Earth Warlock Spell question

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Mack
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Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Mack »

The level eight spell Transference of Essence & Intellect (BoM p74)... does the Warlock retain his PPE and ability to cast spells?

Opinions are welcome, and a canon answer would be much appreciated.
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by eliakon »

Mack wrote:The level eight spell Transference of Essence & Intellect (BoM p74)... does the Warlock retain his PPE and ability to cast spells?

Opinions are welcome, and a canon answer would be much appreciated.

Yes they should.
This answer is based on the Warlock, who has done just this, "The Mad Golem" on page 74 of Island at the Edge of the World...
...who still has all of his spells per day.

It is their essence after all, and your PPE is your essence (it may, or may not, be connected with souls after all)
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Mack
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Mack »

Thanks for the reference. I was working up a NPC, but from your description it sounds like the core idea has already been done.
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by drewkitty ~..~ »

You might want to check out the immortal PCat in PU2 and the living Golem article in one of the Rifters.(thinks it is pre R30.)
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Blue_Lion »

Mack wrote:Thanks for the reference. I was working up a NPC, but from your description it sounds like the core idea has already been done.

There is a mage that has used such a power to go into a golem in SOT 6. If I recall right he does retain his ability to cast spells.
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by ShadowLogan »

Blue_Lion wrote:
Mack wrote:Thanks for the reference. I was working up a NPC, but from your description it sounds like the core idea has already been done.

There is a mage that has used such a power to go into a golem in SOT 6. If I recall right he does retain his ability to cast spells.

Denwyn Ironheart (SoT6pg103105), several notes:
1. "into a specially crafted Iron Golem!"
2. "His magical iron body interferes with his spell casting, reducing the duration of the magic spell by..."
3. Ley Line Walker OCC , not Warlock

How Point 1 relates to Point 2 and Point 3 I am not sure, I think we can say for sure that it relates directly to Point 3 (as no equivalent Wizard Spell exists IIRC), but it might or might not also relate to Point 2.

Mack wrote:The level eight spell Transference of Essence & Intellect (BoM p74)... does the Warlock retain his PPE and ability to cast spells?

Opinions are welcome, and a canon answer would be much appreciated.

Cast Spells: the only thing that would prevent them from casting spells would be if the new body limited spell casting in some way. Underseas magic establishes that vocalization is not necessary (does slow things down), so even being unable to speak shouldn't be a factor (if gestures are required you would need to be able to animate the body).

PPE transfer. Given that Robot Transfered Intelligence (SB1o) retains some ISP, and ISP and PPE are related. I would go with yes, though PPE amount might be impacted negatively (as ISP is). Though as a mage they still retain their skills, so in theory would be able to tap other sources to augment their PPE as their OCC would allow (IMHO).
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Shark_Force »

i would say that in palladium terms, your PPE is part of your essence. unless some aspect of your PPE is directly related to your former body (for example, if you were previously a lassinike from aliens unlimited), you would keep all of your PPE, just as you would if you were to leave your body through astral projection, or if your body was transformed into an insect, or if your body became gigantic.
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Mack »

My inclination was to say that an Earth Warlock would retain his casting ability, if for no other reason than were that not the case the spell description would clearly call that out.

From the couple of references given, I'll stick with that.

And I had a thought on the drive home tonight to make him a bit more unique. If it doesn't turn out too munchkin I'll share it later.
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Shark_Force »

particularly fun, you can make a clay animal human, turn it to flesh using the described spell chain, and then transfer your essence and intellect into it since in addition to clay, stone, iron, etc, you can always transfer into a clay animal creation and make it permanently animated.

so if you're an earth/air warlock (or just have access to breath of life), you can pretty much live indefinitely. and also get some MDC and supernatural attributes :)
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by dreicunan »

If PPE is connected to the essence, not the body then why would cyborgs lose nearly all their PPE?
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by flatline »

The canon ruling isn't clear.

In my own rules, if you possess another body, you are limited by the PPE in that body unless you're touching your actual body. In the case of the warlock transferring his "soul" to the golem, I'm inclined to let him bring his PPE with him.

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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Shark_Force »

dreicunan wrote:If PPE is connected to the essence, not the body then why would cyborgs lose nearly all their PPE?


if a wizard loses an arm, they lose 0 PPE... unless they connect it to a cybernetic arm, that is.

the PPE isn't in your body... but something about attaching cybernetics to your body interferes (and it pretty much is specifically cybernetics... bio-wizardry can attach an octopus tentacle with no problems, and you can attach a cloned arm to your body to replace a lost one no problem, you just can't attach a cybernetic limb for whatever reason).

why? well, out-of-character, we all know it's so that you can't have cyborg mages with several hundred MDC and full spellcasting. in-character, i dunno... i'm not an expert on rifts metaphysics :P
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Re: Earth Warlock Spell question

Unread post by Daniel Stoker »

That's ok, I don't think Palladium are experts on Rifts Metaphysics either. ;)

But other then that, I agree with you SF, biological attachments are groovy to use but the metal/artificial systems aren't. It's also why there is a lesser issue with certain bio-system cybernetics causing less problems.


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