Re: Ho Much Rule fiddling Is Tolerable?

From: Chris Lemens <chrislemens_at_...>
Date: Mon, 16 Jul 2007 17:40:22 -0700 (PDT)

Me, to whom LC asks a follow-up question, over on the WoG list :
> > On the second point, I would note that popping a fetish is a truly mighty
> > magic -- it adds the entire ability (not just a 1/10th augment) to the
> > underlying ability. However, the spirit has to make its way back to the
> > user. I think this is currently fairly balanced in that an initiate can
> > improvise any feat any number of times, but suffers a -10 penalty.
>
> However, the animist can use the fetish ability as an active ability at full
> value any number of times without releasing the fetish, right? Or have I
> totally misunderstood that?

No, you're right. You can use a fetish any of three ways:

- as an automatic augment (apparently not a rolled augment?  dunno), without limitation
- as an active ability, without limitation
- as an addition to an underlying active ability, but this is one-use until you locate the spirit

I take your point that the second item could be compared to the improvisation of a feat, but there is a big qualitative difference. The abilities that spirits give tend to be described much more narrowly than affinities. They are much more comparable to feats. (E.g., Find good forage 14W is a nice ability for a spirit in a fetish; likewise, it makes a good feat. But it's no affinity.) Conequently, a practitioner's magic tends to be more narrow than the initiate's. The listings in the Heroquest book (e.g., 145) are good examples: there are logical groupings of practice spirits for Eiritha, but the "Bison Cow spirits" grouping is not the equivalent of an affinity from which new active abilities can be improvised.

By the way, I think the whole popping a fetish mechanic is extremely cool. It really lends itself to dramatic moments. For example, in Greg's session at Tentacles, my shaman popped a fetish at just the right moment in the fight against the giant choas spam monster. (Is "chaos" and "spam" redundant?) The rest of the group augmented and the fight was over. But the fetish provided a one-time boost of over 30 points. Kapow!

Chris