So last night I was play testing the new Battle Rules for RQ and Pendragon, and we opened up with the Battle of the Queens. And it was an interesting insight into how little it takes to make a bunch of Lunar magicians really kick ass on the battlefield:
- Mindblast and Madness are two of the most devastating ranged spells in RQ. As Neil worked out, their effects are not easily dismissed (there are few magical spells that get rid of them, but Dispel or Dismiss Magic does not work). They are relatively low cost (2 Rune Points).
- The Schools provide Discorporate – that means that the Lunar magicians can have their spirits flit around the battlefield and then launch volleys of Madness and Mindblast. A group of 50 can easily break a regiment of normal soldiers. And funny, that is pretty much exactly how the Minor Class works in WBRM.
- Red Goddess initiates can really manipulate spirit magic in obnoxious ways, as long as they have magic points to burn. Presumably there is some means of channeling worship magic points into storage, bound spirits, and all the rest of that RQ mechanical jazz.
- Illumination lets us work with cults that normally couldn’t be done – especially Chaotic cults. Let’s summon Thed (as a spirit cult) and do a mass volley of Fumble spells. Or something else similarly horrible.
Finally, the Red Goddess’ hero quests and followup by Lunar magicians mean the magicians might have a pretty decent “map” of how cults tie into each other. This isn’t the sort of “I know Orlanth’s kryptonite” stuff that folk on forums seem fascinated by, but far more practical stuff, like knowing that there is a deep association between Annilla and Mastakos. Not only does that get you Teleportation, but it could potentially get you driving Orlanth’s chariot!
What made me very happy about this is how nicely it dovetails with WBRM.
Madness and Mindblast are BRUTAL spells!