Soul Leech Spell

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Nuristas
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Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nuristas »

Good Afternoon,

The spell soul leech can be found in Rifter 15. Basically it allows you to steal all the MDC, PPE, ISP and special abilities of a target over the course of 20 months.

Has anybody seen this spell used in a campaign?

If not, on what would you use it or allow a PC to use it on?
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by burgler81 »

Nuristas wrote:Good Afternoon,

The spell soul leech can be found in Rifter 15. Basically it allows you to steal all the MDC, PPE, ISP and special abilities of a target over the course of 20 months.

Has anybody seen this spell used in a campaign?

If not, on what would you use it or allow a PC to use it on?


I've never seen it used. I'll look at it later when I have my books to see if I would allow it.
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Nuristas
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nuristas »

burgler81 wrote:
Nuristas wrote:Good Afternoon,

The spell soul leech can be found in Rifter 15. Basically it allows you to steal all the MDC, PPE, ISP and special abilities of a target over the course of 20 months.

Has anybody seen this spell used in a campaign?

If not, on what would you use it or allow a PC to use it on?


I've never seen it used. I'll look at it later when I have my books to see if I would allow it.



looking forward to reading your answer.
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Axelmania
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Axelmania »

I remember it. Used to seem very gamechanging to allow, though with some of the new options Soulmancy introduces (like the heart-sharing ritual) it's not as out-there as it used to seem
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by MadGreenSon »

That spell seems more like an excuse for a bad guy to have weird and uncharacteristic powers than anything else.
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Nuristas
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nuristas »

MadGreenSon wrote:That spell seems more like an excuse for a bad guy to have weird and uncharacteristic powers than anything else.


The Question I have is what supernatural creature a player would drain with that to gain it's abilities.
But you have a good point there, it allows a bad guy to tack on the abilities of another being making him unique in one go, if you ever needed an excuse in Rifts 8-)
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by MadGreenSon »

Nuristas wrote:
The Question I have is what supernatural creature a player would drain with that to gain it's abilities.

I think that would depend entirely on what sort of creature the player has the ability to somehow restrain for almost two years. I mean, the spell/ritual is a helluva time commitment. Higher end supernatural beings are not usually the ones that are easy to restrain. Sure, after enough castings they'll be much weaker and easier to manage, but until you reach that point, keeping them prisoner is a serious issue.

Most players wouldn't want to settle for anything too lackluster since the spell/ritual can only be successfully cast once. The creature will have to be strong enough, have enough interesting abilities, or otherwise have valuable traits enough to be worth this one time only act.
Nuristas wrote:
But you have a good point there, it allows a bad guy to tack on the abilities of another being making him unique in one go, if you ever needed an excuse in Rifts 8-)

You may not absolutely need a reason, but having one is always nice.
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Axelmania »

I'll need to dig out my Rifter to check but did this eventually turn a supernatural creature into a non-supernatural?

I'm interested in stuff capable of doing that. All that comes to mind is I remember PF had some kind of rune circle which turned you into an elf, but I can't remember if that works on supernatural beings or if it overwrites all aspects of the original race as if you were an enlightened immortal reborn into the womb of an elfin mommy
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Axelmania wrote:I'll need to dig out my Rifter to check but did this eventually turn a supernatural creature into a non-supernatural?

I'm interested in stuff capable of doing that. All that comes to mind is I remember PF had some kind of rune circle which turned you into an elf, but I can't remember if that works on supernatural beings or if it overwrites all aspects of the original race as if you were an enlightened immortal reborn into the womb of an elfin mommy


The Circle of Transformation works on anything, up to and including Great Old Ones, which was the point: The Old Ones occasionally wanted to experiance being Mortal and used the circle to do so by transforming completely into an Elf. Their knowlege remains the same (so still a level 100+ spellcaster), but were for the time genuinely mortal. They also knew how to use the circle to reverse it (Or maybe had a second one for the purpose), but that knowlege has been lost.
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

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Nekira Sudacne wrote:
Axelmania wrote:I'll need to dig out my Rifter to check but did this eventually turn a supernatural creature into a non-supernatural?

I'm interested in stuff capable of doing that. All that comes to mind is I remember PF had some kind of rune circle which turned you into an elf, but I can't remember if that works on supernatural beings or if it overwrites all aspects of the original race as if you were an enlightened immortal reborn into the womb of an elfin mommy


The Circle of Transformation works on anything, up to and including Great Old Ones, which was the point: The Old Ones occasionally wanted to experiance being Mortal and used the circle to do so by transforming completely into an Elf. Their knowlege remains the same (so still a level 100+ spellcaster), but were for the time genuinely mortal. They also knew how to use the circle to reverse it (Or maybe had a second one for the purpose), but that knowlege has been lost.


Palladium RPG is not my strong suit, we haven't really played that.
This circle of Transformation can transform anything into anything? For example an elf into an alien intelligence or the reverse? Or are there limitations (and where can it be found?)
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

Nuristas wrote:
Nekira Sudacne wrote:
Axelmania wrote:I'll need to dig out my Rifter to check but did this eventually turn a supernatural creature into a non-supernatural?

