So the question I have is what does a Whisper actually do? I get seeing and talking with Spirits, but beyond that. Are they casting Fireball? How subtle/overt are the magicks?
So the question I have is what does a Whisper actually do?
So the question I have is what does a Whisper actually do?
Define in play, and tell us about it 🙂
That being said, it’s not particularly subtle at my table. Lightning and storm magic is the mainstay for a Whisper, while fireballs are a lost art requiring an ancient ritual (start a clock, Find Firebrand: an aging Whisper who knows the secret to create fire with magic. Rumor is the power is borne from blood, but the rest of the ritual is a mystery)
In a haunted city with the forgotten god cults and demons, having the ability to command spirits and consort with ancient powers is honestly good enough, but hey theirs also Ritual if you need a bit more fun.
To further elaborate, we’ve been down playing the ghosts and demons in our game, it’s mostly been intrigue and stealing. But somebody died and she’s thinking of replacing her character with a Whisper, so we’re trying to figure out how to make that fun for her without changing the over all feel of the game.
Ah, well with Tempest and creative use of Ritual, plus using tinkering with Strange Methods to create arcane inventions they can have a lot of fun
Whispers mostly deal with ghosts, but they also have a modicum of control over Electroplasm, the primary power source of Duskwall. While its dangerous they can try to utilize this to short machines or attack with lighting. Asides from that, when it comes to alternative magic I tend to treat it like Mark Massengale said. Rituals to learn, and then I typically keep it as high power but costs stress to pull out and overuse attracts attention.
One thing I pulled out when my players were hunting a rouge hull was the ‘fact’ that hulls are disrupt-able through attune. I made it so that with sufficient knowledge of the working of a hull core and sufficient electroplasmic control, a whisperer can disrupt the flow of electroplasm inside the machine. This typically causes it to slow down or in the case of high effectiveness, can temporarily short them. Of course this is incredibly difficult to pull off quickly and typically required multiple spirit wardens to perform reliably. Alternatively with enough setup and proper preparations, its possible to make a disruption circle that is easier to cast but is rather inflexible and timely.
On the other hand I’ve had the whisperer and Slide/Whisperer use ghosts as weaponry before. Its rather chaotic but if a whisperer can bottle themselves a swarm of mad ghosts, a pitch and run tactic is viable. Granted this tends to cause more chaos then even grenades and the spirit wardens might get involved, but that’s Duskwall for you.