tnli

Why does RQG Sorcery count magic points spent for duration and range in when determining how difficult it is to dispel a Sorcery spell?

Gringle's is out of business at the moment, will see if someone restarts it at some point. I use the 200 L per POW figure is for cult tithes and such, items sell at different prices. Haven't really gone in to it as Gringle's is out of business at the moment. X)

Depends on the spell. If spell description gives no indication, it's POW vs. POW. If description states something else, use that. Counterspell and similar resist the spell's strength.

Countermagic and /or Shield, whatever the Sorcery spell against Sorcery spells is, and high POW are the primary defences. Reputation as an evil necromancer who spoils Orlanth in Sartar is probably warranted after a while.

I would love BRP Artesia! I would also love finishing the darn comic! X)

Oh, totally! Either the event is organised so that it will fall on an established holy day, or that event itself can be declared holy by it's very nature. I haven't had reason to spec other things, my players have these combinations of cults: Orlanth, Maran Gor (Idrima sub-cult) Storm Bull, Maran Gor (Idrima sub-cult) Eurmal, Maran Gor (Idrima sub-cult) Foundchild, Yinkin, Orlanth, Maran Gor (Idrima sub-cult) Humakt (maybe you can tell who was not present during the finale of the Broken Tower?) Humakti player was concerned on how they can regain rune points, as there are no associated cults. Well... That's when the inspiration struck me, and immediately after I realised the point for Storm Bulls against chaos being similar. And well, the point about the leading Storm Khan just riding against the chaos on their own? That's totally something I could see them wanting to do, only being stopped by their wife casting the Tame Bull. XD

Nice, if maybe a tad too powerful on the powers with crit. The only thing on Humakt worship I've declared in my Glorantha is that the night before the battle is a minor (or bigger) holy day of Humakt for all going into the said battle, if decreed so by the leading Humakt's Sword. The same is true when Stormbulls will be facing chaos, if the leading Storm Khan can be persuaded to not go meet the enemy early!

I'd follow the advice under increasing your success with magic, on pages 244-247. Spirit combat participant would have to succeed on their intelligence check for each round to count against their augment attempt. Brobably at ×5 if they took no MP nor HP damage on the round, or at ×3 if they did take (either kind of) damage. I imagine it working something like this: Round 0: Spirit shows itself on some SR. Round 1: Attacked adventurer who noticed the spirit declares that they'll start talking in spirit speech, to gain the augment, SR 12 spirit combat, after that INT×X (see above) to see if the round counts for augment. Round 2: Another round of spirit combat at SR 12, and after that an INT×X to see if this round counts against the augment. Round 3: At corporeals DEX SR (because why not), roll against full Spiritspeech skill (assuming that the previous 2 rounds did count for the augment, if one failed it would be at half-skill, and if both failed, no roll allowed yet). SR 12: 3rd round of spirit combat, but the adventurer would now have a bonus (or penalty!) to their spirit combat roll, depending on how their Spiritspeech augment roll went. This same augment result would stay with them for the rest of this spirit combat, and maybe more if there were more spirit combats in this scene, GM's call.

They could also use the Illusion spells to create an illusionary sable. Or, if they have a friend around, have the friend cast a Become Giant Sable spell that some local Eurmal shrine most definitely teaches!

Hallucinate!

The priest wouldn't pay tithes from the income they receive from the temple lands to support their lifestyle.

Missed out from the RQG, POW*5%

Off-camera, I just let 'em get a refill, unless the situation is really bad, like if they're in a place with no options for worshipping their gods. During adventuring times we roll, and the MP sacrifice can be significant.

Yeah, if you go and harass a spirit, it might strike back an extra time! So it's not a safe thing to do. Better just cast that Disruption.

From Scott's answer in this thread and the Q&A II thread, I believe that all spirit combats are resolved with the same mechanics. It's just that the spirit can't try to hit twice in a round, but if the friends of the corporeal entity it's in combat with try to intervene, they risk getting hit by the spirit too. Oh, unless they use spells. Spells seem to be safe. Unless the spirit decides to sling spells back at them!

I made some questions about the issue of someone not in the spirit combat attacking a spirit in a spirit combat with spells, melee weapons, and ranged weapons in the Q&A II thread. Will see answers when we get them.

So, assuming I am in a spirit combat with a spirit, can my buddies Bob (who has True Sword on his broadsword) and Charles (who knows Disruption) help me or not by swinging their sword and blasting with their spell, and how is it all resolved?

When creating a binding enchantment, do you either: 1) Create a binding enchantment for, say, an elemental, or do you need to be more specific and say that it's for a fire elemental, then look at the fire elemental's stats, and determine that you need to sacrifice three points of POW as the fire elemental has three characteristics, and then can bind only fire elemental to that binding, OR... 2) Create a binding enchantment and sacrifice three points of POW for it to bind any spirit that has up to three characteristics, and then as you come up with spirits see if it has 3 or less characteristics (great, you can bind it into this enchantment!) or 4+ characteristics (bummer, can't bind it into this enchantment!). 3) Something different, let me know! Obviously case 1 is a lot more restrictive than case 2. Now, I have seen some items in the adventures that specify that they work as binding enchantments for only earth elementals or air elementals, so that would kind of push it towards the case 1. Any thoughts?

