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[Egan_BW]

I think even action surge won't let you cast more than one leveled spell on your turn?

[Kagus]

I think even action surge won't let you cast more than one leveled spell on your turn?

The rule is, specifically, using a spell with a cast time of 1 bonus action means you cannot cast anything other than cantrips until the end of your turn. There's actually no rule about leveled spells or not, it's just bonus action casting.

This also means that if you use the quicken metamagic to cast a cantrip as a bonus action, you cannot cast a leveled spell with your action. However, if you quicken the leveled spell to use a bonus action, you may use your action to cast the cantrip. This also, notably, prevents you from casting reaction-spells until the end of that turn.

Action Surge, giving you an additional fully full action, is specifically the way of circumventing that restriction and is the go-to method of casting two leveled spells in a turn (or three, since it doesn't preclude casting something as a reaction either). And since Clockwork Soul's trance ability is an ability and not a spell, it doesn't interfere with any of that (in addition to not being able to be dispelled/counterspelled, as if it wasn't nonsense enough as it was). Because yeah, if you use a bonus action to cast a spell, then action surge, you'd only be able to cast cantrips with both those main actions.

[scriver]

No, that's a common homerule/rules mixup. The only rule that limits spell casting per turn -- from a very, very RAW perspective that is -- is if you cast a spell with a bonus action; then, you can only cast a cantrip with your main action. I'd agree entirely with you that this ruling seems to imply a logic of being limited to one spell per turn, but there's no actual rule saying so in itself.

This is also what makes it possible to Counterspell an enemy mage that's Counterspelling your spell, because Counterspell is a reaction action.

Godddammit Kagus, you ninja. I know I shouldn't have stopped to look up Counterspell and War Mage perk mechanics before posting

[Egan_BW]

Okay well that's dumb if I'm GM you can cast one leveled spell on your turn (but no limit per round so go wild on reactions)
(and the counterspelling a counterspell would be casting another spell while it's still your turn so that handles that)
(might just let action surge cheat cuz it's cool though)

[JoshuaFH]

The only one leveled spell per turn (though specifically if it is cast with your bonus action) doesn't seem like intentional balancing on WOTC's part, but rather just another byproduct of them never thinking through what they actually intend on saying, and then when the ruling is actually sloppy and unintuitive they refuse to errata it.

[NullForceOmega]

I had an amusing thought this past weekend, inspired by a random Youtube recommended video.  I'm now working up a RIFTS campaign centered around a black ops unit of the Coalition States based on the antagonists of the '80s cartoon (and toy line) GI-JOE.

It could be really stupid or really terrifying, depending on personal feelings on Cobra.

[Loud Whispers]

Wew. Finally got back into running a Dark Heresy oneshot after getting some inspiration from stuff Duuvian sent me.

I gave my players two elite Sororitas characters serving under an Ordo Hereticus inquisitor. Sister Blackgate and Sister Myxodema (I am told Myxodema was the name of a rare disease my player was struggling to memorise for a medical exam) were equipped with incendiary grenades, bolters with incendiary rounds and underslung single-shot flamers to keep in the theme of BURNING. Supporting them were two stormtroopers equipped with melta-guns and two stormtroopers with shock mauls and storm shields, as well as a rhino transport vehicle.

They were stationed on a world called Erebuni, a world dominated by a single hive city - with the remaining portions of the planet consisting of red, dusty and toxic wastes or verdant feudal kingdoms with primitive levels of technology (flintlocks being the best weapons they have) but produce a lot of raw materials and foodstuffs for the hive. Their boss, the Ordo Hereticus inquisitor, is busy dealing with intrigues within the Hive personally (the world is held in various degrees by the Admiralty, the Administratum, the Ecclesiarchy, cartels, the Mechanicus and the noble houses), and the Inquisitor is certain that there is another Inquisitor on the planet who is undermining the planet's defences on purpose for reasons yet unknown. Yet it has come to his attention that someone from the feudal kingdoms is claiming to be a miracle healer, with his power coming from the Emperor himself.

Because he's busy, he sends the sisters to go deal with the healer. The inquisitor suspects the healer is either a heretic (falsely claiming the Emperor's power) or a witch (using unsanctioned psyker biomancy to heal others), so either way they must investigate and kill/capture the target. He sends the sisters to meet with a local Sheriff from the hamlet where the miracle healer is said to dwell. The sheriff salutes them and gets anxiously interrogated, revealing the healer is called Galen and practises his healing arts in a local copse nearby. He's a hermit who's probably not from the hive. The sheriff insists that in the hamlet of Goodsprings they're Emperor-fearing folk and there're no heretics to be found here, and Galen's no heretic either. They say some prayers for the sheriff's soul and then promptly execute him for harbouring a heretic.

