Fighter's Glowing Weapon, how work with it as a GM? Also: new hireling

So, me and my 16 years old brother are going to play a one-on-one game. We already played a couple of short term games together with other teenagers, but since we live in the same room, he likes the game, and we both have lots of spare time (at least until september), hey, why not play DW even more! We created the character and we're going to play soon this week.

That said, he's going with a good, charismatic and wise fighter named Domovan, full of hirelings to whom he's also bonded, and weilding a sharp, umblemished sword that glows when undeads are near, aiming to get either commune/cast a spell or turn undeads at level 2.

It's the first time a fighter takes this enhancement in one of my games and I don't know how to implement it, since it's clearly something totally in the gm's hands.

Is it just an easier, more fantasy way to Show Signs of Doom?

Is it an actual, useful power a player should exploit to have better chances at surviving?

Is it just a cool way for the player to say "give me lots of undeads and let me tear them apart"?

Maybe it's obvious but I don't want to mess anything up.



That said, I created a new hireling. He's followed by Brianne, a spellcaster who seeks uncovered knowledge, son of one of his dad's friends, but my brother was really disappointed discovering that an Adept can't cast actual spells on his own. And I agreed with him! So, here's our new hireling skill:

Spellcaster — the hireling knows a number of spells which levels summed up must have a total equal to her skill rating. When a Spellcaster casts a spell, its effects are automatically applied, but she can't cast that spell again until you make camp. The spells must all come from either the wizard's or the cleric's spell list. A Spellcaster hireling never knows rotes or cantrips.

Sounds awesome!

Is it just an easier, more fantasy way to Show Signs of Doom?
Is it an actual, useful power a player should exploit to have better chances at surviving?
Is it just a cool way for the player to say "give me lots of undeads and let me tear them apart"?

All of this. Yes!

I would place a few of his bonded hirelings in harm's way, so that they are more than likely to turn undead - Zombies, ghosts, ghouls, skeletons, that sort of thing. They then come after Donovan, or even better, implore him to save them from their eternal unrest.

I've totally pulled the "your sword begins to glow... what does it MEAN!?" in weird situations before.

It's all that stuff you said, depending on what you and your players care about.

I would place a few of his bonded hirelings in harm's way, so that they are more than likely to turn undead

Absolutely!

I've totally pulled the "your sword begins to glow... what does it MEAN!?" in weird situations before.

this is neat, I'm going to do it!

thanks guys, you gave me awesome advices! And I feel sort of more confident with the glowing sword. If something interesting comes out the game, I will post some AP bits as usual.

I'd go the other way with the hireling - he or she can cast rotes, and has 1 spell from the wizard or cleric list (depending on what kind of hireling he or she is). Kind of a low-level specialist.

I'd go the other way with the hireling - he or she can cast rotes, and has 1 spell from the wizard or cleric list (depending on what kind of hireling he or she is). Kind of a low-level specialist.

I actually envisioned rotes to be something good for Adepts (who "may have mastered a few simple spells, but they don't have anything like the wizard's spellbook").

Of what level should be the only spell a spellcaster knows? And how the hireling's skill rating comes into play?

I can't find a good solution at the moment.

You could tie the level of spell to the skill rating - the higher the skill rating, the higher the spell level. I think I'd treat the 1 spell he gets as a rote spell too to save rolling, like the Moves that some classes get that treat a spell as a rote.

you roll to cast a spell even for rotes. That said, no one ever rolls for an npc, not even for an hireling*. Tying the skill rating to the spell level produces just the hireling I proposed in the first place °L°

*except when you roll Order Hirelings if the situation is particularly dangerous, stupid or degrading.

Also, he has another hireling, this one a Warrior, who uses a Bow. I think that instead of "taking the brunt of it" when an attack has side effects, I will say that the hireling is out of ammo.