RE: Shameful confusion about Fetish/Spirit Ally rules

From: Mike Holmes <homeydont_at_...>
Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 10:13:05 -0500

>From: "Jane Williams" <janewilliams20_at_...>

> >
> > 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.

This has been confirmed here many times. It is powerful, but it is one-shot.

> > 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?

I have characters with higher level abiliities in my game. Given the ranges stated for spirits, these are not outrageous, really, in terms of what's said to exist. That said, I agree with Jane that if you think it's too powerful, that you can limit it by simply making the available spirit's abilities lower. Players may find this artificial, but...

First, getting such a spirit in the first place can be difficult if it's not really friendly, as the resistance is based on this rating. Further, when you want a spirit to come out, it takes a contest. If the spirit doesn't like the reason it's being summoned, it again resists this summoning with it's ability rating. So the higher it is, the harder it can be to use. If the players demand larger spirits, simply make them more tempermental, and it'll balance out somewhat.

Also, there is the HP cost for fetishes that does go up for more powerful ones. So adding more powerful spirits in play isn't cheap, especially considering that they may be unreliable.

> > 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?

I think that it means that the Spirit Ally returns instantly - it can't be refering to a possibility of it not returning, because that isn't indicated anywhere as a possibility. Basically. i think the idea is that it's like they're more or less constantly there.

Worse, shamans can, IIRC, have multiple allies. No?

OTOH, I'm remembering that these don't work precisely the same way (though I may be way off here). That is, I'm not sure that they can do the adding trick. I think spirit allies simply work as followers. So, yeah, like any other follower, they can add AP. But I'm not sure that they can add like a spirit released from a fetish does.

If they can't do this, then they're no more powerful than any other follower, really. If they can do the release and add trick, then, yeah, that's just out of hand.

Mike



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