Shiningbrow

I'm not seeing a great point to this spell. The cost/benefit ratio just isn't that great...

Tales of a Ulerian Priestess...

I've never played that.... let the Befuddle confound everyone! (also, much more fun when the players don't know that it's even happened, let alone who cast it!)

I've got more reading to do.... True - unfortunately (the way I see it), Charisma (spell) isn't all that awesome mechanically, as per RAW... maybe only a 15-20% increase in communication skills. Clever Tongue doubles Orate and Fast Talk... which would be much more significant (and impressive) than Charisma.

My reading of the sections on spirits (in both RGQ and Bestiary) says that it shouldn't be a problem to sick (possibly pun intended, if it's a Disease Spirit) onto another spirit inhabiting someone's body, such as a ghost. Don't forget, unless you have a Control type spell for the bound spirit, it only obeys your first command... so you could lose it, or worse, it may decide to possess your friend. Healing Spirits do this sort of thing specifically against Disease Spirits. For exorcising a Ghost, I'd suggest an Ancestor Spirit such as Richard Simmons or Jane Fonda...

And for stuff that should just be thrown out, there'd be Fire Canon....

What would happen if you Tap Death?

Gwion Bach was ordered to stir the pot of ultimate knowledge, brought about by the Salmon of Knowledge* that swam in the pond/lake/stream and ate the acorns from the Tree of Life/World Tree, etc. The pot must never boil over, as only the first 3 drops of the potion would give the knowledge, the rest would be poison. At the fatefilled moment, he fell asleep, the pot boiled, and 3 drops hit his thumb... which he quickly put into his mouth to suck... The first bit of awesome knowledge was that he was going to be in deep shit with Ceridwen, and so ran... then begins the chase HeroQuest, where he's finally born as Taliesin (because Affagdu (sp?) - "Utter Dark" - was ugly, and stupid, and rolled really bad stats at birth... oddly enough, his mother knew an alchemy potion of 15 Point Increase INT. (strange how she didn't have anything for increasing CHA!)

Not when you consider that you are the ultimate representative of the cult, and it is your sworn duty to protect the cult, and be its greatest defender. Your god wants you to be strong, and powerful, and to fight the good fights! What good are cult champions who have terrible stats??? (ETA: Note that it's only the Rune Lords that get the 1D10 rolls for a DI to increase a stat... they're still going to lose 1 POW though. Priests and God-Talkers aren't likely to do this, because of the D100 hit)

I"m totally confused... what's the point of casting Farsee on the pea??? Wouldn't Bludgeon be bettet

Sorry, yeah. But... I had in my head the Powers which have opposing Runes. And, since the Elements are placed in a pentagram, I also figured there was some sort of contrary relationship which may be similar... Thus, the reduction of one etc... So, from the above discussions, we have some who say Tapping (Elements, and probably most other things) will bring Chaos into the world... and others who say "nah, go for it" (unless your cult happens to be associated with that Rune (which is possibly why Lhankor Mhy might not Steal Breath/Tap Air). Q: Do the Form and Power Runes have sub-runes as well? So, for example, is there a sub-Rune for Movement such that a PC could have a Tap Dance spell?

This is a society in which women are frequently warriors, so yeah - a slap in the face might be nothing! OTOH, disparaging her and mocking her ability, demeaning her, etc etc would be a type of 'harm' that no Heal spell will fix! In the example above (Yelmalian challenged by a Vingan) - "harm" is not going to be "hurt"... and, denying the challenge would be a gross insult... So, yeah, apparently MGDV.

Compare it to the phrasing for Soul Sight and Pierce Veil...

I'm not so sure. Orlanthi hate the Lunar Empire - and the Red Goddess. Many hate trolls and darkness. They're not totally fond of the Sky either (although, some are...). Chaos? Tap that shit out of existence! (although, obviously, that would require having learned the Chaos Rune...)

I wouldn't call it "omniscience"... it wasn't on all the time, and it was limited. Somewhat similar to Bran Stark at the moment.

Ummmm - you got me ☺️

Definitely!

You seem to have an image of Glorantha that doesn't have oppositions as strongly as my mind imagines... Less light =/= more dark?? Less dark =/= more light... (and yet, you suggest that Steal Cold would bring Ice...????) There was another question I forgot to ask... using any of those spells - I'd imagine that their respective deities would be very unhappy with their use - yes? Or, is the mundane form of the element irrelevant?

