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Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy

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Mystic Pentagram said:
Does that means we will need to spend an action to learn them?
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Blackout said:
As I said in the update, it depends on how well you roll.

If you roll really well, you might get the spell immediately. If you roll decently, you might need to practice it in your own time without requiring an action (like what happened with Disrupt Magic when you bought it from the Prophet). If you roll poorly you might get it in an incomplete fashion. And if you roll really poorly then yeah, you might need an action to finish studying it, though still less than what you would need to make it from scratch.
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Keep in mind though that judging from our studies of Inspiration a tier 2 spell normally takes at least three actions and 105 GC to finish studying, so even in the worst case scenario in which we roll particularly poorly the result is still a lot more monetarily and AP efficient then trying to learn the spell by ourself.
 
I have an idea. We should take an action to create the simplest healing spell we can imagine, basically a stabilization and first aid spell. We should then teach that spell to every elf willing and able to learn it who follows us. It would be really nice to get some sort of casualty reducing trait from various formations having built in healing inside the unit itself.

If we must I say we make a healing sword style for the Swordmasters. Basically a sword style that focuses on standing in defense of a wounded ally that blends the actions needed to heal them magically with actions needed to fend off any attacker.

Call it "The Mother's Roots"
 
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Fouredged Sword said:
I have an idea. We should take an action to create the simplest healing spell we can imagine, basically a stabilization and first aid spell. We should then teach that spell to every elf willing and able to learn it who follows us. It would be really nice to get some sort of casualty reducing trait from various formations having built in healing inside the unit itself.

If we must I say we make a healing sword style for the Swordmasters. Basically a sword style that focuses on standing in defense of a wounded ally that blends the actions needed to heal them magically with actions needed to fend off any attacker.

Call it "The Mother's Roots"
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If we want something like that then I'd be inclined to think the way to go would be to take those lessons with the priestess of Isha to see if she'd teach us such a low level healing spell. That's what's great about the fact that priestesses of Isha are willing to give lessons, we get a chance to learn such valuable skills from a mage, and not even human mages this time, but a formidable elven one.
 
Fouredged Sword said:
I have an idea. We should take an action to create the simplest healing spell we can imagine, basically a stabilization and first aid spell. We should then teach that spell to every elf willing and able to learn it who follows us. It would be really nice to get some sort of casualty reducing trait from various formations having built in healing inside the unit itself.

If we must I say we make a healing sword style for the Swordmasters. Basically a sword style that focuses on standing in defense of a wounded ally that blends the actions needed to heal them magically with actions needed to fend off any attacker.

Call it "The Mother's Roots"
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I'm not sure we'd need to learn a new spell to have that option. We already know 'cauterize', which granted isn't perfect but it already is a mere T1 spell. I'm not sure we could make something stronger but just as simple without a disproportionate effort.
 
Has it really only been a day since the vote opened? My word - feels more like a week!

Having read through the past few pages and reflected on the matter, I do think that I was underestimating the power of combining Cowering Beasts with Chracian Blood, @Imperious. That +10 is significant. While I do still think that there's a little overlap with Ygethmor's Fiery Blizzard as a formation disruptor, I can absolutely see the strength of the case you're making.

I do, however, want to reiterate a point about The Ox Stands that I don't think has been addressed yet: it gives Fanriel a tool to bolster a formation, which she otherwise doesn't have any spells for. This is a major gap in her arsenal right now and, while she might be able to pick up Power of Truth or a similar 'group buff' at some point in the future, we have no guarantee of how far into the future that might be. I'd suggest it's better to take the opportunity now rather than holding off and hoping that we eventually get something better; after all, we can still get said something better in future if it crops up while having all the benefit of taking the opportunity now!

With all that being said, may as well repeat the question that Gnarker very wisely pointed out on the previous page: if we've got two potentially very useful tools here, why not take both of them? I'll be switching my votes to their plan alongside a few modified plans that pick up additional spells (because people seem to like Clear Sky, because I'm still excited by the synergies that Stoke the Flames and Mountainwind Curse offer and because other people seem to agree on the first of those two), and would encourage others to consider doing the same or to approval vote them alongside their prior choices. Just seems like the way to satisfy the most people! As a compromise, let's stick with Cowering Beasts as the spell Fanriel learns now, too. As I say, the vote's only a day old; plenty of time to build momentum!

