>What is the difference between the skills Ceremony / Enchant / Summon and
>the Spirit / Sorcery / Divine spells Enchant Item and Summon <species> and
>Control <species> ?
To use ritual magic (Ceremony/Enchant/Summon), you use your skill in ceremony/enchant/summon for success rather than the POWx5 for spirit magic or the 95% for divine magic. If you have a summon of 55%, then your chance to summon a shade or a magic spirit is 55% provided you know the required spell.
Control spells are not ritual magic and have different effects based on your philosophy. Their aim is to control the creature you have summoned or encountered.
Spirit magicians use a weak spirit magic spell which requires that the target creature is busted down to 0 mp before it is dominated (which leaves a loophole as to how a shaman can control a wraith).
Divine Magicians use Command Cult Spirit (Gods of Glorantha p21) which allows the summoner to command once a creature that he has summoned without fail. Its only drawback is that it works on spirits controlled by your god. A Command Species is also useful but not every cult has those and those that do can only command certain species. This spell requires the target's MP to be overcome.
Sorcerers use Dominate (Species) for their summonings. This requires that the spell's intensity overcomes the targets magic points.
>For example: I have a player with a Lunar character, initiate of
>Jakaleel the Witch, who wants to be able to summon, bind and control
>Shades. Jakaleel (in the unofficial write-up I have) has the divine
>spells to summon shade and control shade. However, anyone can see
>that the spirit spells are much easier and practical to use.
Easier, yes. More practical, no. You will be exposed to its fearshock and freezing cold attack while you are trying to control it. Your Witch should use command cult spirit instead of command shade.
>No one is going to sacrifice power when a couple of magic points
>will do it.
Most of them are when the side-effects of their miserly behaviour is pointed out to them.
>Are the spirit spells a Shaman-thing ? Or do elemental cults have
>access to them ?
Spirit spells are a shaman thing. The Elemental Cults do not have access to them.
> If he has 47% Summon skill, can he just say, "Right-ho then, I'm going
>to sit down for an hour or so and work on summoning a shade" <rolls dice,
>gets 38>.
He has to know the appropiate spell such as Summon Shade etc.
A one hour summons means that only a one magic point shade can ever appear if the summons is a success (which occurs 1/6th of the time if you are summoning a 1 cubic meter shade). If the shade has a higher mp total, then it's incapable of appearing (unless you fumble in which case the gates of hell are unleashed).
>Or does he, being an initiate, go to his temple, sacrifice the power,
>gain the divine spells and have one use of the summon & control spells.
Yes.
>Or does he, being an initiate, go to his temple, pay his priest to summon
>a spell spirit, beat it in spirit combat and learn the spells summon and
>control ?
No. Not even for an initiate of Subere would this happen.
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