RuneQuest 2.5 Magic

- Main Page; The Prax Adventure

Learning Spirit Magic

Learning Spirit Magic: (via RQ3) you learn this by having a spirit summoned and defeating it in POW vs POW combat. The spirit has Xd3 POW, where X is the number of points in the spell. So, a spirit that knows Disruption (1) has a POW 1d3 and is easy to defeat, and thus learn the spell from. A spirit that knows Bladesharp 6 has a POW 6d3 has an average POW 12 and thus is not nearly as easy to defeat to learn a spell from.

Learning from cults: lay member, initiates, rune lords, acolytes, and priests can learn cult spells from within the friendly confines of temple. The spirits are friendly, so there's nothing bad that happens if you fail to defeat the spirit and learn the spell. You go in offer a sacrifice of X Lunars per point of spell, the spirit is summoned and you try to learn the spell. Specific cost depends on the characters status. There's no prohibition against learning more than 1 spell/day, but you should offer a little extra more sacrifice (tip) for additional spells in the same day. (Note that powerful spirits will most likely drain you and you will need to rest before proceeding anyway.)

Variable spells: you must learn these sequentially. Learning Protection 4 from scratch requires first learning Protection 1, then learning Protection 2, then Protection 3, and finally Protection 4. It's four different spells that layer. (Still takes 4 Int to know them. This is just time and money.)

Cults teach spirit magic to anyone from friendly cults. It's just at a discount as you move up in the ranks.

It costs 10 L per point for spells, assuming you became a lay member. It costs 5 L per point for cults you're already initiated to.

Learning Divine Magic

Learning Divine Magic: (via RQ3) available to initiates and above by going to the temple, offering a sacrifice and spending an entire day re-enacting the myth, sacrificing the POW and learning the spell. More powerful spells (2+ points) require additional days to gain command of the secret.

Also, per the RQ3 rules, it takes a week and a ~20L sacrifice to learn a point of divine magic the first time. Yes, it's a timely issue, but divine magic is powerful.

Cults will teach spells to others only from the lists of associated cults under each god.

Regaining Divine Magic

Fluff: Go to a holy site, offer sacrifices, re-enact the cult secrets that grant the spell, commune with the deity and have the magic refreshed.

Mechanics: 1. Go to a shrine/temple of the deity. 2. Offer a sacrifice (money, goods, enemy cults scalps, ???) proportional to the amount of magic and your station (above and beyond standard tithes). 3. Roll Ceremony for each point of divine magic you want back. It takes 1 day per point you want to relearn . 4. Go to 2 and repeat until you relearn all you divine magic.

I make it difficult as an initiate, but at least you can get them back. It mostly costs time and money.

This means that a 3 point divine spell will take 3 days to regain, if you make all your Ceremony rolls. It might take a week or more, practically.

FYI, Acolytes and Priests regain divine magic faster and easier. Rune Lords (who aren't also priests) regain it like Initiates.

A full worship on the high holy day of the cult refreshes all divine magic. A full worship on seasonal holy days refreshes priests divine magic.

Magic Duration

Battle/spirit magic lasts 5 minutes and divine magic 15 minutes.

Shamans

Shamans are strange in RQ III. Well, I suppose shamans are strange in general....

Really, a shaman is just someone who has accessed their spiritual side, the fetch, and is able to make conscious use of it. Many shamans worship the various minor spirit cults around, and can worship many of them. Others are both shaman and priest dedicated to a specific god. For example, the priestesses of Kygor Litor are typically a full priestess and a full shaman.

I let the fetch start with a rolled POW rather than having to build it. Then I let it improve at a 5% chance of POW gain on it's own. It's a bit of a mixture with RQ 2. I found RQ 3 PC shamans to be impossible to really create in play as they start out too vulnerable.

Otherwise, mechanics are pretty much RQ3. No skill caps though and Ceremony is the only magic skill now. You'll need to find a shaman to be a mentor to help you make the transition at some point.

You can know up to your INT worth of spells. The fetch can know up to it's INT worth of spells. You can easily forget them and learn new ones. Additionally, the fetch can capture and hold other spirits to be used at any point. You can also enter the spirit world yourself and leave the fetch to protect your physical body. The fetch adds its POW to yours for defensive purposes against hostile magic and other spirits. You don't add it for offensive magic. However, you and the fetch can each cast spells, so you can cast two per round pretty easily.

• Both your and your fetch can cast spells independently.
• You can cast spells that your fetch knows and it can cast spells that you know, so long as you're in communication (generally will be).
• You can go find a spell spirit and learn a new spell.
• You can bind Intellect Spirits to remember spells for you if you run out of Intelligence to hold them.
• You can bind Passion Spirits (Fear, Pain, Madness, etc.) to throw at people offensively.
• You can bind Magic Spirits to cast spells they know for you.
• You can bind Power Spirits to use their magic points to power your own spells.
• You can see into the spirit plane and see the magical aura of everything and everyone around you. You'll be the only character who can gauge how powerful people around you are.
• You can actively engage spirits around you. Non-shamans cannot do that. The best they can do is defend themselves and run away.

Summons

Summoning elementals/spirits/etc. always takes time. It's a lengthy ritual. If you know the true name of such a creature, you can specifically summon that creature. So, if you know three gnomes' names, you can summon them up pretty easily with the ritual.

Command elementals allows you to command them, obviously. This is cast once the creature is summoned and you want to tell it what to do.

This is a lengthy process.

If you want immediate access to an elemental, you can do this by first constructing an item to binding enchantment (very expensive POW-wise) and then summoning an elemental and binding it into the item. Then you can use your Command elemental spell to immediately do something with your bound elemental. When the spell runs out, the elemental is destroyed, etc. then the elemental (spirit) is pulled back into the binding. You can use this as often as you have Command Elemental available.

Note: elementals can only be control with 100% concentration, though you can certainly give them basic commands and let them go while you do something else.

• Gnomes
  • Gnomes come in different sizes, but it's on a continuum rather than discrete sizes. Your gnome will have a POW that will determine its size. For every 1d6 the gnome has POW, it will have 1d6+6 STR, 2d6+6 hp, and occupy 1 cubic meter of ground. It can open pits, dig, undermine, carry someone along across shifting earth, etc. It can attack by sucking people down into the ground and crushing them. It can attack by partially or fully swallowing opponents in the ground. The gnome is just the spirit and that's what you have bound. When commanded out, it takes over and controls the ground in the area.

Summoning II

Good questions and I'll admit that RQ3 is a bit vague on this. Summon spells are rituals that take significant time to cast and summon up an otherworldly beings. You'll need an hour or more some place with the right paraphernalia to summon things. When you summon them, you have a few options with what to do with them:

Bargain with them directly to perform a task on the mundane plane before returning to their plane. This is dangerous but may work with friendly beings. Release them on the mundane plane to do what they want. This is dangerous, but again might work with a friendly being. They'll return to their own plane shortly if they can. Otherwise, they might hang around for a while. It depends. A sylph will go howling off somewhere, never to be seen again. A salamander will light everything on fire in the vicinty, etc. Cast Control on the spririt. This lets you comman the spirit to do something for some time and manage it directly. This isn't time limited by the spell length in general, but more on the task. Bind the elemental. This means you don't need to go through the entire ritual again to have access to the being. You do need a command spell to make it do things for you each time you call it out of the binding to help you. Again, this is not hard-time limited. Elementals will still need something to manifest into, so beware of that.