Onomancy as a Learned Prayer

[Dammann]

Originally Posted by PK

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I'd be interested in seeing how one might adapt it as a learned prayer; please post what you come up with!
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I didn't see that you'd responded. I do have questions to help me turn this into a learned prayer.

1. How did you arrive at the energy granting mechanic? I think it is cool ("identities have power") but I don't see that it necessarily follows from Zeroed. I guess that this is the beauty of Cosmic modifiers in action?

1a. Could that energy be regarded as Fatigue Points available for a grand healing event, a la Lay on Hands over an area of effect? I imagine a cleric who heals the plague of an entire village, but is then forgotten by everyone, assuming a new identity and moving on. To the sick villagers, he seems to vanish, even if the character remains present in the village under his new identity.

1b. How come Lay on Hands costs HP instead of FP? GURPS Powers Divine Favor p11 says you transfer the injuries and disease to yourself, but it also says that it is built on Healing. Basic Set Characters page 59 says that the Healing Advantage costs 1 FP per 2 HP healed. Why the change from Healing to Lay on Hands? Is this more Cosmic shenanigans?

2. If Onomancy alters everyone's recollection of the onomancer's identity by relinquishing the identity "to the universe itself forever," I see this as a permanent effect- akin to healing via Lay on Hands or damage via Smiting. It does make for an interesting balance issue, though. In fact, a lot of Advantages made into Learned Prayers might well create permanent effects that make the balance questionable. Innate Attack as a Learned Prayer is an instance that has already come up for my group. Some Learned Prayers simply cease when another is activated, but prayers that produce a permanent effect seem to benefit from not needing to be active to continue being valuable. This is what you allude to when you talk about making Onomancy a "transient ability" whose effects linger, as opposed to a continuous ability, like that which animates the golem.

3. Could all this be resolved fairly by denying the energy point boon, but allowing the power to be regarded as transient? Perhaps a minimum time is required for each identity (equal to some constant divided by Divine Favor level?), or some condition must be met before each identity can be shed. This appeals to me as reflecting Jaqen's transformation in A Clash of Kings. I am ripping off Martin for my pantheon, so I want to do so in a semi-faithful manner (amateurs borrow, professionals steal).

[PK]

Originally Posted by Dammann

I didn't see that you'd responded. I do have questions to help me turn this into a learned prayer.

1. How did you arrive at the energy granting mechanic?

It's a variant of Meditative Magic (GURPS Fantasy, pp. 161-162). Each day of doing a specific thing (in this case, maintaining an identity) grants 1 energy point.

Completely separate is the reason for the 25-day limit. Basically, 25 days x 8 hours/day = 200 hours, which is enough to buy a perk, so I considered that a fair "buy-in time" for this power.

1a. Could that energy be regarded as Fatigue Points available for a grand healing event, a la Lay on Hands over an area of effect?

If you want it to be, sure. If you wanted this as a learned prayer, I'd recommend creating a new, modified Lay On Hands with some Area Effect added to cover it all, balanced by a certain degree of Costs Fatigue. Your call on the specifics.

1b. How come Lay on Hands costs HP instead of FP?

Because it has the Empathic limitation. See GURPS Powers for details.

2. If Onomancy alters everyone's recollection of the onomancer's identity by relinquishing the identity "to the universe itself forever," I see this as a permanent effect- akin to healing via Lay on Hands or damage via Smiting. It does make for an interesting balance issue, though. In fact, a lot of Advantages made into Learned Prayers might well create permanent effects that make the balance questionable. Innate Attack as a Learned Prayer is an instance that has already come up for my group. Some Learned Prayers simply cease when another is activated, but prayers that produce a permanent effect seem to benefit from not needing to be active to continue being valuable. This is what you allude to when you talk about making Onomancy a "transient ability" whose effects linger, as opposed to a continuous ability, like that which animates the golem.

The way I view it, the act of maintaining the identity and thus accumulating energy is a continuous, "switchable" thing. If you take away the Zeroed in the middle of it, the energy either goes away or stops accumulating (GM's call). So if you want to make Onomancy a normal learned prayer, it'd probably be fair to just rule that it stops accumulating while "turned off," but then picks back up again when you reactivate it.

This could be expressed as a simple rule: "When using Divine Favor for any other use, Onomancy switches off -- as for any learned prayer. However, the identity persists as long as the paragon continues to follow all of the normal rules to maintain it. For a given day to count toward the energy accumulation, the paragon must keep Onomancy "on" for no less than 16 total hours per day (whether awake or asleep). This will rarely be an issue, but there will be times when the paragon much choose which learned prayer to use (e.g., deciding between Onomancy and Traveler's Blessing while sleeping in a ship's cabin)."

The 16-hour limit reflects the 8 hours of active use plus 8 hours sleep time. I think it produces the fairest results.

3. Could all this be resolved fairly by denying the energy point boon, but allowing the power to be regarded as transient?

Absolutely. It's only the energy accumulation that raises questions about permanence and duration and such. Without that, all this ability does is lets you establish an identity, then relinquish it later. That can definitely be transient, as long as you're otherwise maintaining the identity continually for 25+ days first.

Perhaps a minimum time is required for each identity (equal to some constant divided by Divine Favor level?), or some condition must be met before each identity can be shed.

Yes, otherwise this ability becomes far too powerful. (The ability to whip up an identity on the spot, then have it be forgotten in the minds of all an hour later, would cost something on the order of hundreds of points.) I recommend 25 days of continual use, and that seems to work out well enough with the ASOIAF approach. If you want to change this, it should be a comparable combination of time * effort.

This appeals to me as reflecting Jaqen's transformation in A Clash of Kings.

Well, obviously a man didn't intend for that to be the case. A man has no idea how that quote even made it into the article. :)

[Dammann]

Hmmm... maybe for the healing version:

Apology of the Faceless God
Learned Prerequisite: Divine Favor 15
Learned Prayer Cost: 39 points
Specific Prayer Minimum Reaction: Excellent
If you prayer for this miracle, you can bring about a mass healing, at the cost of your identity. The subjects to be healed must be gathered around the paragon, within 16 yards. They can be healed of injuries or cured of disease as per the chart found on Powers Divine Favor p15 under Lay on Hands (Enhanced).

For every day beyond 25 days that the paragon has spent under his current identity, he can devote one energy point toward this effect. These points may augment Fatigue Points spent in the miracle. Those present (including those healed) may make the Will roll to recall the identity of the paragon.

Statistics: Healing (Area of Effect +200%, Cosmic: No die roll required +100%, Faith Healing +20%, Divine -10%, May only spend 5 FP or energy points per subject when healing injuries -5%)[152]
+
Zeroed (Onomancy) (Cosmic, Onomancy +300%) [40]

That is not quite as accessible as I had hoped. And I may have neglected to include an enhancement modifier for offsetting disease penalties. Yikes. Maybe this is not the route to take. I'm better off dropping the healing and making this a permanent Advantage, if I could find a use for those energy points.