Wouldn't the Gaze of Lost Emotion just be Incite Emotion: Apathy?
@Slife - I don't see why beast change couldn't already be used to become a swarm of creatures without the additional power.
Telepathy [-2]
Description: Maybe you access a part of the brain most people never use, maybe your a genetic aberration or scientific experiment; regardless of the exact biological explanation, the effect is the same... you can read minds. You are not a minor talent, focused practitioner, or any other form of magic wielder, your ability is biological. Despite this fact, some crazy zealots calling themselves "wardens" may not give you time to explain that fact before attempting to remove your head.
Musts: Either a template or aspect denoting your ability with the non-magical psychic arts is required. Magic and Psychic powers (the real ones, not the magical imitations) don't play well together. In the event that any mortal magic power (Evocation, Thaumaturgy, Channeling, Ritual) is taken, the character must remove the Telepathy power and regain all refresh spent on it. It is recommended that Sponsored Magic follow the same rule, although the final decision for any specific sponsor is left to the group.
Skills Affected: Conviction (page YS:124), Discipline (page YS:127), and Empathy (page YS:129)
Effects:
- An Open Book. People are easy to understand when you can hear the thoughts they project into the world. Gain a +2 to Empathy and any time requirements are decreased by one shift. Where appropriate targets defend with Discipline instead of the normal social skill.
- Dig A Bit Deeper. Some say a person's trash is the best way to learn about them, they're wrong. When using this ability you connect your mind to that of your target, allowing access to thoughts below the surface. At the same time, some of your thoughts and emotions will bleed over into their mind. You may spend a fate point to stop your thoughts from entering the targets mind; however, the target may also spend a fate point, in which case you will not gain any of their thoughts. In the case of NPCs that have no fate points, roll Empathy defended by the target's Discipline to determine if the player gains any information. This skill can not be used more then once per scene. A fate point must be spent on any attempt against a target after the first.
- Mind Trick. These are not the droids you are looking for. By rolling Empathy defended by a target's Discipline, you may place a simple suggestion into their unconscious mind. There is no explicit limit to the number of times this ability may be used on a single target, but it is highly recommended that NPC targets receive an increasing bonus to their defense roll on each attempt after the first.
- Mental Fortitude [-1]. Taking this upgrade will grant two additional boxes of mental stress capacity (page YS:201).
- Mental Fortress [-1]. If this upgrade is taken, you naturally have Armor:1 against all mental stress.
- Psychic Strike [-2]. Purchasing this upgrade turns your mind into a weapon. Discipline may be used to make a direct psychic attack, dealing mental stress and consequences. The victim may defend with Discipline, however counter-attacks are not generally possible. Regardless of the success or failure, the attacker takes an automatic point of mental stress each time this ability is used.
Here is the first draft of my take on a Telepathy power. A few points before the power though.
1) I don't buy that every person with some kind of "psychic" ability is just a baby wizard that doesn't realize their true potential. There is plenty of room in the game for "real" psychics with powers based on genetics, biology, chemistry, and other science-y explanations.
2) Supernatural Sense (Telepathy) is certainly a viable option, and with some of my more free-form players it would be fine to just charge them a few refresh and just say they have "Telepathy" with no further defining of the power in any way.... But, most of my players would either want something more concrete or cause me to want something more concrete to point to when making decisions about what is acceptable and what isn't.
3) I think natural psychics would be separate from magic users, as such I've required the Telepathy power to be removed if any form of mortal magic is taken and suggested the same for sponsored magic. This allow the power to give some mental bonuses without the fear of wizardlings using it to boost their magic.
All ideas, suggestions, and opinions are welcome.
@Todjaeger
I don't really disagree with anything you said, though not sure what you meant by "just making the 'perfect' character build".
What do you guys think about these Stunts?
Mind Block and Technobabble look perfectly balanced. Intuitive Read is a bit odd mechanically, but likely balanced well enough, and Tell Me About Yourself seems a trifle overpowered, adding an entire Attack Trapping as it does.
Hmm ... would it help to add a condition? Something like ... it can only be used one-on-one, as a group setting doesn't allow you the privacy that's needed?
Expansive Magical Repertoire (Lore Stunt): Your Lore skill is considered 2 steps higher when factoring in how many rotes your character knows.
Yes, that stunt is too strong. A +1 to attack is the limit of what a stunt can give you. Its in the guidelines for creating stunts, so you can read that and know I'm not just guessing here.
Someone's posted a stunt above already I believe that covers that...Weapon Master...it's a specialization stunt where you get a bonus for your weapon of choice.
How would I limit it to fighting specifically with the weapon type, not just for stuff weapon rolls in general?
If I am following your querry correctly, then model it after Way of the Bow under Guns, which enables you to use Guns for bows and Craftsmanship for bows, and provides a +1 damage with bows. My point is, outline it for a specific weapon category (Swords, Clubs, Axes, Chains, Vacuum cleaners, Hats...although we already had a thread on that one), keep the bonus to +1, and I think you'll be alright. I don't have my books in front of me to verify this, however. Gimme a sec to check...yeah, that's pretty much how it's meant to work. It does say under limited circumstances (their example is their Guns stunt where you're also outnumbered, but if you limited it to a very specific weapon...long sword, instead of just swords, for example...that might cut the mustard...heh...more pun damage). Alternatively, if you want a bigger boost (+2 with a broad category, for example), you could validate it via the expenditure of a fate point, ala Killing Blow.
I'd also say that it should automatically have the extra catch of 'self-inflicted' so that wizards can't abuse this massively. That does reduce it's utility a lot though.
