So is Lunar magic weaker than other pantheons? Let’s look at that for a moment.
The main Lunar cult is the Seven Mothers. And by main, I mean like 2/3rds of all Lunar cultists belong to the Seven Mothers or one of its specialized subcults. Now the Seven Mothers has:
- Healing magic – medium (Regrow Limb)
- Combat magic – excellent (Madness, Mindblast)
- Elementals – probably the best of any cult, with Lunes PLUS Darkness, Earth, Fire, and Water (small only)
- Antimagic magic – excellent (Reflection)
Chief and high priests get a bunch of other cool spells – Chaos Gift, True Weapon, Bless Crops, Resurrect (one-use) – and the cult has Rune Lords. Pretty swell!
The speciality subcults also have good solid magic – and remember most everything gets driven just by the Moon Rune.
Now at the very top of the Lunar pantheon, you get the Red Goddess initiates with the ability to tie their characteristics to the Lunar Cycle AND the ability to twist and warp spirit magic. Add to that the Lunar Religion’s control of the Yelm cult, plus that whole giant Crimson Bat thing, and you can definitely see why the Lunar magicians are feared.
That being said, in general the magic provided by a Lunar cult is somewhat inferior to what is provided by its nearest analogue. Yanafal Tarnils‘ magic is somewhat inferior to Humakt‘s. Deezola‘s magic is somewhat inferior to Dendara (although one-use Resurrect is pretty handy). And so on. But also, the Lunar cults are almost all mortals who became gods, and with the exception of the Red Goddess and Yelm, none are greater gods in their own right.
Now does Orlanth have a better range of “adventurer magic”? Yes, absolutely. As the god of heroes that is his schtick – I would imagine that an “adventuring party” made up of all Lightbringers would have an edge over an equally experienced “adventuring party” made up of all Seven Mothers (or their speciality subcults) cultists. But that is at the adventuring party level, not at the overall social level. At the upper extremes, I think I’d be far more worried about the Red Goddess initiate than with the Wind Lord, unless that Wind Lord has been doing a lot of heroquesting on the side!
And Mindblast is an EXCELLENT combat spell.