Excommunication

From: David Weihe <weihe_at_gsidanet.danet.com>
Date: Thu, 12 Dec 96 20:24:56 EST

The Excommunication spell seems to be too powerful to be allowed. Unless I have misread the description, it seems that one High Priest could launch Excommunications at his or her rivals and effectively destroy them with no danger.

For example, why couldn't priests of Chaotic cults like Thanatar, just Excommunicate all the supporters of another priest, rather than suffer the occasional in-temple civil wars over position.

Likewise, why couldn't the illuminated Orlanth priest in Pavis do the same to his anti-Chaotic rivals, rather than go through all the consternation in the scenario from Strangers In Prax?

Given that excommunication didn't do anything in the Real World, except when fairly civilized people believed in the rightness of the act
(nobody in Iceland or Germany panicked when the Pope and Patriarch of
Constantinople did each other, and all each others' supporters, for instance) it seems to be overly powerful in Glorantha.

As it is, the effects seem as uncontrollable as the AD&D Wish spell
(ever try to DM a Wish War? Especially with Time Gates to previous
centuries, put in by the previous DM, so attacks could be launched before the victim's birth? It made running a full nuclear exchange seem managible).

---