Necromantic Arts and Sorcery

[dazzah]

bump

 

[shadowjack]

I tried to update the Necromantic sorcery rules to RQII. I am including only the spells that needed changing and only the part that needed it. All spell requirement not mentioned should remain as printed (if that amuses you). Mostly the Magnitude of the spells needed to be changed to be percentages of the Sorcery (Grimoire) skill. Here it is. Hope it is useful


Bleed Power-The power source may be tapped for 1 point per 10% of Grimoire skill. Permanent Zombies-Manipulation (combine 2), Manipulation (targets), Bleed Power, Undead Slave. Penalty-20%, MP cost-3 Pts & # of Targets

Body Jump-Maximum POW while in the undead body is 2 pts per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill. Common Manipulation-Range & Duration.

Brain Juice-Touch is not a requirement. The Spell has 1 pt per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill which must be greater than living target’s intelligence. Common Manipulation-Combine Diminish (Intelligence)

Construct Intellect-The mind constructed by this spell has an INT equal to 1 pt per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill and skill points equal to ½ of Grimoire skill. If combined with Form/Set (Mind) then it is equal to full Grimoire skill %. Common Manipulation-Combine Enhance (Intelligence).

Deathbolt- 1D4 per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill. Armor protects as normal. Zombie(s) last 1 day per 10% of Grimoire skill.

Imbue Necrotic Energy-Recipient gains a 5% bonus to resilience and +1 strength for every 15% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill.

Macabre Dance- One extra Combat Action per 30% (round up) of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill.

Master Undead-Each 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill equals 2 points which must be equal to the POW of the undead creature. Common Manipulation- Manipulation (Targets & Distance).

Necrotic Bolt-Inflicts or heals 1 pt per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill. Common Manipulation-Manipulation (targets) allows sorcerer to damage opponents & heal minions with one spell. Also combine with Macabre Dance.

Raise Undead- Each 15% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill equals one of the listed levels.

Strip Flesh- Every 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill equals 1 point toward equaling the target’s maximum Hit Points.

Undead Slave-Each 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) skill allows the sorcerer to animate 3 size points of the target.

Vivification- as above, but 1 size point per 10% of skill.

Whispers of Command-= Command is transmitted to one vassal per 10% of Sorcery (Grimoire) Skill.

 

[Akrasia]

Is there an official errata for this book?

 

[Titus]

It does not look as if it is packed with MRQI artefacts like A&EII. It's just this magnitude question, for example Page 18, but in effect passim in the sorcery chapter:

"...this spell can be cast on a living creature but this allows a Resilience test and the Magnitude of the spell must be equal to the target's INT. If the spell is effective..."

As I see it if that description were in the core rules, it would say that the caster can affect a target with up to 1 INT per 10 per cent of his Grimoire skill or fraction thereof.

Another necromantic sorcery spell does "1D6 points of damage per two points of Magnitude"

I don't have this book yet and all I have to go on are the snippets here, but these seem to fit with the MRQ2 core sorcery rules.

I would interpret the first snippet to mean that the sorceror has to have manipulated the spell to include enough Magnitude. So to affect a 3 INT creature, the sorcerer would have to manipulate the spell to Magnitude 3 in addition to any other appropriate manipulations (range, duration, etc).

The same applies to the second snippet. In order to get 1D6 points of damage, the sorcerer would have to manipulate the spell to a Magnitude 2 and 2D6 points of damage would require manipulation to a Magnitude 4.

It does sound like there are other difficulties with the book from reading this forum. I still plan to buy the PDF of this book, maybe tonight. If so, in a few days I may be able to give a more informed response.

 

[Titus]

It does not look as if it is packed with MRQI artefacts like A&EII. It's just this magnitude question, for example Page 18, but in effect passim in the sorcery chapter:

"...this spell can be cast on a living creature but this allows a Resilience test and the Magnitude of the spell must be equal to the target's INT. If the spell is effective..."

As I see it if that description were in the core rules, it would say that the caster can affect a target with up to 1 INT per 10 per cent of his Grimoire skill or fraction thereof.

