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Messages - Taran

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61
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 24, 2019, 01:48:59 AM »
Quote from: nadia.skylark
yeah, I'm just going to represent this with an upgrade of the easy evocations power (written up on another thread). That makes more sense.

The mechanics of the game are, literally, built on aspects.  You seem reluctant to use these mechanics to solve your issues.  Are you finding aspects aren't getting used much in your games?

62
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 23, 2019, 04:52:13 PM »
Quote from: Mr. Death on May 23, 2019, 01:14:41 PM
Well, for a start... yeah, nobody's going to be super good at everything. That's how life -- and this game system -- works. If you spend all your time being swordy and magicy, something's going to fall to the wayside. That's why we see some Wardens that are better at one or the other (Yoshimo in Dead Beat, who Morgan outright says shouldn't have tried to use her sword because she's crap with it).

It's a balancing act, and I think some of the most fun parts of the game are when a character has to make use of his or her lower-point skills, because then they have to get creative instead of, "OK, just gonna roll my apex skill again and again."

Also 3 in a skill is still "decent." 4 and 5 are already exceptional, and 6 is explicitly more than humans are usually capable of.

I do not see any issue with just having Weapons, Discipline and Conviction filling the 3-5 slots. With focus items and specializations, that's more than enough to be badass with swords and a more than formidable caster. And hell, with a decent Lore, the Thaumaturgy power can let you be good at damn near any other skill with some prep time.

And again, this is just playing into the inflation -- suddenly Shiro's 6 in swordplay is understatted? 6 is literally beyond human ability.

I see a lot of unwarranted assumptions being made based on a fight we didn't see.

A 5 with Swords -- especially a Warden sword which can become Weapon:6 on command -- is already plenty good enough to carve your way through the Red Court's footsoldiers and ghouls without needing some "free" casting power.

Morgan doesn't have to have personally, individually taken out every single one of the Red King's bodyguards to have taken a swing at the Red King.

A. Morgan was not the only Warden in the battle and B. Morgan could have used some huge Earth evocation to simply knock the bodyguards away in one go

So again I fail to see the need for a stunt or power of this type; Morgan's write-up already has him as good with swords and a strong magic user. Unless you're buying into the whole "Anything below a 5 is weak" philosophy.

@nadia.skylark

To reinforce this point and to touch on the point that Shiro’s +6 skill isn’t high enough. 

1. He’s twice as good as a full professional swordsman
2. I play in a 19 refresh game where the skill cap is +6.  My character’s weapon skill is 6 with a boost to 7 with a magic weapon. 

-Mundane enemies are not a challenge at all.
—granted, the character has toughness powers and Incite Effect triggered off of weapons
-My character single handedly took out Lord Raith.  It was a super hard fight and he had high refresh goons with him but his goons couldn’t touch my character.  With fate points and maneuvers and tags, I was putting up +9 and 10 blocks and defending everything at +7. 

If you boost things past the Ladder, then low skills become useless.  I already find skills at +2 and 3 to be less useful because the high refresh enemies we are facing are usually able to defend against it.  But it’s still perfectly fine against ‘normal’ enemies.   If you push me to everything higher, then your mooks now all need to be full professional soldiers in every situation. 

Regarding aspects:  a taggable aspect is not equal to a straight +2 bonus.  Aspects can be invoked for effect.  So, instead of giving yourself a +2 to dodge, you can use that aspect to make an attack miss by compelling the aspect against the enemy, for instance.   I feel you may be under-selling aspects. 

63
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 23, 2019, 02:26:26 AM »
OW says Shiro is +6 and +7 to defense.  Even if you push it by 1 shift, my point still stands:  the more shifts this ability gives Morgan, the crappier he is naturally.  I think he's only slightly worse than micheal who has a skill of +5 

A normal joe has a skill between +1 to 3 in most things.  Most people have weapons skill at +0 to +1

also: I'm reposting this edit I made in the last post.

