First off, the "quick answer" was just that. greg is in the process of writing soimething much longer and with more explanation.
> > To leap a tall tree with a
> > tree-leaping feat, you face the magic resistance difficulty of 14. To
> > leap
> > > a tall tree with your mundane leap ability, you face a difficulty of
10w3.
> ...
>
>
> This has the implication that magically leaping a VERY tall tree also
> means a resistance of 14, but trying to do so using mundane leaping
> might face a resistance of, say, 15W3: when using magic leaping, all
> trees are equally 'tall'. A feature, not a bug, right?
Yep. Assuming that the tree is not magical or sentient in any way, just your plain ol' garden-variety tree. A tree with "Magically Tall" as part of its description, or perhaps the home of a Dryad, or Old Man Willow is not a plain ol' tree.
> There is some potential for abuse here. I recall that, before the
> rules were published, various grognards posted 100 word descriptions
> of characters that they thought showed how broken the rules were.
> These descriptions included abilities such as 'Glance of Death',
> 'Many Friends', etc. The obvious and stock reply was that naming an
> ability didn't make it powerful: you merely got that ability with a
> rating of 13 (unless you chose it as your 5W or 2x1W abilities).
> But what this discussion indicates is that magic abilities such as
> 'Glance of Death' ARE inherently powerful: their usual resistance is
> 14 (compare with the 17 or ?W that a typical Close Combat attack will
> face).
When using magic on a sentient or magical being/item, the magical resistance
of "the world" (14) is only used if the item being affected does not have
anything better. using "Glance of Death" against a person is not an easy
thing - you don't get the 14 resistance, you get the best appropriate
defense that the target has.
On the other hand, using "Glance of Death" against a plain ol' tree would
probably get a 14 resistance.
Try this idea (not passed by greg at all): Most items in Glorantha have only a small part of magic - a tree has a little bit of Aldrya, a rock has a little bit of Ernalda, cows have a little bit of Uralda, etc., but this is just the merest trace - enough to get that 14 resistance. Sentient beings, magical animals, walking dead raised with magic, etc. all have greater parts of magic in their makeup, and get (potentially) greater magic resistance because of it.
RR
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