How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

[Sociotard]

What I'm trying for is a pair of spells to serve as the backbone of a divine magic system.

 

THE SPECIAL EFFECTS

 

A circle of priests make a sacrifice to recieve Authority from their god, which is used a bit like mana. There is only one pool (not one for everybody in the circle) but any priest who was in the circle can access the pool once it is established. Nobody who was not in the original circle can access the Authority once the ritual is complete.

 

The patron god not only demands sacrifice to recieve his Authority, he demands constant rescpect for his Authority. At least one of the priests in the original circle must constantly mutter a prayer of respect or the pool will slowly fade away. While this prayer often leaves the supplicant physically exhausted it isn't especially advanced and is generally left to the junior members of the priesthood.

 

THE MECHANICS

So far, the sacrificial ritual done to recieve Authority is a standard 4d6 Aid with 40 pt expanded maximum. It has delayed effect (5 points every minute) and a host of limitations because this is ritual magic. There is no "usable by other", because everybody in the circle has to buy the power.

 

What's giving me trouble is a rules legal way to do the "Respect for Authority" prayer. It needs to stop the 5 point loss from the Authority Pool, and should require the supplicant to spend 5 Long Term Endurance to make that happen.

 

I wanted it to be fairly cheap because its a prayer learned by the even very low members of the priesthood (Normals). At first I thought "+5 Recovery" with appropriate advantages and limitations, because this is basically an endurance reserve that gets made with an Aid. That doesn't seem rules legal.

 

A 2d6 standard effect Aid seems way too expensive, as does a naked delayed effect advantage. Maybe I should completely resructure how the Authority is modeled.

 

What do you think?

[Killer Shrike]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Just use the Ritual Limitation in Fantasy HERO.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

I think your "mechanics" description is still just a sfx.

 

Aid can only affect specific abilities. So what is being aided?

 

A Limited VPP?

An Endurance Reserve for casting spells?

Or something else entirely?

 

Once you decide what the spell casters can actually do then it should be a simple matter to design a set of HERO Limitations to describe your sfx.

[Sociotard]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Endurance Reserve. I did say "this is basically an endurance reserve that gets made with an Aid." but I really should have said that up front.

 

I did use the Ritual Limitation. What I mostly need is a way to stop the pool from slowly draining. That's important because ritual magic usually takes a while, so you need the endurance created with the first ritual to last for a while.

 

I could just set the rate of loss for longer (5 per day or something), and say that having the junior priests maintain it is a special effect and not a seperate ability. I just liked the image of a junior priest failing a faith roll, wasting 5 points of precious Authority and getting in trouble accordingly.

[Doc]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Maybe you could just build it as an endurance reserve? It could only be respenished through a ritual sacrifice and would be linked and usable buy the people who participated in the ritual. It would have another special limitation dictating a constant prayer to prevent the endurance from dissipating by itself.

 

Another way could be to cast an aid on the Authority? I'm not sure this is legal or feasible, though... The praying character would be castind an aid, limited in that it can only resplenish an existing aid. Probably complicated, though...

 

Well, I tried my best! I'm still a Hero system roockie, after all!

[Hyper-Man]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Endurance Reserve. I did say "this is basically an endurance reserve that gets made with an Aid." but I really should have said that up front.

 

I did use the Ritual Limitation. What I mostly need is a way to stop the pool from slowly draining. That's important because ritual magic usually takes a while, so you need the endurance created with the first ritual to last for a while.

 

I could just set the rate of loss for longer (5 per day or something), and say that having the junior priests maintain it is a special effect and not a seperate ability. I just liked the image of a junior priest failing a faith roll, wasting 5 points of precious Authority and getting in trouble accordingly.

 

Your use of the word "pool" was a little ambiguous. What you are describing is essentially individual Endurance Reserves for each priest with a shared Limited Recovery.

 

Why not just build it as such?

 

6 Authority: Endurance Reserve (60 END, 0 REC) (6 Active Points) [Notes: This can be a different value for each individual priest in the circle.] - END=0

 

24 Confirmation of His Authority: Confirmation of HIS Authority: Recovery (30 REC); , Side Effects (Side Effect does a predefined amount of damage; The priest uttering the prayer of respect loses 5 Long Term Endurance over period of X time; +0) (30 Active Points); Ritual (2 casters; Special: At least one of the priests in the original circle must constantly mutter a prayer of respect; -1/4) [Notes: Whatever the actual cost it should be the same for each individual priest in the circle.] - END=0

[Sociotard]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

I was actually going to have it be a shared pool as well. If one priest uses 5 points from the Authority endurance reserve, theres that much less for everybody else.

 

Still the idea of building it as just an Endurance Reserve is interesting. Hmm . . .

