Allied Spirits mk. II

[Vagni]

There was a thread a while back discussing Allied Spirits for divine cults in Glorantha. I posted a suggestion for these based largely on the MRQII fetch as a possible model. I now have Cults of Glorantha in my grubby little mits and I've re-thought this a little more. The fetch model was too powerful and kind of missed the point a little I feel, here's my new suggestion:


Allied spirits are similar in many ways to Magic Spirits and Ancestor Spirits but are summoned to aid a high ranking cultist such as a Rune Lord, almost always at a suitable HeroQuest, and bound to the mundane plane in either an awakened animal (such as a Raven or Wolf) or a cult object (such as a Cult Weapon or Holy Symbol). This is a rare and noteworthy event and the honour is only accorded to the the most pious and worthy.

The Rune Lord must use 4 points of his dedicated POW to enter in to a pact with the spirit.
They have the following characteristics:

INT 2D6+6
POW 2D6+6
CHA 2D6+6
Awakened creatures retain all their remaining physical characteristics and other attributes such as STR, CON etc. Allied Spirits bound into an object gain that objects Armour Points and Hit Points.

Traits – all Allied Spirits have the traits of Life Sense and Magic Sense. If in an Awakened Creature then they also gain that creatures natural traits, such as Night Sight for cats.

Spirit Combat Combat Actions - based on average of INT and POW
Spirit Combat Strike Rank - calculated from the average of INT and CHA
Magic Points - based on POW and also used as Hit Points in spirit combat by the spirit
Spirit Damage - see the core rules under spirit combat, p.139.

If bound into an awakened creature then the creatures physical attributes are used for physical combat, although they may well need to be re-figured with the increased INT, CHA and POW taken into account.

When first summoned the spirit has 100 skill points to assign as desired. These skill points tend to be mostly used in boosting cult related skills, but other skills such as Common Magic, Persistence, Perception, Insight and Influence are also acceptable to boost. The Gamesmaster ultimately has the final say on where skill points are assigned.

Benefits and Detriments – as well as being a valuable ally and companion, Allied Spirits have a number of advantages and disadvantages. They are in a permanent mental link with their Rune Lord and are aware of each others senses. The spirit may also substitute its own Persistence skill instead of the Rune Lord's to resist magic or Spirit Combat. Magic Points may be freely exchanged between the spirit and Rune Lord, as can the use of each others spells (as long as the Allied Spirit has the required rank to cast them). The detriments of an Allied Spirit are that they can influence the personality of the Rune Lord, may use their Magic Points and cast their spells without permission and may even abandon the Rune Lord if he betrays the teachings of his cult. The Rune Lord may pass on any or all of his available skill improvement rolls to his spirit as he desires. If an Allied Spirit's host creature or object is killed or broken then the Rune Lord must make a Hard (-20%) Persistence test or be physically stunned for 1D3 Combat Rounds. Additional, longer term, mental problems almost invariably follow.

Skills- Persistence, Spectral Combat (the Spectral Combat skill is very rarely used as the spirit is now bound in to an object or creature), Lore (Spirit World), Lore (Cult), Common Magic, Insight, Influence, Perception (object bound spirits may still use this skill to sense things around them but their Perception is limited to their POW in metres and made through a combination of Life Sense and Magic Sense).

Other Skills - the spirit gains whatever skills it's host animal possesses, such as Resilience, Athletics etc. Spirits bound into an object are limited to skills with a base level using any combination of INT, POW or CHA due to their lack of a physically active form.

Cult Common Magic - the spirit may learn any cult common magic and begins with a number of points of magic equal to half it's POW.

Cult Divine Magic – the spirit is automatically considered an Initiate of the cult and gains the skills of Lore (Cult) and Pact (Cult) at base level, the spirit must dedicate POW exactly as a normal initiate would. The allied spirit may well progress on to Acolyte level and may even have its own Gifts and Compulsions appropriate to the cult. Allied Spirits may not become Rune Lords or Priests whilst they are still an Allied Spirit of a Rune Lord or other cult member.



Well, that's the first draft anyway.
Make no mistake that these spirits do provide a good advantage to an already powerful Rune Lord so they need to be used with caution, but they are still based on the Magic Spirits or Ancestors already available to some Gloranthan cults anyway. I think they are more balanced than the fetch model due to the initial cost in POW to the Rune Lord but I'm starting to wonder if any other detriments or costs should be applied. Perhaps the mental link they have could be a disadvantage in some way, maybe forcing the Rune Lord to make the same saves against Resilience/Persistence in some way when his spirit's host takes damage or is affected by a spell?

Any suggestions welcome.

 

[Blackyinkin]

Hi,

I like this, but I would prefer it if they were called Divine Companions, as per Storm Tribe, it differentiates from Shamanic Spirit Magic completely.

I always treat the Divine Companion as an NPC most of the time, bugging the players to follow their creed and cult rules, behaving as a good member of the cult would. For example, nine times out of ten when the Yinkin Huntress in our game (our only rune level) tries to communicate with the Divine Companion Prince, he has a mouthful of mouse, is off fornicating or is fast asleep at the most inappropriate time. In the past I have had Divine Companions in Bison, that refused to enter Pavis unless they could smash a house down in the process, I have had Issaries staff's getting a better deal on merchandise than the priest that owned them and I have had Vrok hawks attack their Sun Lord for running away from trolls in a fight. One Uroxi was so annoyed at the jibes his axe gave him that he nearly threw it into a walktapi pit to get rid of it.

