Re: Re: Grimoires and Casting

From: Roderick Robertson <rjremr_at_...>
Date: Thu, 22 Feb 2007 23:23:00 -0800

> Can a talisman be created for a spell only known from a grimoire, but
> which
> still only uses the Grimoire ability? Or does creating any other talisman
> for the spell imply that it's being taken separately from the grimoire?
>
> If I have Use Grimore with spell X in the grimoire, can I have a separate
> talisman for spell X, and still use it with the Use Grimoire ability
> rating,
> and not need the Grimoire?

No. To cast a spell you need either:

the 'Cast [Spell]' ability and a focus (a Talisman)   or
the Grimoire to read the spell out of. (The grimoire is also the focus for the spell).

If you don't have a seperate 'Cast [Spell]' ability and its Talisman, you cannot cast the spell without the physical Grimoire to read it out of.

> That is, you say that the grimoire "can" act as a talisman. But it *must*
> act as the talisman here, right? Because nothing else can? By saying "can"
> you don't mean to imply that it can not as well, correct? Or *do* you mean
> to imply that?

Talismans and Grimoires are both foci - physical objects that connect the Middle World to the Sorcery World and allow energy to pass from the Sorcery World into the Middle World. A Talisman may have a one or more spells attached to it (it depends on the school's preferences), but it can only be used for those spells. A Grimoire is automatically the focus for any spell it contains. To cast *any* spell you must have an ability rating (Either 'Cast [Spell]' or 'Use Grimoire" *and* a focus (either a Talisman or a Grimoire). If you are using 'Cast [Spell]' the proper focus is a Talisman. If you use 'Use Grimoire', the proper focus is the Grimoire.

> I think you mean that you must use the grimoire as the talisman
> substitute,
> else your response about augmenting seems to make less sense.

Actually, you must have *both* the talisman and the grimoire present in order to gain the augment - see page 164.

> From a more metagame perspective, the question is whether or not a
> charcter
> has to lug around big burdensome books as a drawback to using the grimoire
> ability or not. Is that there to balance out the general usefullness of
> Use
> Grimoire abilities? Or is it just descriptive of some typical Gloranthan
> reality? The answer is important, because it'll help me determine if it
> makes sense to keep such a restriction, say, outside of Glorantha.

Outside of Glorantha you can do whatever the heck you want. Inside Glorantha, you must lug around all 17 volumes of "Poindexter's Palatial Promise" to cast spells that you don't have the "Cast [spell]" ability rating for.

RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad R. Sabatini, Scaramouche