If I'm reading the Modular Abilities entry correctly, you can have a different set of skills available for each animal, but the total amount of Refresh you'd have to pay would only be for whichever form costs the MOST Refresh, plus 2. So if you wanted, say, a killer whale in the mix, that'd be Aquatic (-1), Claws (teeth) (-1), Hulking Size (-2), Inhuman Strength (-2), for a total of -6, minus two more for a -8 total, and then True Shapeshifting is -4, +1 for human form...
So that'd be -11 you'd need altogether (no easy task; I'd weaken your whale form to a dolphin or something :-P ), but you wouldn't need any MORE than that to put together a bunch of other forms, provided the total Refresh for the powers of each form are -6 or less.
Again, that's if I'm reading the Modular Abilities power correctly. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.
I accept no responsibility for any NPCs created from inspiriation provided by my thread(s)!That looks like a good way to set it. I think you might be able to squeeze in one more point of Modular Ability by limiting it with Human Form; this would mean that you couldn't use your Modular Abilities to wield powers while looking human (e.g., taking the form of a focused practitioner you know to use his Channeling power), but would give you enough to put a one-point Creature Feature and an Inhuman Attribute onto the same form, (e.g., Inhuman Strength and Claws for a bear, Inhuman Speed and Diminutive Size for a cat, etc.) Alternatively or additionally, as a changeling you might need assistance from an external source to manage your shapeshifting; while a two-point Item of Power would be awkward to carry in many forms, a one-pointer like a necklace which shifts to an appropriate collar or other decoration in non-human forms would also help get enough Modular Ability to manage a wider variety of forms.
Kidding aside, his original power configuration was this:
Submerged (10 refresh base)
True Shapeshifting -4
Supernatural Toughness (-4, Cold Iron is the Catch -3) -1
Glamours -2
Inhuman Speed -2
The new configuration is looking like this:
True Shapeshifting -4
Supernatural Toughness (-4, Cold Iron is the Catch -3) -1
Modular Abilities -4 (2 buy in, 2 form points)
Thoughts, opinions, suggestions?
I accept no responsibility for any NPCs created from inspiriation provided by my thread(s)!
Kidding aside, his original power configuration was this:
Submerged (10 refresh base)
True Shapeshifting -4
Supernatural Toughness (-4, Cold Iron is the Catch -3) -1
Glamours -2
Inhuman Speed -2
The new configuration is looking like this:
True Shapeshifting -4
Supernatural Toughness (-4, Cold Iron is the Catch -3) -1
Modular Abilities -4 (2 buy in, 2 form points)
I notice that Glamours is missing from the updated writeup. You certainly didn't have enough points to do both, but I want to also make sure that you know Glamours cannot be bought with Modular Abilities.Don't have the book handy so have to ask, where is that limitation from? As far as I know you can gain any power you can thematically justify by your change.
Don't have the book handy so have to ask, where is that limitation from? As far as I know you can gain any power you can thematically justify by your change.
Function Follows Form. You may shapeshift your form to take on a variety of abilities, taking a full action to change them around. When making such a change, you may real-locate some or all of your form points (see above) to purchase new abilities, focusing on those available as Creature Features (page 162), certain Minor Abilities (page 169), Speed (page 178), Strength (page 183), and Toughness (page 184).
YS 177:Perhaps I deal too much with policy and procedure documents but there's no limitation or proscription in that statement. "Focusing on" doesn't mean "limited to". They're just the most obviously applicable to most creatures we know or imagine.
"Function Follows Form. You may shapeshift your form to take on a variety of abilities, taking a full action to change them around. When making such a change, you may reallocate some or all of your form points (see above) to purchase new abilities, focusing on those available as Creature Features (page 162), certain Minor Abilities (page 169), Speed (page 178), Strength (page 183), and Toughness (page 184)."
I think it stretches the bounds of Modular Abilities to allow a transformation to a convincing Sidhe *with* all of the Sidhe powers.Why? It's "True Shapeshifting"...are there limits on the shape you can take? (Beyond knowledge and imagination at least.) Presumably a giant is as valid as a rhino and a phooka as valid as a phoenix.
Could one shapechange to a Wizard with Evocation and Thaumaturgy?Is "Wizard" a race? Or a matter of knowledge? If you judge it the former, it may be possible. Personally, I think it's the latter. That said, changing into something like a phoenix may well get you abilities so close to fire evocation as to be indistinguishable.
