[DF] Placing areas of different mana in Dungeon Fantasy

[maximara]

Originally Posted by Varyon

While I'm not a fan of extreme consequences for Critical Failures (and losing levels of an Advantage would certainly qualify), you could say the cleric ended up angering his/her deity with the casting attempt, leading to revocation of some of the granted power. Alternatively, if the cleric's personal power plays a role in the connection to the deity (otherwise, why wouldn't a deity just empower their champion to PI 10 or whatever the limit is from the beginning?), you could say that the failure damaged the character's connection to the deity (or damaged the character's ability to handle diving magic flowing through him/her*), so until this can be built back up, the cleric is going to be weaker when it comes to spells.

*It's based on Pathfinder (and thus Dungeons and Dragons), and so has daily limits to spellcasting, but I like the way the webcomic Marble Gate Dungeon handles it. To quote the author from the comment section on the page the limit was first mentioned in the comic: "Casting divine magic is painful, because you're channeling a god or higher being through your fragile mortal body. As you do it more, and your connection to said god deepens, it becomes easier to do more and is less painful, but you still have limits. Once you go over your limit, your body starts to fall apart and you'll almost certainly die. Dying this way is horrifically painful, and is completely forbidden in the Church of the Highfather." When the main character, Coleeen, first acquired this ability, she'd get pretty close to her limit with just a single spell, but over time she built up a tolerance and can cast her main spells a few times per day (the cantrip she uses to turn her holy symbol into a light source she appears to be able to use without much limit).

Interesting change from AD&D1 which is what I played back in the day. Back then deities provided a channel through which Clerics accessed the planes and that was where they got their power - not the deities:

"All magic and cleric spells are similar in that the word sounds, when combined into whatever patterns are applicable, are charged with energy from the Positive or Negative Material Plane. (...) The triggering action draws power from some plane of the multiverse" DMG1 pg 40.

Note this expressly states that energy for cleric spell comes from the Positive or Negative Material Plane and yes it didn't make much sense back then either.