Hi Roderick,
Excellent clarifications - many thanks indeed. Practitioners and
shamans are turning into much cooler guys than I'd pegged them for;
it's only now I'm coming to use them more I'm realising how
*differently* they operate from initiates and devotees. There
definitely isn't the one-to-one correspondence I'd tacitly assumed
(practitioner = initiate, shaman = devotee, more or less), but also
the ability levels of practice spirits doesn't have to be that high to
end up with a significant, albeit daily use, power for a released
fetish spirit.
I'm thinking I'm going to be using animists rather a lot more in my
games than I have been... :-D
Cheers,
Sarah
- In HeroQuest-RPG_at_yahoogroups.com, "Roderick and Ellen Robertson"
<rjremr_at_...> wrote:
>
>
> > 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
>