Just the Main Spells:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall

Main Spells + Clear Sky:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Clear Sky

Main Spells + Stoke the Flames:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Stoke the Flames

Main Spells + Stoke the Flames, Mountainwind Curse:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Stoke the Flames
-[X] Mountainwind Curse

Main Spells + Stoke the Flames, Clear Sky:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Stoke the Flames
-[X] Clear Sky

Main Spells + Stoke the Flames, Clear Sky, Mountainwind Curse:

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Stoke the Flames
-[X] Clear Sky
-[X] Mountainwind Curse
 
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Though keep in mind, the Ox Stands is specifically noted to only buff "a small group" of allies, so if we do get it we won't be using it to buff an entire army, though I can't put an exact number on how many people "a small group" is, though @Blackout might.
Nimbus said:
Having read through the past few pages and reflected on the matter, I do think that I was underestimating the power of combining Cowering Beasts with Chracian Blood, @Imperious. That +10 is significant. While I do still think that there's a little overlap with Ygethmor's Fiery Blizzard as a formation disruptor, I can absolutely see the strength of the case you're making.
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Keep in mind, it's a spell that actually has a fair bit of utility out of combat as well as inside it. We've actually had to roll for intimidation outside of combat a fair number of times, most recently when we had to roll as to whether our group will get attacked by Beastmen or Greenskins on the way to the count's camp.
 
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Also if it becomes known that we can stabilize weathers with Calm Sky we'd become pretty valued for missions at sea and missions with forces that use a lot of gunpowder. The former because we can help ships avoid weather conditions that make sailing difficult, and the latter because we can stop rains that might make current day gunpowder weaponry inoperable.
 
Imperious said:
Also if it becomes known that we can stabilize weathers with Calm Sky we'd become pretty valued for missions at sea and missions with forces that use a lot of gunpowder. The former because we can help ships avoid weather conditions that make sailing difficult, and the latter because we can stop rains that might make current day gunpowder weaponry inoperable.
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The latter makes good sense! As for the former... Clear Sky 'dispels any weather conditions', which I'd imagine includes wind. Being becalmed is probably still better than a destructive storm but it is a bit of a trade-off!
 
Well, if you are in the same situation of King Arvedui the Last of Arnor, when he and the Elven sailors all drowned because the Witch King of Angmar sent them the Ultimate Storm...
you may want to take away the wind, until the conditions re-establish themselves and a wind picks up again. Or you use oars.
 
If nothing else it would have probably been helpful in our original Priestly Bodyguarding mission given the difficult weather we had to deal with at the time.

@Blackout any chance we could start getting downtime actions for sidegigs that could earn us some extra money in times that we're short? I could see a spell like Calm Sky earning us a fair bit of cash in a time in which say, someone wants to be able to hold an outside event but can't because of difficult weather, for example.
 
[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Earthwall (Advance)
-[X] Beast Tongue

I suppose I'll change my vote to one I can tolerate.
 
I do think it's a bit of a waste to have gone this far to try to meet new mages we can study from so we could only get these two. Unless we start having something we can bargain with elven spellcasters to teach us spells, then the Middenheimers are probably going to be about the best we can hope for in terms of spell teaching, since the Fire Spire is a much newer institution that probably doesn't know much the Middenheimers don't know by now.

Once we run out of spells we're willing to learn from humans then it's off to the pretty difficult, and expensive, grind for us that is trying to learn spells just by ourselves where each of the spells the Middenheimers are offering takes at least three actions and more then 100 GC a piece.
 
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Imperious said:
@Blackout any chance we could start getting downtime actions for sidegigs that could earn us some extra money in times that we're short? I could see a spell like Calm Sky earning us a fair bit of cash in a time in which say, someone wants to be able to hold an outside event but can't because of difficult weather, for example.
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Perhaps. Keep in mind that you are in the Old World, where magic is feared and hated. Even those who tolerate spellcasters mainly either do so for a specific variety that are tied deeply into their religion and culture, or for their military applications.

As I have previously mentioned, the idea that magic has mundane, commercial applications doesn't really come into its own until the Colleges of Magic have had time to establish themselves. As it is, for the vast, vast majority of people in the Old World it wouldn't even occur to them to hire a wizard to clear the weather for their outdoors event, and if they did many of their guests might well refuse to attend.
 
Blackout said:
Perhaps. Keep in mind that you are in the Old World, where magic is feared and hated. Even those who tolerate spellcasters mainly either do so for a specific variety that are tied deeply into their religion and culture, or for their military applications.

