RE: Shameful confusion about Fetish/Spirit Ally rules

From: Jane Williams <janewilliams20_at_...>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 15:31:32 +0100

> I'm trying to understand the "special release" of a fetish.
> HQ, page 137.
> BUT then the rules say ""A practice spirit can be released
> from its fetish to grant a greater
> bonus....The spirit's ability is then added either to the
> hero's advantage points _or_as a
> bonus to an ability."
>
> It's the very last part of the phrase that gets me. Does a
> released Flaming Lance 10 spirit
> add TEN POINTS to the hero's lance skill? That's what it
> seems to say.Yow!

Yes, that's how I read it, too.

> So, it appears that someone with say, 9W2 Lance Combat and a
> spirit ally knowing Lance
> of Flame 12W gets to be Flaming Lance Combat 1W4 _all_the_time_.

Which does sound like quite a lot. But then those are very high numbers, and both combat-related - this is clearly a specialist. And as I understand it, the spirit ally's skills can't be increased with HPs. How did it get to be 12W? And in such an "excessively" useful skill?

Compared with a Sword of Humakt with several Gifts on her sword, even, that's really rather a lot...

> Now, I get that a fetish is temporarily "used up" by releasing it.
> BUT a spirit ally is not. The rules say a spirit ally automatically
returns after use.

How fast does it return? Could that be the answer?