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[Kashyyk]

Feedback Response:
Spear is my height plus a foot ( so if irl, It'd be six foot five inches). Long enoug to outreach anyone without some form of reach weapon,  but be short enough that I can control it with one hand.
When readied for combat, sword is on left hip for a cross body draw, shield on left arm, spear in right hand. If someone gets within spear reach,  it gets dropped in favour of the sword.
When marching, the shield is slung on a shoulder with my pack, sword at hip, spear in hands. The shield strap is one strip that goes on like a satchel bag. It's possible to pull the shield around the front and then grab the hand hold  (albeit with a penalty) instead of having to unsling it then put it on.

[LordBucket]

I am more likely to Call on my gods power, or at the very least get his attention, while Bob has less of a chance of that working out.
I know more things along the lines of "Religion" and am more able to convince people that I am a Priest and get free lodgings from Peasants, bob may be seen as a heretic or witch.
I Might be able to repel the undead with prayers, bob has less of a chance of that working out.

...oh. You want to play a wizard priest.

Ok. Read this:

Magic will work on the scale of...spend the afternoon attempting to do a thing, and at the end of the day you'll have a chance of success. No standardized "spells" that are bottled and consistently repeatable.

No "push a button" spell effects.

Low magic.

If you want to play a wizard, pick a skill that describes a specfic field. For example, warding. So maybe the party builds a wooden perimeter and you want to ward it so that zombies stay away. That's a pretty substantial effect, so you'll gather up some materials and maybe spend a few days walking the perimeter chanting and spreading zombie blood mixed with fish guts, or whatever, and after 2-3 days I'll make a roll. And after that roll, I'll give you a vague indication of how confidant you are that it worked. For example, "you think it might help" or "you're pretty confidant that most zombies would probably perfer to avoid this place" or something similarly indefinite. And in reality, I'll apply that as a probability modifier. Maybe you're "reasonably confidant that your ward is fairly sturdy" and maybe that results in a 50% chance that any zombies who come near decide to leave it alone. And then after I roll, maybe the zombies will decide to leave it alone, but the magic will be weakened so the next time it only provides a 40% effect. And then maybe the zombies overcome that effect and as a result the effect is further weakened reducing it to a 20%. And then after another day or two it's gone unless it's constantly reinforced. Of course, if you continue reinforcing it day after day, it will gain in strength, and over time it could become a very effective ward. But it's never going to be perfect, and you're never going to be entirely sure how effective it is except by observing the results.

One possible example.

Could you elaborate a bit more on the setting, magic in particular? I'm getting a Conan movies vibe as far as magic/tech/society goes

Conan the movies, yes that's pretty spot on. There are at most low double-digits world of world-class sorcerers in the world like Thulsa Doom and Toth-Amon, but even Akiro was pretty up there. And if i recall correctly, his most impressive feat(*) over both movies was holding a door closed for a few minutes. Impressive, because he made it happen then and there. Overt, on-demand effect visible plainly to the eye is incredibly powerful and rare magic. Note that your opponent, the necromancer, is a fledgling, soon-to-become world-class sorcerer. just coming into his power. You are not.

If you want to play a wizard, that's totally ok, but see the above. Every single spellcast will be a unique spellcast, most spells will be cast on the order of a day or more, and effects will typically be described in uncertain terms.

(*) Oh, right. Forgot he basically brought Conan back from the dead in the first movie. So yes, definitely world class wizard material. But even in that case, it took him a day and a night to do, there was a lot of stuff involved, it only worked because the spirits hadn't yet taken Conan's soul, and what he actually did was convince the spirits to take Conan's girlfriend's soul instead of his make them visible so his friends could fight them off resulting in them taking one of their souls later instead. Anyway, the general point remains.

Are you ok with that?

If yes, then the next problem is that both the general nature of "religion" and the general, varied nature of your examples lead me to conclude that you want your sphere to be "absolutely everything." Which, obviously leads to balance issues.

If you want religion-themed-powers rather than wizard-themed-powers, that's fine. But, pick a sphere, Divination, warding, weather, whatever. "I can do anything" is not a suitable skill.

[LordBucket]

How about if I attack with both, I get no parry (obvious), -1 or -2 to dodge, and +1 to enemy parry? Since I'm only gonna be using a double attack on zombies in the first place, since they can't (I assume, if they can then I'm never using double attack unless my target is incapacitated) parry. Or I can't move and attack with both on the same turn? If there's counterattacking, maybe I forgo that to attack first (higher initiative)?

Yeah, I know there's plenty of holes in it. I'd actually like to know what they are

Most obvious problem would be that, I'm not going to be conducting mock battles on a map with miniatures, so "can't move and attack on the same turn" doesn't really affect anything. Same with initiative and attacks of opportunity. I'm not going to be using them.. Combat is going to be, players go, zombies go, players go, zombies go.

If you want to do something like, everything has a bonus to hit you, and you get two attacks per turn, but have a penalty with both of them, we could probably do that. But I'd like to clarify, that if you deliberately don't take a weapon skill, and take a dual fighting skill instead...your skill is in fighting with two weapons. So you're still going to get that penalty even if you drop one of them. Otherwise, you're basically using your one skill to get more than everybody else is getting for their one skill.

