Domain Spells + Favour

[Bregga]

I was wondering if it would be possible to have your spells gain level by gaining favour and loose level by loosing favor? I don't know how easy this would be to do but I think it is a good idea.

[Vantaniael]

This would ahave to be an additional modifier, I could see losing effectiveness to lack of favour, but any additional gains only applied with maybe having all three supplicated items on you, or something like that.

[Isaldur]

This would ahave to be an additional modifier, I could see losing effectiveness to lack of favour, but any additional gains only applied with maybe having all three supplicated items on you, or something like that.

I don't believe every deity has three items that can be supplicated.

Is there a reasoning behind why requiring three supplicated items would help raise the skill level at which you cast domain spells instead of the suggested taking your current favor level into account as a modifier?

I'm really intruiged by Bregga's idea because it makes sense on an RP level. It also adds some extra pinache to priestly favor, and allows priests to "train up" their domain spells like a typical spell but instead of casting it over and over they work on keeping high favor with their god.

[Alaudrien]

I think his reasoning is that the supp items are a mark of your dieties favor love what have you in that person. Most faiths have three but a few have a third item that is used for something but that will remain unnamed. Hmm I could see how it would and wouldn't have an impact.

[Gwain]

Every deity has three supplicated items however some of these are tokens that are used in certain ic purposes unaffiliated with wearing or wielding them. Its also important to point out that not all classes can use all supplicated items, some players supplicate for them to simply have the chance of owning them.

[Kallias]

I like the idea in theory - if we're using a spell level type system, this makes sense for priests.

The problem I see is how to balance this with wizards. If a cleric/druid has loved favor, does that make every spell grandmaster? If that's the case, then certainly the system wouldn't be balanced. However, I could see something like maxed favor causing 1-3 (master), 4-6 (expert), 7-9 (adept)....with an appropriate scaling for all favor levels down.

Even with this conservative scaling, it doesn't feel balanced to me...mostly because players aren't willing to put the time in to train their wizard spells up to master plus levels. I don't believe I'm being naive to think that spell component costs/availability has everything to do with this aspect.

The balance we'd be working for - priests would be a class of quick good spells, wizards would be a class capable of casting the best spells if the dedication is put into them. How many wizards do you know that have put the 100's of hours into the PC to train their 6-9 spells up to even adept? Until this is demonstrated it's able to be done in a reasonable time frame, giving priests favor dependent spells would be hard to justify against what wizards have to do - IC sense or not.

[Alaudrien]

I think it is mainly for domain spells not all the clerical spells just those that belong to your dieties domain.

[Kallias]

My bad, i dig it. I still think it should be scaled - as opposed to getting all of your 18 domain spells as gm.

[Vantaniael]

Some faiths are harder to earn favour for than others. I only suggest the three item or maybe just using full favour three times, as offering a middle ground.

It just seems such an idea of using Favour is rather up and down, too up and down considering how quickly or slowly some faiths or habits of playing earn you favour. If after working hard to gain favour, it may seem a deterrent to spend it and lose some of your domain-efficacy, over some item which might not even be of benefit.

Where as the middle ground adds additional incentive, encouraging people to earn their favour for their faith's items, and then by becoming that loved (x3 full favour) by their god, your domain spells are now going to gain additional benefits.

Alternatively, just do not apply it until after each person has used their favour three times, rather than adding a bonus. Flavour wise it says your God is paying that much more attention to you, He/She expects more from you and will show it.

[Bregga]

I wasn't exactly thinking that the Domain spells would go straight to GM I was thinking more along the lines of capping it at say Expert or somewhere around there.

[Kallias]

Hard to argue with that. What is it set at normally? I assumed it wasn't inept.

[Bregga]

I've always been under the impression it was around apprentice. I Kind of like the idea of having to have already supplicated the three Items before this kicks in. It would sort of be like paying your dues before you get your gods true favor?

[Isaldur]

What about spending favor to increase the skill-level of Domain spells to a capped tier while at the same time relying on high favor to "keep" the skill level up. For example;

Let's say I am loved(100), and I spend 50 favor to bring me down to ignored(50).

This would raise the domain spell of my choice from apprentice closer to the capped top depending on what exchange rates would be decided at (Adept, expert, whatever is decided)

Then have the domain spell check what your current favor is to determine caster skill level, with the maximum skill level determined by the factors of how much favor you have used to "boost the cap" and also what your current favor level is in relation.

Let's say I boost my domain's Bulls Strength spell up to an Expert cap and it costs me 500 favor to raise it that high. Then I have a falling out with my faith and am at a DAMNED faith level, so while I have the potential of casting it at the Expert level I can now only cast it in relation to my current favor .. which would be lower than my original skill level before I started raising caps.

Make sense? I can provide more examples of what I mean later as I'm rushed writing this right now.

Edit- expansion summary: You spend favor to increase the possible maximum casting level of a domain spell(Singular), and you use favor to determine your 'current' casting level.

[Raona]

I think that's a great approach, Isaldur. It may be tricky to convey to the player where they stand on all those factors, however...perhaps the cap spend is not spell-specific, but applies to all domain spells? It could also be made to vary by faith, reflecting how hard it is to earn favour in that faith.

[Isaldur]

To be honest I had figured having do it one spell at a time would make it more on par with the current skill system. That way you don't instantly raise the maximum possible casting level of 18 spells at once but instead work on each one just like your other spells, only through a different more faith-related method.

The three ways I see it happening could be..

1) Spend favor on each domain spell singularly. That's 18 different instances to put spending favor into.

2) Spend favor on each Level of domain spells, Spell Levels 1-9. that's 9 different instances to put spending favor into.

3) Spend favor on Domain Spells as a whole. That's just a one time deal that would raise the maximum casting cap of all domain spells.

Obviously option 1 is the most time intensive for upping the casting maximum but what I would consider "fair" across the board. Option 2 is more of a balance between the two extremes where you only need to go through the process 9 times instead of 18. Option 3 is more or less a "gimme" approach in my view and the most open to imbalance for the cost/time ratio.

[Bregga]

I like your idea's Isaldur and I figured I would bump this thread to see if any new ones come up