Ian Cooper:
> It would be in a clan's interest for everyone to be a
> devotee because the magic benefits are so good (access
> to feats), especially as it does not require anything
> from you apart from doing your job. Clans with 100%
> adult devotees soon follow.
Let's review the benefits: an effective +3 in some instances, for 30% of your time. Power-gaming central that is not. (You may say that the 30% is "free" by the argument that not all of it is economically unproductive, but it's certainly "dead time" as far as 'adventuring' in any meaningful sense is concerned, or for doing anything _else_ in religious/magical/relationship type terms.)
> Now I can appreciate the argument that devotion is a
> matter of calling not time as a limitation argument
> instead. It is another way of explaining the lesser
> numberof devotees than the reasons outlined in HW or
> TR. I would still feel 20% was excessive, but I leave
> estimates of numbers called by god to the adherents of
> this rationale.
While disputing the implied contrast to "the reasons outlined in HW", I agree that 20% is on the high side. But I think the constraint _is_ precisely that of "calling" -- 20% would be a doddle, economically speaking, provided they were to the "right" deities (i.e. largely to providers, not warriors, chiefs, poets or lawspeakers).
(The actual numbers I'm not much bothered about, since it's nothing that would effect PC generation, and frankly doesn't even matter that much for 'random NPC' purposes. What concerns me is the "ecclesiastics" comparison, which strikes me as wrong-headed in a pretty important and fundamental way.)
> However I personally prefer the devotion takes 60% of
> your time argument (i.e 30% more thatn the average
> member of society who is an initiate) as a limitation,
Good god man, no one is _disputing_ that devotion takes 60% of your time! Rather the question is, what is actually _happens_ during this slice? The idea that you spend 60% of your time doing nothing but praying and "feating" (while being careful to not accidentally do magic in any personally economically useful way) is what seems to me to be contorted and unlikely, here. Pass me the scourge again, dear, I have to go do religious stuff for the next 6 hours. Do you really think, for example, a Starkval devotee manages to avoid doing anything related to actually being a weaponthane for 60% of the time? Were that the case, give me a weaponthane who's just an initiate, any day of the week -- that'll be about twice as cost effective! (Hrm, or cost us twice as much mead -- I think maybe that one depends on whether you think that weaponthanes do anything useful with their time...)
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