Can I pick your minds for Sorcery help?

[ROOTless]

So... I'm making a sorceror for RQG.
But I could really use some advice and/or feed back.

1st - Tradition:
I'm going for Irripi Ontor for this character. I don't own the old sourcebooks. All I know about Malkionism and Aeolianism is what's on RQG, p. 389. That's plenty for rolling dice, but hardly enough to convincingly roleplay a convincing character.
That leaves LM and IO/Lunar sorcery.
So I'm picking IO, as per CoR: LW, p. 82ff

2nd - Characteristics:
As far as I can tell, for the sorceror, INT is god. Let's get this as high as possible.
Next on the list is POW. This provides MPs, helps with POW vs POW rolls, and is necessary for POW sacrifices.
Third priority is either CON or CHA. CHA might win out, simply because it will also add to Magical skills.

3rd - Runes:
This of course ties back to Characteristics in some ways. During character creation, I expect to favour Fire/Sky - for the INT. Second highest shoul probably be Moon. To boost POW, but also to use it to Augment Magical skills.
In fact, after game start, Moon might will be a more valuable Rune.
Fortunatly, these two Runes are among those favoured by IO, so that's a Win-Win as far as I can tell.
As for Power/Form Runes at 75%? Truth and Man. Truth matches IO (and LM) and Man... why would a sorceror want to go live like a beast? 😉

4th - Homeland + Occupation:
Probably the least important choice. I'm going with Lunar Tarsh, just to match IO.
Celestial Lore matches a choice made later.
Occupation: Philosopher. Because duh.

Now for the Interesting Parts - Sorcery.
5th - Runes:
IO gives the Command technique and the Moon Rune.
The Philosopher offers a second technique, as well as another rune mastered.
As for the technique, I'm thinking Summon, but is there a better choice? From what I understand, all techniques are already available, at double cost.
The other Rune will probably be the Fire/Sky rune. It matches the notes on p. 389 about Lunar Sorcery being focused on manipulating the Moon and Fire/Sky runes. It also offers the minor runes of Earth and Water.
And of course, it matches better with the spells I've looked at.

Speaking of...
6th - Starting Spells:
This is where IO has a nice edge over LM.
* Commune with (Planet:Artia) (Command+Fire/Sky)
* Discern (Constellation: Young Good) (Summon+Fire/Sky)
- these two offer interesting options for an edge when casting spells using the relevant runes. Other planets and constellations might well be useful too. But these might well allow for the use of Sorcery much more *in situ*, without having to spend days in ritual activities and preparations.
* Enhance INT (Summon+Fire/Sky)
- because every sorceror wants/needs more INT.

Any suggestions for the next 3 spells?

[metcalph]

Moonfire - all purpose destruction spell (except in combat).  Need a house removed?  Moonfire it! 

Geomancy: find anything in the world. 

Logician: become all-knowing on one topic. 

Choose spells that are not easily duplicated by shamans and priests (ie forget learning neutralise wound). 

Edited Wednesday at 09:39 PM by metcalph

[Jens]

I made similar choices for my first Irrippi Ontor Sorcerer.

Characteristics- you want to start with 20 INT (roll of 18 + Fire Rune highest). After that, POW, DEX, and CHA are useful; a 13 CON is nice; SIZ and STR don't matter.

Runes- similarly went Fire, Moon, Truth, Man

Homeland- any Lunar, need Philosopher for the techniques and spells

Techniques- Fire and Summon are the best pairing with Moon and Command

Starting spells- From Philosopher IMHO Enhance INT and Logician are the killer combo; any knowledge skill you want at 100% or higher? Yes please! I added Summon Fire Elemental, and stuck one in my heirloom crystal as both an MP battery and emergency combatant. From the IO list I went with Pierce Veil and Logical Clarity as nice long term spells to always have up, and Moonfire to have one (deadly) combat spell.

Skills- for fun I had him concentrate on Spirit Lore and Meditation as his sage skills, and put his bonus skills into Spirit Combat, Spirit Dance, and Spirit Travel so he could join Jakaleel and awaken his Fetch as soon as he became a Sage- nothing like an illuminated Sage/Witch/Red Goddess initiate with an Allied Spirit and Fetch to cast his spirit magic coupled with nasty sorcery and Lunar Magic.

[ROOTless]

13 hours ago, Jens said:

I made similar choices for my first Irrippi Ontor Sorcerer.

<snip>

Runes- similarly went Fire, Moon, Truth, Man

How did you start with so many Runes mastered though?

Picking up the Truth Rune is certainly on my list, but that's for the future - and that limits spell choices.

[French Desperate WindChild]

there is something, to keep in mind with lunars.. they have the college of magic.

