Hi everyone!
One of my players wants to be a Sanderis sorcerer. He reviewed the rules in the Core book and came to me with some questions that I´m not sure how to answer, so here they are:
1- The rules say that each time a Hero purchases Sanderis Sorcery, her dievas gains one Deal. The losejas selects two Minor Favors for any Deal her dievas has, and can always invoke those Favors by spending a Hero Point, etc. My question is: instead of taking two new minor favors for another new Deal, could I choose two new Minor Favors from the Deals that my Dievas already has?
2- Darkness Deal: one of the Minor Favors sais that you can observe an area or another character through shadows. You see and hear everything as if you were standing in the shadow, and all of your senses function normally.Some questions about it:
- Do I need to know that character?
- While I observe another area, could I use the Minor Favor that lets me instantly travel to another shadow in sight, and travel to the area I´m looking at?
- While I observe another area, could I use the Minor Favor that causes a creature to be attacked by its own shadow, inflicting damage to the character in that area?
3- Fire Deal: one of the Minor Favors lets me set another creature’s clothes aflame inflicting damage. But other Minor Favor lets me create a controlled and contained fire, the size of a bonfire or smaller. I pressume that I can create that fire wherever I want, for example the clothes of an enemy, so why bother use the first Favor.
1) Yes. The Dievas still gets a new Deal, but the Losejas doesn't have to take minor favors from that Deal. In addition you could take a minor favor from 2 different Deals. The Deals are there to help govern from which ones the Losejas can ask for Major Favors
2A) I would say that you either need to be able to name the character or see them to say "That guard over there." I don't think I would allow a "I want to see the guard standing closest to the King" without knowing his/her name or being able to see.
2B) I would say yes, that is a clever and technically allowed use of this (Assuming the observation favor doesn't specifically say you can't use the area as if you had line of sight)
2C) I would say yes, another creative use.
3) Two different effects. One is used to create basically a small fire. The other is used to damage someone by setting their clothes on fire. I would not let the first use target an 'item'. You might create a fire NEXT to someone and it has the potential to catch their clothes on fire but a controlled and contained fire is not "setting something on fire"
See below but essentially yes. The Losejas isn't really "taking" the Deal. The Dievas is gaining the Fire Deal and the Losejas can choose favors from any Deal the Dievas knows.
For number 1, I'm of the opinion that you can't "mix and match" between different types of Deals. So if with your first rank of Sorcery, you opt for the Shadow Deal, any further ranks of Sorcery purchased would have to pick from the Shadow Deal for their minor favors.
Number 2, frankly that first one is really up to the GM to determine. Personally, I'd probably require the Losajes to have some means of identifying the person that they want to spy on, be it the person's name or their description, or simply being able to see them at the time the character calls upon the favor in question. And I'd certainly say yes to the other two parts, of being able to affect things that you observe through a shadow.
One number 3, they are two different things. Just because you need to start a fire, doesn't mean that you always need to set a person on fire to do it, and you may not want to burn the person whose pants you've just lit on fire. And being able to start a fire and being able to deal direct damage are two very different things. While there's not a whole lot of inherent game balance when it comes to Sorcery, there are some elements of it, and this is one of them.
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Luis and Donovan
The book is very clear on the selection of Favors and Deals...(pg 223)
Each time a Hero purchases Sanderis Sorcery, her dievas gains one Deal. The losejas selects two Minor Favors for any Deal her dievas has, and can always invoke those Favors by spending a Hero Point.
Each time you purchase Sorcery you gain two Minor Favor from any Deals your Dievas now has (including the new one gained). So for Luis, yes you an take Fire Deal and choose 2 Shadow Minor Favors a second time.
John