Another necromantic sorcery spell does "1D6 points of damage per two points of Magnitude"

I don't have this book yet and all I have to go on are the snippets here, but these seem to fit with the MRQ2 core sorcery rules.

I would interpret the first snippet to mean that the sorceror has to have manipulated the spell to include enough Magnitude. So to affect a 3 INT creature, the sorcerer would have to manipulate the spell to Magnitude 3 in addition to any other appropriate manipulations (range, duration, etc).

The same applies to the second snippet. In order to get 1D6 points of damage, the sorcerer would have to manipulate the spell to a Magnitude 2 and 2D6 points of damage would require manipulation to a Magnitude 4.

It does sound like there are other difficulties with the book from reading this forum. I still plan to buy the PDF of this book, maybe tonight. If so, in a few days I may be able to give a more informed response.

Okay, I have had a chance to look at the Necromancy book (a.k.a. - Necromantic Arts). It definitely is a mix of MRQ1 and MRQ2 stuff. At first I thought the rotes' MPs were miscalculated, but I looked in the MRQ1 Runequest Companion sorcery chapter. The MP costs appear to be right for MRQ1 sorcery.

I also had to reread the sorcery chapter in MRQ2. So now I see where you are coming from and you are probably right that they should be using the "per X% of Grimoire" mechanic for sorcery spells. Until I have time to thoroughly read the NA sorcery, I would have to say it looks like it is pure MRQ1.

The book states at the beginning of the Introduction that it is intended as a villians book for GMs. First sentence of the Intro: "Necromantic Arts is a toolkit for making despicable and terrifying enemies for the players in your RuneQuest games." That it does!

It offers some new spells for anti-undead adventurers, but the vast majority of the book is for nasty people.

I like a lot of what I have seen in the book so far. The "rotes", despite their MRQ1-ness, were interesting examples of combining sorcery spells.

It is just unfortunate that we will have to fix the MRQ1 vs MRQ2 issues ourselves because Mongoose didn't.

Oh, and yes as previously pointed out, the maps for the Necromatic Lairs chapter are missing also. That is too bad because the scenario presented there is interesting. Hopefully Mongoose has the missing maps laying around somewhere and will post them for download.

 

[PhilHibbs]

So Mongoose have dropped the ball on two supplements (Necromantic Arts, Lankhmar Unleashed), claiming they are RQ2 when in fact many of the mechanics are RQ1? Very disappointing. I more or less disregarded RQ1 because I got the impression that Mongoose were a quite sloppy. When I saw RQ2, I realised that they had really raised up their game several notches. Arms & Equipment confirmed that opinion, but now I'm seeing evidence of carelessness again. Fortunately Lankhmar and Necromantic Arts weren't on my wish list anyway, I hope they do a better job with the imminent Glorantha releases. Does Pete Nash (Races of Glorantha) have a good track record? I know Loz does, so I have high hopes for Cults.

 

[almightygm]

When I saw RQ2, I realised that they had really raised up their game several notches. Arms & Equipment confirmed that opinion, but now I'm seeing evidence of carelessness again. .

Huh? Arms and Equipment was a train wreck with stuff from previous versions all over the place. It was so bad they fired the editor in charge of the book!

The frustrating thing is that Mongoose refuses to comment on the problems with Necromantic Arts or to indicate if we can expect an errata or to indicate that the seeming inconsistencies were intentional (which I seriously doubt). The lack of comment makes me think they know that there are problems and just don't want / have time to deal with it right now.

 

[PhilHibbs]

Huh? Arms and Equipment was a train wreck with stuff from previous versions all over the place. It was so bad they fired the editor in charge of the book!

I guess I haven't had time to look through it in detail - I have the PDF which isn't quite as convenient for flicking through (especially as there are no bookmarks, and the protection means I can't add my own - definitely going to unlock that restriction).

 

[languagegeek]

The lack of comment makes me think they know that there are problems and just don't want / have time to deal with it right now.

I hope it's an important issue for the writers as I am looking for the Errata for NA sometime soon. I'm planning on using necromantic sorcery and would like to have the official RQII changes instead of my homemade hacks.