Draconic magic

[Squaredeal Sten]

The Bestiary section on Dragonewts,  pages 42-43 , informs us about Draconic magic.

“Effects” Soul Blast and Terrify are not given an equivalent to spirit magic MPs or Rune magic points.  And on p.42, it says in a different context (“casting”) that Effects in general “are not spells”.

Question:  Are magical defenses such as countermagic or Shield effective defenses against Soul Blast and / or Terrify?

[Revilo Divad Of Dyoll]

I think it depends.  In the "real" Glorantha, I would say no, they can only be blocked by mystic defenses (or a power learned on a heroquest).  Neither is totally unbalancing since they both require a Pow v. Pow roll.

[Andrew M]

YGMV. I am uncertain it would depend on what I felt fitted the mood and theme of the encounter and I may even have different opinions in different encounters in the same campaign, which fits the Draconic stuff is weird motif

[Godlearner]

On 11/13/2022 at 11:49 PM, Squaredeal Sten said:

Question:  Are magical defenses such as countermagic or Shield effective defenses against Soul Blast and / or Terrify?

Do you consider that all magic in Glorantha comes from the same source? If yes, then magical defenses should work. 

[Squaredeal Sten]

31 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

Do you consider that all magic in Glorantha comes from the same source? If yes, then magical defenses should work. 

I don't consider such basic world building issues, but instead work with Glorantha as presented.  

But if those magical defenses do work, this presents a problem because they are handled in terms of magic points.  Basically two points of counter magic = 2 pts of spirit magic or 1 pt of rune magic.  But the draconic effects don't have such values attached as written.  So  if they work  then how do I make them work?  

[Godlearner]

2 hours ago, Squaredeal Sten said:

But the draconic effects don't have such values attached as written. 

Terrify: This effect costs 4 magic points per round. 

Soul-blast: The POW of the dragonewt is matched against that of its target via a blast of green energy. If the dragonewt succeeds, the target loses 2D6 magic points.

For Terrify we have an answer. For Soul Blast I would say its magic point strength is based on its strength of 2D6. If a target has a Shield 4 for example it would stop the Soul-blast if the roll is 8 or less.