[Sociotard]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

5 Worthy of Authority: Endurance Reserve (60 END) Reserve: (36 Active Points); Side Effects (Loses 5 points every minute; -1/4);

 

4 Sacrifice and Oblation REC: (30 Active Points); Extra Time (30 Minutes, Character May Take No Other Actions, -2 3/4), OAF (Sacrifice itself, plus ceremonial tools; -1), Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (0 DCV; -1), Gestures, Requires Gestures throughout (Requires both hands; -1), Incantations (Requires Incantations throughout; -1/2), Ritual (Circle of 4 or more; -1/2), Only When Serving The God's Purposes (-1/2)

 

2 Reverence for Authority: Endurance Reserve (1 END, 5 REC) Reserve: (5 Active Points); REC: (5 Active Points); Concentration, Must Concentrate throughout use of Constant Power (1/2 DCV; -1/2), Requires A Faith Roll (-1/2), Side Effects, Side Effect occurs automatically whenever Power is used (Costs 5 LTE; -1/2) Only to counter normal loses from Authority pool. (-0).

 

yeah, I think this'll fit.

[ghost-angel]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Super simple method:

 

Make the END Reserve, however big the Authority makes the shared pool.

 

Characters purchase: Access Perk to use the END Reserve. This allows them to draw END from the Reserve Pool, not their personal END. The Access Perk has a -0 Limitation (Priests must continuously pray or lose access to the pool).

 

The level of Access bought determines how much of the Pool they can draw on, a good correspondence to their ranking. Without the prayers their Access slowly decreases in level.

 

Say, every 1pt in the Access Perk: Devotee Of Authority allows them to tap 5pts of the END Reserve. If no one is prayer to the Authority they start lose Access Points at a given rate, say 1/hr.

 

This puts the Mechanics the END Reserver off the board, in the GMs hands, and allows the GM to say "too many priests are using the Pool, you don't have much external help to work with" and you can just fudge the whole shared Power thing entirely.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Super simple method:

 

Make the END Reserve, however big the Authority makes the shared pool.

 

Characters purchase: Access Perk to use the END Reserve. This allows them to draw END from the Reserve Pool, not their personal END. The Access Perk has a -0 Limitation (Priests must continuously pray or lose access to the pool).

 

The level of Access bought determines how much of the Pool they can draw on, a good correspondence to their ranking. Without the prayers their Access slowly decreases in level.

 

Say, every 1pt in the Access Perk: Devotee Of Authority allows them to tap 5pts of the END Reserve. If no one is prayer to the Authority they start lose Access Points at a given rate, say 1/hr.

 

This puts the Mechanics the END Reserver off the board, in the GMs hands, and allows the GM to say "too many priests are using the Pool, you don't have much external help to work with" and you can just fudge the whole shared Power thing entirely.

 

I like this approach.

[Doc Democracy]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Just skimmed the thread but has anyone addressed the issue of where the End Reserve actually is?

 

I was thinking of an independent IIF. Essentially there is this ball of potential somewhere on the God Plane that adepts can tap. It is possible someone could come and steal it but they'd have to find it first...

 

 

Doc

[ghost-angel]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

My approach assumes the END is "not on my Character sheet."

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

END Reserve with a Side Effect of losing x END per time unit unless at least one priest says the appropriate prayers (probably -0, possibly -1/4, depending on how many priests are available to pray).

 

REC for the Reserve with Limitations to reflect the ritual.

 

Does each priest have access to the entire pool regardless of rank? If so, no changes. If not, I like ghost-angel's idea of a custom Access Perk.

 

Spells take the Advantage Can Draw END From Character Or Endurance Reserve (+1/4) (unless they can't cast said spells out of their own END).

 

I like the concept!

[Killer Shrike]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Endurance Reserve. I did say "this is basically an endurance reserve that gets made with an Aid." but I really should have said that up front.

 

I did use the Ritual Limitation. What I mostly need is a way to stop the pool from slowly draining. That's important because ritual magic usually takes a while, so you need the endurance created with the first ritual to last for a while.

 

I could just set the rate of loss for longer (5 per day or something), and say that having the junior priests maintain it is a special effect and not a seperate ability. I just liked the image of a junior priest failing a faith roll, wasting 5 points of precious Authority and getting in trouble accordingly.

 

Hmm...check out the Threshold Framework on my website; it would model this fairly well. The stimuli is praising the authority, the magnitude is based on how many pariticpate. Some combination of the Dissipated and / or Mitigated Lims should serve to model your loss conditions:

 

Threshold

[Doc Democracy]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

My approach assumes the END is "not on my Character sheet."

 

 

I accept that it is not necessarily on the character sheet of any particular player or NPC but it exists and making it an independent IIF makes it as real as that magic sword, just a lot more interesting.

 

 

Doc

[ghost-angel]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

I've essentially move the build itself to Plot Device, using the Access Perk to simulate any given Character's (PC or NPC) ability to use said END.

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: How to: Maintain shared pool of divine magic

 

Simplest, and probably the the best way to do it.