Rune History notes

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The College of Rune Magics Review Notes

Review Notes

August 2001

The additional Runestaff material table has been removed for now. The MA requirement has increased to 14 since the college still has the Ritual of Purification, even though the College specific version was removed. As the original college had an MA requirement of 18, I don't think this will be a problem. Lightning (Rune of Elements) description corrected but may be too powerful as a resist for half damage and stun if fail spell. The duration on Runeweapon changed to 5 minutes + 1 / Rank to fit in with all the existing weapon spells.

August 2000

The Talents of Interpret Symbols and Read Rune has been merged. This is because the Talent of Interpret Symbols doesn't really get much better with Rank and at 150 EM it not worth it. A GM will give out exactly as much information as they are willing, regardless of how well ranked the talent it. The Spell of Healing has been depowered some more (maximum healer Rank is now Rank 5). I've reduced the EM to 450 to compensate. I doubt anybody will complain too much as this. The duration on Smite has been reduce to 10 minutes + 10 / Rank and resist for half removed. The duration is neither here now there but many people didn't like a resist for half general knowledge. The general Purification ritual is gone because nobody liked it and I couldn't think of a good replacement. The Spell of Warding has been put back as a general ritual to fill the space and the spell component removed. The duration of Runes of Truth as been cut to 10 minutes + 10 / Rank since it really is pretty though for 300 EM. The Spell of Converse with Spirits has had its duration increased to 5 minutes + 5 / Rank and the language requirement dropped. Since the Adept can't force the target to converse it's not that useful ( unless the GM want's it to be). In Runes of Elements Lightning now stuns but does not specify a duration and is resist for half. This makes it more like Air college. The Ritual of Remove Minor Curse has been removed. I really liked it but it didn't make much sense when there already is a ritual that does this. However, if people really like it I can put it back in. Mist now covers an area based on rank rather than just a single hex.

May 2000

The Spell of Healing has been depowered somewhat so it does a maximum of Rank 7 healer. The EM has also been increased to 500 and BC to 30%. This makes is still extremely useful but doesn't step on the preserve of healers at the top end. The Ritual of Purification has been extended so give additional benefits if additional time is taken. This is based on the perception that Rune mages are specialised in ritual magic. The Spell of Spirit Trapping has been toned down so it doesn't complete with Jon's ritual of Binding Spirits.

October 1999

Back in early 1998 I ran a number of meetings to thrash out some basic ideas and spell descriptions for a replacement Rune college. It seems that no much has been done since. In October 1999 I have revisited the work and with a number of changes and put it out to review. The basic design criteria was to bring the college back towards the more standard format, that is the removal of rune sticks. The philosophy behind the college is one that it is an ancient art (older than witchcraft). Emerging around the same time as Namer, where as Naming became a much more academic college and the foundation of Thurmaturgies Rune remained a the most primitive form of magic. The Entities colleges grew out from Rune magics. However Rune kept its original simple and primitive effects so the college is very much a collection of different effects. The changes made during my basic review is to reduce the number of general rituals to three by making Warding a special spell and healing a general spell. The spell of Torment moved to general and will be depowered slightly. A little more necro flavour added by control corpse spell. An new spell is Rune of Elements added to add basic elemental flavour. The Light and Darkness spells have been rewritten to be move "natural" while still avoiding the problem of boosting celestial mages. It doesn't complete solve it since it doesn't "banish" the opposite element (ie it does create shadows). However I think these are much simpler spells and have a lot more flavour. Originally the "Rune of Healing" has a general ritual which I moved to being a spell. The reason for this is that Rune by its nature is heavily ritualised. But the original work done by myself et al left Rune with 5 general spells and 5 general rituals. That is why I made Healing a general spell, Warding a special spell (both were rituals) and changed Torment into a general spell from being a special spell. I arbitarily decided that as a player character college having four general rituals (3 + purification) was enough. If you think otherwise please tell me. I have removed the restriction on Runes of Healing not being able to extend life. Extend life does not really allow the patient to gain "extra" life, only stretch what they already have. The inability to gain true extra life or to ressurrect comes from the Dragons specifically making sure what ever else happened no information was left around enabling mortals to become immortal. I have moved the Smite Spell to a general and Torment to a special. This means they no longer have a ranged attack spell in generals but gain a quasi-weapon spell instead. This is to encourage players to get in and have atleast one hack rather than hang back and cast range spells. The description of Smite has ranged slightly so that it can be put on entities. The spell has been toned down so at Rank 10 or above the opponent is knocked prone if they fail and at Rank 20 they become stunned. One advantage to it being a general is that it means parties can temperarily have "magical" weapons. A number of additions have been added from work by Jon McSpadden including Spirit Vision (T-3), Ritual of Binding Spirits, Ritual of Transformation and Ritual of Removing Minor Curse. I have added the Runes of Elements spell to give the college a weak multiple effect spell which costs a lot of EP. [edit]

Original participants

Ross Alexander, Jim Arona, Jon McSpadden, Adam Tennant, Michael Young, Terry Spencer, Daniel Dixon Michael Haycock, Dean Ellis, George Mitchenson

Other working notes for 2.1.5:

Bring Dark and light in line with celestial? Pyrogenesis still weird.

        • Define ritually cast.****

Healing: In addition, if an extended ritual, all afflictions which can be cured by a (Rank / 4) healer will be fixed, with exception of preserve dead, which cannot be done. The extended ritual takes a minimum of [20 - Rank] hours to complete. It is possible for the ritual to backfire and will always backfire on a roll of 00. If it does so, the entity being healed immediately dies. The Adept must expend 10 Fatigue to employ spell as a ritual. This ritual does not work anything not living. Runewall: where is rune? Not anchored? Transparent vs translucent? Suggestions: Purification reversible: pollute Runeportal Old or new version or some combination.