Well, with the name being shapeshifting, I'd imagine it'd be limited to your physical form. You'd have to take a "spiritshifting" power or somesuch to grant yourself access to magic.Err...we're talking about Modular Abilities granting powers based on shape. True Shapeshifting's name has nothing to do with what Modular abilities grants.
I suspect we have a fundamentally conflicting idea of the limits of shape shifting and the scope of any modular powers, Umbralux. And I'm not sure that there is a definitive answer.Perhaps. I think you're correct about the lack of definitive answer.
It gets handled differently in different games, with different expectations of outcome. D&D handles it one way. Point-based systems like HERO or Mutants & Masterminds handle it another way. I can easily imagine taking the appearance and physical attack forms of a Giant, a Phoenix or a Pooka. But the Phoenix's fire abilities, or the Pooka's magical abilities, would be out of bounds. Even inventing one's own tentacular form with a bifurcated head born aloft on a trio of tyrannosaurus legs would only grant certain physical abilities: I wouldn't allow Incite Emotion (insanity) just because the shapeshifter saw an Outsider. Edit: But maybe in a more Outsider-themed game, the appearance *IS* the source of insanity, so it might be appropriate.While mythology is often contradictory, neither phoenix or phooka are necessarily intelligent. If they aren't, any abilities are logically innate rather than learned.
I feel the ability to create complex magical effects (Glamours, Evocation, Thaumaturgy, Sponsored Magic) are learned, taught, bestowed and/or innate properties which cannot be mimicked without that Steal Power/Mimic Power ability (which may be evidence that some things just can't be emulated - only stolen from their original possessor). With Fae, I feel that such magic is an innate part of what they are, and a Shapeshifter - however skilled - won't be able to replicate that.
Certain gross, unskilled or simple magical effects I might be able to justify as being replicable. But any shapeshifter that wants to do magic, I feel, needs to buy that magic. But I continue to interpret the line from Modular Abilities as proscriptive, and while I believe the loophole you identify was intended to give players and GMs the latitude to negotiate abilities, I don't feel it is loose enough to justify skilled magical ability.Let me preface my response by stating everyone is free to create any rules they wish, whether out of whole cloth or not. I'm really not trying to change your mind on how to play...just on how you're applying unique word definitions to a public audience. "Focus" means a concentration or central point - even center, heart, core, or nucleus. All of those are part of a larger whole. I honestly don't see how it can be interpreted as "this and only this". That's simply not what the word means. "Focus" simply doesn't mean "prohibit anything not mentioned".
But at the end of the day, I think of Modular Abilities as a Variable Power Pool (HERO system terminology) limited to physical effects (or simple magical creature abilities, if your table wants to go that way).It's not a bad decision. I can even make an argument for it by limiting some powers to those intelligent enough to learn them. (Though that has it's own pitfalls in this case.)
Consider that with Mimic Abilities, it costs 7 points of refresh to be able to acquire the entire wizard package. With True Shapeshifting to justify applying Modular Abilities to acquire that package, it costs 13. Six points of refresh seems like it should be sufficient to cover the differing levels of difficulty in applying one versus the other.
Thirdly, the wizard template really only costs 6 Refresh when purchased with Modular Abilities. Because you'll never use both Evocation and Thaumaturgy at the same time.
Why would swapping out the power disable the items?One could surmise that changes in one's basic nature sufficient to grant/remove spellcasting ability are sufficient that enchanted/focus items would no longer work properly, in much the same way that they cannot be loaned to another magician; in essence, your newly assumed form is another entity entirely, as far as the magical resonances are concerned.
Why would swapping out the power disable the items?
Ok this is taken straight from YS:177
When making such a change, you may reallocate
some or all of your form points (see
above) to purchase new abilities, focusing
on those available as Creature Features
(page 162), certain Minor Abilities (page 169),
Speed (page 178), Strength (page 183), and
Toughness (page 184).
I would stick to this as close as possible with modulating abilities. In my game I made it Law. You cant access any other power group and it keeps things sane.
This has already been mentioned. And the fact that it says "focusing on" rather than "limited to" is an important word choice. "Focusing" isn't an exclusive word, but rather a refining word.
Mechanics: Your items have power because you are maintaing their power with item slots, as soon as those item slots go away, the item loses power and they don't come back till you hit a milestone that lets you select enchanted items.
Thematically: Enchanted Items and Foci are mystically tied to a particular practitioner and maintained by their magic, the loss of that magic disrupts them, requiring significant effort and time to re-attune.
