> > "Brother squirrel, may I call
> > on you when I need to hide nuts?" "Yes, you may call on me once."
> > "Then I will carry you in my medicine bundle, which I keep close to
> > my heart."
>
> Wouldn't this give you a "nut hiding" spirit? That you could use for
> climbing, concealment (the rest of my Hero Band is a bunch of nuts -
> really!), or possibly foraging (gotta *have* the nuts before you can
> hide them). I suppose this falls under the category of creative use
> of a specific spirit.
Yes, this would be a squirrel spirit of Nut Hiding, just as the Grazers have stallion spirits of Endurance, Leaping, etc.
I believe it could easily be used to hide other objects, but would not be able to climb or forage, since those have nothing to do with concealment.
Or in other words, a beginning animist character has access to five "feats" or "spells" and cannot improvise.
> Also, I apologies for my loose use of "feat" and applying it to
> animism. But regardless of that, it seems reasonable that a really
> skillful shaman could make a more general purpose fetish verging on an
> affinity in use.
I think the terminology is clear enough -- it's a moderately well-defined magical ability (unlike an affinity or grimoire, which is a very broadly defined ability).
But I don't think fetishes can do other than what the rules say. I believe a shaman who wanted more flexible access to a spirit would be able to add it as a follower or ally, though it's then likely that the spirit would suffer the penalties for being in the wrong world.
BTW, I'm not finding any explicit rule, but it seems to me that you can spend hero points to improve the might of your fetish-spirits the same way you improve any other ability (and don't forget that funky items are treated as abilities).
Mikko asks
> What if a lightning sword or other high end weapon enchanting feat would
> give an edge for the whole fight, and I mean a really nasty edge?
>
> Like a truesword doubling the edge of the weapon (RQ style)
>
> OR a lightning sword giving a +5 edge to your sword (scaling up with
> more skill)
>
> This would give the weapon enhancing feats/magics real meaning, and make
> it somewhat more concreate that the weapon is the thing bearing the
> enchantment. (so that one can for instance try to throw an javelin into
> the shoulder of that hand, and so forth)
>
> Or is that again too simulationistic and detail driven?
Well, I fail to see how this is any different from choosing to go for a +5 edge (other than the fact that you'd have to interpolate) by using your Lightning Sword feat opposed by resistance of 13. (Enhancements already last for the whole contest.) Other than that you don't need special rules for different magic. It scales up great with more skill, since you can afford to go for higher edges if your Lightning Sword feat target number is higher.
David Dunham <mailto:dunham_at_...>
Glorantha/HW/RQ page: <http://www.pensee.com/dunham/glorantha.html>
Imagination is more important than knowledge. -- Albert Einstein
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