Egregious munchkinnery!

[Akhôrahil]

5 minutes ago, David Scott said:

As your shaman mentor stands aside at the start of the sacred ceremony, tuts, and the low whisper of God learner is the last thing you hear as the Horned Man stamps on you with his big horned foot.

If the cosmos consistently slaps down munchkins, how do you explain Argrath? 🙂

[David Scott]

4 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

how do you explain Argrath?

Argrath and the Horned Man were friends at school. When the Red Emperor kicked sand in the Horned Man's eyes, Argrath  sorted the bully out. At his shamanic initiation, he married the Horned Man's sister. When the Red Emperor appeared at the wedding disguised as the Bad Man, the Horned Man's sister threw him out.

[soltakss]

8 hours ago, David Scott said:

As your shaman mentor stands aside at the start of the sacred ceremony, tuts, and the low whisper of God learner is the last thing you hear as the Horned Man stamps on you with his big horned foot.

(apologies to egregious munchkinnery thread, but that was just not in the spirit of this thread)...

I Dodge ...

[Kloster]

On 11/24/2020 at 8:11 PM, PhilHibbs said:

You can't take a sword onto the spirit plane.

It now seems you can. Too bad for Son Goku and his Truefist and Fist Trance.

[Akhôrahil]

On 11/24/2020 at 8:11 PM, PhilHibbs said:

You can't take a sword onto the spirit plane.

Word of Scott disagrees:

"Everything has a spirit, so when you discorporate, everything you carry appears as its spirit form (this needn't look the same). Those items unless specially prepared are unlikely to function as they did in the Middle World. Generally speaking, magic items and enchanted metals, function as expected. Weapons are already covered in the spirit magic section. If you want armour - Spirit Armor Enchantment." 

[Stephen L]

On 11/24/2020 at 7:11 PM, PhilHibbs said:

You can't take a sword onto the spirit plane

I believe that swords have to be checked in through the “oversized items” portal at the spirit plane checkin.  It’s just beyond desk H.

On 11/24/2020 at 10:20 AM, Akhôrahil said:

throw up a 30+ point Sword Trance and win every round of Spirit Combat against him

I wonder what the Bad man is doing for the 3 rounds whilst you’re summoning up the magic points for the spell.

In my campaign he’d pull silly faces, requiring concentration rolls from the Shaman-to-be.

Once the spell is cast, he’ll probably remember a prior engagement, and pop-off for a bit.  But don’t go away, I’ll be right back.  In about 15 mins or so.  We can pick up where we left off.  And, in apology for the inconvenience, I’ll bring back a bun or two to share.

[Kloster]

26 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

Once the spell is cast, he’ll probably remember a prior engagement, and pop-off for a bit.  But don’t go away, I’ll be right back.  In about 15 mins or so.  We can pick up where we left off.  And, in apology for the inconvenience, I’ll bring back a bun or two to share.

As we are speaking of egregiousness, the spell just needs to be extended to at least 6 hours (max duration of the discorporation).

28 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

I wonder what the Bad man is doing for the 3 rounds whilst you’re summoning up the magic points for the spell.

You cast the spell before discorporation, of course.Why wait for 3 rounds before having the effect.

40 minutes ago, Stephen L said:

I believe that swords have to be checked in through the “oversized items” portal at the spirit plane checkin.  It’s just beyond desk H.

Nice.

[PhilHibbs]

4 hours ago, Akhôrahil said:

Word of Scott disagrees:

"Everything has a spirit, so when you discorporate, everything you carry appears as its spirit form (this needn't look the same)..." 

Interesting. Where is that from?

[Akhôrahil]

1 minute ago, PhilHibbs said:

Interesting. Where is that from?

Question thread 2.

[Bill the barbarian]

4 hours ago, Stephen L said:

I believe that swords have to be checked in through the “oversized items” portal at the spirit plane checkin.  It’s just beyond desk H.

On 11/24/2020 at 3:20 AM, Akhôrahil said:

Bureaucracy in the Spirit World, shades of Beetlejuice!

[jajagappa]

5 hours ago, Stephen L said:

I believe that swords have to be checked in through the “oversized items” portal at the spirit plane checkin.  It’s just beyond desk H.

When I ran my adventurers into the Spirit Plane awhile back, they were accompanying the shaman Joseph Greenbeak.  Swords (and other mundane objects) could not be brought along when they discorporated, but they ingested various herbs that could.  That included Sword Grass, a diminutive type of grass about 2 inches long with two side "blades" beside the main grass blade.  On the Spirit Plane, these manifested like large grass-like swords for their wielders, and the PCs could use their Sword skill to use.  (It was an HQG game, so didn't have to worry about specific damage stats - in RQG, I'd probably have it lower than their spirit combat damage, but with the assumption that the PC's using them would be more like to succeed than in spirit combat.)

[Akhôrahil]

15 minutes ago, Bill the barbarian said:

Bureaucracy in the Spirit World, shades of Beetlejuice!

Kralorelan Celestial Bureaucracy ought to be awesome!

[Bill the barbarian]

7 minutes ago, Akhôrahil said:

Kralorelan Celestial Bureaucracy ought to be awesome!

That would be a whole new level!

[Stephen L]

17 hours ago, Kloster said:

You cast the spell before discorporation, of course.Why wait for 3 rounds before having the effect.

Me thinks you're overanalysing a post that's trying to be funny.  So, I'm no good a humour, don't rub it in!

17 hours ago, Kloster said:

the spell just needs to be extended to at least 6 hours (max duration of the discorporation).

Yes, but then the Bad man could arrive with his tickle stick, and tickle the would-be-shaman until he drops his sword.