There is just so little guidance on the power, and it is easy to either take that bit as a rule, or go straight for that "focusing on" as a means to justify anything else.As justification for what I think you're targeting, I actually prefer the reason you seem to have mentioned only in passing - some skills simply need to be learned. It does add some limits on how you use those skills with NPCs but it's good flavor, adds an interesting fact to your world, and makes sense when applied consistently.
This is a valid way to read things, but it's not the only valid way. The rulebook does not specify what happens.Hmm, not sure I agree. The book is fairly clear on items & foci taking up one or more slots. If you don't have said item slots, how can you have working items? It does create a small conundrum within the narrative context...which is solved by the "must be learned" caveat devonapple brought up. Even if you don't apply that to evocation / thaumaturgy as a whole, I'm very tempted to apply it to item creation.
Personally, I think it makes more sense for the items to stick around after the slots are lost. The items exist, and they only need maintenance occasionally.
If I was wearing Harry's duster when he died, would it suddenly become normal fabric?Depends what made the fabric 'abnormal' to start with - was is a change to the material or simply an oft repeated mental exercise using the item as focus? Even if it was a change to the material, do you know how to use it? I kind of agree with your next statement - there's no canon answer. But it is answerable...and either answer is justifiable.
On the other hand, your interpretation mitigates the broken-ness of Modular spellcasting.
As for what powers Modular Abilities can grant, it's almost certainly deliberately ambiguous. Standard DFRPG canon-writing procedure, it seems.Yep. Some days I like that, some days I don't. Guess I'm almost as ambiguous... ;)
As justification for what I think you're targeting, I actually prefer the reason you seem to have mentioned only in passing - some skills simply need to be learned. It does add some limits on how you use those skills with NPCs but it's good flavor, adds an interesting fact to your world, and makes sense when applied consistently.
Is "Wizard" a race? Or a matter of knowledge? If you judge it the former, it may be possible. Personally, I think it's the latter. That said, changing into something like a phoenix may well get you abilities so close to fire evocation as to be indistinguishable.
But I don't see why the problem should arise. Modular spellcasting is a bad idea anyway.
I interpret Sidhe as a prestige class or template - whether by evolution, power consolidation, or promotion is left unclear - which provides certain advantages common to all noble Fey. But I don't think Sidhe can really be considered a separate race. More like a rank. And as rank is bestowed somehow, I think that places more skilled magic use like Sponsored Magic and Glamours firmly as a learned or bestowed power, and not something one could replicate without stealing it from the entity in question.
#150 Is Toot-toot’s increase in size due to his actions, or the title and followers he has acquired doing Harry’s bidding?
It’s due to /Harry’s/ actions, mostly. Toot done hitched his star to Harry’s wagon. As a result, he’s taken actions he never would have taken on his own, some of which had major consequences. Toot has effectively become a much more powerful being than he was as an independent dewdrop faerie. The physical growth is a reflection of that fact.
I mean gosh, where do you think the Sidhe came from in the first place?
With all the things Toot Toot and the Za Lord's guard have done that made a difference, and with Toot getting bigger, is that going to upset the balance in the Summer court?
The answer is no, because they are not Summer anyway, they are wildfae. And everybody over in summer is going to blame Harry for everything they do. They regard them as a tool and Harry is the guy holding it. Harry would tell you that he's probably the tool but... Anyway Toot Toot's been growing because that's where the Sidhe came from to begin with. They weren't always all tall and glamorous, they kind of got that way.
WoJ confirms that Fae (or at least pixies and Sidhe) are different 'stages' of the same race; that lesser Fae develop into Sidhe (they gain levels!!!):
So it's not exactly a rank that's bestowed (though how others treat you seems to play a role) or a state of evolution (unless you consider an individual transitioning over their existence from pixie to Sidhe as 'evolution'). I would imagine it has something to do with the accumulation of reputation, measures either by followers (Harry sets Toot-Toot up as his leutenant, other Pixies join up as followers, so Toot-Toot gains power) or history of favors earned/owed/repaid/etc (that is, each time the Fae gains or loses a favor, or repays or is repaid a favor, he grows in power). But that's speculation on my part.
Mechanics: Your items have power because you are maintaing their power with item slots, as soon as those item slots go away, the item loses power and they don't come back till you hit a milestone that lets you select enchanted items.
Thematically: Enchanted Items and Foci are mystically tied to a particular practitioner and maintained by their magic, the loss of that magic disrupts them, requiring significant effort and time to re-attune.