Utgardloki
Mongoose
To assist with my proposed Iron Kingdoms conversion, I've come up with an idea for another form of magic to put alongside Runecasting and Divine Magic. The concept is that it is based on a karmic connection, rather than being granted by the gods. Whether it is or is not psionic in nature is something I'd like to make deliberately vague, although my concept is that psionics operates on a simular mechanism.
Each effect is a separate skill, which must be taught by a teacher (or in very rare cases, I guess somebody has to invent the technique, but this should be reserved for legendary practitioners). Specific effects may also have other requirements, such as upholding a code of ethics (for "paladin-like" powers) or avoiding certain taboos. One example is the rage effect, which can not be used by anybody who worships the goddess Cyriss.
There may be a magic point cost to activate an effect.
The hard part would be balancing this against "dynamic sorcery". Since for Iron Kingdoms, I'm not using the Runequest Companion rules for Sorcery, this is not a big problem. It also needs to be balanced against runecasting, but this can be done by making most of these "kharmic" effects unavailable to runecasters.
I'm creating this effect without the benefit of having the rulebooks handy, but this is a preliminary writeup for a rage effect:
Rage
A successful Rage roll creates a temporary increase of 2 points to Strength and Constitution, a 10% bonus to weapon use skills, and a 10% bonus to Persistence and Resilience rolls, for one battle. After the battle is over, the character is fatigued, and temporarily loses 4 points of Strength and Constitution and takes a 20% penalty to Persistence rolls, for one hour. These penalties will not reduce Strength or Constitution below the minimum for the character’s race.
While under this effect, the character is in a berserk rage, and can not retreat or surrender, but must keep fighting until all enemies are dead.
A critical success doubles the Strength, Constitution, weapon use, Persistence, and Resilience bonuses, but also doubles the penalties when the battle is over.
Each effect is a separate skill, which must be taught by a teacher (or in very rare cases, I guess somebody has to invent the technique, but this should be reserved for legendary practitioners). Specific effects may also have other requirements, such as upholding a code of ethics (for "paladin-like" powers) or avoiding certain taboos. One example is the rage effect, which can not be used by anybody who worships the goddess Cyriss.
There may be a magic point cost to activate an effect.
The hard part would be balancing this against "dynamic sorcery". Since for Iron Kingdoms, I'm not using the Runequest Companion rules for Sorcery, this is not a big problem. It also needs to be balanced against runecasting, but this can be done by making most of these "kharmic" effects unavailable to runecasters.
I'm creating this effect without the benefit of having the rulebooks handy, but this is a preliminary writeup for a rage effect:
Rage
A successful Rage roll creates a temporary increase of 2 points to Strength and Constitution, a 10% bonus to weapon use skills, and a 10% bonus to Persistence and Resilience rolls, for one battle. After the battle is over, the character is fatigued, and temporarily loses 4 points of Strength and Constitution and takes a 20% penalty to Persistence rolls, for one hour. These penalties will not reduce Strength or Constitution below the minimum for the character’s race.
While under this effect, the character is in a berserk rage, and can not retreat or surrender, but must keep fighting until all enemies are dead.
A critical success doubles the Strength, Constitution, weapon use, Persistence, and Resilience bonuses, but also doubles the penalties when the battle is over.
