| From: | Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Re: new character & NEW: magic question |
| Date: | Wed, 23 Jul 1997 11:47:19 -0700 |
would like to get going on his introduction, but I figure I can leave the
thing open for a few more days to allow the whole week to finish out.
In other words, I take it there are no major problems/questions on me
bringing Michael in?
Now: Two new questions:
Does designing a Manipulation spell necessitate using only one
type--Control, Transformation, Telekinetic--of manipulation? Quite a
while ago, someone asked if their character could have wings. This
recently got me thinking. (I know, uh-oh, Jeff's thinking again!)
While the design of a "Flight" spell is more or less an extention of the
Levitate Person spell, with the difference that, if sustained, the person
continues to move at a certain rate, as opposed to stopping at the limit
of the spell's range. This is obviously a telekinetic manipulation. But,
what if one wanted wings as an added effect? Perhaps to serve as control
surfaces or just for looks, since a man-sized pair of wings couldn't hold
up a man-massed object. This is a transformation manipulation. Can one mix
the two sub-types of magic in one spell? I have doubts which is why I
want to ask everybody's opinion. While it may be cool, I will differ to a
strong NIMGU (Not In My Game Universe) vote.
The second question is in regards to Ally spirits. As sort of a
Chicken-or-egg question: Does the ally spirit exist in one form or
another before the conjurer summons it? While the Grimoire II says:
"Each ally is unique, created according to a special formula using the
rituals of Conjuring Skill. The magician gives life to the spirit by
giving it 1 point of his own Magic Attribute."
That and the fact that the magician decides the characteristics of the
ally might lead you to think that the spirit is an extention of the
conjurer.
BUT, then it says that as they become more powerful, they become more
willful and may try to kill their masters. That and the sentence:
"Shamans draw their allies from a shamanic metaplane and mages from a
hermetic metaplane."
This seems to indicate something different. How can something that
doesn't exist yet be "drawn" from anywhere? And why would something tha
started out as a piece of yourself want to hurt you? (Would an element of
patri-/matricide be even thinkable?) The best way I can see rectifying
this is that there is a spirit out there somewhere first, but then during
the ally ritual, the spirit is conjured and transformed (empowered?) into
a new form as specified by the ally formula and bound into the new form
much like the ally power of binding it into a familiar animal.
Do people agree with this, or are there other opinions?
--The troublemaker
Jeff
