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Some character creation questions


Hyperlexic

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hi, I’m gearing up to hopefully run a game next year. so I need to bone up on the rules.

by background I’ve owned every edition of HW and HQ but I’ve only fitfully played them and I’ve never played HQ2/HQ:G.

I’ll post a running stream of questions as I create some characters...

First question: how exactly do Companions work with creation? Do the 3 Companion abilities at their ratings take 3 of the ability “slots”?

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4 hours ago, Hyperlexic said:

First question: how exactly do Companions work with creation? Do the 3 Companion abilities at their ratings take 3 of the ability “slots”?

No, you use one for the Companion, and then the companion gets a species/occupation ability plus two additional abilities (plus points applied to those abilities).

However, this is one place where I've occasionally added a House Rule as I feel it overly encourages the player to take a companion and 'punishes' those who don't.  One option is that instead of 5 abilities, you get to choose 7.  If you choose a companion, then that's 1 ability.  If you add abilities to the companion, you get less for yourself.  And then the available points can be spread across any of the abilities whether self or companion.

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On 12/2/2017 at 4:41 PM, Hyperlexic said:

second question - what’s the difference between a breakout ability and a feat? Eg Vargast the sample character has “a magical lightning spear (a breakout ability of the Air Rune); and a breakout feat from the Air Rune.”

They are Breakout Abilities, but also follow the additional rules for Feats on HQG p139. They imply greater fictional permissions to do awesome stuff, but also have strings attached. The Feats described in the cult writeups are also a handy benchmark for the border between Initiate-level magic and what Devotees can do. Any Orlanthi Initiate who approaches Orlanth through the Air Rune could conceivably fly, but it takes the secret of Vanganth's Breath to carry your companions with you or traverse the highest mountain peaks like Alakoring Dragonbreaker.

Edited by JonL
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2 hours ago, JonL said:

They are Breakout Abilities, but also follow the additional rules for Feats on HQG p139. They imply greater fictional permissions to do awesome stuff, but also have strings attached. The Feats described in the cult writeups are also a handy benchmark for the border between Initiate-level magic and what Devotees can do. Any Orlanthi Initiate who approaches Orlanth through the Air Rune could conceivably fly, but it takes the secret of Vanganth's Breath to carry your companions with you or traverse the highest mountain peaks like Alakoring Dragonbreaker.

Thanks.  And having read some of the Feats in the in the intervening time - it looks like most of them are quite broadly defined, almost a version of heroforming.  For example the example character has the active ability 'lightning bolts' (an initiate level breakout) but then has the feat 'The Thunderer' which from it's description is basically heroforming Orlanth.

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That's right. A Breakout Ability under a Rune can also be an exception to needing 1w to use the Rune for overt magical effects. You for example could have the Communication Rune at 17 with  +1 "Can Understand Anything Said About Me." hanging off of it.  That's advancement-efficient compared to having a separate Ability, but you give up the ability to Augment it with the Rune.

Similar trade-offs surround hanging a Grimoire to Law/Moon rune, to a Keyword like "Warlock," or taking  the Grimoire as separate Ability.  If for example a Loksalmi hangs a Grimoire from a "Man of All" Keyword instead of the Law Rune, Law could thus be used as an Augment when casting spells with that Grimoire.

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