HYPERBOREA / permanent XP Penalty for cross class spell exception

**Posted by Master Magician Rennalds** 10/12/2025 10:27 pm

I'm Tempted to allow a cleric who worships wendigo to learn the haste spell at the request of the player.

the player will certainly need to perform a significant task to earn his gods favor, and sacrifice a significant amount of gold and treasure.

Beyond that I am Considering imposing a permanent additional 10% XP penalty to balance out the boon, how fair does this seem to you?

Last edited by Master Magician Rennalds (10/12/2025 10:28 pm)

**Posted by rhialto** 10/13/2025 5:01 am

Have you considered using the "Independent Spell Research" rules (p.162 of the PM)? 500 gp and 1 week per spell level, roll % chance to learn new spell. You could give it a suitably different name for Wendigo, but treat it in all other respects like Haste (or increase the level of it). The permanent 10% XP penalty seems too steep to me.

**Posted by Master Magician Rennalds** 10/15/2025 8:19 pm

Thanks for the reply Rhialto!

Cross Class spells seems outside of the scope of independent research per Raw-- though I think that is where I will derive my time, gold and failure % chance numbers from.

I'm getting this idea that an XP penalty might be appropriate because I'm giving a character an outsized advantaged beyond the scope of his class (Treading lightly on the toes of the shaman too).

my point of reference for this is the reincarnation table XP penalties. by comparison, the ability boost granted by becoming an abominable snow man or an serpent man are less impressive than getting access to a wizard spell on a faster progression, and raw penalizes those changes massively with a 25% XP blockade.

I think what I'm going to do is: do away with the XP Penalty, but make the spell 4th level for him. I'm going to mull it over-- maybe Ill do a 5% XP penalty.

I try to make the game as close to raw as I can to maintain legitimacy-- does that sound nuts?

back in 2e before the errata I had the death soldiers muster zombies turn on their creator after 24 hours lol

**Posted by rhialto** 10/16/2025 5:14 am

Well, if I were the PC I wouldn't object to that reasoning. I'm just anticipating one of my players "researching" a new spell nearly identical to Haste, but named something else (e.g., "slow-drug"). Given the options you've considered I think making it a 4th level spell for the PC is most appropriate, but just my opinion. Cheers!