Godlearner

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

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I think you are way off in both those estimates. Most initiates have more urgent things to do than invest in magic point storage, and non-powered crystals are a common way of acquiring magic point storage. 

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.

13 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

you will have to edit to boost the NPCs to suit your tables needs. 

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.

3 hours ago, metcalph said:

The way Jeff describes it it would be one sorceror doing nothing but cast Enhance INT on the other sorcerors who then cast biiger spells etc.

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.

6 hours ago, Shiningbrow said:

Possibly, but not a real "precedent", as the resisting at Max POW is specifically stated as the god making up the difference to defend their RL - so definitely not the same reason, and definitely not really related.

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.

2 hours ago, lordabdul said:

Good thing @PhilHibbs has got you covered if you're into spreadsheets!

 

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.

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There is no requirement on the Rune Pool, but you need 11 RP to use safely the DI Runelord way (without risking losing POW).

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

3 minutes ago, PhilHibbs said:

Easier to create a matrix than to use a crystal that you got as loot?

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

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best qualified, and Rune Points will be an important factor here. I would assume that in many cults, there are more people qualifying for Rune Lord than can actually fit in the structure - I could easily imagine that there are bunches of veteran, qualifying Storm Bull initiates competing for far fewer Storm Khan positions.

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.

1 minute ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

Not sure but my memory says 9 dead for 1 alive

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

4 minutes ago, davecake said:

I've never heard of a crystal changing its nature, other than rarely DI being used to remove some taint. 

Unpowered crystals seem more common than binding enchantments, but many people just use them for magic point storage. 

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

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Or relatively free agents with their own reasons for coming along, or part of the same community, etc. 

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

47 minutes ago, davecake said:

Basically, if you really want to keep doing adventures for personal gain, try to fit it into 10% of your time. That can still be enough for an adventure a season if you plan it. But if your adventures are not at least mostly related to the goals of your cult or tribe as well as your own, something might be wrong - and maybe you should not have sought that higher office. 

But mostly, what do those statuses mean?

A Wind Lord of Orlanth needs to fight the enemies of Orlanth, fight Chaos when he hears of it (and can ask other Lightbringers to help him), fights Darkness if it bothers the Earth temple - sounds plenty of adventures to me. 

A Sword of Humakt must face enemies of Humakt in battle, slay undead, maybe lead his regiment or temple forces in battle - sound plenty of adventures to me. 

A Storm Bull Khan must seek out Chaos and destroy it - sounds adventurous to me. 

A tribal shaman of Waha or a shaman of Daka Fall must investigate magical threats to his tribe/family - sounds plenty of adventures to me.

And so on. 

Plus, the cult can always give the character some big adventurous responsibility, and say that that counts as cult service - yes, the prophecies say that it is important you find the long lost temple of the Bee Maiden, and free the spirit of the hero trapped there. 

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

Just now, Akhôrahil said:

Huh, no idea where that came from, then! Never mind me. 🙂 Although I'd still say you want those Rune Points either way - you will be a sad Rune Lord at 3-5 Rune Points, and since the requirements are just that - the minimum requirements - someone more holy may get the job ahead of you if you skimp. Something like 10 Rune Points is probably the expected amount, even if it's not a prereq.

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.

8 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

At the same time, you need to accumulate 10 Rune Points as well for Rune Lord, and that will be pretty slow going at POW 17. Hence my preferred method of starting at 13, collecting POW for Rune Points, and then starting the rise towards 17/18. Some of my players think 13 is just too frustrating for spellcasting though, and prefer 15.

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?

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If by adventuring, you mean "doing my own thing for my own fortune and glory", then yes.  But a hallmark of a lot of Glorantha adventures has been that your characters are propelled by clan, cult, and kin into sort of "adventures of duty". 

Tomato -tomAto. Whatever excuse you want go with.

1 minute ago, PhilHibbs said:

True, it is only secondary for most, but a POW of 17 gives you at least +5 to everything (except Stealth). 21 is a never-going-to-happen thing for most people, so I don't count that as much, but if you can get it (with shamanic soul expansion!), +10 to everything is sweet.

Overall, though, I feel that the down side of 17 POW having a low chance of improvement is not worth it.

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.

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And maintaining a POW of 17 is inefficient as you have a low chance of improvement. Much better to have INT 17 and POW 13, as you then have TWICE the chance of succeeding on a POW gain roll.

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

23 minutes ago, Kloster said:

I like spirit magic limited by CHA, but I don't like INT not counting for magic (except Free INT). I am considering either to count both CHA and INT in the Magic category modifier, or add a Sorcery category modifier that replace CHA by INT. I will need to test it but I will probably take the first in order to have the same rules for all characters.

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.

6 hours ago, soltakss said:

I have a spreadsheet that calculates all that and puts it into a statblock that I can copy and paste into Word. it makes things a lot easier.

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.