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PostPosted: Thu Feb 15, 2018 10:52 am 
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I was reading a series recently (the Pellinor books, if anyone's interested), and in these books there are corrupted mages called Hulls. They are able to call on dark forces to summon terrible creatures from long-forgotten ages. I was thinking that a being like that would be a fun NPC enemy: caught up in a cycle of debt to some dark god (Balor, maybe?), summoning huge creatures that the PCs cannot possibly defeat and have to outwit instead.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:20 am 
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Acoma wrote:
I was reading a series recently (the Pellinor books, if anyone's interested), and in these books there are corrupted mages called Hulls. They are able to call on dark forces to summon terrible creatures from long-forgotten ages. I was thinking that a being like that would be a fun NPC enemy: caught up in a cycle of debt to some dark god (Balor, maybe?), summoning huge creatures that the PCs cannot possibly defeat and have to outwit instead.

As a "skills of the mighty" in my campaign, sorcerers can take a blasphemous pact, which makes them more resistant to Taint (a new attribute measuring of "cost" of using sorcery to balance the sorcerer profession's otherwise incredible abilities) but the pact itself comes with a cost, not the least of which is requiring the sorcerer to pledge their immortal soul to the Blasphemous Lord (i.e., demon). The Blasphemous Lord can also compel the sorcerer to perform some actions for him as His agent in Legend and whilst not all Blasphemous Lords are demonic in the sense that we would consider them to be evil, it can create "challenges" for the sorcerer... Sounds like your NPC could be one of those kinds of sorcerer - compelled by his Blasphemous Lord to summon his minions into the Realm of Legend to spread chaos, possibly even as a distraction to the Lord's more malevolent objective.

I never introduce an NPC with powers or abilities that the players could not experience for themselves if they made the right choices - so if summoning an army of demonic minions is possible for an NPC, it should also be possible for the player characters too, should they be prepared to shred their last vestige of humanity in a desperate bid for ungodly powers, of course.

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:36 am 
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Taint (a new attribute measuring of "cost" of using sorcery to balance the sorcerer profession's otherwise incredible abilities)


Interesting. How does this work?


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 10:46 am 
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Starkad wrote:
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Taint (a new attribute measuring of "cost" of using sorcery to balance the sorcerer profession's otherwise incredible abilities)


Interesting. How does this work?

You might be interested in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=4&t=230

In addition to a link to my Perils document (in which Taint is covered - although I note that it's an old version but close enough), there is a (short) discussion on making magical items more costly.

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:17 pm 
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Quote:
You might be interested in this thread:


Thanks. Good stuff…
…but how does it work in practice?

The Perils of the Realms Rules Reference states “Taint is caused by sorcery, exposure to the fey, or travel through the fey realms” – but there is no guide to how much Taint is gained.
(Yes, I could make it up for my own game but, as you devised this, I wondered if you had any ideas?)

I assume the Taint would vary depending on the nature of the thing the character is exposed to… But I wonder to what varying degree (i.e. how many points of Taint would a character expect to gain in one go)? Does the casting of spells cause Taint?
Can Taint be resisted / shrugged off? (For example, would a roll against Psychic Talent permit a character to avoid being Tainted? Or would it be affected by Rank? Or both – Rank + Psychic Talent?)

Losing attributes is, in my experience, quite a serious thing - especially in an extended campaign. The inevitability of losing attributes through Taint (especially if the campaign exposes the players to Faerie on a regular basis) seems a little harsh to me.

Regarding magic weapons, I sometimes like to include extra abilities or restrictions to keep the players on their toes.
In one case, I had them find a “gentle sword” – it was a +2 weapon but would only gain its magical bonus if no woman was present. (As it happens, there was a female PC in the group and they never managed to work out why the sword had no – apparent – bonuses.)
Another weapon was a sword which only gained its bonus when fighting outside at night (it had to be night – underworld darkness didn’t count)…

There were others, but I forget what they were & my notes are not easy to retrieve.


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:45 pm 
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Starkad wrote:
The Perils of the Realms Rules Reference states “Taint is caused by sorcery, exposure to the fey, or travel through the fey realms” – but there is no guide to how much Taint is gained.
(Yes, I could make it up for my own game but, as you devised this, I wondered if you had any ideas?)