As I have previously mentioned, the idea that magic has mundane, commercial applications doesn't really come into its own until the Colleges of Magic have had time to establish themselves. As it is, for the vast, vast majority of people in the Old World it wouldn't even occur to them to hire a wizard to clear the weather for their outdoors event, and if they did many of their guests might well refuse to attend.
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What about the elves in Erengrad's elven quarter though? The Asur sometimes use magic for commercial purposes don't they, or are mages there common enough to crowd us out of the sidegig market?
 
If the Lightfangs want to turn into a shock headhunter unit that creates breakthroughs, rolls up lines, and duels as many elites as possible, Cowering Beasts or some other fear spell is a prerequisite. We've already seen our swordmasters get bogged down by Norscan shieldwalls. The hordes of Chaos will throw as many expendables as it takes to exhaust our troops.

Any fight where two formations hammer it out is a relatively poor use of our elite murderblenders. The sooner the other side needs to make morale tests, the sooner we can break the line. We don't have the mobility of cavalry, but elves move faster than humans, so hopefully they'll move faster than skaven, beastmen, and orcs. That'll let us exploit breakthroughs and start forcing collapses. We'll naturally come into contact with heroes/elite units we wouldn't otherwise face once that happens.

We hit an unprepared enemy at Jaarpen that fought us in bite sized pieces. I can easily imagine a scenario where we died by a thousand cuts at the docks as we fought an unending Norscan shieldwall while all their elites and Talondor laughed.
 
Blackout said:
Yes, that would be one possibility.
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Neat. Calm Sky seems like it'd be a pretty easy spell to commercialize into a reasonably paying sidegig given how much money might be involved in an outdoors event getting canceled: A market that doesn't get to operate, a holiday festival that gets canceled, a hunting event that can't be held, perhaps even something like sports etc,etc and chances to find work with it probably won't be that bad given how crummy Kislevite weather can get.

vestigeofgreen said:
If the Lightfangs want to turn into a shock headhunter unit that creates breakthroughs, rolls up lines, and duels as many elites as possible, Cowering Beasts or some other fear spell is a prerequisite. We've already seen our swordmasters get bogged down by Norscan shieldwalls. The hordes of Chaos will throw as many expendables as it takes to exhaust our troops.

Any fight where two formations hammer it out is a relatively poor use of our elite murderblenders. The sooner the other side needs to make morale tests, the sooner we can break the line. We don't have the mobility of cavalry, but elves move faster than humans, so hopefully they'll move faster than skaven, beastmen, and orcs. That'll let us exploit breakthroughs and start forcing collapses. We'll naturally come into contact with heroes/elite units we wouldn't otherwise face once that happens.

We hit an unprepared enemy at Jaarpen that fought us in bite sized pieces. I can easily imagine a scenario where we died by a thousand cuts at the docks as we fought an unending Norscan shieldwall while all their elites and Talondor laughed.
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And again, we're uniquely suited to use intimidation spells due to Chracian Blood. That +10 to intimidation rolls is not negligible.
 
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Remember friends, spells purchased today saves spell APs tomorrow*!

*"Tomorrow" being the long-term, not literally tomorrow. Literal tomorrow will probably be comprised of visiting a great deal of violence upon Orcs or Beastmen.
 
Well, still would prefer The Ox Stands but yeah, at this point don't want to get just two spells.

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Clear Sky


[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] The Ox Stands (Advance)
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall


E:
[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] The Ox Stands
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
 
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reignonyrparade said:
Well, still would prefer The Ox Stands but yeah, at this point don't want to get just two spells.

[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] Cowering Beasts (Advance)
-[X] Earthwall
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Clear Sky


[X] Yes, you wish to buy spells from the Middenheimers.
-[X] The Ox Stands (Advance)
-[X] Beast Tongue
-[X] Earthwall
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Or... Combined proposal set out above - we can do both! The best way to ensure we can pick up a number of spells is to take the spells that, collectively, most people want, no?
 
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Talon TigerDino said:
Remember friends, spells purchased today saves spell APs tomorrow*!

*"Tomorrow" being the long-term, not literally tomorrow. Literal tomorrow will probably be comprised of visiting a great deal of violence upon Orcs or Beastmen.
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And if my hunch is right about Clear Sky, it might also be a way for us to save some considerable cash, as well as AP, as a source for sidegigs. How much money would people be willing to pay to keep a local market working in a large center of trade like Erengrad rather then closing for the day due to bad weather?
 
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