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<blockquote data-quote="gizmo33" data-source="post: 3753046" data-attributes="member: 30001">That's debateable and a difficult thing to assess IMO and I would have thought you'd be a little more qualified in your statements (but then the internet is not a place for nuance).At which point Pelias summons a beast for Conan to ride on, with apparently no risk to soul or sanity (well, Pelias' anyway, Conan is a little creeped out by it).Now isn't it possible that the &quot;Master-words and Signs&quot; this is just REH speak for &quot;hey, when you're a 5th level wizard you can cast Summon Monster III.&nbsp; Check this out...&quot; ?&nbsp; In any case there's nothing in Pelias' speech that indicates that there are such soul-destroying consequences to the spell casting.&nbsp; But perhaps he's glossing it over.&nbsp; There are other examples, such as hypnotism in &quot;People of the Black Circle&quot; where there appear to be no negative consequences to having learned or used the magic.&nbsp; Maybe you can find examples to fit your case, but I think mine are sufficient to establish that it's a mixed, and perhaps inconsistent, picture.So maybe REH is inconsistent in the way he represents magic?&nbsp; Why not?&nbsp; He's not writing about wizards in the main, he's writing about Conan.&nbsp; As I said before, the weight that I give Vance over REH in this area is that Vance is actually telling you a story from a wizard's perspective, and so there has to be a higher level of versimilitude regarding magic use, and as such, I think it makes Vance a better source for a game about magic than REH.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="gizmo33, post: 3753046, member: 30001"] That's debateable and a difficult thing to assess IMO and I would have thought you'd be a little more qualified in your statements (but then the internet is not a place for nuance). At which point Pelias summons a beast for Conan to ride on, with apparently no risk to soul or sanity (well, Pelias' anyway, Conan is a little creeped out by it). Now isn't it possible that the "Master-words and Signs" this is just REH speak for "hey, when you're a 5th level wizard you can cast Summon Monster III. Check this out..." ? In any case there's nothing in Pelias' speech that indicates that there are such soul-destroying consequences to the spell casting. But perhaps he's glossing it over. There are other examples, such as hypnotism in "People of the Black Circle" where there appear to be no negative consequences to having learned or used the magic. Maybe you can find examples to fit your case, but I think mine are sufficient to establish that it's a mixed, and perhaps inconsistent, picture. So maybe REH is inconsistent in the way he represents magic? Why not? He's not writing about wizards in the main, he's writing about Conan. As I said before, the weight that I give Vance over REH in this area is that Vance is actually telling you a story from a wizard's perspective, and so there has to be a higher level of versimilitude regarding magic use, and as such, I think it makes Vance a better source for a game about magic than REH. [/QUOTE]

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