> What sort of power sources do sorcerors have access to? I =
> presume they have no qualms about using powered crystals, =
> or do they see these as theist items? What is the Malkioni =
> theory on powered crystals, and do they have any other ways =
> of accessing or creating regenerating power sources?
They use Powered Crystals, MP Storage Crystals, Enchantments and Familiars. I do not believe that a purely sorcerous Malkioni (I can't think of the term for one who does not accept the worship of other deities) would use bound spirits of any type. Of course, Stygians and Henotheists may be able to, depending on which Church/Cult they belonged to.
Take a dumb animal, give it a point of INT, give it some POW and you have a self-regenerating MP source immediately. Give it a MP enchantment to fill each day and you have two MP storage units. Give it an attack spell and you have a POW generator. Give it the Enchant skill and loads of time and it becomes an Enchantment Factory. repeat the process several times and you see whay sorcerers can be thought of as powerful. Do the same but use an elemental (summon a good sized but low POW one, that way you can control it better and its POW gain roll is enhanced) and you can turn the handle on POW enchantments - believe me, a PC ShadowMage in my campaign thought of this one all by himself and has a Shade which turns out huge numbers of Enchantments. "Gross" you may say, but it saves him wasting POW on other things and keeps him happy.
Jane Williams:
> However, if you can stand it for a few seconds, take a look at
> the Solar "cultures". Then consider Yelornans, and Vega Goldbreath, and
> think how lucky you are to be Sartarite.
Why would I want to look at the Solar Cultures - I've never liked them as PC based cultures. Give me the outlanders of Sun County or Balazar - they are bad enough but are at least playable. But yes, to be an adventuress or anything unusual in the Solar Cultures and you have to be very strange indeed.
> This is one reason why I disagree with some people's ideas on Vinga. They
> have her as a bra-burning feminist, and in Sartar there's no need.
Absolutely, the Sartarite culture (Theyalan Culture in general) makes no real distinction between male and female roles - they can easily switch around. It's the Western Model, Kralorelan Model, Solar Model or Primitive Model which has cultural gender roles. Actually, the Western, Solar and Kralorelan have restrictive gender roles, the Primitive Cuktures have defined gender roles, two completely different things.
Paolo Guccione:
> But please note that one of the most credited current
> theories (though it was David Dunham that told me so, not Joerg) is that
> a lot of things we know about Humakt were "discovered" by Arkat through
> Heroquesting. If Humakt was truly Humath before Arkat, did he hate
> Undead at that time?
Just because it is a "credited current theory" doesn't make it so. There is no way on this earth that I can accept the theory of Humath becoming Humakt. I can accept the theory that knowledge of Humakt's deeds was split into several parts, each knowing incomplete truths and Arkat discovering each part and reconstructing the original cult secrets and HeroQuests. In fact, that is the way that I see most of the First Council's actions and those of Arkat.
> This may happen, but only in duels between two equally-armed and armored
> opponents - many heroquests have non-human opponents or feature combats
> that have to end within few MR anyhow. I encountered the problem you are
> pointing out some months ago, in a duel between a PC and a major NPC,
> but it ended in twenty MR because of fatigue weapon breakage.
Use Great Parry with a high enough Shield Parry skill and you can slug it out against vastly superior forces all day (especially if you have the Invigorate spell or Endurance). I have seen it done.
How do you force a combat to end in a few MRs, apart from the GM becoming bored and making the NPC miss a parry? (It has happened on many occasions, believe me!)
> Anyway, I have always thought that changing the rules for HQ is just a
> way to have the players worry about the rules and not the Quest.
Not at all, rules are merely a means to achieve the mechanics of the Quest. I have run a number of Quests which have not needed to roll dice. However, when you go into combat, you might as well use the same rules that you are comfortable with - in my case I use a superset of RQ2/3/4 with a few of my own rules thrown in. This is used for normal play as well as for the God Plane, just that on the God Plane I scale down skills for a more even playing field.
