> Understood. I've thought obviously about developing new skills, but
> wanted to know what the "default" position was. If you can use Spirit
> Face to initiate spirit combat, that's great; I'm curious as to
> whether Practitioners should also be allowed to do this, or whether it
> would be a shamanic ability.
In RQ, only shamans had an ability like Spirit face (they could discorporate to fight spirits). HQ practictioners have many of the functions/abilities of RQ shamans. So if that's the "history" of the question, then practitioners can face down spirits like RQ shamans.
Shamans do have their fetch to call on, which usually gives a bit of a boost over a practitioner.
The main difference between Shamans and practitioners is the ability for Shamans to travel (and flee from!) the Spirit World. The other functions of a RQ shaman (make charms/fetishes, spirit combat, etc.) are part of the practitioner keyword.
> I'm always loathe to house-rule things - IMHO the HQ don't actually
> *need* houseruling, once you've figured them out... but it's the
> "figuring out" that's the trick... :-D At the moment it seems from
> the rules that there's no difference between Spirit Face for
> Practitioners and for Shamans - so if Shamans can initiate spirit
> combat, then so can Practitioners. Does that follow for you?
That was the intention when we wrote the rules. Spirit Combat is a function of the Practitioner.
> That is very powerful - I hadn't thought about that. Normally with
> Practice Fetishes I've ruled that a released spirit can only add to a
> practitioner's ability *if* that ability is pretty much identical to
> the spirit's ability, or if a good case could be made to use it as an
> augment in the first place. (So, you're practice spirit's Raging Fire
> 20 ability could add to your Sword attack to create a super fireblade
> - but basically only once per day. It couldn't add to, say, your
> First Aid or Hide skill (obviously...)). I'm not sure if that's the
> "official" use or not.
It is. You'd have to have a convincing case to use Raging Fire for Hiding. :-). Using a spirit augment requires the same "logic" that using any augment does. If the narrator sayds "nah, c'mon, you're kidding, right?", then it's probably not a good augmentor.
RR
He was born with the gift of laughter and the sense that the world was mad
R. Sabatini, Scaramouche
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