- In HeroQuest-rules_at_yahoogroups.com, "Mike Holmes"
<homeydont_at_h...> wrote:
> >From: "Roderick and Ellen Robertson" <rjremr_at_s...>
>
> >On the other hand, a +20 boost to a skill (even without the
attendent AP)
> >is
> >still pretty darn good for a simple invocation
>
> I have to agree with this. I've got a animist in my game right now
that has
> a spirit with a 10W2 rating. When invoked that's a +50 to his
ability
> rating. What, precisely, is weak about that?
>
> Let's consider a very experienced animist with such a thing. He'll
likely
> have the related ability at, say, 5W2 himself. Altogether, when he
unleashes
> such a spirit, he'll be 15W4. Given a theist with a similar 5W2
ability,
> what will he have that can compete with that? Heck, what will he
have that
> can compete with the +5 augment that the thing provides as a charm?
I mean,
> basically, an animist can pick up abilties at a similar level to
his
> practice rating just by binding more spirits at a fraction of the
cost of
> building up such abilities from scratch.
>
> Seems to me that this is rather more powerful than the other
religions, not
> less.
A few points:
- very few practices have spirits as strong as 5W2! Which is not to
say you couldn't find and bind a neutral or hostile spirit that
strong, but of course that is harder to bind, and to release.
- to be able to release the spirit reliably you need to buy up your
relationship with it (or be willing to blow an HP on the roll, which
may actually be a more effective plan, possibly combined with a small
investment in the relationship, depending on how often you expect to
release it). But if you have a variety of spirits this to gets
expensive. And of course, if you've bought up your relationship with
one, then get a more powerful version of the same model, you have to
start over again.
- As far as active magic goes, you will usually be using the spirit
at its rating, since you will seldom have your own "fly", "breathe
fire", or "put to sleep" ability (exception granted on that last one
for the rare animast who studied under LM sages for a while!). So
your active magic will usually top off in the single mastery area, as
spirits bigger than that are hard to find. Well, you might capture a
more powerful hostile spirit that you can make use the ability for
you once, but I think you can use hostile spirits only once?
Which is not to say that I think animasts are weak, but at higher
levels I suspect they have to pick their moments carefully, as
opposed to the warrior devotee who knows she's magically ready for
almost anything in a fight.
One question, when resisting magic, can you use a bound spirit? For
example, you are attacked with the Fiery Spear of Great Crispiness
spell at 10W. Your spirit face won't help resist it, and your other
magical relationships look doubtful. You have a Wind 5W spirit, and
that seems like a fair defence--blow the fire away from you. Can you
use it if the spirit is bound in a charm? How about a fetish?
Obviously you could use it if you release it from the fetish, but
that takes an action, and you could be cooked medium-well by then if
you have to fall back on your inate resistance of 14.
--Bryan