Edit:
Quote from: nadia.skylark on May 22, 2019, 11:03:44 PM
Or what if the stunt/power allowed you to make earth magic maneuvers related to combat as a supplemental action without the usual supplemental action and without taking stress?

Doing it as a supplemental would give you a free tag every round and, if it didn't cause stress, you could do it for infinity. 

How about something like this: 'You may use your earth magic to 'hone your instincts', making you more alert for danger and quicker and deadlier in combat.  You may use your Earth magic to create the Maneuver: 'honed instincts'.  The aspect lasts for the scene and you may tag the aspect twice.'

It could even be one of his Rote spells.

64
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 23, 2019, 01:57:30 AM »
Before we dive too far into homebrew, let's refocus the question: You want a good representation of Morgan.

So, then, we must ask: How good of a swordman is Morgan when you consider his 'honed instincts' derived from his earth magic ?

Shiro is listed at Fantastic which, according to the ladder is:
Quote
Š Fantastic (+6) and above skirt the boundaries of natural human capacity.

He's +7 to block.  But he's supposed to be the best swordman alive(RIP Shiro)

So, maybe you put Morgan at +4 or +5 (Great or Superb)
Quote
Š Great (+4) and Superb (+5) indicate veteran or masterful capacity, or the combination of extreme talent and good training.


So the question is this:  How good a swordsman is Morgan without his magic?  With his buffed instincts, If you add specializations, we can quickly add +3 or 4 shifts.  Which which puts his 'mortal' skill at +1 or +2.

According to the ladder, a +2 skill is:
Quote
Fair (+2) and Good (+3) indicate journeyman or “professional” capacity, or a nearly inhuman degree of talent.

If the homebrew stunt/power pushes his skill any higher, then he's only a novice swordsman without his earth magic. 

I think he's a very skilled swordsman.  Like, +3 to +5.  I think 'honed instincts' is going to net you a +1 or 2 max, which puts him on par with Shiro.(and I feel that's generous)  So, if it was me making the stunt or power, I'd keep that range in mind.

If you want to add more, then Morgan is either a very poor swordsman who relies entirely on his magic for his skill or he's an expert/proffessional swordsman whose supernatural ability makes him better than Shiro.

Whatever you decide, your stunt or power should reflect that.


65
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 22, 2019, 09:15:55 PM »
Quote from: nadia.skylark on May 22, 2019, 09:01:23 PM
What I meant by "doesn't replicate what I want it to" is that your suggestion isn't earth magic-specific.

Also, it's got nothing to do with manipulating metal--earth magic, according to Paranet Papers, is about enhancing your instincts.

It is related to earth.  If his discipline is 4 and his weapons is 5, he wouldn’t get the bonus to weapons.  If his earth specialty pushes his earth control over 5, he gets a +1 to weapons. 

As far as fluff goes, it doesn’t matter.  So instead of it being his manipulation of metal, his specialty has honed his instincts.  Mechanically, it is still his earth magic that compliments his weapons skill.

But if it’s just honed instincts, shouldn’t it affect more than just weapons? Like dodging and alertness?

It sounds more like an aspect to me.

66
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 22, 2019, 08:28:03 PM »
Quote from: nadia.skylark on May 22, 2019, 08:14:15 PM

Because it doesn't replicate what I'm trying to replicate. I had considered designing this power to allow wizards to add their earth power bonus to their weapons/fists skill, but the original point of posting this was to resolve the problem of "making wizards have high weapons/fists skills is unoptimized" while still allowing Morgan-type characters to run around with swords and stuff.

I have to disagree,  This is literally what complimenting a skill does and why it was put in the game.

Morgan is really good with swords.  His weapons skill is 4 or 5.  He’s amazing at earth magic: like 6+ skill after specialization.

His earth magic helps his sword fighting.  In this game, the mechanical term for that is ‘compliment’.   His earth magic skill compliments his sword skill which boosts his weapons to 6. 