By longsword I mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knightly_sword pretty much.

Ok, that's fine.

[IronyOwl]

You see the problem? Or am I misunderstanding what you intended?

No, that's right. Presumably it'd work better with buddies to hit the other one while I lock one down, but I should probably just think of a character concept that works with useful crafting and/or a sword.

How handy/feasible would Mercantile or Haggling or "I buy/sell things good" be?

[LordBucket]

How handy/feasible would Mercantile or Haggling or "I buy/sell things good" be?

That depends entirely on whether there are still any living npcs left to haggle with wherever you guys decide to go. For example, if on day one you guys decide to go trekking into the woods...that's not up to me. You'll have a map, but that map won't tell you which areas are still inhabited and which areas have been overrun.

So I can't really tell you how useful it will be. It depends on what you guys decide to do.

[crazyabe]

I'm Ok with that and sphere wise...

Ra, the god of life and light
...
Religion:Ra

Thus my "magic" would need be related to "Life" and/or "Light" which could mean many things from healing to blasting undead with light-ning to glowing slightly to being smited by my god the GM Ra.

[LordBucket]

I'm having a difficult time reconciling this:

blasting undead with light-ning to glowing slightly to being smited by my god the GM Ra.

...with both this:

most spells will be cast on the order of a day or more, and effects will typically be described in uncertain terms.

and this:

Overt, on-demand effect visible plainly to the eye is incredibly powerful and rare magic. Note that your opponent, the necromancer, is a fledgling, soon-to-become world-class sorcerer. just coming into his power. You are not.

So, walk me through how you think this is going to work.

Also, "light" and "lightning" are different things. If your sphere were pie you wouldn't expect that to mean you could use your magic to pierce your enemies to pieces with magically conjured piezoelectricity.

[Kashyyk]

Ideas for crazyabe's divine magic:
Long-term healing (reduce a month of healing to a week)
Enchanting weapons ( holy/light damage beats zombies)
Warding areas (repel/weaken undead who come near)
Consecrate corpses (prevent them from being raised)

[Romans]

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Name: Romans


Background:Growing up her mother was the town healer, and her father was a ex adventurer who had settled down and put down his spear to become a butcher. While Romans was set to become a healer like her mother she never wanted to, she was always to star struck about tales of her father. Eventually her father gave up after all of her complaining and taught her the ways of the spear until he could teach her no more himself. He sent her out in the world to experience it, and learn what he could not teach her at home.

Soon after she left, high in spirits she was accosted by a group of five men who meant ill. Able to kill three of them because of how surprised they were, she was then overwhelmed by the remaining 2 and was slashed across the face and knocked out. When she came to her pants were down, and one of them was pulling down theirs. She doesn't remember what happened afterwards only that her hands were covered in blood and that she went to wash them off in the river.

Afterwards she attended to her cut as best as possible and kept moving. That experience shook her entire foundation, and although she still wanted to prove herself. She held herself differently and trusted only a few, keeping to herself only when on missions did she talk to others because of the sometimes necessity of it.   


Description: Actually a very a pretty girl, you would never be able to tell because of the cloaks and other coverings. She has short cropped black hair, brown eyes, a long scar that runs along her face from her left eyebrow to her cheekbone. She is of a fit and muscular build, which also helps hide that she is a woman. Her voice is raspy and she holds herself proud.

Equipment
Green and brown and clothing.
A Brown Cloak
A Spear
Medical Equipment?(Not sure for time period)


Skills:
Major:Spear Fighting
Minor: Healer

[Pencil_Art]

Spoiler: 'Pencil' (click to show/hide)

'Pencil' Arht

Skills
Major: Knife - Combat
Minor: Outdoorsman

Background
Pencil always longed for adventure as a youth, and traveled about the world (or, more accurately, his village) in his childhood, visiting and annoying the elderly ones repeatedly. One such had been quite the frontiersman himself, and taught Pencil a little of this and that before passing away. Pencil's father was also very fond of knives, and some of this enthusiasm imprinted itself on Pencil.

Pencil, meanwhile, instead of settling down on his families farm, struck out on his own, with his father's knife in his pocket. His feet took him on various paths, through villages where he labored for a living before moving on. He never encountered adventure as he wished for. His father never knew who took his knife, but could hazard a guess.

That was in his youth. Pencil knows better now. This hasn't stopped him from joining the venture into necromancer's lands, though.

Description
Black hair, hazel colored eyes, and really tanned skin. He is quite fit from travelling everywhere all the time and a look of enthusiasm is almost ever-present on his face. He wears tough clothing, somewhat self tailored, and doesn't mind the great outdoors.

Equipment
- Leather Jerkin
- Strong Boots
- Stitched, patched clothing
- Thin hemp cord as improvised belt
- Large Knife (In sheath)

- Satchel
 - 2 days food (Fruit, Jerky)
 - Empty water skin
 - Needle & (not much) thread
 - Whetstone
 - Flintstones

[LordBucket]

Ideas for crazyabe's divine magic:

There are plenty of ways to apply it. I just want to make sure he and I are on the same page so he doesn't get angry because his expectations are different.

