Blindhamster

IMO, it's because not only is it slow, its comparatively unlikely to be successful compared to Rune Magic or quite possibly spirit magic. If a character wants to be good at spirit magic, they need a good POW, how likely that is depends on the tables character generation rules, but it's also a lot easier to increase POW than any other attribute. It's not unlikely that a character made to be good at spirit magic will have a good POW at creation If a character wants to be good at their rune spells, they need one really good rune, maybe a couple. Which is easy to have at creation. If a character wants to have similarly good chances of success on their Sorcery... they pretty much cant. You can put a few points into a few spells (20,10,10 specifically) if you're a philosopher, and likewise Lhankor Mhy cult gives a few more (25, 10, 10). The character has personal experience they can possibly put in as well. (+25 or +10 per spell). Which means a sorcerer probably opts to know 3 or 4 sorcery spells at creation. They can possibly get a solid 70% on one spell, and 45 on two others (assuming all three spells they know were Lhankor Mhy spells as well). Sorcery requires a high INT, which means the character probably wasn't as easily able to allocate points toward POW and CHA, so they're unlikely to have +15 from category modifier, they might have +5 or +10 though. So Generously they may know one spell at around 80% and two at 55% (assuming they hugely neglected other skills with personal experience in a way that other characters do not need to). The above assumption that all the spells were Lhankor Mhy ones actually means the speed of casting doesn't matter as Lhankor Mhy spells aren't really battle spells (Logician might be for a general though!), if a character wants an offensive spell like create wall of flame or Finger of fire, their best likely starting % is 55.... the equivalent to a barely above average Rune or a POW of 11... The above isn't taking into account the fact you can either make the spell even slower by using singing, dancing, meditating to get a bonus on the casting, it also isn't taking into account the fact you might have the ability to use bird hearts etc as a material component, or the fact the particular season, week or day can also positively or negatively impact the casting, but that's because the former compounds the issue further (lets make it even slower, now the encounter is over by the time the sorcerer does their thing) Which is the problem I've watched the sorcerer player at my table have, not only does his spells take longer than the other characters magic, but he's typically much less likely to pass. Which just isn't... fun. I get the desire to stick close to notes you found, its commendable, but the rules still need to be fun. For the Sorcerer PC in my game, I'm considering either giving a blanket bonus to all his spell skills to make them a bit more reliable, or reducing the preparation time (which, IMO is the best route), if prep time was 5 SR same as any other action, but then actually bumping MP into Sorcerery still increased the SR by 2 each time, I feel like it'd help a lot, now they're slower than Spirit magic if doing anything beyond the most basic intensity 1 sorcery, but they can still do a bit more.

Think it's you that maybe needs an attitude check to be honest. Icebrand literally is just saying they don't take forum posts as canon - which is a totally fair and, in many ways, correct approach. On top of that, they stated english isn't their first language (although, frankly, nothing they said was worded in a snarly or rude manner - and English IS my first language). Anyway, yeah I agree that Sorcery kind of sucks currently, it's too slow to be useful as a PC thing typically (except for non combat applications, where it can be EXCELLENT, so long as the sorcerer PC is clever and remembers what they can do). Thing is, Sorcery is still potentially very powerful, it's just it's powerful on a macro scale rather than a micro scale. I asked a similar question on Facebook quite recently and Jeff noted that when it comes to wars, Sorcery is more powerful because its only real limitation is magic points available to put into it and the preparedness of the casters/general that commands them. Spirit magic is the opposite, on a micro level, its very very powerful for anyone that has a decent POW, but it's overall power pales compared to what a battalion of sorcerers could potentially pull off. That said, it's still really not a good thing for most PCs to go into, at least not without a very very strong grasp of the mechanics and an understanding that they aren't the flashy magic user. IMO, Sorcery should have its initial preparation reduced to 5SR same as any other magic, but still increase in 2SR incremements for points beyond it, that would help it not feel quite so awkward for PCs, in addition, Starting sorcerers really need more points available to put into their magic skills, spirit magic is all down to your POW, roll well and you'll have silly high TNs, Runes are easy to have at 80%+ in too, but Sorcery? Nope. Which I think is half the issue, it's slow, and not impactful without making it even slower but also significantly more likely to fail than other magics - which means players end up spending a lot of wasted time in encounters, or just not doing the thing they wanted to be good at when encounters do come up (again, I agree that if you emphasise non-combat with sorcery chosen, it can be great, Logician is mental for example). Just look at the example spells above, 55% on the best spell, 15% on the worst, and those % will be at -10% as often as they're at +10% too. Spirit magic might have similar low odds but characters aren't built around spirit magic, everyone just gets it (except Sorcerers who very likely didn't get it so they could have sorcery instead!)

considering characters dodge skill is already likely to be worse than their weapon skills (at least their preferred ones) that seems like a bad idea tbh

I think if you track dodge and parry penalties together, dodge is fairly useless except where the character has essentially no comabt skills and has an amazing dex. at least with them tracked separately, there is a point where trying to dodge is likely to come up. So for my table at least, I'll stick to tracking their -20s separately.

if there was a way to show someone with ambidexterity through a trait system or something, or perhaps through particularly high dex, treating each hand as separate for parries would be good

i run it as subsequent parries after the first (regardless of what weapon/shield is used) are at -20% cumulative. subsequent dodges after the first are at -20% cumulative. it's easier to dodge and parry than to parry twice because your weapon has to get to multiple places in shorter time, similarly dodging multiple times is more difficult because your body has to move around even more contortionist like. This is a reasonable read of the rules as well IMO. The note that Jason has said ALL subsequent defenses regardless of type are at cumulative -20s is baseless from the rules, and isn't MGF either. So until its changed and in the actual rules that way, i'd ignore it as a fairly silly approach. Tbh, shields should probably have had a benefit to parries as well, seeing as parrying blows is literally their purpose, either through higher than normal hp, or reducing the penalty for subsequent attempts. But hey ho.

This actually makes so much sense. I actually also love this

i assumed there were requirements to get it at all (it isnt currently a thing in RQ:G so i don't know the specifics). Yes it should require at least Professional level in both ride and a bow skill.

if you check, i too had said 1d6 damage, following normal fire damage rules...

think i prefer the simplicity of just saying your Bow skills are no longer limited by your Ride skill.

again, not based on how its setup. Says lanters with candles go out if dropped, oil and whicks can be dangerous, roll on the following table. Not saying you're wrong in theory, but the way the system is setup, perhaps the type of oil used for lanterns is more flamable because people believe it will burn and the world is magical? who knows. Either way, it has a 15% chance to set a fire by the rules. - for clarity, the reason i hightlight this isn't because I don't think taking into account the materials around and if they'd burn makes sense, it's because if you don't *know* lamp oil doesn't burn well and probably wouldn't burn at all on a stone floor, you'll just go with the 15% regardless of location.

the reason i raised it, is because the rules for lamps include the possibility of them creating a fire if dropped 15% chance of it happening when dropped.

this is a fair point, although it makes the idea that dropping a lamp can create a fire questionable too

yes your suggestion for following the fire rules is exactly the conclusion i came to.

just basing that on core book page 159. It doesn't matter which part of the makeshift bomb hits the target assuming its brittle material. Potentially if its meant to be harder, it could be dex x4 or even 3. that being said, treating it as a weapon skill isn't a terrible idea if you want to limit its effectiveness I guess?