From: Graeme A Lindsell (gal502@cscgpo.anu.edu.au)
Date: Sat 11 Sep 1993 - 18:09:51 EEST
>
> It's nice to see all my old saws (sores?) coming back time and again...
They look painful, you should see that Arroin down at the temple.
> I liked your 'dialogues' in the example; they weren't *quite* what I had
> intended, but were fun in themselves. Good stuff.
There is a more serious point: do the spirit helpers have a personality?
If the RQ3 rules of INT=points of spell then I doubt it, since even a
large spell spirit is pretty dumb. Of course you could take the stand that
POW determines personality, in which case they might a large spirit might
have strongly held beliefs (say, about not being seen in a spear).
Giving spell spirits names and personality would have its advantages
and disadvantages: creating a character and her spells will take longer,
but IMHO will be more colourful. If personality reduces the effectiveness of
some spells (ie my previous example about Bladesharp), then some kind of
advantage has to be given. A possible advantage: against hated cult
enemies (ie Humakt Bladesharp when fighting Zorak Zorani, CA Healing
a chaos wound etc) you get a +20% bonus to the chance of casting the
spell, since the spirit actively tries to help. I may try and write up a
group of advantages and disadvantages if there is any interest.
If they don't have personalities then they would tend to be more
"spirit slaves" or "spirit weapons" than helpers. This could vary
between cults: some cults like Orlanth value freedom and individuality,
and so orlanthi cult spirits would tend to have more personality; others
like Yelm value order and obediance, and their spell spirits would more
frequently obey but rarely help.
Personality will also have a big effect on spirit matrices. It will
be very difficult to use a matrix from an enemy cult.
Re the Animist vs Spirit Helper versions of spirit magic: I feel that
the Animist version would be closer to the Shamanic view of things,
while the divine spirit spells would tend to be of the spirit helper
variety. Opinions?
> ====
> Nick
> ====
Graeme Lindsell a.k.a gal502@huxley.anu.edu.au
0, redistributed,,
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