In the Behind the Screens 2008 thread, Scott asked:
Is holy magic intended to be more effective than arcane magic? It is, in the main. The modifiers for affiliation are balanced - variable effectiveness of holy magic vs. unchanging effectiveness of arcane magic - but there's no arcane counterpart to the bonus for Religion SAL. In addition, there are explicit penalties on arcane magic built into the skill trees (-40 on new arcane curatives, -10 (I think) on all arcane creation ex nihlio), but no corresponding penalties on holy magic. All the penalties inherent in the skill descriptions specific to holy magic are also specific by affiliation and are balanced by bonuses for the opposite affiliation.The immediate answer is yes, holy magic is supposed to be easier than arcane magic. More precisely, holy magic is supposed to be more reliable and less dangerous than arcane magic, and for exactly the reason that holy magic involves the petitioning of someone who knows what he's doing to do it for you.The only possible counterbalance to the Religion bonus that comes to mind is the possibility of deity-specific penalties for certain skill uses in certain circumstances - but isn't that already balanced by the potential for bonuses when the deity approves (either directly, as with the penalties, or through the questing bonuses)? I suppose I'm wondering why wizards bother if holy magic works better.
At the same time, it is implicit (and mentioned, but not emphasized), that to perform holy magic you have to be on good terms with the deity you're petitioning. It is perfectly within the priorities of the referee to penalize a player who has acted in ways entirely at variance with his stated religion who then asks his deity for help. Pillage a city, burn it to the ground, steal the treasure, rape the women, and then petition Yahweh for a blessing? I think you'll find a very large penalty against any prayers you offer.
Consistent with this, deities are certainly permitted to call upon their supplicants for assistance. A player whose character who frequently uses holy magic cannot complain when the referee suddenly announces that a prophet or priest or angel or some other emmisary of his deity has come with a "request" that he accomplish something. This gives the referee some pretty solid hooks--since to refuse the mission is (potentially, at least) to refuse to do what the deity requests, and such a refusal is going to result in substantial penalties, and possibly against more than just holy magic skills.
Thus the wizard's magic is harder, less reliable, more dangerous--but it comes with no strings attached. He can do whatever he wants, and while deities can ask for his help, he can thumb his nose at them and say they can find someone else to do their dirty work. Sure, making enemies of a god is a bad idea; but then, if you don't owe the god anything, you're in a position to bargain or refuse, and he can't really say you're being unfair as long as you uphold your end of the bargain. If the deity has already given you something, you're in a much different position when he expects something from you.
Does that help?
We've avoided including bonuses for studies of magical schools for precisely this reason: so wizards can't get the edge over holy men.
Footnote: the referee is also quite free to detail what sorts of penalties (or bonuses) any particular god is likely to apply to particular skills. Some deities might automatically penalize any damaging spell against life forms, or particular life forms, or any skill that endangers particular beings. Some might penalize curatives. I can see Odin declining to grant a spell where single combat would be an adequate solution. Those sorts of specific variables are too considerable to fit in the main text (although if someone wanted to create/self-publish a compilation of deities, the tenets of their historic faiths, and the implications for modifications to holy magic, that would be a welcome addition to the Multiverser corpus which would be beyond anything I can envision doing myself at present).
So there are potential limitations to the holy magic side that shouldn't be overlooked. To date, most of my players have lived consistently with most of the tenets of their faith, so I've not penalized anyone too severely recently.
--M. J. Young