[HQ Ignorance] Scene 109: The Entrance to Hell

[Nicolas Hughes]

OK,

The spirit ratings are in ILH2, its at the upper end of the scale which is something we discussed back in character generation when I suggested that is what I wanted to do for a high powered game. To an extent it has been working as I thought it would, every now and again the character wields a really powerful magic that goes well beyond the ordinary and looks very different to a low level campaign. I have tried to avoid resorting to this on every possible occasion, partly because I do have concerns about the game balance but mostly because it would be boring. At a guess it seems to come into play about twice a year so far. I do think that there is a game balance issue, perhaps it's just that Lunars have it too easy when it comes to combinations of powerful and flexible magic.  

The requirements for his lunar semi-practice-semi-cult seem to be mostly about going out and dealing with barbarians by fair means or foul. The more routine bits about praying, sacrificing libations of wine etc I don't think any of us are role-playing much as it falls into the category of daily routine that does not really drive the narrative along. If on the other hand Aalmon acted against the principles of the cult (e.g. if he had joined the others in siding with a barbarian army against lunars) then I suspect his spirits would rebel and at the very least they would resist with more than 14. 

Slight correction to my previous email, the spirit cost 15hp plus some more to raise the relationship up to 20. 

Anyway, on with the story unless this is a problem we need to sort out.

Cheers,
Nic


On 6 Jun 2010, at 22:29, Lev Lafayette wrote:

> On Sun, 2010-06-06 at 16:43 +0100, Nicolas Hughes wrote:
>> Lev,
>> 
>> The 20 / 17W3 thing just seems to be built into animist magic. He has
>> a relationship of 20 to a spirit that has a 17W3 ability - I think the
>> high HP cost of the spirit in the first place is supposed to balance
>> this out. I'm not convinced that it does, this the first character I
>> have played with animist type magic and my conclusion is that the
>> costs of high powered spirits are probably on the low side for balance
>> purposes. IIRC correctly the initial spirit cost 6HP and then Aalmon
>> has spent another 3 on increasing his relationship to it.
>> 
> 
> Hi Nic,
> 
> Yes, you're quite right about that; but most spirits have abilities of
> around 10W at best. Large Oakfed spirits are an exception, but they can
> only do one thing (burn stuff) - 17W3 does seem very high. Plus there is
> the Practise requirements and restrictions.
> 
> [OOC: In any case your relationship to the spirit 20, roll 5 is
> sufficient to get it to act for you, resistance 14, roll 10, albeit only
> for a short time]
> 
> 
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