I have a few questions I want to ask

Discussion on playing Earthdawn. Experiences, stories, and questions related to being a player.
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Celena
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Joined:Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:52 am
I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Celena » Sat Sep 14, 2019 4:53 am

Ok, long story short - my character is playing for the whole campaign while others joined later. My character is well build because I am the most familiarized with rules.

The problem is that the whole party tend to look at me as a solution for all problems. Being Nethermancer and having Foul Vapors is pretty much problem solver and I even stopped puting it in matrices and started fighting the way others can have some fun but...

I don't want others to have less fun and I don't want to abandon my character so I came up with an idea to change somehow my character world view from Free Follower to Strict Follower and abandon my C7/C4 Nethermancer/Staffmaster abilities and start from the start.

It will be a challenge because along the way I made some powerful enemies and getting back to old strength will give others time to catch up. I am willing to sacrifice power especially because if it will fit to the deal I made with Death to cancel a Blood Oath that would kill my love. She said that she will spare my life but one day she will show up and take all my magic.

So with foundations laid and GM more or less willing to agree on this I have some mechanical questions (I don't know yet if I will stay with Swordmaster or complete fresh discipline).

1) Losing all talents and abilities will include Thread Weaving so what will happen with threads my character has? Especially with Group Pattern. Will it become inert and activate once I will raise Thread Weaving?
2) What about raised attributes and skills? They are not magical but trained so I think they will stick with my character?
3) Current Legend Points should stick as well?

The other thing I've considered is re-Naming but... it's re-Naming :/

We are playing 3rd edition.

Belenus
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Re: I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Belenus » Sat Sep 14, 2019 9:47 am

my character is playing for the whole campaign while others joined later
Does this mean they have less legendpoints? Or just less experience?
If the problem is the first, the fault isn't on your side but on the gm's.
If the problem is the second, starting from anew but with the same legendpoints won't solve anything.

Bonhumm
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Re: I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Bonhumm » Sat Sep 14, 2019 1:55 pm

I don't see any canon rule about 'taking your magic' but this is Death we are talking about here so let just assume it can do that and that he somehow have the ability to affect and modify a person's True Pattern.

Such a thing as 'taking all you magic' is rather unclear so the effects would be up to the GM but I see several possibilities:

1- Death took 'all your magic': Life is magical thus you are dead.
  • It was not Death you made a deal with; it was Vestrial. Lets ignore that option :-D
2- Death took all of your magical abilities: You are no longer an Adept.
  • That would basically 'reset' you to 'normal schmuck': You are not even a brand new Circle 1 Adept, you have to start over your Adept training and then level up.
3- Death took your casting abilities: Your Spellcasting, Thread Weavings and/or Spell Matrices are 'canceled'. It would possibly also 'erase' all the spells you've learned from your grimoire and, therefore, your Pattern.
  • You'd keep your status as an Adept, you'd just loose those Talents.

In the case of option 2, the questions would be:
  • Did Death just 'reset' you to non-Adept and you can therefore just (re)-train to become a new Adept of any Discipline from scratch?
  • Or did he permanently blocked access to those two Disciplines (i.e. you can learn new Discipline(s) from scratch but never those two again)?
  • Or, even worst, just removed your Adept potential and condemn you to a life of non-Adept?
The same questions would apply to option 3:
  • Did you just lose all your Ranks in those Talents but can start over from scratch?
  • Did you lost permanent access to Nethermancer (and Swordmaster) threadweaving but could learn Thread Weaving of other Disciplines?
  • Did you lost permanent access to any sort of casting?

I do not think any canon rules can help you here; it would be up to the GM.


As for the other questions:
  • Attributes and Skills; they are indeed completely 'unmagical' and would not be affected, in my opinion by either option 2 or 3.
  • Threads you have already active: In my opinion, no Thread Weaving = no threads. They would just 'collapse' completely; not remaining active nor 'being put on hold'.
  • Legend Points: Well, what's the point of any of this if you keep your Legend Points? All it would cost you are the few weeks (okay, probably more like months) it would take to retrain back your Talents and relearn your spells, in addition to the monetary cost of doing so. This will more or less be like Renaming but without the downsides; basically a character reboot. People would stand in line to make this 'deal' with Death.
Last edited by Bonhumm on Sat Sep 14, 2019 2:10 pm, edited 7 times in total.

Slimcreeper
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Re: I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Slimcreeper » Sat Sep 14, 2019 2:00 pm

Weird idea: what if your spellcasting talents were stripped away but replaced with other magical talents linked to the nethermancer discipline, I.e., other talent options?

Slimcreeper
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Re: I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Slimcreeper » Sat Sep 14, 2019 2:07 pm

Or maybe the GM would allow the other players to rebuild their characters mechanically under your tutelage so the will be more effective? Just let them have a do-over because the players had limited experience with the system? Maybe the party has a training montage with a dragon or something to explain the shift. Or not.

Qwazi
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Re: I have a few questions I want to ask

Post by Qwazi » Mon Oct 07, 2019 10:14 pm

Outside the box idea:
A Wizard in the group I'm game-master for hates magic and think it's going to be the downfall of everything. He is extremely reluctant to use his magic due to its corruptive power (in his view)... So, well, not every fix need to be done by drastic rule changes or recreating your character.

What if you just had a really bad experience with Foul Vapours or magic in general? What if a horror has found your irresponsible use of magic rather interesting and is now stalking you to find an opportunity to mark you? What if you had a really bad dream, an omen, etc. etc. Turn it into an in depth roleplaying moment that significantly affects your characters personality and beliefs...

Well, just giving you an additional option.

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