Godlearner

4 hours ago, David Scott said:

The Issaries temple wouldn't remove the images of those who head up the sub/hero cult. Temples are usually adorned with old images and icons. As soon as the seas opened traders would be the first out of the gates, 40 years is ample time to reestablish a sea trader cult, I'd argue a year at most.

I would have to disagree with that. The Closing lasted from 930 to 1580. That is a lot of time to do some major clean up in the temples. People would be lucky to remember the names at all.

6 hours ago, Darius West said:

The use you envisage for Path Watch would have made it able to avoid many effects of the Closing of the Oceans, so no, it doesn't work on bodies of water. 

Not at all. Being aware of danger, does not mean you can avoid it or survive it. Here comes a monster wave. Its 100 meters away .... Start praying.

3 hours ago, David Scott said:

As it's a uniquely Issaries Rune spell, there are likely many seafaring traders.

As it was pointed out to me on Facebook: " maritime trading is only forty years old. If there were nautical trader subcults, they are centuries dead, having no purpose during the centuries of the Closing. "   It would seem these would then be spirit cults and possibly accessed through Ancestor Worship. Good basis for Merchant Guilds.

22 minutes ago, jajagappa said:

The path is "known" in the sense that I cross this water bearing towards some destination (either visible or based upon the position of sun or stars) then I can watch the path.

The path is a route. It's marked by currents and water depth as well as landmarks when close enough to land or floating debris same as any route.

2 hours ago, jajagappa said:

but perhaps make a penalty on the casting attempt (or have to overcome some natural resistance from Water

Why?

2 hours ago, AndreJarosch said:

Does Patch Watch on land extrends upward?
If yes: It should also extend downward. 

 "100 meters radius" I would say it implies sphere. 

Now the spell says "It must be laid upon a known path or visible road to be traveled on by the caster." 

Would a Sea-route counts? Sure, the caster would have to stay awake and its only 100 meters radius, but would it work? 

12 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

I can't think of any logical reason why it turn back to the original shape. 

I was thinking of gas and liquids actually. 

9 hours ago, JRE said:

I considered the Form / Set (shortened to Form X) spells easy, but the discussion with my player has been enlightening, as it has improved the details. I did not specify that it affects 1 SIZ of material per strength point, except any substance not solid or liquid, where it affects 3 cubic meters per 4 points of strength, as SIZ makes no sense. Fire and darkness are substances of that kind in Glorantha, and we were not sure where to place smoke, so it is a special case that requires Air and Fire, while Clouds in our Glorantha require only Air. The material cannot move, so you need to shape it by hand, except the non-solids which you can shape in place just with your mind.

Yes, sounds right. The one aspect of the RQ3 version which I always felt so-so about was using this spell offensively as a lance. That was too much. The one thing you should also include in the spell is if the object formed retains its original shape or the last formed.

9 hours ago, JRE said:

Animating would be a different spell, incorporating Movement rune and probably more specific (Animate Bronze Statue, or Animate Water Fountain),

That does not seem right. Let's say there is a bronze bowl in a shape of a whale. Is it a statue, a bowl, an ash tray? The shape should not mater, just the substance. You may want to change the difficulty instead on the purity of the material. For example, a solid silver fork should be easier to manipulate than a silver and gold bracelet, but both could be the target of an Animate Silver spell.

9 hours ago, JRE said:

That would allow animating (slowly) a bronze statue of SIZ 10 with Strength 10, and with strength 14 you could move it 4 m per round. 

Should all be governed by Intensity

1 hour ago, JRE said:

I added the characteristic sacrifice both as a continuity for existing

Currently Shamans do that. It is a personal decision for your game.

1 hour ago, JRE said:

The sacrifice decreases species maximum, because otherwise it is not really a sacrifice, specially for POW.

Most games I played in, players would rather have their characters lose an arm than take a hit to racial max POW

1 hour ago, JRE said:

I also consider it necessary to allow for the animated objects that appear in previous editions and even some sources.

It has been stated that Gloranthan sorcerers do not make familiar. That is why I switching to a concept of sorcerer's allied spirit as a familiar

1 hour ago, JRE said:

Should an Enhance POW spell exist?

