Re: Concentration and Misapplied Worship

From: Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...>
Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2004 11:21:30 -0700

Andrew Solovay <asolovay_at_...> wrote:
>
> If you *are* concentrated in Sorcery, you can improve your "Use
> Abiding Book" ability for only three points, but improving your
> "Use Life of St. Ehilm" [actually called "Book of the Steadfast
> Sun", I believe] still costs six hero points, because it's
> misapplied worship. But you still get the other benefits of
> being concentrated, like the ability to learn the cult secret.

I checked, and it seems I was partially wrong.

If a particular cult is misapplied worship, you *can* join it whether or not you are concentrated in that magic. Concentrated animists can follow the "Sword Man" practice (misapplied worship of the god Humakt); concentrated sorcerers can join the order of St. Ehilm (misapplied worship of the god Elmal).

However, misapplied worship gets no benefits from concentration. This means that the hero pays the same hero point cost that he would if he were not concentrated (e.g. 6 points to improve a skill with a scripture), and that he cannot get any powers or benefits *from that cult* which you need to be concentrated to get. (e.g. You can't get a secret from a misapplied-worship cult.)

So if Doug is a concentrated animist who belongs to the Horned Man shamanic practice and the Sword Man (misapplied) practice, he can get all the normal benefits from concentration when he's doing Horned Man stuff--he pays the half hero-point costs, and he can gain a spirit fetch. When he's doing Sword Man stuff, he pays the double HP costs, and is in all respects like someone who is not concentrated in animism.

So in answer to your original question--it looks like since all the Aeolian cults are misapplied worship, the cultists would get no benefit from concentrating in Sorcery (and in fact, the rulebook says just that, though it says that many cultists concentrate anyway). Though presumably, they would pay the half-HP costs for raising common-magic spells, and they'd be able to use those common spells actively.