Demi-God Magic Question

[jtjr26]

I am setting up a Demi-God Mind Melter who's special Godling power is Magic Powers:Ley Line Walker. In addition to the spells and abilities the character would receive do they also get the bonuses and skills that a Ley Line Walker would receive?

[Anthar]

No skills, though I would give the bonuses in my opinion anyway.

[drewkitty ~..~]

the powers and bonuses- yes
skills-no (this includes spell scroll conversion)

[Thinyser]

the powers and bonuses- yes
skills-no (this includes spell scroll conversion)

Agreed... except for the scroll conversion as that is not a skill but rather a class ability also.

[Nekira Sudacne]

I am setting up a Demi-God Mind Melter who's special Godling power is Magic Powers:Ley Line Walker. In addition to the spells and abilities the character would receive do they also get the bonuses and skills that a Ley Line Walker would receive?

No, they get no skills whatsoever, only class abilities.

[Anthar]

They get the spell selection and as a Ley Line Walker they can research and create spells as well as learn new spells from others. This is a class ability not the OCC skills.

[drewkitty ~..~]

They get the spell selection and as a Ley Line Walker they can research and create spells as well as learn new spells from others. This is a class ability not the OCC skills.

Spell scroll conversion is a Skill, not an ability nor a power.
Spell Research is a Skill. Not an ability, nor a power.
To think otherwise is not to understand that the LLW class is of acquired skills, not one of intuitive magic.

They don't have any of the "skills". It's like the GL with the magic power is a Mystic on a grand scale, what they know about magic is intuitive, not learned.

Since the mage has to have 'learned' how to manipulate magic, the skills like "Understanding the Principles of Magic" are not gained as a part the the GL power.
Therefor things that are based on learned skills; like spell scroll conversion and actually creating an new spell; simply can not be done by the GL (unless they have a learned magic OCC). They would have to wait till they have enough exp. to gain the spells through leveling up to a level to gain the spells.

A good question to ask about what is a skill or an ability is "if this was a mystic, would they get the <such and such>?"
The answer to this question for both spell conversion and spell research is a resounding, No!

GL's also do not get a Spell Selection, they get all the common magic spells equal to and below their current level. As per the GL magic power.

[cornholioprime]

They get the spell selection and as a Ley Line Walker they can research and create spells as well as learn new spells from others. This is a class ability not the OCC skills.

Spell scroll conversion is a Skill, not an ability nor a power.
Spell Research is a Skill. Not an ability, nor a power.
To think otherwise is not to understand that the LLW class is of acquired skills, not one of intuitive magic.

They don't have any of the "skills". It's like the GL with the magic power is a Mystic on a grand scale, what they know about magic is intuitive, not learned.

Since the mage has to have 'learned' how to manipulate magic, the skills like "Understanding the Principles of Magic" are not gained as a part the the GL power.
Therefor things that are based on learned skills; like spell scroll conversion and actually creating an new spell; simply can not be done by the GL (unless they have a learned magic OCC). They would have to wait till they have enough exp. to gain the spells through leveling up to a level to gain the spells.

A good question to ask about what is a skill or an ability is "if this was a mystic, would they get the <such and such>?"
The answer to this question for both spell conversion and spell research is a resounding, No!

GL's also do not get a Spell Selection, they get all the common magic spells equal to and below their current level. As per the GL magic power.

Sorry to disagree with you, Drewkitty -at least partially -but Ley Line Walkers DO get to learn Spells as an innate ability.

See Rifts: Ultimate Edition, page 116.

Coupled with the description of the Godling's powers in Pantheons of the Megaverse, the implication is that a Godling gets ALL of the abilities of a LLW without having to learn about them in much the same way that Vampire, or Mystic, is automatically at 100% proficiency in using their powers without having to go 'Shapechange into Wolf/Bat/Mist School' or 'Learn to move your body and speak like so Magic School.'

Yes, you are correct in comparing a Godling's innate knowledge of LLW to that of a Mystic, but you don't go far enough: just as a Mystic instinctively gets to learn how to cast a given spell, so too does a Godling "Ley Line Walker Mystic" also instinctively get to learn how to learn new spells per the description of the stated, innate abilities of the LLW.
Now, IF the Godling had instead selected the Mystic OCC, then yes he would be blocked from learning new spells (unless, of course, he used Godling Ability #10 twice in order to get another branch of Magic that does allow the user to learn new spells on their own).

To put it another way, the Godling/LLW's ability to also learn new magic by 'external' means in addition to gaining new spells (from the limited LLW spell selection anyway) at each level is nothing more than a minor version, or distant cousin, to Odin's Yggdrasil-granted ability to not only cast new spells but also read scrolls and make diabolist circles.


P.S: Anthar, perhaps you are looking at a book other than RUE, because in those pages the ability to create magic spells is not a stated ability of the LLW in that book -unless I missed something there. You're still basically correct though.

[drewkitty ~..~]

While learning spell from others and personal research might be an ability of mages that learned their trade, it is not an innate ability.

[cornholioprime]

While learning spell from others and personal research might be an ability of mages that learned their trade, it is not an innate ability.

It is if you're a Ley Line Walker who as a benefit of being a certain kind of creature -in this case, a Godling -gets all of that OCC's abilities magically plugged into you.

And it isn't as if the imparting of learning skills magically is something new or shocking to Palladium Games -hell, off the top of my head I can name at least one Magic Spell (Eyes of Thoth) that magically imparts the ability -skill -of reading whatever the enchanted character can get his or her hands on. This is in addition to the earlier example given of the Yggdrasil ordeal which also gives the successful participant the skill to read all things magical or otherwise, in any language.
All that a Demigod is doing by choosing Power #10 compared to 'ordinary' Mystic-style learners, is not only mystically learning how to do the movements and words of the individual Spells, but in a rare set of circumstances that doesn't apply to most practitioners of magic, is also mystically being programmed with the means by which he can learn more Spells if and when he chooses (where those Spells might be available, of course).

In short, Skills Acquisition by magical means isn't at all 'illegal,' unheard-of, or in the case of a Demigod, overbalancing.