Two questions related to the Cleric spell “Bless”
1. If you cast the spell on yourself, do you still have -1 to casting, or does the +1 from Bless cancel out the -1. If so, doesn’t that make this spell a little… exceptionally good for The Cleric to cast on himself every fight?
2. Can someone ever gain higher than a +3 to a roll, with the help of effects like Bless?
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1. With my Cleric, yes, I still take -1 ongoing when I cast Bless on him. The +1 ongoing can be applied to any move, “so long as the battle continues and they stand and fight,” as far as I know. I’m pretty positive the +1 from Bless does cancel out the -1 for ongoing casting, but only during the battle; afterward, you’re still at a -1 ongoing to cast until you Commune.
2. Sure, why not? I have an Ettin Wizard with +3 INT, a racial move that gives them +1 to Spout Lore. That, along with a bag of books, gives my Wizard a whopping +5 to Spout Lore (though I rarely have my PC utilize all the bonuses, unless it’s something really important they were trying to remember/figure out).
There has to be some cap on bonuses to any particular roll. at +5, you are only failing on a snake-eyes. That sure would take the fun out of the game. I’m very hesitant to give my players too many bonuses because the range is so small on the die rolls. Instead, I’ll give them a bonus to the result, like an additional die on damage on a H&S. Thoughts?
Edit because my math failed me again. Curses! You would never fail a roll with a +5. D’oh!
As long as thy don’t have +5 to Defy Danger on every stat, there is a hard move that can kill them.
I agree with you +David Benson. Always taking +5 isn’t that fun; hence why I usually don’t go for it. Most of the time, my Ettin’s Spout Lore ends up with a +4 bonus due to a +3 INT and the racial move: when your two heads loudly and lengthily debate you can get a second opinion and take +1 to Spout Lore. Sure, it means my Wizard’s a smarty pants more times than not, but that racial move is extremely fun to RP out in the fiction – whether it’s a success or a failure.
Additional bonuses on damage die can certainly work too, as can other alternatives I’m sure. Actually, here’s a question that came up this weekend:
With the +1 ongoing from Bless, does that apply to attack rolls AND damage rolls too? Or just one or the other?
And I agree with Matt Horam too. If a character does have a high bonus in something, as a GM, you can probably balance that out with harder moves. Offer a more dangerous threat that deals a debility instead of damage – or worse; just as long as it makes sense in the fiction, of course.
I never got the argument that “too low odds on rolling a miss makes the game dull”. Most of the time, the thing that kills you (on the long run) is 7-9, because people often choose to do stuff that lets them get the higher bonus anyway.
If a character has high bonuses, put them in situations that demands harsher consequences on the occasional miss with that bonus (or even on 7-9). I think it is all about letting more competent characters face more serious threats.
To be honest, I find that only having a +1 modifier is bad, because you only get exactly what you set out to do on less than 1 in 3 rolls (!!!), and you probably don’t even get what you want at all with the same odds (missing has the same odds with +1 as a 10+ result).
When playing, I would much rather go for getting three stats at +2 as soon as possible, than going for that one +3 stat. The +3 stat is simply not worth the opportunity cost in my opinion. Not at lower levels at least.
Seems fine. Casting it in the first place still carries the risk of missing. Aside from that the Cleric gets blessed for “free”. Keep in mind they get the +1 so long as they stand and fight…if the Cleric does anything that smells of “not fighting” their God should frown. (I’d say casting more spells is fine as long as it’s contributing to the fight.)
I would say it doesn’t make sense to have overlapping spells, e.g. to bless one person multiple times. You’re blessed or you aren’t, so no worries of infinite blessings.
That said, there’s nothing wrong with +4 or more to a roll. If they can work it out, let them have it! In fact it would suck to level up to a +3 bonus, and suddenly Bless doesn’t help you with that thing.
To answer your questions Mike Wice:
1) Yes, you get +1 to all rolls (except damage, as specified on page 21), but you also take -1 to all spell casting rolls. When casting spells, this grants you a net bonus of +0, but +1 to everything else.
This is not a dominating strategy however. The reason is two-fold; first of all, you need to make a roll to cast a spell, and that most likely costs you something (as the 7-9 result) or you might miss. Triggering a miss can be brutal in some situations, especially if you’re already low on health.
The second reason is that the more times you’ve taken “take -1 ongoing to cast spells” for rolling weak hits on cast a spell the worse this idea becomes. Bless is a spell you use when you are prepared to take a gamble to give someone (might be yourself) increased slaughtering / evasive power.
The strategy gets better after you take the serenity advanced move.
2) There’s no upper limit to the bonus you can gain, though getting +4 is rare, and above that is extremely rare. If you get such a high bonus, it’s probably only in a very limited capacity, and often requires someone to take a chance / gamble through a roll (as when aiding or casting bless on you) or it requires you to spend resources (as with halfling pipeleaf and bag of books).
Aaron Feild I wouldn’t mind having a cleric cast bless multiple times on the same combatant. I wouldn’t just sit by if a player tried to “do it instantaneously” however, casting the spells several times in a row; I’d make them work for (or pay for) an opportunity to cast it again.
“You vocally cry out to Koria, goddess of Murdering Monster Awesomely. You cast the spell and a ray of light visibly invigorates Meko. You try to cast it again? Yeah, the goblin leader decides that it’d like to have a little less godly intervention and orders 10 of its warriors to kill you. They draw their bows and take aim. You could cast the spell and take that broadside (d6+9 damage!), or you could seek cover first… So, what do you do?”