"Dump stat" in that it's not one you want maxing out... or even needing to get massively high. For creating a quick Rune Lord, the order of stats should probably be - INT, CHA, POW, DEX, followed by the other three (probably SIZ at the end - but it's a 2D6+6 anyway). (CHA is necessary for RL - Rune Lord... although, I'd suggest having a high CHA in Real Life is probably pretty useful as well 😛 ) Once you get to Rune Lord, your DIs become D10, and you can sacrifice your POW to up your other stats... with POW obviously being the easiest to increase (especially with the +20% and the incredible frequency of such rolls now - at least 1/season! I think I mentioned using the Bless Pregnancy munchkinnery to get the INT to 21...

The Bless Pregnancy says the stats go to the child at time of casting - caster's choice. I'd say - those points get allocated then, and the random rolls at birth (well, technically... but really at adulthood... a 2 year old child better not have STR or SIZ 16 :p) ETA: Stats for kids? Maybe - final (rolled) stat divide by age until adulthood? The stat is rolled at birth (or before - who's counting?), and then adjusted by the age as I mentioned???

Just quickly looking over possibilities... getting those 5x90% for Rune Lord isn't really that hard at starting if they have good starting stats (see Bless Pregnancy 😛 ). (BTW, Humakti Swords only need one Sword at 90%, plus only three other skills at 90%... with the +20% to cult skill Gift, and you can take 3 of them at initiation - that's made really easy!) If STR, CON (and if possible, SIZ) become 'dump' stats (ie, not so crappy you can't pick up your sword) and try to get high in INT (21 is best, for the extra +5% on lots of categories), we know the CHA needs to be at least 18, and so should POW... then your weapon skills just based at least 25% (plus culture... plus occupation... plus cult (if so inclined)... plus personal skills))... and you have Rune Lord! Many PCs are likely to start with at least 1 weapon skill at 90%, possibly two (especially if you choose dagger), plus shield. So, right from that, you've got 3 out of 5 skills for Orlanth Wind Lord or Humakti Sword. (if you choose Humakt, you actually have to spread them around, or you'd waste skills over 100....) Other cult skills are likely to be in the 80s or higher as well. So, with the right choices, players could (technically qualified to) be Rune Lord within a year - if not at starting...

True. I was thinking about trying to find out what combination (not including stats, but obviously minimum CHA and POW) would get closest. Re: those LM skills.... I don't see why having a cast of Logician to a language they can barely R/W, then transcribe/translate a treatise on a Lore from one language to another (especially if said Initiate has the Total Recall spell available). I think we've all gone up a few % in Gloranthan Lore by our readings of the various texts... pretty sure it didn't take years and years and years (although, I wonder who would claim to have 100%... or even 90%)

Actually, a basic starting PC is about 2 sacrificed POW to Rune Points from being a God-Talker.... and I imagine most GMs would be willing to let the player do it! RE: Lay Members... yeah, makes the concept of being "initiated" into adulthood rather confusing, as that usually means initiation also into the cult. They'd also be Lay Members of the Associated Cults of their main cult. Clarification requested...

You've just made me think of something... is a Fetch always a Fetch? By that I mean, could someone have something 'awakened' that is mechanically exactly the same as a Fetch, but would not be considered a 'shamanic' fetch as far as the cult/god/tribe is concerned??? Thus, allowing not only membership into the cult (or higher membership), but also without the restrictions (100% responsibility to the tribe)

But, they are budding heroes. Close to becoming that Shaman or Rune Priest (or Rune Lord). I do understand that for the new player, the amount of spells available will be a little overwhelming (although, mostly for Spirit Magic... not so much for Rune Spells), but it shouldn't take too long to get over that. Also remember... as per the Glorantha Adventurer's book, there are about 12,000 people in the Colymar tribe - including about 5000 kids, and 7000 adults. 3000 adults are (free) farmers.. so, almost half. The rest are half-free. Meaning - most won't be adventuring anywhere too soon. (at best, they might go on a raid once or maybe twice a year). Of those 7000 adults, all should be Initiates of their local cult (usually the most dominant, but not always), but only 100 will be higher. Our heroes are expected to be a part of those 100 fairly shortly...