Scriptural Scholar?

[b-dog]

Could there be a scholar that uses Scripture to obtain secrets or abilities instead of regular scholarly works? Maybe a parable in a holy book could give insight into learning a skill? Or maybe a prayer book could help the scholar learn a spell? Just curious...

[Taneli]

Of course there could be.

As a GM; I'd either rank all the books on skills they could provide, or up the cost a bit (not by much, probably) and let the table vote on each & every book on what skill it could provide.

The Divine Lectures on the Heavenly Arts might provide insight into Aerobatics skill, while THE BLACK BOOK might have something on demonology, or Art (painting in black). :p

[Yssa]

A scholarly lens on either a cleric or a holy warrior would make a lot of sense to me!

[Dalin]

An interesting idea would be use it as a limitation or enhancement on another ability, kinda like requiring or allowing extra effort. For example:

• A cleric has contingency casting that requires scriptural support. The cleric must do some research prior to using contingency casting. Maybe this requires a minute. Higher speed reduces skill. Taking extra time might provide a bonus. The cost of contingency casting should be reduced by some amount to reflect the limitation.
• A cleric has contingency casting that can optionally be enhanced by scriptural support. The cleric can use it normally following the regular rules. For important ceremonies (or perhaps access to wizard spells or extra FP or something), the cleric can do research in her holy book(s). Some amount of time and/or margin of success provides benefits to the eventual casting.

Figuring out the actual costs would require more GURPS-fu than I have right now, but I would happily eyeball it with a player and not worry about the technicalities.