>For the Daka Fali, I stuck with common magic and had
>lots of flexibility. For the Eirithan, I
>concentrated, and ended up pretty poor in magic. I
>think that Praxians that concentrate must join a Daka
>Fal practice and get some ancestors to fill in the
>basic sorts of magic they otherwise lose.
I think that concentrating doesn't make any sense unless you're intending to play a practitioner. Yes, this means that if you didn't design the character that way from the start, that they're going to have a hard time, potentially, with the change. But that's the fun of concentration - it's an incredibly important decision for the character. The fact that it's more difficult for some characters is a benefit. It makes the choice more interesting. Other cultures have all charms for Common Magic, so they don't have to give up as much. These sorts of differences are what make the cultures interesting to play with respect to each other.
>- Do all types of common magic require the allocation
>of 10% of the character's time & resources?
Yeah, this one bother's me, too, because there are no common magic religion keywords. So does having common magic from that religion make you a member? OTOH, I've never been able to figure out what to do with the whole percentage system. It seems to me that it's just there to limit religion membership so that characters don't just stack religions to the sky. It seems to me that there are more than enough character centric reasons not to do this that it'll never be a problem. Moreover, if a player did go about "collecting" religions, I'd have a field day with having those communities call on him left and right. The end effect would be better than limiting by these percentages. So I think this is mostly a non-issue.
Even worse is the idea that you have to spend HP on the religion. 10% of what? Does that mean that I have to spend the tenth point on it, or the first of ten? Or any order? How do I know when the limit has been violated? Again, players will spend on their religion if it makes sense to do so, so the question seems moot. I mean, if the character starts to ignore his religion, then I'll probably just start instituting problems with the Relationship/Piety ability. It all gets taken care of in play, IME.
>- We coud not figure out what level a starting animist
>should be and what they get.
I can't either. It's been suggested to me that they start with everything, 5 Charms, 2 Practice Spirits, and Fetishes as well. I'm still waiting on a second opinion on that.
In any case, it seems that Spiritist and Practitioner are the starting options. There's also a question as to whether a Practitioner also gets the Spiritist Keyword (violatting the limit on one Specialized Keyword to start). Certainly later in play they can pick up other practices, so it's not at all clear.
>- Can a non-participant in a contest augment with
>something (like, say, a charm) that is not an active
>ability but can only augment? See p. 80.
Personally, I'd rule no. It doesn't seem right, and I think that you've discovered an interesting limit on charms. Charms are already more powerful than other magic because they're "Always On", and don't need to be "activated" to work like other magic does. So I think that if you made them only work for the character wearing and attuned to them, that would balance this out some. I have no idea if the rules support that, it just sounds good to me.
Mike
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