Divine Pool for Priests and Runelords
From MRQWiki
Overview:
This rule is designed to give Rune Priests and Rune Lords improved access to Divine Magic. It addresses three complaints that have been made regarding Divine Magic in the RuneQuest Companion, specifically:
- Rune Priests and Lords have no benefit over Initiates and Acolytes as far as gaining/storing/casting Divine Magic is concerned.
- There is an effective cap on the amount of Divine Magic that can be learned (POW -1).
- Characters are 'Penalized' for learning Divine Magic because Dedicated POW reduces Magic Points and the POW stat.
The Rule
Rune Lords and Rune Priests may create a 'Divine Pool' by permanently sacrificing POW to their god. Each point of POW sacrificed increases the Divine Pool by 1. This pool can be used to store Divine Spells. Spells stored do not count as Dedicated POW and so do not reduce Magic Points or effective POW.
Spells in the Divine Pool have to be regained as normal through prayer once cast.
Spells cannot be split between the Divine Pool and Dedicated POW - a Shield 6 spell cannot have 3 points stored in the Divine Pool and the other 3 stored in Dedicated POW.
Being Excommunicated causes the Divine Pool to be lost.
Variations
Some Gamemasters may want to allow Acolytes access to a Divine Pool.
Notes
This allows Rune Priests and Lords to build up Divine Magic over time as in previous editions of RQ (it also provides a way to use NPC's from supplements for previous editions that have More than their POW in Divine Magic without changing their spells).
Since POW gain is more difficult in MRQ than in previous editions growing a Divine Pool should be slow enough to not unbalance the game.
Priests of multiple cults will have multiple Divine Pools, one for each Lore (Specific Theology). Points in one Divine Pool may not be transferred to another. Spells that are common to two cults cannot be slit across two Divine Pools, so a Priest of Yelm Imperator and House of Family could not have Spirit Block 6, 3 from each Divine Pool.