OK, I can't seem to find anything on this in the page indicated, nor in the whole spirits section. Would you mind pointing it out to me?

As per p. 369: "Temporary damage boosts from spirit magic (such as Bladesharp, Fireblade, etc.) do not harm most spirits, nor do unenchanted Rune metal weapons (such as unenchanted iron).“

Oh, I like that! 1 POW for each Rune and technique of the spell, and this let's you store an intensity 1 spell, and then 1 POW per 1d6 added levels of intensity, probably up to the creators maximum at the time of creation. (So if the creator has Free INT of 15, then the item can have maximum of 15 levels of added intensity added, even if you threw higher on the dice). Recharging a used item requires casting the spell into it, so yes, you do have to spend the magic points at the time of recharging it. I would give the recharge-casting the +20% bonus for having a magical item related to the spell at hand. Releasing the spell from the item - I added the magic point cost to this to make it costlier to get faster sorcery, so the intent was that it costs magic points when you recharge the item, and again when you use it. What skil to use the item? The relevant spell skill is an obvious one. Lacking that, if I was writing this thing now, I would probably go with a dedicated Activate (Spell) Item -skill, which would be separate for each spell, but different items with the same spell would use the same skill. This skill would start at 0% + the user's Magic category modifier. For thematic and gamistic reasons, I would also give the user (whether using their actual spell skill or the Activate (Spell) Item -skill) the same +20% bonus that the recharge-casting gets, partially for the same reason and also in general to make using these items a little bit easier than in RQ3.

As the person who wrote that, let me clarify these as per what my intentions were: - Who can use the item: my intent was that anyone who can touch the item can use the enchantment, except if there are user conditions on the enchantment that would bar any particular user from using it. - How many uses: my intent is that there are charges involved, and recharging involves casting that spell at the desired intensity into the item. The number of charges is a bit complicated: essentially the item has a number of points it can store, and each level of intensity of the spell being stored into the item takes one point. So a 10-point amulet can store 10 intensity 1 spells, 1 intensity 10 spell, or any variation within these parameters. - What roll to activate: my original idea was to use the user's POW*5, as the spirit and rune spell matrices use that. RQ3 went with spell skill, or dedicated skill if the user does not know the spell. I could also see it be something like INT*X.

I believe that the bit under God-Talkers about shrines should taken more as: "in some cults only God-Talkers can be bothered to maintain lonely shrines in far off places" or like: "some shrines are maintained by a lonely God-Talker" instead of: "only God-Talkers are allowed to maintain shrines" As for temples with shrines for other gods, most likely they would be maintained by the members of the main temple staff who are also Initiates of the shrine-cult. Whether they are Initiates, God-Talkers, or Rune-Priests of the main temple, we'll, that's another matter.

Unless I'm missing something, the spell seems pretty useless against corporeal entities. First you need to be able to initiate spirit combat against them, so you need to have some way of discorporating. (So, be a shaman, or use drugs, or cast the Discorporate spell). Second, you need to beat your target in spirit combat, that is, reduce them to 0 magic points. Third, you need to cast the spell. Fourth, you may still need to beat them in POW vs POW, as that is usual for all spells. I would probably rule that the spirit combat is sufficient, and no need for the POW vs POW. Fifth, the target is now unconscious, and will not recover until they gain at least 1 magic point, which usually takes (24 / their POW) hours, eg. 2 hours for someone with POW 12. Did I already mention that the spell only lasts for 2 minutes? — That said, if you are a shaman with the spell extension -ability, it's actually not too bad: beat someone in spirit combat, cast the spell, and for the cost of one spell extension slot, you have a new friend for as long as you want. For everybody else, it looks like the only useful forms of this spell are ones that control beings such as discorporate spirits or elementals, and even then it's only useful for controlling one's that are already bound!

I believe it is done with the Spirit Combat mechanics, just replace the character's Spirit Combat roll with their relevant weapon skill roll, and their Spirit Combat Damage with the relevant weapon damage. Do note that only the magical part of the weapon's damage applies. So, a broadsword (normal damage 1d8+1) with True Sword cast on it would only do the 1d8+1, while a an enchanted broadsword would do 1d8+1, and an enchanted broadsword with the True Sword spell would do 2d8+2. Note how the user's damage bonus does not apply here! I would probably count a weapon blessed with something like Humakt's gifts numbers 9, 10, or 11 count as magical, so they would do their standard weapon damage, and if the recipient chose the correct type of spirit as the species (on 9), or all damage (on 10) past Spirit Combat armor would be doubled. On 11 I wouldn't double damage, as incorporeal spirits don't really have hit locations as such. Edited due to noticing that "temporary damage boosts from spirit magic (such as Bladesharp, Fireblade, etc.) do not harm most spirits"! Culpa Mae! As of now it is unclear whether temporary damage boosting Sorcery effects (such as Boon of Kargan Tur) allow you to whack at spirits.