Putting jokes aside (which, probably, is to going off topic for this thread).  The tickle stick represents dispel magic.  It's only against a 1 point rune spell.

For me, the encounter with bad man is helping you find your own inner strength and power, (aka fetch and shamanistic abilities), so paring away the external layers of the the would-be-shaman would be entirely appropriate, especially if that is dispelling *divine* magic.

[Kloster]

2 hours ago, Stephen L said:

Putting jokes aside (which, probably, is to going off topic for this thread).  The tickle stick represents dispel magic.  It's only against a 1 point rune spell.

Completely true. I wrote exactly the same thing last Tuesday.

2 hours ago, Stephen L said:

For me, the encounter with bad man is helping you find your own inner strength and power, (aka fetch and shamanistic abilities), so paring away the external layers of the the would-be-shaman would be entirely appropriate, especially if that is dispelling *divine* magic.

Fully agree here. I wrote: "His role is to test the would be shaman, but I also expect him to have a bag of tricks of his own. "

[Kloster]

On 5/4/2020 at 9:26 AM, PhilHibbs said:

If it's in a matrix, it's POWx5, not a rune. So if you need a spell that you have a poor rune rating in, pop it in a matrix. Gets around the CHA limit on RP as well.

A bit of thread necromancy. While rereading the thread, I found this (perfectly valid) comment by Phil. You can go further, because if you put an attack condition (RQG p250), there is no roll. The Spell is just cast, but not by you. The no roll rule is not explicitly written, but as nobody is casting the spell, nobody can roll for it. And this is how it worked in RQ3 (iirc).

Another one: If you bind a spirit in a matrix or dominate it for a long duration and have him possess an animal, you can bring him to a cult ceremony and ask him to spend 1 MP. Given time, he will become a Lay member, and you can ask the priest to teach him spells. Then, having the spirit in a matrix, you are able to use those spells without having them count for your CHA allowance (and of course, you can use it's MP). Going further, you could even have him become initiated and having Rune spells (but you still have to use your own RP to cast them).

[Eff]

Egregious munchkinery on a spiritual level: 

Remove Legs
Donate said legs to your friendly tula priest of the Black Sun
Blood Feast
Regrow Limb
Having successfully managed to wreak havoc with the Basko cult's themes, get out of town/join the Seven Mothers before you get Two Thousand Maniacs summoned against you. 
Bask in your sheer Tricksterism. 

[Bill the barbarian]

19 hours ago, Kloster said:

A bit of thread necromancy

And that is why I like this guy!

[Akhôrahil]

Elemental Zoo

Since elementals have rolled characteristics, this means that they can be more or less good (and you might even hope for a low POW in order to Command them more easily).

Summon Elemental:
"Having once successfully summoned an elemental, the
deity sends the same elemental every time the adventurer
summons an elemental of that size and type. If the caster
summons more than one elemental of that size, they can
choose which one they summon in the future."

This means that it will be beneficial to have a "stable" of elementals to choose from - depending on how your table plays it, you will either have to make estimates from what happens (like your Command roll for POW), or the GM may tell you to roll it up and run it yourself, but either way, you should be able to get an idea about its characteristics. Especially if you're unhappy with the one you got, make sure to find the opportunity to summon as many elementals of that size and type as you can handle at the same time, in order to create a better selection for future castings (when you can pick any one of them when summoning a single one).

As a wise summoner once said, "Gotta catch 'em all!"

Oh, and depending on what your GM thinks about these things, remember that an elemental you track for re-use might be able to receive a POW gain roll during play.

(The same reasoning applies to Ancestors, by the way.)

Edited January 27, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[Akhôrahil]

Ablative Anti-Dispel Formula

Because Dispel-type magic goes for the largest defensive spell first, if you have critical offensive spells cast on you or an item (like an enormously-boosted Sword Trance, a big Slash, or an extended Truesword), you can protect this important spell by spamming small defensive spells on the same target - these will consume incoming Dispels. Obviously there's a time aspect here, but getting a single one-point spirit magic spell in won't be too bad.

(Be careful about using Countermagic for this though, as it's at risk of being popped by other spells.)

Edited January 27, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[Godlearner]

Quote

Oh, and depending on what your GM thinks about these things

And that's the key.

[Godlearner]

Quote

If you bind a spirit in a matrix or dominate it for a long duration and have him possess an animal, you can bring him to a cult ceremony and ask him to spend 1 MP.

That does not sound like a voluntary donation and thus would not make the spirit eligible to a Lay Member

[Akhôrahil]

45 minutes ago, Godlearner said:

And that's the key.

Yeah, but the point of this thread isn't what you would actually like to do in play or what you expect to get away with with your GM – it's exploring the reach of the rules.

Edited January 27, 2021 by Akhôrahil

[Kloster]

1 hour ago, Godlearner said:

That does not sound like a voluntary donation and thus would not make the spirit eligible to a Lay Member

Correct, but you can use the dominate duration to explain him why he should give MP (big RP opportunities), and in that case, he becomes Lay member, and can even become initiate. You can force him to give, but there would be no benefit. I very much enforce the voluntary aspect of freely giving MP or POW, whether for worship, enchants or others.

[Godlearner]

6 minutes ago, Kloster said:

Correct, but you can use the dominate duration to explain him why he should give MP (big RP opportunities), and in that case, he becomes Lay member, and can even become initiate. You can force him to give, but there would be no benefit. I very much enforce the voluntary aspect of freely giving MP or POW, whether for worship, enchants or others.

No, voluntary is of ones own free will. Magical domination is not what. Even more, I would argue that which ever cult you try with, spirits of reprisal would be soon follow. At the very least, once the spirit becomes a Lay Member the shrine defenses would most likely register the dominating person as an enemy.