> And no
> matter how much skilled you are in Sword Parry, you cannot parry the
> (RQ3) Cacocodemon with a sword, so you must find a different way to pass
> to the next Station.
Of course you can't parry him with a sword, you use a Great Parried Shield (or maybe two). Bolgar, Brother of the Bull, Teleported behind him and Garrotted him to death in an incredibly lucky manouver. Anyway, in my campaign (and people should take this one up if they haven't already) Fiends and Cacodemon can Vomit Acid - it costs 3 MP a go and produces acid equal in POT to the Fiend's POW. This is because the spell is granted by Cacodemon so he must be able to do it. Cacodemon himself has a POW of 200, or thereabouts and produces a spray of 200 pt Acid Vomit which covers an average PC - Parry That Sucker!
> Well, in fact there _is_ a PC in my campaign who can parry the Cacodemon
> with a sword...
I should jolly well hope so - thank goodness for high level campaigns.
> I believe that all Illuminati are the same colour to
> Arkat-blessed eyes.
Maybe, but I was basing the description on the Blessing of St Arkat in the Gloranthan Encyclopedia which, as I recall, was clear on the matter. I may be wrong as my source material is back in Ireland.
> It is the Arkati himself who must see the true
> nature of the Illuminate through his/her actions, just like Arkat saw
> through Gbaji's deceivings. I believe.
"Varlet, I see that you are an Evil Illuminate and must be killed! Take that!" Seems like an easy way to get rid of your enemies - Witch Hunt time again. I prefer a more absolute proof - it certainly puts the wind up players if they KNOW that they have touched on the Dark Side.
Philip Hibbs: RuneQuest Site
<Humour> So good you sent it twice </Humour>
Nick Effingham:
All answers are from my campaign as I haven't a clue about the official version.
> Arkat Chaosbane,
The Chaos Killer.
All castes use Black Magic (Sorcery) as normal, but has a few specialist
spells.
Allows the membership of Kyger Litor, Storm Bull and Zorak Zoran.
Doesn't much care for Chaos.
Can use Arkat's Blessing.
> Great Arkat
Ruling cult of Arkat.
Believes that Arkat is the Ruler and Dark Emperor. Also believes that
members of Great Arkat are the Rulers of Ralios. Also believes that
everyone else is fodder for the Cause.
Specialises in Dominates and Commands. Gets Command (Shade) from Kyger
Litor, Command Worshippers from Orlanth, standard ruling cult. but a bit
extreme.
Only Wizards and Nobles use Sorcery, but anyone in the cult can use the
Divine Spells (Nobles only use Command Worshippers).
Cannot use Arkat's Blessing.
> Arkat the Destroyer.
This is the cult of Gbaji and is not nice. It accepts the use of Chaos to destroy Chaos. These are mixed-up Arkati.
> Are they like Saints? Sorcerous cults
> with no Rune magic or fully fledged Rune Cults.
Depends on the cult. I normally play them as having various levels of Rune Cult-ness. (Strangling English is my speciality.) For instance, Arkat the Knight is pure sorcery, no Divine Magic, Arkat Chaosbane has no divine magic but allows members to join certain cults, Great Arkat is a Divine Cult and Arkat the Destroyer allows the members to join any cult at all if it helps them Destroy Chaos.
> Plus, I never did understand what the cult of Arkat the Destroyer
actually
> *did*.
Why, it destroys.
Michael Cule:
> > Hmm.. Yearly chance of apotheosis =(Number of Initiates) - Hero's POW
%
> >
> > Might work....
Better than that: Yearly chance of apothosis = F(No. of Initiates, Hero's POW) where F is any function you like. The test of any such function is: does it allow for someone to get lucky and roll a 01 the first chance he gets to become apotheosised? If so, the formula has failed. Sorry.
Apotheosis has to be achieved through deeds, not via a random happening.
Going home now - when everyone is at a Convention it gives "normal" people a chance to air their views. Me too.
Simon
Simon Phipp <crassus_at_dol.ru>
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing" - Sledge Hammer!
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