Long-term healing (reduce a month of healing to a week)
Consecrate corpses (prevent them from being raised)

Sure. Both of these are good examples.

Warding areas (repel/weaken undead who come near)

This one is not. What does "keeping something away" or "weakening" have to do with light or life?

Enchanting weapons ( holy/light damage beats zombies)

The Elemental Rivalry trope is not in play. Shining light on a corpse does not do damage to it. There might be situations where the "life" sphere could be applied against undead. But in regards to enchanting, remember:

Magical artifacts are things that could take months or years to create. there will be no casually sorting through the pile of glowing swords after every battle to see which of the low-level mooks had +2 swords, then tossing away the piles of worthless +1 ones.

Think Tolkein.

Every magic item had a name because it was a unique artifact. Glamdring would glow in the presence of orcs. That was a unique artifact known to Elrond because it was a notable enchanted blade. Even immortal Maia like Gandalf typically only had one or two magic items to their name. Look at the One Ring. That was basically, the most notable artifact in the history of Middle Earth. And what did it do, exactly? For those unable to control it, it sucked them into the wraith world. For those able to control it, it facilitated telepathic mind control exclusively to a very small group of people who happened to be wearing receptor rings, and only if you were powerful enough to make that happen. It didn't even do it directly, and the effect was a slow and uncertain thing.

No "push a button" spell effects.

Low magic.

crazyabe: if you want to be a priest of Ra with power within the spheres of life and light, I'm ok with that. You're already stretching it trying to take two spheres with only one skillpoint, but so far we don't have any other magical characters at all, and from the general skill choices of the party, I think you guys are going to have a hard time, so I think we can give it a pass.

But you're not going to be tossing out lightning bolts or pumping out anti-undead weaponry.

When I said low magic, I meant low magic.

[Kashyyk]

Warding areas (repel/weaken undead who come near)
Enchanting weapons ( holy/light damage beats zombies)

I felt these followed the idea of Revive Kills Zombie, so imbuing an area with life would weaken zombies in it, and enchanting weapons with life would do more damage. But if Elemental Rivalry isn't a thing then I guess neither applies. My thought towards enchanting weaponry would be as a temporary affair, only lasting for twenty four hours, or only being good for five hits, something like that.

[LordBucket]

Slots are filling up.

IronyOwl, Pencil, crazyabe, Moonlit Shadow, i recommend you finish soon.

Spoiler: Romans (click to show/hide)

Romans

Skills: Spearfighting(Major) Healing(Minor)

Background: Growing up her mother was the town healer, and her father was a ex adventurer who had settled down and put down his spear to become a butcher. While Romans was set to become a healer like her mother she never wanted to, she was always to star struck about tales of her father. Eventually her father gave up after all of her complaining and taught her the ways of the spear until he could teach her no more himself. He sent her out in the world to experience it, and learn what he could not teach her at home.

Soon after she left, high in spirits she was accosted by a group of five men who meant ill. Able to kill three of them because of how surprised they were, she was then overwhelmed by the remaining 2 and was slashed across the face and knocked out. When she came to her pants were down, and one of them was pulling down theirs. She doesn't remember what happened afterwards only that her hands were covered in blood and that she went to wash them off in the river.

Afterwards she attended to her cut as best as possible and kept moving. That experience shook her entire foundation, and although she still wanted to prove herself. She held herself differently and trusted only a few, keeping to herself only when on missions did she talk to others because of the sometimes necessity of it.   

Description: Actually a very a pretty girl, you would never be able to tell because of the cloaks and other coverings. She has short cropped black hair, brown eyes, a long scar that runs along her face from her left eyebrow to her cheekbone. She is of a fit and muscular build, which also helps hide that she is a woman. Her voice is raspy and she holds herself proud.

Equipment:

 * Green and brown and clothing.
 * A Brown Cloak
 * Wooden spear with steel tip

 * Leather boots

 * Leather belt
   * Goatskin (3 days of water)

   * Small pack
     * Food(Dehydrated fruit, nuts, beef jerky)(3 days)
     * Small steel knife
     * Steel tweezers
     * Roll of Copper wire (50 feet)
     * Flint & steel
     * 20 cloth bandages
     * Jar of leeches (3 leeches)
     * Glass vial of blood coagulant (8 doses)
     * Ceramic jar of topical ointment (8 applications)

Romans approved

[crazyabe]

you hit the nail on the head for what I wanted, and something else; what group doesn't need an old mace wielding priest to patch them up?

[Dustan Hache]

Low magic is generally not ideal for people who want to play wizard/magical priests. It does make enchantments valuable, but it reduces the effectiveness of mages overall, regardless of their target or goal. On the same note, it would mean that the zombies themselves are likely to be the product of either a eldritch power corrupting the corpses into fleshy puppets, something acting as a puppeteer parasite, or a downright supernatural force at work.