As a means of defense and offense (should be expensive IMO in terms of intensity), sure I can see it, but not as a source of magic points.

1 hour ago, JRE said:

Godlearner proposal of using the Magic rune as a replacement for other runes is interesting, but needs some kind of limit

Yes, I proposed that only one rune in a spell can be replaced and it would be Implied cost in spell casting.

1 hour ago, JRE said:

an Aeolian can use Magic for Air and Movement, while a Black Arkati can use it for Darkness and Death. A Lunar Cyclic mage would get Moon and her choice, Death or Life. I would prefer not to replace more than two runes, as it would make rune mastery less critical,

I was envisioning it for any rune as the spell was being cast, but this method would work as well, although it seems you are allowing the sorcerer to replace the runes which they would most likely choose to master to start with. You would be better off to opening this up to the other runes and not the major ones for the school.

22 minutes ago, EpicureanDM said:

EDIT, PART TWO: It sometimes feels like sometimes RQG's showing me 18th level characters (in D&D terms), but everyone's playing RQG at "5th level." So when I ask how to play these 18th level characters, no one can tell me how because no one does it. But they're in the books...

Yes, these creatures are not meant to be faced in everyday play, but how do you describe an area without describing the powers that live and rule them. These characters lived alongside gods and demigods. You cannot expect a party of 5th level to take them on, but that same party can face their minions, erode their support, learn their secrets and find their weakness, and once they are 12th level they have a good shot at winning.

3 hours ago, JRE said:

As no sorcerer will sacrifice INT or POW, it requires that you sacrifice different characteristics than those. Typical sacrifices will be SIZ and CHA, and that brings us the hunchbacked ugly warlocks of myth.

INT no, but POW sure. POW is something you can get back. I think a sorcerer would much rather sacrifice POW than SIZ or God forbid CHA. In RQG CHA is very important as it is used to determine the number of things you can bind, your Spirit Combat damage, number of spells you can know, etc.

3 hours ago, JRE said:

I still would like to have the option to strengthen the familiar by sacrificing characteristic points.

Why? It should be strengthened through sorcery. Put some spells on it.

1 hour ago, JRE said:

Range, if the formula keeps applying will be 165 km at 21, 265 at 22, 430 at 23, 695 (700) at 24, and 1135 at 25. That allows you to have the coolest lighthouse or your own ice age at a cheap level.

Sure, why not.

42 minutes ago, EpicureanDM said:

he stats for The Mistress of Light on pg. 87 of Secrets says that the Mistress exudes a shimmering glow that subtracts 200% from opponents attacks. 200%! So my PCs need to have some sort of magic or gear that gives them at least +200% to even get them back on level ground! 

Look, your average PCs will go up against her and die. The players need to have their own special abilities, magic items, allied spirits, etc. Taking on a hero is a job for a hero. You are also assuming that the enemy is always prepared and is able to use everything they have. That is not the case. They can be surprised, outwitted, distracted PCs can may search and find their weakness, or something that strips certain abilities. This is a Boss  fight and needs to be approached as one.

Having written some of the Dorastor stuff with Simon, and having played in similarly high-powered games, I must admit that there is a specific thing that led to a victory, and that was "Economy of Actions". The bad guy could kick out butts one on one, but it did not matter if his skill was 500% because he is still limited to so many actions per round. He may take down several PCs, but then the rest would overwhelm him.

8 hours ago, JRE said:

Free Int is so powerful that allowing anything over 25 starts to break the world, as you get duration in centuries and range over a thousand kilometers.

You are exaggerating. Duration is 1 year at Int 17, at 20 its 8 years and doubles for every +4 Int after that. The current Range is 100 kilometers at 20 Int. In game terms I have never seen players cast anything that lasts more than 1 year and Range of more than a couple of kilometers. 

8 hours ago, JRE said:

As we work to convert spells, our impression is that Sorcery is less broken than RQ3,

My impression was that it was just as broken as it still relied on FREE INT. The runes were a nice addition, but the fact that there is no way to have a balanced spell selection because of the limitation on how many runes and techniques one could master, more than made up for it. 

4 hours ago, icebrand said:

Not in RQ3 (where that happened) it wouldn't, because back then you had to buy the spells in advance and...