So, even when he’s out of spells, his ability to manipulate the metal in the sword boosts his attack to 6.

I mean, feel free to ignore this but i feel it’s a lot less complicated, requires no limitations and is not overpowered but is still a solid boost.  And it’s based on other stunts.  You could even expand the stunt to affect other items other than swords.  Like having it compliment a Might Check when trying to bust down a metal door if you feel it’s underpowered.

67
DFRPG / Re: Earth magic responsible for weapons skill?
« on: May 22, 2019, 07:57:19 PM »
This all seems too complicated.  Why not just say that his weapon skill is complimented by his discipline?  Thematically appropriate and it adds a +1 to his weapon skill if his discipline is higher than weapons. 

This is a -1 refresh stunt - at most.

68
DFRPG / Re: Request A Character
« on: April 24, 2019, 05:00:04 PM »
Quote from: nadia.skylark on April 24, 2019, 04:41:10 PM
Anastasia Luccio.

Yes, thank you. 

69
DFRPG / Re: Request A Character
« on: April 24, 2019, 04:22:27 PM »
Quote from: Sanctaphrax on April 24, 2019, 02:30:05 PM
Sure.

Had an idea for the chimp wizard too, riffing off of Mr. Death's suggestion.

(click to show/hide)

(click to show/hide)
Quote from: narphoenix on April 23, 2019, 11:58:02 PM
Perhaps a pizza guy who is the only person sent to deliver to the worst addresses (some with regular old gang violence, some with supernatural baddies) because he’s the only person who exists who has both enough power to survive and is poor enough to have to take it?

awesome.  The pizza guy is hilarious.

The Chimpanzee reminds me of the Warden who suffered the body-swap.  (I forget her name because I haven't read the books in a decade).

70
DFRPG / Re: Hellfire as two powers
« on: April 17, 2019, 03:49:59 PM »
AFAIK

As far as I know

71
DFRPG / Re: hellfire/holy water interaction?
« on: February 15, 2019, 09:22:32 PM »
Or you could treat the holy water as an aspect and tag it for a roll or tag it for effect.  You could even use it to compel the wielder of hell fire.

72
DFRPG / Re: Building a jedi knight of the faith
« on: January 23, 2019, 05:31:48 PM »
Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 22, 2019, 07:58:12 PM
So math would the math look like this?

Sponsored magic: soulfire (grants 4 focus items)

Base focus items (4 slots)
+2 to offensive power
+2 to offensive control


Refinement (2) gain 4 focus item slots
Lightsaber crafting tools

Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 22, 2019, 07:58:12 PM
+2 crafting frequency and +2 crafting strength( I've searched up and down the focus item and enchanted item section for power and all I saw was strength.)
Yes, it's strength.  It's been a long time since I made a spellcaster and I'd forgotten the term.

Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 22, 2019, 07:58:12 PM
Refinement (gain four enchanted item slots)
2 slots

Lightsaber
Mephite


Item creation math
Superb Lore:5
Crafting power: 2
For a total of : 7

Looks good.  You put all your spellcasting foci in to offense.  Which means casting blocks will be at your straight Conviction/discipline.  But you can probably rely on your enchanted items for defense.

You could have 4 different items - one for each slot or several effects in one item, if I remember correctly.

I'd save one slot for potions.  Potions are super useful in that you can use a declaration to have any type of potion you want.

The other thing you can do is reduce the amount of items you have (say you only want 2), you can use the other two as another focus or you can use 1 them to boost frequency of one item by 2 or use one to boost Strength by 1.

Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 22, 2019, 07:58:12 PM
Note: saw something in book 3 in regards of getting a +1 bonus to power or complexity when it comes to pure creation. I would like to know do I get the bonus for both or do I pick over the other?

I don't know because it doesn't mention it in YS.   Remember that your Soulfire is reskinned as The Light Side of the Force.  If the creation theme fits, then talk it over with your GM.  It's a pretty narrow specialty.  I'd imagine creation has to do with birth and life and not 'fabricating' items or conjuring stuff.  Maybe along the of Immaculate Conception?

Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 22, 2019, 07:58:12 PM
Uses per session
Base: 1
Crafting frequency: 2
Total for 3 uses per session
Am I on the right track so far?

Yes, it looks good.  Depending on how your DM tracks 'sessions', you may want to invest in more 'uses'.


What enchantments are you planning to put on your items?

73
DFRPG / Re: Building a jedi knight of the faith
« on: January 21, 2019, 07:43:09 PM »
Quote from: Ghostfreak on January 21, 2019, 07:02:14 PM
Also what are the limits of what I can do with soulfire? Is there a resource of someone here who used it to great effect?

Soulfire works exactly how Thematic spellcasting(YS pg. 284) works - like Kemlerin Necromancy, Biomancy, Diobalism, Ectomancy etc..

Lets say you have Ectomancy.  You have access to all forms or Ritual Casting  and Channeling(Spirit)but the Narration and flavour of your casting involves ghost.

So, you could place a ward that does mental damage skinned as binding a ghost to guard the area and who manifests to intruders, scaring them to death.

Or you could use conjuration but only on Spirits and ghosts.  Divination but it takes the form of a seance where you ask ghosts for information.

Soulfire is the same way.  (Read sponsored magic on Page 287 and Soulfire on 292)

All your rituals and evocations will have to be in line with the Sponsor's agenda and the flavour of the spells will take a form related to the White God.  Or The Light Side of the Force.  A good idea is to read up on the Jedi Code:

http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Jedi_Code

And let that inform you on the kind of stuff you can do.  Ultimately, IMO, I think the Light Side and SoulFire are, essentially, the same.  Dresden Canon would imply it, based on Butters wielding a Sword as a lightsaber. 

I played a half-fomor who used soulfire...You might be interested in reading it to get ideas but that character's soulfire was much more 'holy-white-god' type magic.

https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,39379.0.html

74
DFRPG / Re: Building a jedi knight of the faith
« on: January 21, 2019, 06:04:17 PM »
A focus gives you a bonus to power or control

A crafting focus gives you a bonus to crafting Power or Frequency. 

So, for casting spells, +2 power makes your conviction effectively two points higher for drawing power.

For crafting, Power makes your Lore effectely two points higher for the purpose of all your enchanted items.

When I get some time, I can do a more detailed(and accurate) tally of enchanted items

75
DFRPG / Re: Item of Power Check
« on: January 09, 2019, 02:39:41 PM »
double-Post:  found the thread

https://www.paranetonline.com/index.php/topic,37642.0.html

and here is the Power:

-1 Home is Where I Hang My Hat
Affects: Conviction

Requirement: You need some kind of physical threshold - like a room, a cabin, the light of a camp-fire, a small clearing - to represent the boundry of the threshold as well as a symbolic link, like a hat hanging at a door or a campfire to act as an anchor.

Using conviction, you bless an area  imbuing it with an effective threshold of 2.  The base difficulty for this is Fair +2 and takes one hour(on the time chart) but it can take less time if you put extra shifts in reducing the time.  Likewise, if you fail, you can take more time.  Additional zones can be affected by adding +1 to the difficulty of the roll for each additional zone.  So, a small cabin with 3 rooms (3 zones) would have an effective difficulty of +4.

The threshold lasts until the next sunrise or until the anchor is removed from the location.  The threshold is stationary.

The strength of the theshold can be affected or improved by powers like "Bless This House" or can be used to place wards.  Wards disappear at sunrise when the threshold goes away, regardless of the duration of the wards.

Santuary: By adding +2 to the difficulty you can attune a threshold so that it satisifies the catch for creatures who enter the warded area.  The anchor for your threshold must be an item that satisfies the catch for the creature you wish to ward against.  For example, using a holy symbol as an anchor would satisfy a holy catch or an iron nail would satisfy the catch for a fey.  A threshold of this type can only satisfy a single catch.

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