From: Colin Watson (watson@computing-science.aberdeen.ac.uk)
Date: Mon 01 Nov 1993 - 20:12:30 EET
I asked: >> should the "standard" DIs be available to all or not?
I can see that game balance might demand flexibility in the matter of DI. But personally, I'd say if the PC asks for too much then the DI should just fail - no POW loss, no result. When you choose a God to worship, you should take into account how it might be able to help you in times of need.
>He has a legitimate question: what useful DI could Thed, Goddess of Rape,
>give a broo worshipper in extremis?
Well, I could make some distasteful suggestions, but I'll settle for this: (Assuming the poor broo is in a near-death situation) Thed could take the broo's spirit and transplant it into a un-stillborn (broo) fetus thus preserving the broo's life (and postponing the ultimate termination of its damned soul) in a domain-appropriate fashion. Sure, the broo gets slightly screwed - loses his equipment, has to "grow-up" etc; but at least it preserves his memories, spells etc. More than he deserves from Thed IMHO.
Use a little imagination; it's a dangerous thing.
> In our current game our Storm Bull artist nomad has a "Bison Of
>Disintegration": every time he does one of his trample attacks the
>victim DI's out of there.
Oh dear.
I hate it when DI becomes the knee-jerk response of every NPC when faced by
superior PCs. I think the PCs should get to nail the bad-guys once in a while.
I also hate it when the opposition always blows every last point of their
one-use Divine Magic, safe in the (GM's) knowledge that they'll never have to
fight another battle.
Oh, sorry, was I ranting...?
Interesting idea. I suppose it depends how you look at it:
I'm sure the Vivamort cultists would say that the initiate has to sacrifice
POW in order to control the god appropriately. Divine spells which have
already been bought just won't do, the god ain't interested in buying back
what he has already sold.
Maybe "atheist" sorcerers would say that the god is not smart enough to do a
spell-for-DI swap. All it understands is POW.
What would the theists say? Hmm...
I find a good fall-back position is to duplicate spell-effects of the god, but on a grander scale. This is usually what I do on the rare occasions that an NPC succeeds in a call for DI. (The PCs must've done something pretty nasty, or stupid, before I'd have the opposition DI-ing mind you). I rack on 5 or 10 points of cult divine magic which can't be dispelled or whatever. It's quick to work out and it makes the point beautifully.
Successful DI on behalf of a PC is a rare occasion which merits some thought (and celebration). I usually take a time-out to think up something appopriately spectacular. And the players don't usually mind the hold-up. ;-) I'll even take suggestions from the players concerning how the DI should work (within reason).
>But I don't like either "standard" calls for DI, or
>"standard" responses.
Me neither.
>Any more than I like those outbursts of "Let's *all*
>try to pick the lock" that can hit even the best playing groups.
This I don't mind *if* they do it in a genuine attempt to open the lock (after all, how else do you find out who is most suited to the task). On the other hand, if they do it purely to get XP checks then I take a different attitude.
___
CW.
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