Re: Resisting Magic -- the specifics

From: BEThexton <bethexton_at_...>
Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 21:42:00 -0000

wrote:
>
> Personaly I do miss the RQ era differences between types of magic.
> Sorcerous, divine and spirit magic each had their specialist forms
> of attack and defence, which bred interesting tactics.
>
> IMHO this was not merely a product of the RQ game mechanics,
> but expressed a truth about Glorantha in a asimilar way to
> the Alien World modifiers. The AW modifiers may not be elegant,
> but they make a valid point.

I agree, and think that it is important to keep the different magic systems from mushing together too much.
>
> I suppose one way to make this clear would be to give every
> magician a Resist ability specific to their kind of magic
> (they know about it, so they are effective at protecting
> themselves against it), but make spells and feats that protect
> against alien magical types rarer.

Makes sense. Another way is to simply make recognizing alien magic harder. i.e.
"Your enemy clutches at his lightning bolt tatoo and calls upon Orlanth to smite you with a lightning bolt." "I use my movement magic to make myself an impossible target."

versus

"The stranger points this weird rod at you, and starts chanting in some strange language, the rod starts humming." "Ummmm, I beg Orlanth to save from strange foreign magic." Or potentially even more interesting "I use my movement magic to speed me out of the way." "Well a broad field of red light comes out, and you begin to feel confused. Movement magic isn't a very good defense against that, so you'll take a -15 on your roll...."

--Bryan