Different Ways of Handling Divine Magic

[Torque2100]

Well hello again.

I'm currently working on a campaign setting for Legend/MRQ II called Albion. It's a setting based very closely on historical Britain circa 1070, but diverges from our own reality in a lot of ways. For one non-human races like Elves and Dwarves live alongside Men. For another, the Saxans have refused to give up the fight and have continued a bloody war of attrition against the Nords (Normans) for four years.

Obviously, I want to have a fictional religion which is a very close analogue to Christianity. I've hit a little bit of a snag here. What to do about Priests of the Allfather? The Church of the Allfather is my Crystal Dragon Jesus religion for this setting. I really don't think that the Divine Magic rules fit the Allfather's Priests for a couple of reasons.


I'm really not sure I want to use the Divine Magic rules presented in the book. I've always disliked the concept of Divine Magic. The whole concept of "I call down the Wrath of my God to Smite Thee" seems really artificial and gamey to me. If we reduce the Divine to a mere force which can be called forth at will it seems to make the gods seem a lot less god-like. Also, the idea of making a Pact with and Dedicating POW to the Allfather in exchange for magic powers seems very, well, Pagan and not appropriate for a Medieval Christian fantasy analogue.

Another issue that I have with traditional Divine Magic spells is what I like to call the "Magic Band-Aid effect." Divine Magic is a panacea for all problems tends to render things like Disease or Famine a non-issue. I don't like the idea that this one guy can just wave his arms and instantly cure a disease or call forth food from nothing. A disease is a living thing, it's going to resist efforts to cure it.

One thing I am planning to do is give Sorcerers a remove disease spell. The way I would like it to work is the Sorcerer rolls an Opposed Test vs. the Potency of the disease. If he beats the disease, rather than instantly remove it, the Sorcerer reduces the Potency of the disease and it might take several tries to heal it completely. I also prefer the way Sorcerous healing is handled in that it enhances the Healing Rate it's not just like an instant Magic Band-Aid.

I've had a couple of ideas to handle these issues.

One idea I've had is to give Priests, Monks and others of a religious persuasion the Piety skill from Spells of Legend as well as the Lore (Allfather) skill. Using these skills, Priest or Monk could get the same effect as some Divine Magic Spells. For example, they could roll agianst their Lore(Allfather) skill to bless some Salt. If successful, this Consecrated Salt becomes a barrier which Spirits, Undead or other supernatural creatures cannot cross. They might also be able to hold a Demon, Wraith or similar monster at bay by, say, Brandishing a Holy Symbol and beating the creature in opposed Piety vs. Persistence roll. None of which involve a direct or indirect expenditure of Magic Points by the priest.

Of course they will have to have some drawbacks, otherwise I could easily see this getting to be unreasonably powerful. Borrowing an idea from Deadlands, perhaps they have a strict code of conduct and if they break that code then the Allfather stops answering their prayers. If the Priest commits a Sin, he must pass a Piety check with an appropriately high penalty or else he permanently loses points in Lore(The Allfather) and the Allfather stops answering his Prayers until the Priest has atoned.

I'm eager to hear what you think about these ideas.

 

[strega]

You might want to take a look at Deus Vult to see how Mongoose handled this sort of thing before. It does use the RQII system of dedicated POW as your Pact with the deity but with a twist to provide a monastic christian feel.

 

[soltakss]

One idea I've had is to give Priests, Monks and others of a religious persuasion the Piety skill from Spells of Legend as well as the Lore (Allfather) skill. Using these skills, Priest or Monk could get the same effect as some Divine Magic Spells. For example, they could roll agianst their Lore(Allfather) skill to bless some Salt. If successful, this Consecrated Salt becomes a barrier which Spirits, Undead or other supernatural creatures cannot cross. They might also be able to hold a Demon, Wraith or similar monster at bay by, say, Brandishing a Holy Symbol and beating the creature in opposed Piety vs. Persistence roll. None of which involve a direct or indirect expenditure of Magic Points by the priest.

That's similar to what MRQ Merrie England did.

The Piety skill could be used to withstand certain attacks (seduction, for example) as well as to invoke effects. I can see Piety being used to make demons and vampires back off, but perhaps not to banish them.

Of course they will have to have some drawbacks, otherwise I could easily see this getting to be unreasonably powerful. Borrowing an idea from Deadlands, perhaps they have a strict code of conduct and if they break that code then the Allfather stops answering their prayers. If the Priest commits a Sin, he must pass a Piety check with an appropriately high penalty or else he permanently loses points in Lore(The Allfather) and the Allfather stops answering his Prayers until the Priest has atoned.

Yes, that is pretty much how Piety works. If you do something really bad then you can lose the ability to use Piety until you have atoned. I'd say that such a sin would automatically reduce the Piety skill by a set amount, so you could be really lucky and sin a lot but not be punished for it, but your Piety would still go down. Of course, if you atone successfully then your Piety would be restored.