I'm interested in stuff capable of doing that. All that comes to mind is I remember PF had some kind of rune circle which turned you into an elf, but I can't remember if that works on supernatural beings or if it overwrites all aspects of the original race as if you were an enlightened immortal reborn into the womb of an elfin mommy


The Circle of Transformation works on anything, up to and including Great Old Ones, which was the point: The Old Ones occasionally wanted to experiance being Mortal and used the circle to do so by transforming completely into an Elf. Their knowlege remains the same (so still a level 100+ spellcaster), but were for the time genuinely mortal. They also knew how to use the circle to reverse it (Or maybe had a second one for the purpose), but that knowlege has been lost.


Palladium RPG is not my strong suit, we haven't really played that.
This circle of Transformation can transform anything into anything? For example an elf into an alien intelligence or the reverse? Or are there limitations (and where can it be found?)


It turns anything into an elf and only an elf, and not into any other thing whatsoever, always an elf, only an elf. it MIGHT have a reverse function, but that is mere speculation: it might not even be able to reverse it, right now no one knows how to reverse it or even if it can be reversed.

I mean, we know the Old Ones turned back into Old Ones when they were ready, but we simply don't know if it was THIS circle or they used a different circle somewhere else or they used something else entirely, and in any case, it's not possible to use this circle to turn someone into anything other than an Elf: always an elf, only an elf.

It's found in the dungeon discribed in the Old Ones book, which is basically an adventure moduel leading the party of a certain level down through an old moutian complex of the Old Ones, which is mostly in ruins but has some lost ancient magic and stuff (like the Circle of Transformation), and at the bottom of which is a sleeping Minor Old One (not a great one who's name is known and a Word of Power, but one of their lesser cousins) and a cult trying to wake him up. Amusingly in 1E they actually gave him a Stat block (which is how we know he's a level 100 Spellcaster), but second edition just says "He can defeat entire pantheons of gods single handedly, so giving him stats is pointless"
Last edited by Nekira Sudacne on Tue Jun 16, 2020 3:01 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Axelmania »

Nuristas wrote:This circle of Transformation can transform anything into anything? For example an elf into an alien intelligence or the reverse? Or are there limitations (and where can it be found?)

I found a 2009 thread about it https://palladiumbooks.com/forums/viewt ... 5&t=109865 but I can't seem to find it in Old Ones searching "circle of" so that might not be a component of it's name?
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

It's a dungeon moduel mapped out and discribed room by room: the circles are discribed in the rooms they are in, not as discrete circles.

The complex actually has several such circles that were lost to modern circle mages.

For example, the Circle of Soul Transference allows the user to swap bodies with any other being or object. You could for example lock the soul of a dragon into a figurine and then swap your own soul into the Dragon's body to essentially become a dragon, while the dragon is forever stuck inside the statue with no way to ever get out or get back to his origional body, while you get all the powers and abilities of a dragon.

Also the Circle of Youth, which quite littearlly makes the user young again by reducing their age by half and can be used repeatedly to extend one's life indefinately: although it won't work to reduce someone to pre-teen years (the youngest it can make you is 13), but you can theroetically keep using it every day to stay 13 forever.
Sometimes, you're like a beacon of light in the darkness, giving me some hope for humankind. ~ Killer Cyborg

You can have something done good, fast and cheap. If you want it done good and fast, it's not going to be cheap. If you want it done fast and cheap it won't be good. If you want something done good and cheap it won't be done fast. ~ Dark Brandon
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Axelmania »

Nekira Sudacne wrote:It's a dungeon moduel mapped out and discribed room by room: the circles are discribed in the rooms they are in, not as discrete circles.

The complex actually has several such circles that were lost to modern circle mages.

For example, the Circle of Soul Transference allows the user to swap bodies with any other being or object. You could for example lock the soul of a dragon into a figurine and then swap your own soul into the Dragon's body to essentially become a dragon, while the dragon is forever stuck inside the statue with no way to ever get out or get back to his origional body, while you get all the powers and abilities of a dragon.

Also the Circle of Youth, which quite littearlly makes the user young again by reducing their age by half and can be used repeatedly to extend one's life indefinately: although it won't work to reduce someone to pre-teen years (the youngest it can make you is 13), but you can theroetically keep using it every day to stay 13 forever.


Yeah I was able to find those ones, I just thought I remembered something explicitly like "you change into an elf" not as open-ended as 'swap souls with anything'.
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Nekira Sudacne
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Nekira Sudacne »

The circle of transformation and soul swap are two different circles
Sometimes, you're like a beacon of light in the darkness, giving me some hope for humankind. ~ Killer Cyborg

You can have something done good, fast and cheap. If you want it done good and fast, it's not going to be cheap. If you want it done fast and cheap it won't be good. If you want something done good and cheap it won't be done fast. ~ Dark Brandon
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Re: Soul Leech Spell

Unread post by Axelmania »

do you recall page COT is on?
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