On July 16, 2007 08:40 pm, Chris Lemens wrote:
> No, you're right. You can use a fetish any of three ways:
> - as an automatic augment (apparently not a rolled augment? dunno),
> without limitation - as an active ability, without limitation
> - as an addition to an underlying active ability, but this is one-use until
> you locate the spirit
Yes, this is as I understand it.
> I take your point that the second item could be compared to the
> improvisation of a feat, but there is a big qualitative difference. The
> abilities that spirits give tend to be described much more narrowly than
> affinities. They are much more comparable to feats. (E.g., Find good
> forage 14W is a nice ability for a spirit in a fetish; likewise, it makes a
> good feat. But it's no affinity.) Conequently, a practitioner's magic
> tends to be more narrow than the initiate's. The listings in the Heroquest
> book (e.g., 145) are good examples: there are logical groupings of practice
> spirits for Eiritha, but the "Bison Cow spirits" grouping is not the
> equivalent of an affinity from which new active abilities can be
> improvised.
Except that the rules have Initiates improvising named feats, so it balances out. And if the idea is to imitate the deeds of the gods, you simply CAN'T allow initiates to improvise any feat they want. If you do, everyone with a Combat affinity is exactly the same. So I don't think they are more flexible. Now, it could be that is the intent. It would be interesting that Theists get vastly more narrow in scope as they progress. It does seem a bit counter-intuitive, though.
> By the way, I think the whole popping a fetish mechanic is extremely cool.
> It really lends itself to dramatic moments. For example, in Greg's
> session at Tentacles, my shaman popped a fetish at just the right moment in
> the fight against the giant choas spam monster. (Is "chaos" and "spam"
> redundant?) The rest of the group augmented and the fight was over. But
> the fetish provided a one-time boost of over 30 points. Kapow!
It is. The animist in my sporadic game fell in love with the mechanic when he released an Inferno spell to stop a Jolanti. (Of course, the consequences of that have come back to haunt him.)
It used to bother me that it was an Animist-only trick - only in that I always thought the augments were often too weak. i.e. - If I kick in my "love for Igraine" for the final chance to save her, it might be cool if it was worth more than a +5 even if 10W2. But it has occured to me since that what is called for there is switching the Love for Igraine into the main ability for the contest when appropriate, and not augmenting with it.
LC
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