>Great Parry - an entirely futile spell, if your Dodge%
>exceeds your Shield Parry% : and a sucessful dodge also
>means you're not affected by knockback.
As people by the thousand will no doubt point out, to dodge a special you need a special, to dodge a critical you need a critical. While a normal Great Parry will stop a critical. You are probably using the dodge rules incorrectly.
The only real problem with Great Parry is that, unlike Shield, it can't be usefully combined with Berserk (which Babs also has).
>Slash - for 3 points of POW, you can emulate Fireblade,
>a 4 point battlemagic spell, with the following
>benefits i) duration ii) doesn't come off your magic
>resistance iii) flexibility of increment.
Actually, for 3 point of POW you can do a great deal better than Fireblade, as the damage from Slash is added to the existing weapon damage, whereas Fireblade is not. So a 1 point of Slash is roughly the equivalent of Fireblade (takes a 1d8+2 battleaxe to an average damage of 6.5+3.5=10 compared Fireblades 10.5), and you can then keep adding points on top of that with no stacking limit, which is a BIG advantage.
Add to these two spells that they also get the most useful combat spells that are widely available, like Berserk, Shield, and Command Gnome (gnomes are really really tough), plus the very great potential available from Axe Trance (much better than comparable spells like Arrow Trance, if you have a few MPs to spare - and even just an average Allied spirit can easily provide enough to get you +100% or more), then the Babeestor Gor warriors are very very tough. And whats more they get all this from standard Priestess status, which is generally easier to attain than the 'Rune Lord Priest' type status of a Sword or a Storm Khan or similar (who 5 skills at 90%). The BGs kick ass.
Of course, again, who wants to be one. The BGs don't get to 'adventure' like the other fighting cults - they get vengeance missions. They have strict rules, including ritual scarification. Everyone thinks they are crazy. The GM can allow one if he wants, or not, very easily. But it is quite definately true that they are an exceptionally powerful fighting cult, with probably the most combat effective set of spells in the game. Even more dangerous than Gorakiki-Beetle! (I've always thought that the real secret to troll fighting prowess was not ZZ, but Gorakiki-Beetle. Give 'em 6 points of divine magic, and they have 3 attacks, 2 parries, and more armour than you can shake a stick at.)
Sandys comparison of the BG cult with the Storm
Khans has some gaping flaws as well
>Take a warrior with 5 points of Rune Magic:
>
>Babeester Gor: Slash 2, Great Parry
>Storm Khan: Berserk, Shield 4
If that combination of magic is better, then the BG warrior will choose than instead, if she felt that was a better combination, options not open to the Storm Khan. And if you already have Berserk and Shield 4, Slash and Axe Trance (Slash especially) make an excellent complementary set. Its not just the specialist spells of BG that make them tough, its the range of options. Just to rub in the superiourity of BG to Storm Bull - the Storm Bull is completely incapacited after his Berserk finishes, at -100 fatigue, but the BG priestess has access to Invigorate, which restores all fatigue instantly. Neat, hey?
Add to that that it is an awful lot easier to become a priestess of BG than it is to become a Storm Khan, and its obvious that the BGs have better combat magic. In battle type situations, they are only slightly worse off than cults like Storm Bull in terms of useful magic, and that is probably counteracted by the fact that they have more of it (BG Acolytes and Priests are both easier to become that Storm Khans by a large margon) per worshipper. Humakt is better in battle situations, but thats what Humakti do.
And lets face it, most RPGs are more concerned with the individual hero than the large battle, making the BGs alleged disadvantage actually an advantage to virtually all players.
Axe Trance, by the way, is a particularly useful spell to the BGs in their role as the fighting representatives of many Earth cults relatively weak in fighting magic - a few Mind Links, and suddenly the single BG has access to large numbers of MPs to power her Axe Trance. This is very much in genre and so on - but I'm sure it scares some GMs!
What do with the obscenely high attack %ages that you could get from such means? Split your attack against multiple attackers. Add to that that even if you aren't used to wielding an off hand axe, Axe Trance can boost that to very high levels (which Berserk can't) and you can easily get two nasty attacks in against each opponent you face. If you end up facing a single nasty opponent, the increased critical chance (say, 15%, for skill 100%, x2 for Berserk, +100 for Axe Trance) will give you a big edge against many rune level opponents, with a crit chance of a mere 6% or so.
I noticed that George Harris had already written most of these things just after I wrote this, but it was already written so I'll send it anyway in case this makes anything clearer.
Anyway, the point is pretty clear. Babeester Gor IS a really really tough combat cult, far more so than most other combat cults. The only way to stop this becoming an issue in a campaign that includes players who want to play them is to use lots of roleplaying based restrictions. Live with it, everybody. But don't try and pretend that they aren't really tough. I'm particularly surprised that Sandy would say they aren't that tough - in a previous discussion, specifically about Axe Trance, on the rules list Sandy eventually chimed in that he deliberately made the Axe Trance spell overpowered compared to similar spell.
Cheers
David
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #204
Powered by hypermail