That's because the places in my rules in which you gain Taint (using magical items, casting spells, etc.) explain in those sections how you acquire it - or places in adventure write-ups, etc. There isn't like a table that explains action X causes Y amount of Taint.

In summary (and this is HUGELY condensed), indirect attack spells always cause at least 1 Taint. Magic potions tend to cause Taint (depending on the strength of the potion - not all potions of Occult Acuity convey the same bonus to Psychic Talent). Sorcerers use Magic Points to protect themselves against Taint so can continue to cast spells after their MPs have been exhausted, but to do so imbues Taint equal to the number of MP they are short. And some spells that infuse a target with magical energy of some kind (think Weakness might also Taint the target. At some point, I'll publish all of my DW content on the Cobwebbed Forest, but I just never seem to get the time to write everything up neatly and upload it...

Starkad wrote:
Losing attributes is, in my experience, quite a serious thing - especially in an extended campaign. The inevitability of losing attributes through Taint (especially if the campaign exposes the players to Faerie on a regular basis) seems a little harsh to me.

Yes, very - which makes sorcerers much less likely to just go around blasting their enemies with magical fire at every opportunity. I've played in a few campaigns in which the sorcerer character pretty much only used their artillery spells - fearing to use their other spells in case they needed to bring out the big guns later in the day. However, now, to do such a thing carries a terrible price on the sorcerer - better to use intimidation, fear, and the threat of it to cow your enemies or to discover creative uses for more subtle sorceries that don't carry the curse of Taint. Taint can be reduced but, over time, those who delve in the eldritch dens of faerie magic, or wield powers of the netherworld will inevitably become corrupted by it. Which is much more in keeping with the low magic, low fantasy feel of DW. There are some other elements I've incorporated into the Sorcerer profession to balance Taint that I'll make available in the Forest in due course.

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 1:47 pm 
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Starkad wrote:
Regarding magic weapons, I sometimes like to include extra abilities or restrictions to keep the players on their toes.
In one case, I had them find a “gentle sword” – it was a +2 weapon but would only gain its magical bonus if no woman was present. (As it happens, there was a female PC in the group and they never managed to work out why the sword had no – apparent – bonuses.)
Another weapon was a sword which only gained its bonus when fighting outside at night (it had to be night – underworld darkness didn’t count)…

I like the way you think - magical weapons shouldn't just be clinical expressions of modifiers to game mechanics, but should have personalities born from the enchanter that created them, the powers that were funnelled into them, or the circumstances in which they were created.

Starkad wrote:
There were others, but I forget what they were & my notes are not easy to retrieve.

Hmmm... I'm assuming they are now guarded by a hydra that you are now recruiting a party of hardy adventurers to help you defeat?

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:51 pm 
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Thanks for the clarification (condensed as it is). :D

Quote:
…so can continue to cast spells after their MPs have been exhausted…


So – no Taint if they cast spells using MPs, but they gain Taint if they exceed that limit? I like the sound of that. It means a Sorcerer, having run out of MPs for the day, may find himself able to cast a spell in desperation… But at considerable cost. That's something I could include in my games... (I shall give it some Thought.)

Quote:
At some point, I'll publish all of my DW content on the Cobwebbed Forest, but I just never seem to get the time to write everything up neatly and upload it...


That would be good to see.
Finding the time to do these things is the killer, isn’t it? Real life / work has a habit of getting in the way… :roll:

Quote:
I'm assuming they are now guarded by a hydra that you are now recruiting a party of hardy adventurers to help you defeat?


Hydras can be quite tricky opponents…
(Especially when their lair is so long established that their miasma has poisoned the very air around them.)


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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 2:58 pm 
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Starkad wrote:
Hydras can be quite tricky opponents…
(Especially when their lair is so long established that their miasma has poisoned the very air around them.)

If only there was a DW profession that was resistant to poisons...

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PostPosted: Fri Feb 16, 2018 3:32 pm 
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If only there was a DW profession that was resistant to poisons...


What you need is a friendly Cadaver... Or keep the Armoured One of Skiosonar handy. ;)


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