spell effects on pretenders?

[Kobal2]

Originally Posted by brxbrx

Well, since a pretender's power is often faith based, couldn't he rely on a prayer from a string-willed priest to give him a little boost?
Or wouldn't he already have access to his power anyways (wouldn't a nature god, even if it was just a manticore, have the regeneration ability?)

But that's just it. He's already the condensed, manifested form of the coalesced belief of each and every last follower of his. That necessarily includes your strong-willed priest. Their prayers are the only reason he's there in the first place (this BTW is made explicit by Machaka's Fetish chassis, which outright states it's just a statue which got infused and animated by the beliefs of worshippers and now acts as they think it should act - but that's true of all the Pretenders. That's why they die without Dominion. Belief comes first, then comes the god, not the other way around (even though after he's come he has a feedback effect)).

As for why gods don't carry their own bless effects: balance I guess, but you can handwave it away by accepting that all that godly power focused on itself doesn't necessarily have the same effect and properties it has when applied to actual living (or unliving, as the case may be) beings.

[Bananadine]

Originally Posted by Kobal2

Their prayers are the only reason he's there in the first place (this BTW is made explicit by Machaka's Fetish chassis, which outright states it's just a statue which got infused and animated by the beliefs of worshippers and now acts as they think it should act - but that's true of all the Pretenders. That's why they die without Dominion.

Well I don't think every god is quite like the fetish god--the fetish is mindless, for one thing. And clearly the various mages and ancient creatures that "had nothing left to pursue but godhood" or whatever were functioning people/beasts before anybody began to worship them.