They go one step further and vox in an artillery barrage on the copse wood, whilst using their Rhino and Titan support to isolate the hamlet and begin purging it too. When they discover a group of survivors escaped into two nearby towns, after verifying there wouldn't be any political consequences serious enough to bother their boss, they call in an orbital lance strike on the two nearby towns. However they get into an argument with Captain Tacitus who tells them plainly that he's not going to waste macrocannon shells glassing empty farmlands and if they want to catch any stragglers they better do their job and catch them themselves. So they mobilise the PDF with stormtrooper oversight and whilst the PDF are disappointing, they do catch Galen and execute him. Autopsies on bodies recovered from the copse also confirm they were perfectly healthy and had been healed with probable biomancy.

We ended up finishing one hour early because of their decisive action. I was looking forward to running a fight between hordes of poorly-armed but highly motivated militia vs a vastly outnumbered but elite fighting force, but they acted too decisively with such overwhelming force. I had honestly not expected them to take the "cauterising approach" as when I let them make their own characters they tend to make do-gooders who protect everyone - in this case there was so much collateral damage the only survivors were four children they kidnapped to be inducted into the schola system. It led to one of the coldest and most 40k moments where one of the kids' fathers aimed a flintlock pistol at one of the sisters and fired.

It was heartwarming IRL when we all watched the dice fall and hoped this NPC father would be able to do -something-, some act of defiance in the face of the unfairness of the world. He rolled to hit; he got a resounding three degrees of success. He rolled for damage... There was a very small chance he might be able to do something, to draw blood, to not go out without a fight. He failed to do any damage at all. The shot was stopped cleanly by their power armour. Sister Myxodema assusred him his child would be safe with them before one of the stormtroopers broke his leg with a swipe of his maul. In the end, the hamlet was crushed underfoot by warhound titans or swept away by megabolter fire.

Now I thought it would be hilarious if they did all that and it turned out Galen was just some chemist giving everyone aspirin or some swindler selling snake oil for clout and all those dead innocents were for nothing, but I had written down in my notes Galen was a psyker with a martyr complex who took people's illnesses and put them into his own body and I don't quantum ogre players (my players have complained before about another GM who did this - everyone they spared turned out to be hideously evil, everyone they killed turned out to be a misunderstood hero and it got old quickly). The players here used in-game information and in-character priorities to weigh up the costs and they wiped out two towns and a hamlet with the appropriate level of "emotional weight," it felt like a proper Ordo Hereticus purging and not a murderhobo escapade.

I'm trying to figure out now what'd be the most satisfying continuation of "the purging of Goodsprings" that doesn't cheapen the moral cost of what they did. E.g. I'm not bringing Galen back, if they think one dead psyker demagogue is worth the innocent lives of three towns, the psyker's staying dead. But I could for example have a preacher claiming to be Galen back from the dead, and I think that would be an interesting and natural continuation. Or I could just have it be an ever-present thing the feudal Kingdoms are aware of - falling into fear, superstition and witchhunts to escape the Inquisition's wrath whilst the Inquisitorial retinue focuses on the xenos threats & the rival inquisitor weakening the planet from within. I kinda prefer the latter since it'll be nice from a tactical point of view to pit the players against a well-organised enemy who is resistant to this kind of swift action but any ideas?

[Grim Portent]

I think a Cult of the Martyr growing, with the locals hailing Galen and the hamlets as martyrs and condemning the Sororitas as having strayed from the Emperor's light as signified by their heavy handedness, would be a fun angle. Such things take time though, so it might not make a lot of sense for a feudal level society to do in the span of a game.

Them overreacting and going super hard on the penitence angle would make perfect sense though. 'Three farming communities were killed to the last man standing by the Emperor's Servants for harbouring a heretic. We must cleanse ourselves of all sin and perfidy to assuage any doubt that we are not Righteous! Flagellate thyselves, cast aside temptation and burn the infidel!'

Spur a Redemptionist style cult. Something like House Cawdor from Necromunda, the Flagellants from WHF, the Cult of the Pure form and so on. Have some zealous lunatic style preachers crop up as NPCs and have baying hordes of penitents be willing to die for the Sororitas' mission in some sessions. Any suggestion of someone being an enemy to these guys results in them trying to tear them limb from limb, even if the players don't actually want that to happen.

[Loud Whispers]

Spur a Redemptionist style cult. Something like House Cawdor from Necromunda, the Flagellants from WHF, the Cult of the Pure form and so on. Have some zealous lunatic style preachers crop up as NPCs and have baying hordes of penitents be willing to die for the Sororitas' mission in some sessions. Any suggestion of someone being an enemy to these guys results in them trying to tear them limb from limb, even if the players don't actually want that to happen.

I can already imagine some interesting scenarios where the administratum is desperately trying to coax the flagellants back into being farmers because since everyone started these cults of redemption no one wants to produce food or collect raw materials anymore. They're too busy flagellating.

