Godlearner

Number of mastered runes/techniques seems like it should be a measure.

Everything is relative of course, and if you can get a non-powered crystal then its a way to go, but if you can not and extraneous mps are pretty important if you planning to cast spells in any combat situation, you better have some. I would revise my statement to say it applies to martial and adventuring types of initiates.

They would have to be edited. Just giving all initiate NPC a rune pool and runes will take care of some things, but you will now have to consider that they will all be a lot more willing to use Divine magic and the abilities that opens up for them. Remember that most will now have access to All common divine and at least one special divine spell.

All you need is one who specializes in this one spell. Strength 25 (adding about 9 Free Int) for three hours or so to other sorcerers would not be unusual in that case.

Sure, and expanded mind capacity can also be explained as training in Logic which sorcery requires and attuning oneself to the rune, especially Magic Rune.

Basically what I am taking away from here is that every Initiate should have at least one magic point battery and in one in ten this is likely to be a non powered crystal.

Nah, I got mine from @soltakss

Crystals were common in RQ2 games, in RQ3 games they became very rare as characters found/created binding and magic point matrices. Any crystals found were given to allied spirits for additional magic points. Not sure if that was a rule or something we came up with in our games, but allied spirits could have bound spirits, so crystals were the way to go.

Yes, but you do not HAVE to use it and if you do, you will get to below that sooner than later.

No, but how often do you find one is what I am trying to judge.

If there are limited number of positions, but I can see in many cases that may not be the case and the fact that they do not have a high rune pool makes them useful and somewhat expendable as lower level leaders for the cult.

Yeah, but I meant the ration of crystals to man made items.

Hmm, it seems to me it would be easier to create Magic Point matrices and binding enchantments. (I could be wrong)

Some groups do well with that ... and then there are groups I play with LOL

Of course it also means that the rest of the party need to be made up of closely aligned/associated cult members.

Most of the time what I seen in play are Rune Lord - Acolytes. Requirements for that are much less POW. This way you can build up.

Which brings us to an interesting point in the rules. As there seems to be a president for using species MAX INT for Free INT in. "A Rune Lord always resists magic with their species maximum POW and not their current POW." Perhaps as one advances in their sorcery, Magi level for example this can happen.

Actually no. There is no requirement for the Rune Pool as listed in RQG p280. A Rune Lord needs to have been an Initiate for 5 years, have a CHA 18, and five skills at 90% (two of those skills should weapon skills)

If memory serves, unpowered crystals are solidified blood of dead Gods, while powered crystals are solidified blood of living Gods; which leads to to a question if anyone has faced, have there ever been the case of someone's crystal changing type while in their possession? How common are unpowered crystals when compared to people using binding enchantments?

Tomato -tomAto. Whatever excuse you want go with.

Its a trade off. You need an 18 POW to be a priest (and get +20% once there). Much easier to get from 17 to 18 then from 13.

Inefficient in terms of POW gain, yes. In terms of character survivability, its a must. Know you GMs gaming style.

CHA limiting spirit magic makes sense. CHA also limits how many spirits you can have bound. INT used to be an important stat for modifiers, and getting skill increases once skills got over 100% (or maybe this was just a house rule we used). Now, unless we are talking sorcery, it seems like dump. Seems like the only reason to have it is to put another limit on sorcery. And, yes sorcery is a the realm of the Logic, so INT should be the prime guide. That is fine, but the mechanics are not that great so far.

I been avoiding making it.

If we stick to the basic tenet of shaman / priest /sorcerer donating 50 - 90% of their time and money then we should not be seeing these characters adventuring, except in unusual circumstance. But as this is a Role Playing Game character are always built with unusual circumstance in mind, otherwise there would be no need to adventure. That is why when I see people say that certain builds are not suitable as PC, I just shrug and move on.