I was wondering if someone could help me. I have a few questions concerning the use of Methods and Powers from the RoP series.
If a character uses a Method such as Purity over several days to add additional Faith points. Would he recover the spent Faith the next day? Would he recover the Fatigue that he spent?
While undertaking a prolonged Method (as described above) could a character still employ other methods and powers without discrupting the extended method?
If you've got True Faith 1, and thus 1 faith point, any additionnal point you gain is spent first, and is not regained. So, if you accumulate 10 points, they won't be regained until you've spent the point coming from your true faith.
Dunno if my answer is adequate, though
I rushed my post yesterday, so perhaps I wasn't very clear. So I'll give an example of how I think it works and perhaps someone can tell me if I'm doing this right.
Suppose Father Bobo (True Faith 1) wants to go on a pilgrimage to a local holy site, but doing so would mean leaving his flock unattended for a week. So he decides to use Purity Understanding to see what is God's will.
Bobo fasts for a day, losing a level of fatigue and adding a Faith point (earned working as a healer). His total is Meditation +4, Understanding +2, Intelligence +1, Holy Aura +4, Faith +3 for a total of +14.
The next day he fasts again.
He spends another faith point (this one is from his daily allotment) for +3, but now he suffers another level of fatigue loss so his total is now: +4, +2, +1, +4, -1, +6 or +15.
The third day, he suffers another loss of fatigue, but has no remaining faith to spend so his total is: +4, +2, +1, +4, -3, +6 for a total of +14. But, this being the final day he rolls simple die and gets a 6 for casting total of 20.
He has Purity, right? You mentioned Meditation in there. As long as he has the Purity Method, everything looks right to me. Though I do believe Father Bobo would regain all of his spent Faith Points each dawn (ArM5 p. 189), so he could still use them to increase the total of his miraculous effect. Thus, he doesn't necessarily have to stop after the third day.
Regarding your second question, I don't think the rules specify one way or the other. Purity effects take a long time to get really powerful scores, and it seems fair that while the character's total is building up he can't do anything else. But then again, if he can't regain his lost Fatigue or heal his wounds until the effect is over, these penalties will apply to his other effect too. A good middle ground might be to require a Concentration check, just like magi trying to cast a spell while maintaining another.
Agreed with Erik. 3 days seems like a good "magic" number, though. We have always given a small bonus to doing things in multiples of 3 and 7 just for the sakes of that: it feels mystical. We assume that magical seasonal projects are done in 77 days, for example. That leaves you with 13 days of free time per season. Close enough to the "10 days leave" of cannon.
So, in that sense, if we feel that you are doing something "right" when it comes to timing (like spending 3 or 7 days in meditation) you might get a sweetie in bonus, like a +3 to your roll or whatever.
Footnote, but just to pntr out that 3 and 7 are supposed to be "right" numbers of mystical stuff
The example wasn't from an actual game. I designed the example to illustrate some of the problems I was having, but in retrospect yes it would have made more sense to include a Purity effect.
I ended the effect at day three because, if I understand correctly, after that the Fatigue penalties will exceed any benefits from spending Faith. Although, I suppose the character might perform a ceremony or something to make it worthwhile.
