Dragon

8 points less with Dullblade 4? That seems confusing because Bladesharp or Bludgeon would not add twice for their impale/slash damage and thus critical, so I was under the impression that Dullblade would only subtract once from the total damage. RAW: "Any ... magical modifiers to damage are applied normally." page 203 Summary of Special Damage Result box for all three types. Dullblade is a 'magical modifier', no? Example: Great Sword with Bladesharp 4 gets a critical: 2d8 twice for slash and maxed = 32 damage. Then the Bladesharp 4 and Damage Bonus of 1d4 is added on top of the 32. So 36+1d4. Great Sword with Dullblade 4 gets a critical: 2d8 twice for slash and maxed = 32 damage. Then the Dullblade subtracts and the Damage Bonus adds to the 32. So 28+1d4. 1H Short Spear with Dullblade 4 gets a critical: d6+1 twice for impale and maxed = 14 damage. Then the Dullblade subtracts and the Damage Bonus adds to the 14. So 10+d4. Great Hammer with Dullblade 4 gets a critical: 2d6+2 maxed = 14 damage. Then the Damage Bonus adds 4+4 (max for critical). Then the Dullblade subtracts 4. So 18. Related topic, Hammer/Mace users likely should cast Strength rather than Bludgeon 2 - for those Crushes. And we rarely see PCs using hammer/mace when they start with a d4 damage bonus. Anyone using maces or mauls should have a d6 damage bonus and cast strength to push that to 2d6, and almost definitely +10% skill. Though one of the interesting characters I recall used a heavy mace with d4 damage bonus because they were a human Xiola Umbar initiate and later priestess. Hence, not mainly a fighter. Though he was skilled enough.)

I expect the point was that an impaling broadsword would add a bunch more damage, which will get through 4 points of armor even with a -d4 bonus. Note that the weapon master has reduced the big strong novice's parry to 5% or close, so the novice isn't likely to parry it. Hence the small weak master's impale will still likely inflict a serious wound to the big strong novice.

A thousand pardons Mr Bill.

A GM can certainly make that narrative. Just not something that needs to be said in the munchkinnery thread. 🙂

And we can magically learn 'certain spirit magic' during a holy day celebration. P253.

Why are we worried about getting bound spirits to become lay members or initiates in order to learn new spirit magic spells? This is a thread about munchkinnery! The much easier answer is in RQG: RiG. page 368. "Any adventurer defeating a spirit in combat may gain one of its spirit magic spells (player’s pick). If the spirit possesses a variable point spell, the adventurer may gain possession of as many points in the spell as the spirit possesses." If an adventurer can do it, anyone can. And every living being has a spirit. So just have the priest summon a cult spirit with the spell you want, command your bound spirit to engage in spirit combat (or with a priest who knows the spell) and defeat said spirit. You may need some buffing spells e.g. Spirit Screen, Spirit Block. If your priest doesn't agree, go talk to the local shaman about a spirit with the spell. An hour for a summons, a few rolls, and voila, your bound spirit learns the spell. Why bother with wasting a whole week? I do note that the quote above and the context in that section is not specific about whether 'defeating' requires the spirit to be driven to 0 MP or simply to have one round where the learning spirit is a 'winner' and the defeated spirit is a 'loser'. I suspect it is the former, as it seems to be clarified in 'Reaching 0 Magic Points'. "Any adventurer defeating a spirit in combat may learn its magic, forcing it to teach them any spells it knows,..." That context is pretty clear that it is at 0 MP. Which, of course, makes you wonder about the requirement that learning a spell from a priest requires a week. The week is supposed to involve teaching you how to cast the spell, and making foci. But if that was really necessary, then an adventurer who drove a spirit to 0 MP and gained possession of as many points in the spell as the spirit possesses, could not actually USE said spell. It would take up CHA, but you couldn't cast it, because you didn't spend a whole week learning how and making foci.

This seems to be in the spirit of the game. I recall in Snake Pipe Hollow that the broo Disease Master had inflated his temple to a larger size by getting the mass of mindless Disease Spirits to count as worshippers (they only have POW). So, Umbroli should likewise qualify. Note: I have the RQ2 and RQ3 versions of SPH, so YGMV.

Ah yes. I meant "the Humakti could cast up to 3 RP of Lightning and 3 RP of Shield without touching his own RPs" to be _the_ method they would use to cast from the stone. I agree the Humakti could not use their own RP to cast spells from the truestone, though they could of course use their own RPs on their own Shield (which I expect every Humakti to sacrifice for in their first 3 rune spells). I am less confident the Wind Lord would lose access to all Lightning and Shield until a new sacrifice for each. As I reread it, we seem to both be wrong on #2 in terms of what is tied up in the stone. "The user is putting active Rune spells in the stone, and those Rune points are no longer available to the adventurer until the Rune spell is used." Rune Points. So the Wind Lord cannot get back his 6 RP by a Worship ceremony. Those are 'active' until used. Like rune spells with Extension 5 are still 'active'. So the Wind Lord can restore the 6 RPs via Worship service if and only if the Humakti casts them. The Wind Lord can use his other RPs to continue to cast Lightning and Shield.

