Elric-confused about cult gifts

[halorix]

The gift perfection states that for 1 pow a character can raise a characteristic by 1d6. Can an initiate with, let's say, 4 pow dedicated to Miggea and entitled to one gift use all the 4 pow to raise his characteristics by 4d6?

Also some of the gifts seem to me to be a little unbalancing, like ward wich gives total invulnerability, maybe limit it by having the ward give pact/10 extra ap or at least test the ward with a pact skill roll is in order?

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Hi Halorix

If a character wishes to increase a characteristic by 1d6 then it costs him 1 POW the first time, 2 more POW for the second 1d6 increase, a further 3 POW for the third 1d6 increase etc.

So to gain 4 x 1d6 increases would cost a total of 10 POW (no matter if they are all spent on the same characteristic or not)

As for gift balance, they are all pretty powerful in their own way. A ward only gives invulnerability to a single type of damage. In reality, once a character starts to gain fame then the gift soon loses its effectiveness, as knowledge of the ward begins to spread.

Assassin 1 - "They say Lady Sathril is invulnerable to the bite of swords due to her pact with Xiobarg..."

Assassin 2 - "I know, thats why I brought this" he says patting the poisoned bolt loaded into the heavy crossbow. "You just keep her busy whilst I line up the shot..."

Personally I thought the most unbalanced gift was automatically gaining a skill at 100%. If used cunningly, it can be a tremendous help to sorcerer characters. The Automaton was pretty powerful too. During playtests I designed a knight with a flying Griffin which cost 8 or 9 POW but was effectively a golden tank that could have shred pretty much anything in its path.

Hope that helps!

 

[halorix]

that helps a lot, thanks Pete

 

[Loz]

Its also true to say that the gifts aren't necessarily balanced against each other because the first and foremost aim was to represent the saga, rather than strike perfect game balance (and in so doing, represent the way the Cosmic Balance see-saws between Law and Chaos).

One of the challenges for GMs in running Elric games is to ensure that those who pact with gods are always, always aware of what they've entered into. Yes, they can become very powerful very quickly, but there's always a cost. For this reason GMs need to ensure that compulsions are reinforced and, if you're being true to the saga, a compulsion will assert itself just when that gift might be at its most handy. Here, its up to the GM to introduce the effects of compulsions in devious ways that reflect the cruel tricks fate plays on the Eternal Champion saga protagonists. That's what you get if you strike bargains with gods!

 

[Arioch]

I enjoy that they aren't balanced per se as this is Chaos
Ken