So somewhere (at least if I were your GM), you don't need to restrict your starting choices on what IO proposes (I would say that orlanthi sorcerers - aka LM - have not the same opportunity) So, my first answer is a question :

What kind of sorcerer do you want to play ? some fight support ? healer ? investigator ? ruins explorer ? army scout ? empire's spy ?  "inspirational" merchant/negociator ? etc. And even when you have this answer, you may have to decide "how". For example will your spy use communication or discretion to obtain some secret ?

that would provide you indications on :

- some passion ( devotion, loyalty,...)

- some oaths or contracts. You may serve the army or some secret entities as they paid your studies and / or teached you some weird things

- what third characteristic you should prefer (INT and POW ,as you said, are the best 2 choices), Dex may be better than Cha, Cha may be better than Con, Con may be better than Dex, it depends a lot on how you wish to play

- what could be the runes (your runes, not the sorcery runes). Of course fire, moon, could be fine. But if you want to be a sorcerer attracted by the wild, studying how the "nature" (or how the monsters in the nature) can help the empire, you may have 75% in beast rune. Of course your colleagues may consider you as less than these barbarians the empire defeated years ago. But you don't care you are what you are.

 

then choose your first spell, the one you really want , the one helping you to do your "job" in the way you want to do your job.

Now you have your first spell, you can choose the technics and runes (the sorcery runes) of course those helping you to cast your main spell.

Once you have runes and technics, select other spells to manage three (potentially contradictory) constraints

- the spells you want

- the spells using the same runes and technics

- the spells making your job more confortable

Is IO a good cult for you ? Yes probably. The cult detected your potential, teached you  badic sorcery, understood you had specific (no, not weird, specific, really, it is fine to study werwolves...) ambition and open the doors of the college of magic.

Maybe you are not dedicated to IO main activities BUT your talents and spells will help the empire. After all, you can be an IO initiate and not a sorcerer, so why a IO sorcerer should learn IO sorcery spells only  ?

of course, if you don't use IO spells gives you less % in your favorite spells but I prefer 50% in what I want to play than 75% in what I don't want to play 😉 

by the way, if you have to pick up spells that are not in your short list (because the cult teaches you spells but none of them are what you want) select those you can cast before (outside) your play sessions. And use it to get some bonus for your main spells. For example enhance INT may not be your favorite and not usefull at all during your fights if you want to case fire balls BUT, if you had cast it before the session, maybe after 2 or 3 failures, we don't care, you may have regen your MP for the start of the session (just check with your GM). So pick up with the minimum of skill % those "bonus" spells and give them enough duration to cover a season.

 

[Jens]

7 hours ago, ROOTless said:

How did you start with so many Runes mastered though?

Those were the personal rune choices (60/40/75/75), the mastered ones were Fire and Summon from Philosopher, Moon and Command from IO. I also spent 1 additional POW to master Truth, in order to unlock Logician and Pierce Veil (GM allowed spending POW for RP or Mastery before starting the campaign).

[jajagappa]

9 hours ago, ROOTless said:

How did you start with so many Runes mastered though?

There's a difference between personal Runes and "mastered Runes".

The former give you natural ability to augment or inspire on top of your spell rolls. The latter are simply learned and are what is required to cast the spell. As Jens noted, for the latter, he got 2 from Occupation, 2 from Cult, then sacrificed POW to gain another.

[ROOTless]

1 hour ago, jajagappa said:

There's a difference between personal Runes and "mastered Runes".

The former give you natural ability to augment or inspire on top of your spell rolls. The latter are simply learned and are what is required to cast the spell. As Jens noted, for the latter, he got 2 from Occupation, 2 from Cult, then sacrificed POW to gain another.

I got that much. My problem was that I'd read Jens' post to the effect that he'd Mastered (for the purpose of Sorcery), 5 Runes - 1 more than the 4 I could find without Aeolianism etc. Sacrificing POW for it in play (or during character creation with GM's permission, as in this case) covers the last one.

The missing piece of the puzzle was the last sentence in Jens' most recent post.

[ROOTless]

7 hours ago, French Desperate WindChild said:

there is something, to keep in mind with lunars.. they have the college of magic.

So somewhere (at least if I were your GM), you don't need to restrict your starting choices on what IO proposes (I would say that orlanthi sorcerers - aka LM - have not the same opportunity) So, my first answer is a question :

Absolutely! Awesome post. However...

This is mostly just me thinking "out loud" to see if I'm understanding the Sorcery rules correctly. I have not been able to find a GM, nor beg, bribe or blackmail anyone into GMing for me. Yet. So this poor soul will probably just end up as an NPC in something I GM for someone else. As usual. 🙂

[Jens]

Truth isn't vital to the character, just unlocks some good spells- without it I'd likely go with Enhance INT, Summon Fire Elemental, and Create Wall of Flames as the Philosopher Fire/Summon spells, and Neutralize Magic, Solace of the Goddess, and either Commune or Discern as the IO ones.