Now that I have it in my possession, I did have a question about Truestone on page 129. The rule for spirit magic and magic points are clear. I am not positive about Rune Magic in it. So in the example, the stone is 'set' with "6 pts. of Rune magic the Rune spells occupy 12 pts. of the Truestone’s space". It is not clear about Rune Spells versus Rune Points. Which of the following is most correct: 1) A Wind Lord could set the 6 pts and imbue Lighting, Shield, Bear's Strength (from Odayla), Dark Walk, Leap, and Flight. The Orlanthi then hands it to an initiate to take on a quest. This initiate happens to already know Flight. The Initiate uses his own Rune Points to power spells he has not yet learned. If instead a Humakti initiate had access to the stone, he could also cast those six spells with his own RP. The Wind Lord who imbued the truestone could restore the 6 effective Rune Points as normal during their next Worship service. Note: I don't know how those 6 spells would ever get cleared for new spells to be added. In this scenario, the Wind Lord would gain nothing by imbuing the truestone and taking it with them for their own use. Overall, this seems to contradict part of page 129. 2) A Wind Lord could set the 6 pts and imbue Lightning 3 and Shield 3. The Wind Lord could hand it to a Humakti for an adventure, and the Humakti could cast up to 3 RP of Lightning and 3 RP of Shield without touching his own RPs (which presumably would also include access to Shield, but not Lightning). The Wind Lord who imbued the truestone could restore the 6 effective Rune Points as normal during their next Worship service. In this scenario: once Lightning 3 was used from the truestone, a different Rune Magic of up to 3 points could be placed in the truestone for the next adventure. And likewise for the Shield 3. In this scenario, the Wind Lord could imbue the truestone and get those additional two spells at those levels for their own use. This seems to make the most sense with the entire statement from page 129. 3) A Wind Lord could set the 6 pts by using 6 Rune Points. Anyone could use those 6 Rune Points to power Rune Spells they already know, but not any others. The Wind Lord who imbued the truestone could restore 6 Rune Points as normal during their next Worship service. In this scenario: it just works as 6 extra RPs to whoever carries it, including the Wind Lord who imbued it. I view this as acceptable, but less likely than #2. Clearly, I think #2 is the correct interpretation, but wanted confirmation. I do enjoy the Pegasus Plateau, I read it in PDF form before the hard copies arrived. Thank you.

Note that Truestone is now defined in an official document. See The Pegasus Plateau & Other Stories, p129. Well worth buying the PDF. I went with the hardcopy. It is not the same as the older rules. Similar intent, quite different rules.

True. Which would make it stackable.

Bear's Strength, p15; Strength of Basmol p 87 These state 'doubling the target's natural STR' or similar. It doesn't mention whether that can exceed the race's STR maximum. Seastrength p 76 does: 'with no restrictions on maximum'. For clarity, Bear's Strength and Strength of Basmol should state how it affects racial maximums. Summon Spirit of Law, p95. Oh no, Spirit of Law no longer has a special power to kill any chaotic creature that it defeats in spirit combat. We used that a few times, when chaos things regenerated too fast.

Hey, I thought of another possible aid. Spirit Combat damage (i.e. MPs) could be taken from the spirit's MPs first. That would certainly help.

Spirit Melding p83. 'For the spell's duration, add the spirit's POW to the caster's when the caster is resisting spirit combat and spells'. No problem for spells. But spirit combat is resisted by the Spirit Combat skill now, not POW. Does it add the spirit's POW to the Spirit Combat skill? Does it boost the effective POW so all Magic skills have a better Modifier? How does it aid resisting in Spirit Combat?

I believe this makes sense with two clarifications. 1) It is indeed that those influenced can use axes (in which troll skill is generally low) at their skills with mauls or maces. 2) In older rules I believe crushing weapons and impaling weapons did less damage to War Trees and War Trees count as Aldryami. In RBoM, they did not mention any types of weapons doing less damage to War Trees nor that War Trees count as Aldryami. I believe the missing verbiage needs to be added to Animate War Tree, which is where the War Tree stats are located.

Ride River Horse - other than the extra 'only' mentioned above, it states 'Anyone can ride the river horse, but there is a limit of ten passengers per spell point'. But Ride River Horse is a two point spell, and nonstackable. So the sentence could instead state '...but there is a limit of twenty passengers.' That would avoid any confusion.

