> Say you have a magic Sunbeam spear, you started the game with it and
> the GM said it was rated 17, based on your own starting skills (for
> balance usually). At the start of the game you will be fighting
> monsters who have similar skill levels, so if you actievly use the
> spears magic it will be 17 vs 17.
>
> Twelve months later your characters have moved to average skill sof
> 5w2, and thus your monsters will have moved to average skills of
> 5w2. Try using your spear 17 vs 5w2 now? (for eg purposes only).
So why hasn't your character (who was using the spear actively when it was "only" 17) put HP into his Sunbeam Spear ability so that he can use it actively at 5w2?
> Basically your spear becomes redundant, even tho it might be a
> family heirloom used by your Great Grand father to slay some mighty
> monster, and in his hands it was AWESOMELY good.
That's what putting HP into it during those 12 months will do for you...
> My original question was sort of trying to come to grips with the
> process of getting to that sort of power. I was mainly concerned
> with items that had passive type powers, like Bladesharp, that are
> essentially augments only. They dont have a clearly defined, or
> easily used, 'active' magic. Now you can argue that this is the
> players problem (or the GM) for using such a poorly defined ability,
Well, yes...
> but Bladesharp sits right there in everyones brain (if you played RQ
> like most of us did) and I hate to give up something that has been
> multi-layered into my neural pathways.
If you want to emulate a "Bladesharp 2" power, don't give it a rating, just give it a bonus, like "+2".
Magic weapons in HQ are much more than just RQ-era spells tucked into items. They can be treated as followers, or items, or abilities, depending on how you want to play them (or instead of follower, you might want to play around with Nose-biter's Feet. Nosebiter is the Axe, the feet is the poor trollkin who carries it around...).
> So I come back to my query, if you had an item that was mostly
> passive magic like Bladesharp, the current rules penalise you by
> only giving you a 1/10th reward for investment, via an augment.
>
> So does this mean that passive magic items are uncommon in HQ,
> nobody makes them because of this poor return. Everyone goes for the
> flashy new and improved 'active' magic items...?
As mentioned above, if you want a passive magic item, just give it a bonus, and forget ability rating. Yes, it's dumb to pay 10 HP for a +1 augment.
RR
It is by my order and for the good of the state that the bearer of this has
done what he has done.
- Richelieu
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