If you go for a low augment, it's usually not *too* risky. And if you have a decent ability, the chance of getting a critical and doubling the augment gets very high with Masteries.
I like the fact that augmenting can backfire:
"Swen should not have put his trust in his battle song, for his foes could not hear him above their own battle fury. It is said he was singing as he died. But he died all the same..."
It adds a little depth and colour, and the penalty usually isn't crippling. And as it's very tough to "accidentally" kill player characters in HW, shouldn't have overly nasty consequences too often.
...
>
> Penalizing the augmenting ability (I'd probably chose the
> affinity/grimoire rathern tah spell/feat) weas suggested a long time
> ago on this list as an alternative for people who could not envisage
> the penalty appying to the augmented ability, so some people may
> already play that way. I'll let you know how everyone reacts (which
> includes Bruce) ;-)
I'd do this if I could *really* see no way to make it apply, but a penalty to the augmenting ability is simply applying a penalty that is not too likely to come into effect, as it's not the ability that is being "used".
My "catch-all" explanation is: "You are distracted by your/his/her/its attempts to summon your inner wind/call upon Orlanth's movement powers/harness your rage". That way I don't have to specify *how* it fails. ;)
Regards,
Bruce
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