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by Tixxi Eldixac
Thu Jun 18, 2015 12:13 am
Forum: Abilities
Topic: The Forge (in progress)
Replies: 4
Views: 5422

Re: The Forge (in progress)

Meta Storage: Remember the descriptors that you used when we were standing outside the shop? Use those. Worked out perfectly.

Acid Weakness: Cool! There's an issue, though. Because this isn't an oversimplified TRPG, we don't lump all acids together, so there are plenty of "acids" that don't regularly turn metals into salts. While it seems obvious when taking into account your overall character design, for the sake of clarity on an individual ability, you may want to denote this as something along the lines of, "If exposed to an acid that damages metal, Bane takes double damage," or you could easily denote this as one of the properties of the metal that you're made of when writing your composition description. That's probably more sensible, from an organization perspective, come to think of it. "Thinkofanamium is highly reactive to acidity, so most acids will deal double damage." That's clear enough, at least to me. I wonder if anyone else thinks that something more would help.

Memory is a part of one's MS parameter. Photographic or eidetic memory is not typically an ability, though it can be on the side. What I'm saying is that your ability is fine where it is, but I wanted to point out the option of just prioritizing MS highly and being able to skip that ability entirely, if you so desired.

Shifting: You can mix-and-match parts at will, right? -or is this one of those rare, "No, there's a set 'hybrid form' right in the middle, and I have to take one of three forms every time," kind of deals?

Metal Eater: I'm not sure how to feel about this. CH regenerates naturally over time, and eating typically restores PS and a very small amount of HE, so the intent here is a little unclear. Do you want it to just be like eating food, whereupon you receive PS and a little HE? Do you want it to restore CH, and, if so, is that in lieu of or in addition to the normal food benefits? I'm not really comfortable with such an easy way to gain CH back in huge lumps. Imagine Noah Ivaldi running around with seven thousand Dry Ethers that he "just picked up off the ground," being able to dump his mana into annihilating all competition with powerful spells and regaining it all, never suffering an energy pool vulnerability, for free. It may not be a direct comparison, with your low (I think) MAG and currently far smaller verisimilitude in spending options, but the point stands.

Lightning Eater: An elemental absorption to CH, not HE, huh? Okay, I can see that. That's intrinsically far more efficient than a typical HE absorption (You can pick up a jutsu that lets you heal yourself, which means that it gets more mileage, never mind the options that open up when you don't need healing now.), so I think that I should count this as two absorptions at the least. Therefore, it needs to be toned down. We factor elemental resistance levels against one's stats and parameters, where a 10% increase or reduction in damage has an effective cost of "1" on a "total = 30, average = 3" scale. Immunity, then, costs a whopping 10, and I'd be generous to consider an absorption as 15. Then, this is like two absorptions. Clearly, it doesn't mesh with your current stats and parameters.
The acid weakness doesn't even do much to mitigate it. Because this isn't D&D or Pathfinder, you don't have sixteen ways to deal worthwhile acid damage per character. It's not seen as an equivalent damage type to electricity, here. To compare, Noah has basic Thunder spells, Ramuh: Wisdom Storm, and will soon gain access to the Eidolon, Ramuh, in addition to having a mild affinity for lightning (standard elemental manipulation, but weakened) and his Terramancy, but, for acids, he has . . . Terramancy. It's not just Noah, and it's not a punishment for others' char design; acid just isn't a common enough concern to be equated. Sorry.
It may strike you as odd as to how strongly innate immunities and absorptions are considered, but remember this: If you have a fire shield that absorbs fire, yeah, you can whip that out whenever you need it and stuff, but it can be broken, too, or cursed pretty easily. If you innately absorb fire, unless someone is using an ability that specifically interacts with all forms of elemental resistances (e.g. the "Geomancy" support ability), there's not much that anyone can do about it, and it requires no action or forethought on your part. A fire shield also takes up a hand, which isn't really a concern to everyone, but, even without that, you can see that equipment-based elemental resistances are efficient, but okay because they're easily dealt with, but the system needs to discourage innate ones (though having them tied to a temporary super form is okay; see Tixxi).

Coating: What exactly does this do? Buff up your DEF, is it?

Indomitable Will: Huh. Total immunity to mental compulsions as long as you have the CH to spend, eh? If someone imposes a perpetuating influence (a spell that keeps trying, a pheromone that lingers in the air, a metaphysical mind shock that keeps pulsing . . .), does this ability just drain the shit out of your CH, whether you want it to or not?

Magnetism: This is a variable ability, like standard elemental manipulation. It's totally fine to just say something along the lines of, "Bane can strengthen, weaken, and alter his magnetic state at a proportionate CH cost." Done. Simple. About the only thing that I'd tack on to that is an "or MA" after the CH, 'cause I like versatility, and you're kinda' short on MA-spending abils.

Roar: I already mentioned power factors, but I'm gonna' need a range idea on this, too. Tell me its radius when you spend an "average" amount of PS and CH (about 8% of an "average" parameter), how far it goes for some other value, and we'll have a pattern to assess.

Bloodied: This sounds strong. Is it a set-value or proportional boost? Is it to every bit of damage that you deal, only your physical attacks, or what?

Self-Sustained: Ah, I see. You're going for a unified energy pool deal. It would take more than a small amount of CH to sustain yourself for a day. That'd be quite a bit of PS restoration for a small CH cost. It's too good. If you want, you could just write up your stats and parameters to actually have a unified energy pool, then write the flavor text for how and why. See Bianca for an example of this, where she has "Meva" in place of MA and CH, and see my notes on the appropriate calculations.

Sympathetic Pain: Adding team-conducive abilities already! Good thinking. I'd say that you could transfer a very high amount of a energy (your choice as to whether or not you want it to work on only one at a time or in tandem) over a couple seconds, and you'd spend, uh, 1/8th the same amount of CH to do so. Sound about right?

Electrify Self: You channel electricity along your body and through metallic weaponry (where "weaponry" is here defined as "whatever the shit I'm holding, or just my body") for additional lightning damage, basically as a secondary attack property. Okay. It's straight-forward enough, if I'm right. I need a cost and power, though.

Independently Ambidextrous: This is something that you could just note in your bio or something. It's not a big deal enough that you need to state it as an ability.

Devour is an idea that you jotted down, to be filled in with details later, right? Hah, I see that you're having fun with the system of multiple energy pools. It's neat to have these different interactions, not just some admin telling you to spontaneously collapse because your last spell took too much energy, don't you think?

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