> How should taunting during combat work?
One possibility is that it's an augmentation, except that it's in the negative direction. (Failure of course makes the enemy mad at you in a focused way, giving a bonus.)
Jonas claimed
> Few cults have what I'd call ranged attack magic. Among heortlings, only
> Hedkoranth has a lot of it. The others that can be interpreted this way
> are also warrior cults (except Rufelza for the lunars), and their
> devotees are likely to have better physical fighting abilities anyway.
Just about every cult has ranged magic that can take you out of a combat. I'm only bothering to list the Heortling deities:
Babeester Gor (Shout of Pain), Bevara (Earsplitting Scream), Chalana Arroy (Sleep), Ernalda (Make Person Heavy), Hedkoranth, Humakt (Visage of Fear), Orlanth (Snatch Breath),
Issaries, Lhankor Mhy, Vanganth don't have any relevant magic (though Vanganth's secret counts). Odayla's Arrow Sureshot is probably an augmentation. Vinga's throwing feats may be augmentations too (though my playtest character has the Twirling Blade Feat she uses for ranged attack). Yinkin's Paralyzing Bite is probably an augmentation.
> Nothing in the rules implies that beaning someone with a Thunderstone is
> in any way more effective than putting an arrow through them.
Correct. They are equally effective.
> I haven't found
> anything that says magical attacks get any kind of edge to compare with
> weapon ranks either.
This is one reason I think the ranks should remain an optional rule... I find edges slow things down, so the more ways to avoid them, the better.
> Anyway, I assume that as long as you get no worse than a marginal defeat,
> you can try [augmenting] over and over again until you get it right.
I don't allow it, and seeing as how most failures give you a penalty...
> P.S. About enhancements that give edges. They're a _lot_ more efficient
> than bonuses, but among the theist keywords I've only found two feats
> that would seem to do this, both protective in nature.
I tend to prefer using bonuses, since they work for simple contests too, but it seems to me that Bear's Strength, Great Blow, Slashing Blow, Swordhelp, Thunder Sling could all be interpreted as doing more damage. Be creative when describing feats! And yes, a feat can be used more than one way.
Tim answered me
> Even if you mean that players can use
> "death" or "combat" affinities to deduct Action points as feats, is
> this really more common than hte "Disruption" spell?
I do mean this, and unlike the RuneQuest Disruption spell, you can actually kill someone using the ranged magic I mention above (just drive them to a big negative AP total). OK, Sleep probably doesn't kill you (but you might be in an effectively permanent coma at -31 AP).
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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