Could even have some really gnarly wickerman, but instead of burning people alive, it's just one giant penitent engine. Could make for an interesting choice players could be left to resolve, e.g. is it better to let this zealotry take hold (innocents will die. The hive will lose its easy access to raw resources and descend into instability unless help is brought in from the admiralty/mechanicus) but the farmers will stop being a soft target to all the xenos raids. This would also no doubt raise the eyebrows of the rival inquisitor on the planet whilst turning almost all the noble houses against them (as all the peasants reject "temporal authority" in favour of only serving the Emperor of mankind). Could give me a good excuse to start siccing well-armed assassins and ambushes after them... Supported by their hordes of braying flagellants

[Grim Portent]

Got an idea in my head for a Dark Heresy story with a Bendy type of deal going on.

So there's this Slaaneshi artifact in the FFG rpgs, a book that gets spread out to artists, writers, sculptors and so on, which drives them to insane depths of depravity as they try to perfect their particular art using the knowledge within and sometimes causes daemons to enter realspace. One of those open ended low detail story hook ideas.

My thought is a Propaganda film maker gets a copy. The guy makes a highly popular but really dumb series based around a squad of heroic guardsmen who do ridiculously larger than life feats. Fist-fight a (sanitised depiction of a) Tyranid Warrior, defeat witches through the power of faith and friendship alone, defeat armies of rebels with Rambo crossed with Home Alone type shenanigans. Names like Buff McCool and Slab Bulkhead. Not sure if animated, sepia tone film, holograms or what. Maybe multiple mediums of film, doesn't really matter.

Important thing is that this series is linked to a notable statistical increase in guard recruitment among demographics exposed to it, with the primary source of consumption being a Hive World where it's basically either the guard or the gangs for you life prospects. One of the co-writers dies in what the Arbites rule as an accent, but an Inquisitor of the pinboard-and-red-string paranoia type is sure it's a targetted assassination by seditious elements who want to reduce guard recruitment, so he pulls strings and gets a more hands-on colleague to send some grunts to give it a once over, mostly to shut him up about it.

What is actually going on is that the lead creator had something of a crisis of faith after reading through the records of some of the planet's guard regiments, which he's supposed to parse for possible real life material for his propaganda. The sheer amount of dead left him disillusioned, feeling that the Imperium needs Heroes. A book he recieved from an anonymous source promises the ability to make his fictional guardsmen real, to step off the screen and save the Imperium. As the book's influence wormed it's way into his brain the material he was producing began to incorporate subtle elements of a sorcerous sequence, which is causing those involved in the production to die or be injured in accidents to fuel the work of fiction itself being possessed by daemons of Slaanesh.

The ultimate result being that a twisted parody of Buff McCool (or whatever the propaganda characters are called) literally steps off a screen and starts killing people. Wide lipless mouth filled with sharp teeth, flexible limbs with blades that can burst out of the hands, emits a mist that dulls the mind, all the standard Slaanesh stuff, but in the general form of a guardsman complete with the filter of whatever media it stepped from. An animated one looks animated, or it's all monotone or covered in sepia film style grain.

Once the summoning is complete, every copy of the work that involved any part of the sequence, so all post-book copies, is a doorway for daemons to step out using the characters as avatars. Culminating in a fight against the whole fictional squad as they step from the last piece of work.

[Kagus]

So... Changeling vigilante who targets murderers while wearing the faces of the victims that were killed.

I think the concept could have some merit. Could even tie it in as a side plot thingy by luring the party in with talk of undead activity being spotted... But of course the only people who have seen these "undead" are themselves killers, and probably not too keen on revealing why/how they know the "deceased".

[heydude6]

Sounds like a cool idea. You’ll probably have to hold the reveal to the very end though. I’m pretty sure if the party figured out the truth, they’d side with the vigilante.

[Frumple]

So... Changeling vigilante who targets murderers while wearing the faces of the victims that were killed.

I think the concept could have some merit. Could even tie it in as a side plot thingy by luring the party in with talk of undead activity being spotted... But of course the only people who have seen these "undead" are themselves killers, and probably not too keen on revealing why/how they know the "deceased".

I've seen that in writing before, somewhere or another. Can't even a little remember where, but it's a concept someone thought was good enough to publish.

[scriver]

Sounds like a cool idea. You’ll probably have to hold the reveal to the very end though. I’m pretty sure if the party figured out the truth, they’d side with the vigilante.

He could still be worse than the murderers in some way... or misguided, like the party comes into conflict with him when he targets somebody they know (or think) is innocent and have to protect. 

[Grim Portent]

He's also killing people without legal justification and spreading paranoia and superstition in the process, plenty of room for the party to stop him on behalf of the locals even if the people being killed would be facing a hefty prison sentence or execution.

Broadly speaking, if the Changeling has enough cause to think that someone is a murderer they should be trying to prove it to the local police/guards so the murderer can be hanged or something, not just unilaterally shanking them while wearing a dead person's face. Authorities tend not to like vigilantes.