Memorising Divine Magic

[languagegeek]

One of our players is planning on running a divine magic PC, and in providing a list of spells available from the cult, I started thinking about the way spells are "carried" by a divine magician.

On the whole, I'm not really a fan of pre-memorising spells from a list. Let's say I don't want to be poisoned, so I have to have a prememorised "cure poison" at all times. But when there's no poison in the adventure for a long while, it becomes a wasted slot.

Has anyone considered (or tried) using dedicated POW as a sort of divine pool of magic points? So a character with 4 dedic.POW can cast any of the spells from their respective cult list until the pool runs out - one dedic.POW per spell. Then they can pray to replenish their spell pool at the shrine. Now I don't have to worry about having a "cure poison" spell handy at all times, but I can call upon it when necessary.

I know my RQMV, but before telling the player that this will be our house rule, I'm curious how you all would think this would work.

 

[taxboy]

I totally agree with your thoughts. To me, Dvine Magic, is not actually magic - it is a direct payer or mini-ritual where you ask the God(s) for help and it manifests.

My preference would be to have access to all "spells" at all times and you simply pray etc to recover the slots (or favours)

What do we think?

It dos makle Clerics (don't stone me!!) more powerful but fits the flavour better...

 

[Mongoose Pete]

Depending on the setting I'm all for it. I'm pretty sure I've included an option covering this in Blood Magic...

 

[Loz]

Me too, but don't forget that some spells are rank-specific, so initiates wouldn't (and probably shouldn't) have access to the same pool of spells as a Rune Lord.

 

[Exubae]

You could treat divine spells in a similar manner to common magic, allow the devotee to remember a the same number of spells as per the rules, then allow them to cast any of the spells he knows multiple times, using a pool of Divine Magic Points derived from Dedicate POW.
i.e.
Bob the mighty has 5 dedicated POW, granting 5 Divine Magic Points.
He knows Shield, Heal body, and Spirit Block (Still limit spell magnitude total equal to Ded. Pow)
Each time he casts one of the divine spells he knows he loses DMP equal to that spells magnitude (unless he critical's his role).

It might be a nice idea to link the spells to the deities myths, but can't see an easy way to do so without adding layers of complexity.

 

[Deleriad]

You could treat divine spells in a similar manner to common magic, allow the devotee to remember a the same number of spells as per the rules, then allow them to cast any of the spells he knows multiple times, using a pool of Divine Magic Points derived from Dedicate POW.
i.e.
Bob the mighty has 5 dedicated POW, granting 5 Divine Magic Points.
He knows Shield, Heal body, and Spirit Block (Still limit spell magnitude total equal to Ded. Pow)
Each time he casts one of the divine spells he knows he loses DMP equal to that spells magnitude (unless he critical's his role).

This is generally my favourite variant and, if anything, I slightly prefer it to RAW. Only thing I should mention is that a spell's Magnitude is equal to Pact/10 so is not related to the number of DMPs you spend.

 

[RosenMcStern]

This option has been around for a really long time, as it dates back to Tales of the Reaching Moon #12. It is clearly a viable option, and I suspect that it might have been used for 15+ years by someone.

However, there is another aspect you might consider, particularly if you play in Glorantha. Each single divine spell is usally related to a portion of the god's myth, that is, it originates by recalling something you experienced during a "limited scope" HeroQuest. Thus, it does make sense that your character cannot cast _all_ of his or her god's magic, as he or she might have performed a limited subset of all his heroquests.

 

[languagegeek]

Thank you for the comments.