Re: Re: Strength of the Bull

From: Henrix <henrix_at_...>
Date: Thu, 23 Nov 2000 14:43:13 +0100


At 13:05 2000-11-23, Mikael Raaterova wrote:
>An Odaylan (Bear affinity at 10w2) tries to lift a human-sized marble statue.
>
>According to you/Greg, the Odaylan gets a magical strength of 8w, the
>strength of a bear, when he uses the feat "Bear's strength" (which he
>presumably has to obtain in a simple contest where he pits his
>affinity rating against the 14 of the universe, considering that you
>said the getting the "strength of the bull" was against a 14).
>
>This 8w is what he uses against the 14 of the universe, trying to
>lift the statue.

But bears are not famous for lifting things. I would say that he should use the resistance dependent on the weight of the statue, 10w3. But he is strong as a bear.

>Reasoning that Bears are strong, the Odaylan improvises the feat
>"Lift heavy things". Unless he gets more than a 21-point improv
>penalty, he will be stronger when improvising a strength feat than
>when using the printed strength feat. This is especially true for
>initiates, who get improv mods for any feat-use.

I would not allow that. I do not think that Odayla generally lifts heavy things, and it certainly fits neither Bear, Hide or Hunt affinity. Go get the Barntar initiate instead.
If the Odaylan wanted to carry home the elk he hunted down, I would say he could do that (improvising a feat) using his Hunt affinity.

The feats improvised from an affinity must bear some relevance not only to the name of the affinity, but to the god as a whole. A Zorak Zorani (if they get theistic magic) could not improvise Swordhelp from his combat affinity.
Thus I would also rule that a Vingan could Run on Treetops*, but not Run on Rooftops, as she is not generally known for her urban exploits.

This "literal" interpretation of feats is, in my opinion of course, much more fun than the "only the numbers count" interpretation. It makes things less the same, which is very good and needed in HW. On the other hand it places more responsability on the GM who must have the strength to say "No" to the players from time to time. (Yes, yes, I know a good storytelling GM should not do that, but instead provide positive response.)

--
Henrix

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