Thorns of the Lotus (btw: nice book) states, that a sorcerer who knows the true birth name and date gains one additional magic point to use only for this specific spell against this specific target.

Well ... the sorcerer knows of course his own name and his own birthday, so every time he casts a spell on _himself_, he gains an additional magic point. This would be a funny side effect for things like "Fertility - Harvest Chi" oder "Transmutation - Augment Form"?

Possible? Whas this intended by the designers? Rule loop? "Rule-Rape"?

SYL

*grin* ... good catch. :)

Thorns of the Lotus was originally published by Daedalus, so I'm going to deny all culpability here.

Michelle Nephew
Atlas Games

So the answer is ... ? ;-)

I suppose the magic system was the same in the Daedalus-Edition?
Perhaps this could be a point for an errata oder official FAQ (together with some other minor clarifications)?

SYL

I'd say the answer would be "no". I'm guessing the rule was intended to give a +1 AV to a player who took the time to roleplay studying his intended target and putting in extra research. If a player goes through the trouble of that, then yeah, I'll give him a +1, no problem.

Automatically giving +1 AV to any spell targetting the caster just because he happens to know his own name and birthday smacks a bit of rules abuse. If a player got really obstinate about it, then I'd allow it with some limitations:

a) It only works with Divination sorcery... and possibly Summoning.

b) It only works *ONCE* and thereafter, you no longer get the +1 for that particular target. Either that or after the first time, I start penalizing the sorcerer -1 AV every time he tries to use it again for "boring repetition".

Or, for the ultimate GM tit-for-tat... if the player doesn't take special steps to ensure his name and birth records remain out of public records, then every single NPC sorcerer/demon/file clerk he runs into will conveniently know enough about him to get a +1 AV as well.

1) You dont geht +1AV, you get a free magic point. You would need to use a desperate effort to increase the AV, which has naturally some drawbacks ... like magic backlash. Without the desperate effort it would only work for fertility - harvest chi and transmutation - augment form or shapeshift or any other magic spell, which is spoken on a person and states, that you need to spent a magic point.

2) In Thorns of Lotus or in the main rule book it is written, that almost every powerful sorcerer donīt use his real name and tries to hide it. And since most sorcerer come from 69 it is quite normal that their true birthname/day is not known. Even the Eunuchs donīt have a central birth register.

And BTW: if everyone would knows him would mean that he is more known that Jesus Christ. I would be interested in how you would explain this. ;-)

Of course I accept the possibility, that it was not intented to provide an magic point every time the sorcerer casts a spell on himself. I am just wondering why no one noticed it during the rule design. It was the first thing which jumped into my face an bite my nose when I readt the ToL. :-)

SYL