Another quick question that I didn't see come up in the thread about the way of the adept book, so I'll ask here instead. How would you deal with the power discount from way of the adept and geas. Are they incompatible, would they stack directly for a 50% discount, or would you get a 25% discount and then another 25% discount, which works out to a 43.75% discount.

Only thing I could find in regards to this is the following:

This seems to indicate that a geas is at least allowed to go with the Way discount.

I'd say they are compatible, and that they add directly (50% reduction) because the difference is not that large, it makes the math simpler and is less prone to leave the character with some weird fraction of power points left.

I would actually probably rule that the powers in an adept's Way come so naturally, that a geas is never required. The adept is just too confident for such crutches to be necessary. That nips that right in the bud, and keeps the adept from basically getting 4 IPs for the cost of 2 (I think, I don't have the book in front of me, so I don't know the exact PP costs, so don't shoot me if I'm wrong).


~R~

My assumption is that a "Way" is a subtype of Geas and that you cannot stack the advantages.

The plural of geas is geasa. Pronounced roughly as "guess" and "guess-uh", respectively.

Sadly I don't speak Gaelic and I've been pronouncing it like geese. I'll try and remember that though.

I don't speak it either, but I'm a language geek

I appreciate Etymology more than pronunciation myself

Haven't had a ton of responses sadly. Is it possible to add a poll?

Since Way of the Adept is optional and Adept Gaesa are optional, the simple truth is that it's entirely up to your GM whether he'd allow you to double dip or not. If you (and s/he) think adepts really need the boost, have a blast with it, get some of your favorite powers at half off, and go to town. There's no reason to complicate the math in my opinion, and (as has been the rules precedent set for other discounts stacking), in this case the easiest/most favorable way to do the math is to just take 50% off. 25% of for the Way discount, 25% off for the geas, and you just plain cut the cost of your power in half (to keep the math neat, and favorable to the character).

Again, though, it's stacking optional rule atop optional rule, so it's extra optional. Clear it with your GM first, don't just show up to a game and suddenly have twice the adept powers, and be all "Critias said it was okay."

And since he didn't mention it, I will: Critias wrote the book.

The flavor of geasa seems to be that they're psychological crutches, ways to shore up the adept's confidence and focus for a power they couldn't use otherwise. A Way seems to be a much deeper, personal connection to the adept's power that would preclude the need for any geas on that power.

That said, the geas-discount is an optional rule anyway, and if you want to increase adept power relative to other characters, that's GM's prerogative. For character development's sake, though, I'd say if a character has both their Way and their geasa should be intrinsically linked in some way. For instance an Athlete's Way adept might always be wearing his high school track medal, or an Invisible Way adept might belong to a secret ninja clan and have to perform shinobi rituals every day. A Warrior's Way melee specialist might have Improved Ability (combat) that only works while using her grandfather's Royal Army officer's sword.

That's totally my justification for everything I do


I agree, the geas should likely be at least somehow related to the Way the person is following. When asking this question I was spesifically thinking about a Way of the Speaker (well, magician with speaker as the chosen secondary) that had an incantation type geas, but then I realized that'd be fairly silly when combined with a bunch of powers that only operate when you're talking anyway.

His geas should be that he has to be speaking with a microphone of some kind and his voice needs to be amplified. Thus he has to carry a speaker system around with him.

or

Make it so they only work if he is speaking at a podium and he should carry a collapsible one around with him.

Those both seem overly restrictive and only applicable to politicians. I think the social penalties to setting up a podium to talk to someone would far outweigh the benefits granted from the actual powers.

A geas should be more complicated than. "Speaking" or "Must be in Motion."

It should be things like:
While wearing the Amulet of Ra
Everyday he must perform a 1 hour cleansing ritual.
Hair is at least 6 inches long. (Samson)
During the Day.
When the Moon is Waning (or Waxing)
When the Moon is full.
At Night.

Not, "when he's talking"

Right, my point was that all of those (except perhaps the specific time ones) are far less restrictive/encumbering than having to carry around a collapsible podium and set it up to use powers.

Though to be honest, powers activated only when talking is actually a fairly decent restriction as it eliminates an ability to use them in stealth situations, as well as being stopped by gagging the person.

There's actually a bunch of possibilities with a Speaker's Way geas that could be interesting: Say, your improved abilities only kick in when you're speaking to more than ten people. This leads the character to organize Music Man-like corner mobs at every opportunity. "You there sir! And you! Have YOU heard of the threat to our very way of LIFE posed by TerraFirst!?" All just to sell a cover story or convince one person in the group. Or maybe they only work if you're speaking in iambic pentameter, or in rhyme. If you're good enough they won't realize you're talking like a Shakespearean sonnet and just think whatever you said is the best idea ever!

Also the idea of Voice Control that only works through a ventriloquism dummy is hilarious, but ultimately very limited

I just think it would be hilarious to watch.

I don't know, I could see that being fairly reasonable. It isn't nearly as cumbersome as the podium idea. It is limited in what character concepts it would work with I suppose.

If the horse's mouth says they're optional and can stack, I'm good with that. I hadn't actually put thought to Geasa when I read over the book, but if the restriction is suitably restricting, good on them.



I had a halfling for [Name of Game Redacted] that carried around a ge-u-ine soap box wherever he went. He'd set it down and set to intimidating the 'bigguns.' Good times