If I played a Storm Bull and some Trickster used the Lie spell to tell me I was always afraid of Chaos... I might be afraid, but it wouldn't stop my duty, or lessen the adrenaline rush. So, I would plan to go into battle against Chaos while immediately casting Face Chaos to overcome my faux fear. After a few battles, I would realize I didn't actually feel the fear. Then I would go back to using those Rune Points for Impede Chaos. YGMV

In Scuba, they will tell you that a 2 mile per hour current is the best you can possibly swim against. That is with scuba fins. I remember they said the currents around Molokini were about 5-6 mph, and if you get caught in it...they will gather everyone else for a half hour or so, then come sail after you. Probably catch you in an hour or two. So just relax for two hours, don't even try to swim against that current. The currents underwater at Cozumel were 2-6 mph. If a human without swim fins can get to 5 miles an hour, they are an Olympic level swimmer, doing professional swim strokes for a short time. Michael Phelps topped out at 6 mph. So, yes 5 mph is a very good swim speed. Expect the average adventurer to top out at 2 mph because they wear gear. Now if they have 150% swim, allow them to exceed 2 mph. YGMV, but only ducks, newtlings, and the like should be able to achieve 5 mph in Glorantha while wearing gear. And they should be easily able to exceed 5 mph. Eat your heart out Phelps.

My players did encounter a male Thed shaman who had acquired the Chaotic feature of additional penises. Had 4 total, of different sizes and locations.

Welcome!

My house rule for Heal Wound has always been that it goes on SR 1 regardless of MPs expended. It didn't make sense to me that it had no other advantage over a PC with Heal 6 than no DXSR and could heal slightly more. e.g. "I used the same MPs at nearly the same time, and it still cost me a whole Rune Point?' After all, when stacked with Cure Chaos Wound, it is 1 SR. Right? No need to expend MPs, therefore no delay. Which reminds me of the inconsistent wording for Cure Chaos Wound (CCW). "This spell is of no use by itself and cannot be stacked on its own, but can be stacked with any spell used to cure a wound or other affliction received from a Chaotic creature." Notice the 'no use by itself'. Then it says "The spell also completely cures the victim of broo impregnation and removes its consequences. It also cures diseases received from a Chaotic creature." So, if the first sentence is accurate, what other spell is stacked with CCW to cure broo impregnation? There isn't one, hence, it must be of 'use by itself'. And you hardly need to stack it with Cure All Disease, since that would cure all disease without needing to use a RP to stack CCW with it. By using CCW, you are getting a Cure All Disease cheaper - but only for diseases caused by chaos creatures. Hence, there are two specifically included examples where CCW is of use all by itself.

In my view: Sorcery requires a certain amount of Free INT to get more than piddling results. Geomancy does not require any Strength. There is no real need to put Intensity into Duration (10 minutes should be sufficient to understand where you go next). So, expect to put Intensity into Range. Now, if you forgot your key in your home and have a handy map of it, 10 or 20 meters should do it. So, you need to be within 10 meters of the object, and the object's location is displayed on the map. But in a fantasy setting, we are really talking about learning where the legendary X is located on e.g. a map of Dragon Pass. You probably need to wander all around Dragon Pass, casting Geomancy every 10 kilometers (Range 15, requiring 14 Free Int). Let's say you get to Balazar from the Griffin Mountain book. You decide you really want to find Elkoi's Ring. It has been hidden, buried, for centuries. Be prepared to wander every 'hex' on that map and cast Geomancy in nearly every one. It will finally pay off and you will get a location on the map. When you get close to that location, it will just look like a grassland (or whatever). You make a map of the trees, rock outcroppings, and bushes and cast Geomancy again. Boom, you know where to dig! Let's say you wander SnakePipe Hollow trying to find the statue the earth temple sent you to find. You all fail to find a secret door by random searching. Cast Geomancy with e.g. Range 100 meters and Boom, you know where to concentrate your Search efforts. You do not get to find the location of the Unbreakable Sword casting Geomancy 1 because a map of Genertela happens to be within 10 meters.

In my game: That is one great use of the spell Mindspeech. Otherwise the fetch needs to use something like charades. And its spirit form may not have much manual dexterity. Every shaman should learn at least a point of Mindspeech.

That reminded me of my tertiary Chalana Arroy character, Gavving, on the Cradle. Gavving slept a familiar in the first encounter and one of the many non-player allies killed it. But Gavving couldn't tell which one and none of his friends would tell him. Gavving slept a Lunar early in the second encounter and our minotaur Storm Bull, Mummar, picked him up and tossed him overboard. Gavving stared at Mummar, and Mummar said 'He wanted to be with friends.' Gavving gave up casting Sleep as he clearly couldn't protect the targets. In the Corflu section Gavving got crushed by a giant snake and failed his DI. My main character took a couple rounds to get there, but then made short work of that snake. We mourned a few our of our and many of the other defenders. In total 2 of my 5 characters survived the entire campaign.

That makes some good sense.