RE: [DL] A small mail on shamans and such.

[Allan Seyberth <darious@darious.com>]

 >I looked over the section on rituals and on filling up the guardian spirit,
 >and looks to me like it's perfectly legal in gameterms. Might be time for
 >me to make some houserules on this subject though.

Yup - since there is the rule that asking for the same Favor more than once 
in a day costs extra Appeasement, it's not that hard of a stretch to say 
that when using the same Ritual more than once a day grants a +2 to the 
base Target Number. (Similar to the write-up of Pledge in GD, which costs 
+1/per use each day)

Spirit Song was also given for free in GD, but that was back in the day 
when the rules stated that each ritual had to be bought separately - so you 
would most likely see a Shaman with Pledge 4, Dance 2, War Cry 2 - at the 
cost of 8 character points during creation. This was both expensive and 
limiting to Shamans.  Nowdays all they need is 5 point into Ritual and they 
get 5 rituals, all cast at 5 dice.  The bottom line is that it may be 
desirable to limit filling the Guardian Spirit to only using the Spirit 
Song ritual, and at 1/day.

Owl as the totem huh?
That's a nasty one, all right.  Owl is almost not meant to be a  PC totem, 
as the ghost way is filled with a lot of Favors that you just don't tend to 
see heroes doing and the Owl's abilities are just brutal.  You did remember 
that non-ghost Favors cost "double" during character creation?  That 
illusion ability of his would take two of the granted slots.  There is also 
an optional rule in Hexarcana that non-favored Favors cost two extra bounty 
to buy during game play (7 as opposed to 5).
Also - only ghost favors get the double appeasement point factor.  Illusion 
still costs one for one, and don't forget that the appeasement costs double 
if the illusion is out of contact with the shaman.  Those viewing the 
illusion do get a tough roll to try and beat it, too.

Shapeshifting is limited to natural animals only, and the shaman isn't 
carrying any gear.

By the way - what Favors and Rituals does your player have?

And keep an eye out for the red chip ability of Owl - it is potentially 
very nasty, especially in combination with Shapeshifting.





-------------------
Allan Seyberth
darious@darious.com

"On the dogmas of religion, as distinguished from moral principles, all 
mankind, from the beginning of the world to this day, have been quarreling, 
fighting, burning and torturing one another for abstractions unintelligible 
to themselves and to all others, and absolutely beyond the comprehension of 
the human mind."
                 - Thomas Jefferson