Hi there

here is what i understood from RAW :
Spells : gather power then cast your spell
Prayers : cast your prayer then gather favor

i'm quite annoyed by this. Why have a different mechanics for such similar things like spells and prayers ?

Besides when the priest casts his prayer at round1 (he rolls for his prayer at round1, right ?) then spends 2 rounds gathering favor, i just cant recall what was the outcome of the prayer's roll did i miss something in RAW ?

thanks for your insight !

2 different mechanics to represent the different flavour/ fluff.

To me it's a cool representation and it makes the two meta-classes essentially different.

As for the rules itself, I think I have read that you can use curry favour as a second action in a round, but can't find it at the moment. But either way, you don't have to remember the roll, just the results, right?

socratim said:

Page 34 ToB - "In Great Need"

The two different mechanics also make spells more instant, but more dangerous to the caster.
Prayers are slower (and you're not allways sure how long it will take to get the favour needed), but they are on the other hand safer for the user.

I think it's great that the mechanics differ, keeps the two things apart from each other. And it fits the "fluff" very well in my opinion.

To remember the result of the prayer you can either make a quick note (I mean for 2 successes and one boon you could just write "2su 1bo" on a post-it note and put it beside the blessing). Or you could just place the recharge tokens strategically on the card to indicate the result.

To me it seems much more in line with how I imagine the two different forms of casting.

It's not till after you've prayed to a god, that you see if he likes you or not... Sigmar priests don't walk around with a bracelet saying "Sigmar really likes you a lot right now, you're the top dog!".

As you rise in ranks, you become better at knowing which actions will make them like you more, and which actions won't.

For example an initiate might say: "Sigmar will smite thee!!!", but this inclines that you control Sigmar, and is in fact somewhat arrogant.

High Priests would say: "Sigmar help me smite this wicked creature!!!", and suddenly you gain more favour... No god likes priests who demand favour (Ulric might...).

So I've told my players, that if their blessings fail, it's because they didn't please their god, or at least that's how their character will view it (often the god was just looking another way, or in human form out doing what Zeus did best...).

Wizards on the other hand draw in power and then release it as a spell (or as a brain melt-down...).

I told my players that the winds are somewhat wild and chaotic, and that all living things unwillingly use them one way or another. But wizards have the ability to catch the winds, form them to their liking, and then release them as a spell. Kinda like inhaling smoke, and then release it as smoke rings.

But mechanics aside, a spell can't be formed without power present, a prayer can be uttered by anyone, just that only priests knows how to get the gods to like them enough for greater stuff to happen (a farmer can pray to the gods for rain, and if he's lucky the gods will hear him and make it rain, but given that the farmer really has no clue how to properly pray he might get two drops, or constant rain for 2 weeks drowning his crops).

I just try to remember wizards use debit cards and priest with credit, both are used to pay for stuff but they work differently.

I think that the two different casting mechanics are there mailny for the players not to say "this is the same, so why do we have both magic and blessings?".

At the same time, it adds a bit of fluff to the mechanic. I think it makes a lot of sense that arcane spellcasting requires to gather your power in order to channel it, while divine are first prayers for gaining necessary powers, after which you have to grasp it with your will and tame in order to use.

k7e9 said:

I completely agree. In fact I was a little dissappointed they weren't MORE different. In the end they are different enough to be different without having to learn two completely different game mechanics. Seems about right to me.