FASA Games, Inc.

Hello, fellas, im new to this forum. We started playing Fading suns after some AD&D and CoC, and im glad we did! The party is pretty balanced, with a monkey Engineer as tech guy, a human Vis Craft Psychic/Stigmata Veteran as blaster mage, a dark elf (as you should have guessed, i havent learned the races names yet) as our diplomat/poisoner, a human pilot as our, well, pilot, and a human Brother Battle (my PC) as the tank/medic. Thing is, the DM is a little foggy on the rules department, so we've just used a good dose of handwaivium so far, something we are eager to correct ASAP. So, here comes the first of what im sure will be many questions:

Smiting hand's duration is listed as instant. I take it that it means you have to attack in the same round you invoke this theurgy, or it will be lost. Does that mean that i have to take the -4 penalty for multiple actions? If that's the case, its a sucky power, as it can be replaced by a standard mechanic with usually better results (and it doesnt cost 6 skill points). If it doesnt, then what happens if i fail the theurgy roll? do i still get a normal attack? In that case, its overly good!

The second question is: Provided that we find suitable teachers, can we learn powers from other paths/sects? Having lay on hands would be pretty usefull for our party.

On the name thing,

Monkey thing=Gannok

Dark Elf- I'm assuming you mean and Ukari.....

I should have asked, are you guys using the VP system or the d20 version, because if I have to start referencing pages I can only help if it's the VP version. I don't have access to the d20 books.

Thanks a lot for your answers.

We are using the VP version, am hybruid of 1st and 2nd editions (wich is weird on itself, since 2nd edition seems pretty similar to first anyway). The reason is that the DM was pretty sure he had the 2nd edition manual, so we read from there, and he wound up having the 1st edition one.

Anyway, if we use your interpretation of the Smiting Hand, it would be silly to use it unless you are faced against enormous amounts of armour (wich may very well be the intent), as you would be dealing more damage with 2 attacks than with a victory point enhanced one in most cases.

I believe that the Smiting Hand rite is a theurgic version of martial artists' brick-braking tricks (i.e. it is indended to be a way to TRY to deliver one devastating blow that smashes through armor). However, I agree that it is kind of a useless rite - especially for a Level 6 rite - so perhaps you could convince your Game Master to allow you to use the rite activation goal roll as an attack? That should take care of the multiple action dilemma...
(I am of the conviction that FS was always intended to be adaptable/tweakable to what suits the gaming group best).

As for learning other-sect rites, the rules allow this at a higher cost. If you use FS2 (p.158 in my copy), learning such a rite costs +1 Extra Point per level when buying it during character generation; or current rating x3 (as opposed to current rating x2 for your sect's rites and common Church rites) if you learn it during play.

As for "Laying on Hands" specifically, that is a Church Rite, which means you can learn it without penalties. Your theurgist character may learn his sect's rites AND the common Church Rites "at regular cost" (p.158).

Hope that helps

(Of course, the Game Master is always the final arbitrator)

The Game master actually ruled that we could both cast the rite and hit in the same round without penalties (we had the same problem with vis shock), its just that we wanted to make sure we were playing "canon". The "Church Rite" part we didnt know about, and it makes a lot of sense (we didnt understand why it wasnt in the sanctuary aeon rite list).