Yeah, and I always carry about 15 points of Dismiss Magic, and 10 points of Shield. So, good luck keeping any spells up on your weapons.

20 minutes ago, Shiningbrow said:

Why wouldn't humakt have great party

Interesting question considering that Humakt was the only cult to have a Parry spell.

On 3/23/2022 at 2:41 PM, icebrand said:

Zorak zorani with 15 rune spells gave the humakti with 150 a run for the money, uz are epic

Not in any game I was in. Reusable Sever Spirit will beat anything else. Even without that 10 to 1 Rune Magic means the Humakti will Dismiss anything the ZZ could possibly cast. 

1 hour ago, JRE said:

improving Free Int without a good reason

The reason is simple, as the sorcerer becomes more attuned to Runes, his capacity to manipulate and channel power expands.

1 hour ago, JRE said:

or making sorcerers magic resistant.

Why not? Rune Lords get this ability.

2 hours ago, JRE said:

I would prefer to have more specific, Gloranthan effects,

Sure, the abilities I listed are samples and I would give different one based on schools

12 hours ago, soltakss said:

For me, Ikadz is also a god of punishment, not just torture. His are the fires that will purge someone of their sins, misdeeds, inadequacies and flaws, refining them, through pain, to be a better version of themselves.

Surely, there is a subcult for self-flagellation somewhere as well 😉

Done this in the write up of Neptisus in Denarius the Minter (JC supplement on Drivethru)

There are several issues I ran into with making sorcerers and I feel that various levels would have a way to overcoming these limitations.

Some additional examples (not limited to and should differ for various schools)

Allow species maxing INT for the number of spells you can keep in memory.

Allow species maxing INT as basis for FREE INT

Allow sorcerer to use his Magic Rune instead of any one Elemental Rune or Power Rune as Implied

Always resists magic with their species maximum POW and not their current POW

Worship (Invisible God) skill check to use a portion of the magic points donated by all followers in the weekly ceremony (25% on normal, 50% on special, 75% on critical)

Worship (Invisible God) skill check to use additional Free INT to cast spells (+1D6 on normal, +2D6 on special, x2 INT on critical)

Magi are equivalent to priests he is eligible for an Allied Spirit. Such Allied Spirits are somewhat different from standard cult allied spirits as following:

•    When a magus first obtains their office, they can attempt to gain a familiar as part of the investment ceremony.
•    The spirit is not provided but must rather be captured by the sorcerer and bound into an animal or an item.
•    No person can have more than one familiar at a time. 
•    If it is killed or destroyed, a new one may be obtained, but this is a matter for heroic deeds on the part of the magus.
•    A familiar is in continual mind-to-mind communication with the sorcerer. 
•    They can use each other’s magical abilities, including INT (to store spells), and magic points. 
•    The priest can see through the familiar’s senses (and vice versa). 
•    A sorcerer can cast spells through the familiar at any distance.
 

8 hours ago, Dragon said:

What happens when the Storm Bull rolls a fumble

He kills it anyway and lets Storm Bull sort it out. Being a Storm Bull means you never doubt.

12 minutes ago, Darius West said:

TBH the whole temple size mechanics rules are something I have always had some issues with.  They mean that a  niche deity like Ikadz, who is unlikely to have more than 3 followers in any city can never get enough worshippers together for a shrine.

Yes, I have thought about this before as well. I think one of the ways that this is offset is to base it on the amount of magic points sacrificed during the previous holiday vs. the number of worshippers. The system I use is based sacrificing personal magic points only and at a rate of 1mp from a Lay Member, 10mp from an Initiate and max POW from any Rune Level. This way a shrine would require about 10 initiates, and a minor temple about 20 initiates, etc.

2 hours ago, Darius West said:

Not many people will worship the torture god together.  There are probably some state-sponsored torture temples in Afadjann but being a torturer is a pretty niche profession.

I would think it's pretty common among all Civil servant workers in every government. 

But seriously, I can see a government supported temple structure based on a prison system in any "civilized" culture.

4 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

But apparently, social conditions (such as royal protection) can be enough to not start wailing on them.

I would not be so sure about that. I can easily see that it would not stop most Storm Bull worshippers.