Generic vs specific wards

[Persell]

I've got a problem with Warding. The Players' Guide (p. 130) draws a distinction between generic and specific wards. However, aside from the size of the group of beings affected, there is no mechanical difference betwen the two. A ward that only protects against hungry ghosts is just as hard to pull off as a ward that protects against all undead.


I would like there to be a mechanical advantage to using specific wards,  because I think they're cool, they're good story fodder and they're probably much more widespread than generic formulae. However, the rules penalise players for using them. They give far less protection against all Creation's hostile supernatural beings. On p. 132, The PG even says that to work out the correct ritual for specific wards can be harder, depending on how obscure the targets are.


I'm thinking increased power for specific wards, decreased prep time, or simply upping the difficulty on generic wards. I'm looking for input from the community because many of you are quite good at this game.


Note: specific wards do have on advantage: they let in some beings that you may wish to allow access - ie hungry ghost wards don't keep out the honoured ancestors. I really don't think it's enough though, I want to see Creation festooned with elaborate, specific wards. I want thaumaturges to have to be damn sure about what they want to ward against. I want generic wards tobe rare displays of extreme thaumaturgical accomplishment.

 

[Obsidian Soul]

That is the only difference between general and specific.  General effects everything in a broad category (mortals, animals, Exalts, Ghosts, etc) while specific wards effect one specific category (Haltans, mosquitos, Solars, Specters, etc).  It just depends on how many entities you wish to piss off.


Wards are pretty powerful as it is.  A small town (population 1000 to 10,000 sounds about right) could afford a thaumaturge coming in and casting a ward around their town.  He could spend a month doing it (getting a plus 28 of Strength and a plus 14 of Durability) and no one of the specific class is going to be able to come within sight of the ward, much less do anything about it.  As long as it is maintained yearly, it is going to only increase in Strength and Durability.  Thus, a small town could keep Solars out of it, and even out of sight of it, which could be quite a distance if it is strategically placed on a large hill in the middle of a plain, if they are willing to piss off such an entity.

 

[Unforgiven]

I think you already gave the answer to your own question actually.


Fact is, it's too tricky to really define a difficulty to such wards, which is why they decided to give it the same difficulty. It also depends on your view of magic too, so I can understand why they've chosen a standard difficulty.


And as you pointed out yourself, specific wards always come with some advantages, and also some disadvantages. In gameplay, when the caster of ward makes it more specific, he always make the barrier more advantageous for himself. Why would the caster make a barrier for only "hungry" ghosts when he can make one for all ghosts? You already answered that yourself by saying you can still summon the ghosts of your parents since they're not "hungry" ghosts.


Downside is that nemissaries could still invade someone's body and march straight in. Every upside to being more specific also has a downside, and thus they decided it should have a fixed difficulty.

 

[Persell]

My point is that I want to encourage players to use specific wards, to the exclusion of generic wards. I'm perfectly aware it's not canon, but it's what I'm looking for suggestions on.


Thanks for running those numbers.