Lunars) to get them high enough. I pity the person who has to spend 30+ weekly sessions training their lores to become a rune priest, and feel bad for one of our players who's doing so in our biweekly sessions as a Lhankor Mhy initiate.

In the Bestiary when choosing an occupation as a Baboon, it says "Either Troop Baboon (see below) or Assistant Shaman. The latter use the Beast Rune instead of Man" (Page 29) I'm not sure in what other context it would be mentioned other than specifically being used for Daka Fal.

2. The benefits of being a philosopher and an initiate of Lhankor Mhy would stack as far as i'm aware. (Giving you 2 runes, 2 techniques, and 6 sorcery spells) Reading into Aeolialism (on page 389), both it and Lhankor Mhy are described as paths taken at a young age, so you'd have to pick one as the method of how you were taught (Even if Lhankor Mhy worship is part of their teachings.) I believe you could also stack Philosopher and Aeolialism? (Aeolialism however takes place in a region with a homeland not covered in the book.) 3. Rune Points are limited to CHA per cult, and each cult requires separate Rune Point pools.

Ahh, I understand you mean the Shaman would augment during the spirit dance and it would last their duration in the trance. However, I don't believe stacking the skill augmentation is allowed per the rulebook on Runic Inspiration? (On Page 229) "The bonus from inspiration cannot be combined with an augment from another skill (see page 144)." Where it says "Where appropriate, one ability—whether skill, Passion, or Rune—may be combined to augment another ability of the same or a different type." and "Only one augment may be attempted per ability, and an ability can only be used once per session to augment a task being attempted." So the Man (Or Moon Rune for example) could cover the entire encounter, but it couldn't have a additional skill augmentation, putting the shaman at (usually) 120 vs 175, slightly worse odds. The variable nature of the journey is neat though.

Thanks for the information. I'm assuming the +20 would be from a skill or rune, and the other +20 from answering the questions then? The ritual practice in the cave step would make the trance last longer in the outside world then, and take up time from training and your duty? (Factoring into the rest of the season's adventure) I've been trying to read into as much as I can as everyone in our group is new to the system and setting, so gathering information to throw at the GM and help explain has been part of my goal. I know deep diving into the spirit world is for another topic (one i've been reading), but I was curious what the Daka Fal/Heortling interpretation would be. Referring to Praxian and other Shamanistic traditions, the spirit world is compared to their herd (I believe?), due to their culture. Since Daka Fal is focused on ancestors, how does that influence what the Shaman perceives spirits as? Also reading through his rune magic, Axis Mundi and other spells all summon ancestors from the Land of the Dead, does that mean the Shaman's inner circle wouldn't be filled with ancestors (Like a Praxian's would with the great herd), or am I misunderstanding? Thanks again. 😊

New to the system and just getting into playing the new release, there's a lot of incredibly neat things about it. I decided to play as a shaman of Daka Fal in my group. There are however a lot of things i'm unsure about on how they are run with a lot of it being unspecified (Assuming for the GM to work off of it freely.) Specifically in this case the process of becoming and being a Shaman. In Step Three of Summoning the Fetch (The journey to become a Shaman), it mentions a player can augment their spirit dance roll for awakening the fetch with ritual practices. However, there's no listed time limit, and I can't guess at what it would be. In step one you are in a trance for 1d6+1 days before the journey's conclusion, where you are lead to the other steps, with no mention of the time taken after. Is the time limit just based off whatever allotted time the GM feels is appropriate for the assistant shaman to be discroporate for? In Step Four, when facing off against the Bad Man, the difficulty isn't exactly clear. Without the bestiary his listed POW means nothing as no damage is dealt in the fight. With the bestiary, following the base spirit combat suggestion is POW * 5% for his spirit combat skill, but it makes clear spirits can have lesser or greater spirit combat than that. If you do follow it, the Bad Man has 175% spirit combat, a large amount where I assume you are expected to earn several taboos during the fight? Assuming the assistant can augment their roll during this combat as well (for example, with the Moon rune.)? For Daka Fal specifically, Shamans must also donate POW or Rune points each year to their ancestors, not counting those paid for their services. Would the Rune point donation be permanent as a POW loss? It also mentions Daka Fal priests also being shamans, but I assume they don't get the priest benefits on top of that (Like Easier POW Gain roll, or rune point replenishing), or do they because they also serve as priests? Do they count as a Rune Master because of being a priest as well? Any other advice on the system or the lore of being a shaman is deeply appreciated as well, cheers!