Summoning demons and spirits

[smiorgan]

Tonight I picked up Magic World again.

Reading the sorcery section:

Am I correct that the summon demon spell description provides 2 incompatible rules to determine the free INT cost of bound demons?

Also, RAW the description of summon spirit implies that the one use binding of spirits costs 1 permanent POW and that the permanent binding costs the same? 

Do both summon elemental and summon spirit cost just 1 MP?

 

[Questbird]

2 hours ago, smiorgan said:

Tonight I picked up Magic World again.

Reading the sorcery section:

Am I correct that the summon demon spell description provides 2 incompatible rules to determine the free INT cost of bound demons?

 

 

 

I don't think they are incompatible. The Summon Demon spell takes 1 free INT. Then each demon type you learn to summon takes 1 free INT per D8 of POW of the Demon type. So if Tha'aarg B'Nana learns to summon a Grishblash demon (perfect for raiding Olive Groves) with 2D8 POW

Tha'aarg would use 1 free INT for the Summon Demon

and 2 free INT for the Grishblash demon type

for a total of 3 free INT.

It means that a sorcerer can only have pacts with a few Demons, and that specialist conjurers wouldn't have much other Sorcery at their command* (but with all those summoned types, they might not need it..)

* unless they can increase their INT of course

Edited March 24, 2023 by Questbird

[Mugen]

On 3/23/2023 at 11:29 PM, smiorgan said:

Do both summon elemental and summon spirit cost just 1 MP?

I have the same issue with the Sorcery rules in the BGB, in which Summoning spells cost 1 MP too.

It seems to me part of the rules were lost when the Elric! system was simplified to put less emphasis on demons and elementals.

[tooley1chris]

This is so often the case when a bunch of rules are thrown together into 1 set. 4 people working on it with specialization in individual aspects. Stuff gets mucked up occasionally. 

Thank goodness the system mechanics are so adaptable and forgiving.

Honestly for some of my MW supplements I was pulling my hair out trying to differentiate between one set of rules and another to make it work. Trying to figure out what makes the most sense. Then I EVENTUALLY remember that it's an RPG that's supposed to be fun. Make it make sense (balanced) but try to leave in the fun part. Some of my supplements probably don't make sense to some. That's alright. Use them or don't, but hopefully there's SOMETHING there that helps make it fun for the players and (sometimes) for the Chroniclers. Gotta be fun for both, afterall. 

If I had ONE piece of advice for either in the BRP system based games it would be that. Don't try to rationalize every written word. Every "rule". Make it make sense in a way that makes it enjoyable at YOUR table. If something seems over/under powered then add a bonus asthetic that makes it COOL AND FUN.

I once wrote an entire Necronomicon of spells (that I could NEVER post here because of reasons) for a player who wanted to play a necromancer in the Southern Reaches of all places. It utilized a LOT of the core spells/material and made some of the spells look REALLY cool without a lot of mechanical benefits over the original spells. Fun was had by all. That's what it's all about.

As a side note, I'd like to apologize to a lot of the very patient people on these forums that I've riddled with "Rule" clarifications over the years. You know who you are😀

[Chaot]

Do not get me started!

Summoning has always been all over the place. It ranged from door-stop demons (demon tribbles with the absolutely lowest scores possible in order to minimize problems and maximize your summoning skill check, their only valid use was holding doors open...) to the procedural nightmare of Elric! where the only real answer was to bind a demon into armor and then another one into a weapon.

Darcsyde was on the right track with their chaos critter rules from the Corum book.