Divine magic

Well after having Deluxe RQ on my shelf for many months now, I'm finally (I hope) getting ready to run a game.

However, I am not keen on the "fire and forget" (until you pray and pay) nature of divine magic. I realise it needs some sort of "balancing" mechanism compared to rune magic and sorcery as all divine spells are cast with a single skill rather than requiring the development of multiple skills. I was just wondering whether anyone else has tried - or has thoughts on - allowing re-usable divine magic without making it clearly better to rune magic/sorcery?
 
HalfOrc HalfBiscuit said:
Well after having Deluxe RQ on my shelf for many months now, I'm finally (I hope) getting ready to run a game.

However, I am not keen on the "fire and forget" (until you pray and pay) nature of divine magic. I realise it needs some sort of "balancing" mechanism compared to rune magic and sorcery as all divine spells are cast with a single skill rather than requiring the development of multiple skills. I was just wondering whether anyone else has tried - or has thoughts on - allowing re-usable divine magic without making it clearly better to rune magic/sorcery?

You may be pleased to know that the new Guilds, Factions & Cults book has presented a reusable version of Divine Magic as the new default version of the rules. Clearly you should buy the book as it's not open content but the mechanic - called a "pact" - is pretty well known now.

A basic summary is that everything works the same way as before (including using Lore (my God) to cast divine magic) but divine magic is now stored in a pact with your deity.

When you become an initiate you dedicate as much POW as you want to your deity to create a Pact with a Magnitude equal to the amount of POW you dedicated. You can now store divine magic in that pact on a 1-1 basis: i.e. if you have a 5 Point Pact you can store up to 5 Magnitude total of divine magic in that pact.

Once you cast divine magic you still "know" it but it is gone from your pact. You can regain it by returning to a temple (if initiate or acolyte) or through prayer (priest).

You can know more magic than you can hold in your Pact at any one time. E.g. your priest may know 30 Magnitude of Divine Magic but if he has a 10 Point Pact he can only have 10 Magnitude prepared to cast.

That's the basis of the system. If you're wanting to get more fully into divine magic I would definitely get Guilds & Factions as it goes into divine cults at length.
 
Thanks for the quick response. I'll definitely check that out - thereby jumping it to the head of the queue of a dozen or so other RQ books I'm planning to buy
 
ok I'm sorry to ask a question to which the answer is probably very obvious to everyone else, but to cast a divine magic spell successfully you have to roll against the specific mythology of your deity, so a humakti has to roll against "theology:humakt", and not "theology:orlanth & ernalda pantheon" ?
 
yamaking said:
ok I'm sorry to ask a question to which the answer is probably very obvious to everyone else, but to cast a divine magic spell successfully you have to roll against the specific mythology of your deity, so a humakti has to roll against "theology:humakt", and not "theology:orlanth & ernalda pantheon" ?

That is correct.
 
ok sorry me again with a few more questions :

do you need separate theology skills for Orlanth adventurous,Orlanth rex,etc.. or just the same "theology Orlanth" skill for all ? (i hope the second)

if a humakti goes on a heroquest as humakt, does he have to roll against hi "theology:humakt" skill or can he roll against his "theology:Orlanthi pantheon" skill(if that skill even still exists ?)

thank you
 
I'd say just use the one Theology (Orlanth) skill. If you want to emphasise that some knowledge is specific to a subcult or aspact or Orlanth then give the Theology (Orlanth) an appropriate penalty.

As for the HeroQuest question, I'd use the most appropriate skill or the next best skill with a penalty. So, if the PC had Theology (Humakt) then use that, if not then use Theology (Orlanth Pantheon) at -20% or Theology (Orlanth) at -40%, or whatever penalty you, or the GM, thinks appropriate.
 
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