From: bell@cs.unc.edu ((bell@cs.unc.edu))
Date: Sun 16 Jun 1991 - 09:56:33 EEST
>I was also wondering how people using socery in their campaigns have
>managed to handle the problem of sorceror's running around with lots
>of long duration spells up all the time, and how you deal with the problem
>of dispelling magic across different spheres of magic.
One way to handle it is to not think of it as a problem. Stafford's vision
Presumably, however, the problem for you is a problem of balance --
of Glorantha is apparently one where sorcerors and their buddies have long
duration spells up at a time, and thus it's not a problem, it's the
way things are. Likewise, the rules or the errata explain that
1 intensity sorcery = 1 point spirit magic = 1/2 1 point divine magic,
and thus a 2 intensity neutralize magic has a 50% chance of dispelling
a bladesharp 2 or a Truesword.
mixing sorcerers with other classes results in a much stronger party
than one without sorcerers. While this would appear to be fairly rare
in most of Glorantha, due to the social schisms between the godless
sorcerers and the god worshipers, certainly there must be some mixing
(else why would Chalana Arroy worshipers be permitted to be sorcerers)
and this may have a less than desirable effect on play balance.
Well, if play balance is what you seek, I suggest changing the sorcery
rules. Frankly, I'd suggest this anyway -- it seems bizarre to me, for
example, that suddenly shouting "Hey, I'm an archmage!" would reduce the
amount of time one needs to spend practicing one's sorcery... Furthermore,
the rules as is don't mimic the traditional concepts of magic very well
anyway, if you're using them outside the Gloranthan setting. The only
obvious alternative is to make life difficult for the sorcerer, which
will merely result in annoyed players.
Instead, I recommend making sorcerers more flexible in exchange for a
reduction in their ability to cast long duration and high intensity
spells, at least at low skill levels. One easy way to do this is to kill
the whole concept of free int, and instead limit boosting of intensity,
range, and duration to (say) 1 point on any per 5% of skill. Thus a
sorcerer with a 45% skill at a spell could cast a 3 intensity, +3 range,
and +3 duration spell, or a 9 intensity spell, and so on. The range,
duration, and intensity skills could be a further limit, with no more
than +1 of each for each 5% in the appropriate skill. You might even
want to use 10% instead, and then the sorcerer would have to make magic
items or do extremely long rituals to cast those really long duration
spells. In exchange, the sorcerer could then get a more diverse
collection of spells (as the free int requirement disappears.) High int
is still useful to a sorcerer under these rules, as it affects the
character's chance to successfully learn a spell from training and still
limits the total number of spells, although it isn't quite as important
as it is under the standard rules.
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