johnosevens
Member
Wodium - Love the Blood and Chaos work.
For Embrace the Night, the idea is to wear away his faith temporarily (lowering his skill level in the ability), but if his faith is reduced to 0 it becomes permanent unless he converts to DM on the spot, in which case it's instantly restored. So it's temporary until it finishes, then becomes permanent, unless they convert.
Hmm. I'm wary of that. Multiverser tends to tread lightly on permanence, crippling effects, and suchlike, with particular attention to how the average player would react if such a skill were turned on him.
What if the spell's effects are always only temporary, but if the score is reduced to zero, a suggestion effect kicks in to make the victim believe it will be permanent unless he converts? That sort of deception and false promise strikes me as particularly appropriate for Anarch holy magic. Of course, even if the target is convinced, he still has the choice to abandon faith entirely rather than embrace the darkness. (Said choice would of course result in his regaining his entire religion SAL once the spell's effect ended. Side suggestion: what if specific rejection of the Anarch side undid some of the spell's effect - perhaps removing half of the temporary penalty and making the target immune to further reductions for a period of time?)
Again, I suspect that in writing the concept for Embrace the Night, you have actually created several separate skills whose use will be closely related. In particular, the mind-influencing "false offer" effect would make a lot more sense as a separate skill which could only target victims with severely damaged religion SALs.
Before I do a bunch of work on Embrace the Night under that assumption, though, lemme know what you think. I might work on your number three in the meantime.
johnosevens
Member
"What if the spell's effects are always only temporary, but if the score is reduced to zero, a suggestion effect kicks in to make the victim believe it will be permanent unless he converts? That sort of deception and false promise strikes me as particularly appropriate for Anarch holy magic. "
--Works for me.
Of course, even if the target is convinced, he still has the choice to abandon faith entirely rather than embrace the darkness.
--True.
(Said choice would of course result in his regaining his entire religion SAL once the spell's effect ended.
--Are you sure about that? He did just reject his gods in the face of despair...
Side suggestion: what if specific rejection of the Anarch side undid some of the spell's effect - perhaps removing half of the temporary penalty and making the target immune to further reductions for a period of time?)
--No. My original intent was that the spell should punish harder those who more strongly reject the dark side. Specific rejection of the Anarch faith should make the penalties accrue /faster/.
I think you're right that this is, in MV, about four different skills, but that's why I defer to you for mechanics - you know what you're doing.
Are you sure about that? He did just reject his gods in the face of despair...
Yes, I'm sure. Moments of doubt do not destroy years of faith, especially not when the doubt is magically induced and subsequently wears off. He may need to atone, depending on his faith and his god, but his religion SAL will remain intact unless he specifically converts to something else.
Side suggestion: what if specific rejection of the Anarch side undid some of the spell's effect - perhaps removing half of the temporary penalty and making the target immune to further reductions for a period of time?)
--No. My original intent was that the spell should punish harder those who more strongly reject the dark side. Specific rejection of the Anarch faith should make the penalties accrue /faster/.
I meant it as a side effect of the suggestion - that once the victim's SAL had been penalized to zero, the caster would be taking a risk in attempting to make a convert: if the victim believed the suggestion, he would either take the offer and be converted or reject it and thereby regain a measure of his original resolve. As a disadvantage for mind-altering "false choice" skill, it would make the conversion part easier to cast, but if it goes against the concept we can easily leave it out.
As far as hitting harder against people who reject Death Metal: we can bonus the spell against Alliance targets in exchange for a penalty against all others, but I'm inclined to keep the spell's effect constant against any given person within that affiliation - that is, a priest with a 2@8 SAL in M1@0 Catholicism would suffer the same penalties at the same rate as a layman with a 1@4 SAL. Consider that the priest is disadvantaged much more greatly by the reduction of his Religion score than the layman; too, I find it difficult to rationalize a preacher succumbing to this effect more rapidly than his lukewarm parishioners.
If I start seeing my spells turned into 10@ skills that curve out in any world that doesn't have a Merlin, I'll be very sad.
Glad you brought that up. As it turns out, the faith-destroying aspect of the spell is M15@2 - reduction of SAL is 15@1 Temporarily Alter Abilities, mind effects are M10@7 Suggestion, which gives us level of 15 and a curve of 17. Since morale bonuses are usually M1@1 (with any combat bonuses falling at M1@2 or M1@3), I'm guessing you want to separate the spell that bonuses DMers from the spell that assults P&W. Perhaps you have two casters, one slamming out a wall-o-noise on the electric guitar and another playing a sinister strain on the bass?
Scott, I think you posted that to the wrong thread?
--M. J. Young
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