Greetings, brethern,

both the Randicals Handbook [RH] and the Disciples of the Dark Gods [DotDG] feature very similiar rules for the Talents "Sorcery" and "Master Sorcery".

Never the less, RH states on p. 168 ("Dark Powers" paragraph) that "Each time you successfully manifest an Arcana, you gain a number of corruption points equal to 1d10 - WKB".

DotDG has no such rule.

@FFG
Hi there! Which one is the "official" one now? Or do we have "Options" now so each group can make the decision on their own? If you publish further adventures where the corruption ..say an important NPC would be a matter... how will your design teams handle it?

@Topic
To me, the RH rules are a little harsh in that case. Even with a WKB of 5 (which is described as "Daemon like" by the Core Rules) there is a very high chance to gain corruption. Making the "Warp Dabbler" and other RH option a candle which bright but oh so short.

Even worse, if the same rules are true for NPC, many a "problem wizard" would turn himself into a "problem chaosspawn" after.. let´s say 13 use of a spell Ttaking into account that he/she will have gained corruption through earning the wisdome to practice the dark arts to begin with.

I think this rules are not really practical. What is your opinion about it?

1d10 - WPB doesnt seem that horrible to me.

Considering that if you roll a ten then the maximum corruption you can get is 5 (making minimum 20 uses of the power to get to 10 corruption) however considering that 50% of rolls with a 5WPB will not cause corruption and even more if you max out at 6 or even 7 WPB then I can do a siple calulation for you.

If the player has a WPB of 5 the it will on adverage take 69 uses of the sorceror power to bring him to 100 corruption points but normally though im assuming an alrady 20 points for knowing sorcery so then it would be an adverage of 57 uses of the power.

if you had a WPB of 4 the to get to 80 corruption is 39 uses of the power

But if your WB is 6 or seven when maxed out then it will take 80 or as much as 138 uses of the Sorcery powers to cause corruption.

SORCERY is SO DANGEROUS to the person, that the emporer (in the fluff writing) was greived and angry and rebuked him when Magnus used it... and Magus I would argue as having atleast a double WPB off a high 60's score (atleast) and so we are actually getiing off quite well if he can get corrupted by Sorcery.

Gregorius21778 said:

Well, the whole design parameter for the RH seemed to be to give CP left, right and center. Even if taking into account mitigating Talents and good Attributes, your average Radical character will start drooling and babbling really soon if he actually intends to use any of the "cool abilities".

Yeah, the rules take on Radicalism was a bit harsh. There is not a feeling of "dancing on the knife edge" but instead just a one way ticket to Spawndom by express train. *shrug* A lot depends on how your GM and group handle reducing CP and IP. Is it possible? How and at what price? Does the XP used for this purpose count towards levels?

And let's not forget that there are Talents, as well as Traits given by backgrounds, that allow you to reduce any Corruption you acquire. Dark Soul, anyone?

If I would run a campaign which allowed RH/Sorcery based characters I would rewrite the RH rules with just one word:

"Each time you successfully manifest a new Arcana, you gain a number of corruption points equal to 1d10 - WPB"

This would mean every time you learn more sorcery you take an additional risk of gaining corruption points, but using what you've already tainted your mind with would not hurt you over and over again. Any experienced and highly learned sorcerer would still be severely corrupt.

Gregorius21778 said:

Remember that DotDG is written with NPCs in mind primarily, and tracking Insanity and Corruption for NPCs isn't that commonly done.

As for the 'corruption' and 'dancing on a knife edge... surely the point of unholy powers is that their use, and the temptation to use them, is a corrupting influence. That is, they're the kind of thing you'd rather not have to rely upon or use too frequently because they're damning and dangerous, so they're unleashed only when absolutely necessary... rather than being used as a conversation piece at parties.

It's similar with any psychic powers, really - the safest thing to do is not to use them, so using them only sparingly is advisable. Sorcery, or sorcery-boosted psychic powers, are real power at a real and unpleasant cost.

The problem with any 'cost of corruption' mechanics as a balance for obtaining or using power is that it's an extremely fine one - too great a cost, and nobody wants to use them, too small a cost, and there's no deterrent.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

Exactly. IMO the balance is a bit on the hard side but as always YMMV.

N0-1_H3r3 said:

I completely agree, I was reading over the books and beleive that the rules presented in DoaDG are for NPC use, they are already damned!

Sorcery isn't good for you, its abhorred and a dangerous if quick route to power, most of the powers are so damningly powerful that it looks to me that imperial servants would be using them as last resort anyway... and i would suppose that radicalism is really a last resort thing anyway atleast how it is represented, most turning to it in a desperate plee to save them or someone else when natural/exceptable ways will not work.

I mean look at warp lightning and Door(or Gate whatever it is) for example these would not be your run of the mill things to employ, even the most damned of heretics would rather employ other means to defeat thier foe, because of the risk.