Simon

 

[Vagni]

Hi,

I like this, but I would prefer it if they were called Divine Companions, as per Storm Tribe, it differentiates from Shamanic Spirit Magic completely.

I always treat the Divine Companion as an NPC most of the time, bugging the players to follow their creed and cult rules, behaving as a good member of the cult would. For example, nine times out of ten when the Yinkin Huntress in our game (our only rune level) tries to communicate with the Divine Companion Prince, he has a mouthful of mouse, is off fornicating or is fast asleep at the most inappropriate time. In the past I have had Divine Companions in Bison, that refused to enter Pavis unless they could smash a house down in the process, I have had Issaries staff's getting a better deal on merchandise than the priest that owned them and I have had Vrok hawks attack their Sun Lord for running away from trolls in a fight. One Uroxi was so annoyed at the jibes his axe gave him that he nearly threw it into a walktapi pit to get rid of it.

Simon

I think I prefer Divine Companion too, and like you say, it makes the distinction with Spirit Magic cults where the term 'allied spirit' crops up occasionally as well (such as Storm Bull).

I think this version is more balanced as most Companions are unlikely to get past Initiative rank (due to lacking most cult skills completely) and yet still cost a pricey 4 dedicated POW - this means they can only learn Initiate level Divine Spells and are restricted to dedicating up to a maximum of a quarter of their own POW to a Pact, so perhaps only 4 or 5 Divine spells for a Companion with a high POW. They can also drain Improvement rolls from the Rune Lord. They are not that much more powerful than a Spirit Cults Magic Spirit in basic terms, just a lot more flexible.

I once had an old RQ Humakti character who had an Allied spirit bound in to his sword. It loathed undead with a vengeance. Any time it so much as thought undead were around it would cast half the characters carefully hoarded Divine magic and demand he instantly attack! Not one for careful tactical forethought! I also read somewhere of a Third Age Pavic Lhankor Mhy allied spirit being of an opposite order from their master, so his spirit was happy to share lore and co-operate with the Lunar occupiers but he was a borderline rebel!! :lol:

 

[Deleriad]

I personally think there are two issues here. One is that allied spirits/divine companions appear to be more of a RuneQuest invention than a feature of Glorantha. Secondly, I find the ideas below to be over-complicated in that they look to be trying to micro-manage how such things should work.

To be honest, if I wanted divine companions in my game, I would just use the current RQII Gift and Compulsion mechanics, I would simplify it right down and I would have it as something that is only found in certain cults that have obvious mythological links to creatures. Basically I would just port over the Yinkin animal companion gift to other cults.

I really don't like NPCs that can cast PCs' magic without consent and so on so I would simply allow them a form of telepathy and if the companion is a sacred object of some sort, allow the companion to perceive through its ally's senses. I certainly don't want divine companions roaming around the spirit plane and discorporating NPCs etc.

 

[Vagni]

I personally think there are two issues here. One is that allied spirits/divine companions appear to be more of a RuneQuest invention than a feature of Glorantha. Secondly, I find the ideas below to be over-complicated in that they look to be trying to micro-manage how such things should work.

To be honest, if I wanted divine companions in my game, I would just use the current RQII Gift and Compulsion mechanics, I would simplify it right down and I would have it as something that is only found in certain cults that have obvious mythological links to creatures. Basically I would just port over the Yinkin animal companion gift to other cults.

I really don't like NPCs that can cast PCs' magic without consent and so on so I would simply allow them a form of telepathy and if the companion is a sacred object of some sort, allow the companion to perceive through its ally's senses. I certainly don't want divine companions roaming around the spirit plane and discorporating NPCs etc.

I'm not sure if Allied Spirits are more RQ or Glorantha, they certainly appear in the old AH Cults Book along with a list of suitable creatures/objects for each cult, and I think they are still around in HeroQuest. Bit of an awakened chicken and egg perhaps (pauses, for booing to die down...)

Most of what I wrote is largely in the Spirit Magic section of the Core rules anyway, with my addition of the characteristic values, magic and the advantages/disadvantages bit on top to hopefully iron out any playability issues. The idea of using the Alynx pattern is an interesting one as well...you could allow sharing of MP's and allow 'awakened' intelligence as an additional Gift/Compulsion.

I wouldn't allow Divine Companions/Allied Spirits to discorporate at all - they are bound into an animal or object and so have effectively sacrificed that ability, although they will still have some Spectral Combat skill as this is a natural ability of almost all spirits. The ability to use the Rune Lords spells could just be changed to MP 'in dire need' as per the shamans fetch perhaps - that's probably more appropriate.

It completely agree that Divine Companions aren't for everyone's game, my aim was to provide a basis for introducing them for those who might want to dabble with them. I'm an old time RQ fan and so I have to admit I'm struggling with the idea of my Glorantha without them.