Telekinesis [-2]
Description: Not all is magic and mysticism, the human body holds many wonderful secrets of its own. Your secret is the ability to move objects with the power of your thoughts. Regardless of the specifics of your power's source (evolution, chemistry, mutation, technology, etc) magic is not it. Your ability is "natural" and doesn't cause repercussions from the Laws of Magic, although those know as "wardens" generally don't take the time to ask questions if they think you have broken one of the "laws".
Musts: A template or aspect related to your status as a telekinetic is required.
Skills Affected: Conviction (page YS:124) and Discipline (page YS:127)
Effects:
- Mind Over Matter. Why use muscles when your brain can do the heavy lifting. Might is replaced by Conviction for the purposes of lifting things with your mind. When attempting to throw an object or make a direct kinetic attack with this ability, Discipline replaces Weapons and Fists respectively.
- Thoughts Take Flight [-1]. You may not have wings, but that doesn't mean you can't fly. Many kinds of borders (page YS:212) are reduced or eliminated and you are able to travel through zones (page YS:197) vertically. The Discipline skill is used to govern flight in the same way that Athletics is used for running.
- Kinetic Defense [-2]. Your telekinetic power is great, manifesting in a persistent shield around you granting Armor:1 against physical attacks. When performing a Full Defense (page YS:199) this bonus becomes Armor:2.
Inhuman/Supernatural/Mythic Stoicism; Mental Immunity [-2/-4/-6/-8]
As the corresponding Toughness powers, but applying to the mental stress track and mental damage.
Inhuman Stoicism [-2]
Description: Your mind is abnormally stout, withstanding far more abuse then the average human.
Musts: No protection against self-inflicted attacks or stress is provided. You must attach this power to an appropriate mental Catch (page YS:185).
Skills Affected: Conviction (page YS:124), other mental skills.
Effects:
- Hard to Twist. You naturally have Armor:1 against all mental stress.
- Hard to Break. You have two additional boxes of mental stress capacity.
Supernatural Stoicism [–4]
Description: Your mind can handle trauma that would normally destroy a person.
Musts: This ability replaces Inhuman Stoicism. No protection against self-inflicted attacks or stress is provided. You must attach this power to an appropriate mental Catch (page YS:185).
Skills Affected: Conviction (page YS:124), other mental skills.
Effects:
- Harder to Twist. You naturally have Armor:2 against all mental stress.
- Harder to Break. You have four additional boxes of mental stress capacity.
Mythic Stoicism [–6]
Description: The durability of your mind is beyond the mortal scale.
Musts: You must have permission to purchase this ability. This ability replaces Inhuman or Supernatural Stoicism. No protection against self-inflicted attacks or stress is provided. You must attach this power to an appropriate mental Catch (page YS:185).
Skills Affected: Conviction (page YS:124), other mental skills.
Effects:
- Nearly Impossible to Twist. You naturally have Armor:3 against all mental stress.
- Nearly Impossible to Break. You have six additional boxes of mental stress capacity.
I don't think that casting from your physical track needs to cost anything. The vast majority of the time, it's going to be worse than casting from your mental track since you are more likely to take physical damage from other sources and since casters generally have high conviction with unexeptional endurance. However, it could be quite broken with Toughness powers. The solution? It automatically satisfies all catches. It will be pretty good with Hulking Size, but probably not too good.
The Witcher's potions look fine to me, although you should probably clarify the need for medical attention. How long do you have? How difficult is it to clean the blood? What facilities are needed? Can you clean your own blood?
But how would you represent this?
Would it inflict a consequence moving up the ladder for every scene where you do not get your treatment?
Or maybe using them gives a temp hunger track?
About the potion power, what about creatures that are simply immortal (physical immunity) or would not be subject to poisons? (such as living dead). Can they drink your potions and take benefits without having that power?
I suggest that, without the power to adapt to the potions, the potions not only kill you but also have no benefit; it is your body's adaptation that produces the effect.
Also, no potions for clearing mental stress please. Especially since the character would be casting spells with mental stress cost. Effectively you'd be trading one "Toxicity" box for three spells cast.
Why would someone with physical immunity be puking their guts out? There's immunity of the "I heal instantly" variety, of the "negative effects pass through me" variety and of the "made of iron" variety.
Poison only does 1 stress per exchange at most. Even those with the instant healing variety would scrub the stress before it could turn to consequences. The other two varieties would not even feel it.
Only those that can be harmed normally but not die (limited physical immunity) would suffer.
The lord is my Shepard [-1]
Description: Due to your deep held beliefs in your faith and in a higher being your mind is shielded from those who wish to do you mental harm
Musts: Must have a supernatural high concept related to faith (i.e "mortal child of a Celestine", High Shaman of Mother Earth etc").
Effect: As long as you have been true to the tenants of your belief system use Conviction +2 to ward off mental attacks/stress. In addition gain 1 mental armor. At the GM discretion, Glamors, illusion's and the like that affect the mind can also use this power.
Thoughts?
Perfect! I needed those. Thanks!
Incite Emotion trappings:
Emotion Burst [-1]: Requires At Range trapping. You may take a -2 penalty to your roll in order to have Incite Emotion affect everyone in a zone.
At Long Range [-1]: Requires At Range trapping. You may use Incite Emotion on a target up to three zones away
Sorry, Peteman. Wrong thread. The thread you want is here: http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,21213.0.html (http://www.jimbutcheronline.com/bb/index.php/topic,21213.0.html)
That being said, I like the stunt. Can I add it to my collection?
Haruspicy [-2]
Reading the entrails of sacred animals (dependent on cultural or supernatural heritage) is more of an art than a science. The ability to divine omens from the liver, heart, etc. functions like Cassandra's tears - without the Catch, but with much more viscera.
Done (http://dfrpg-resources.wikispaces.com/Powers). Did I miss anything?
Shadow Manipulation [-1]
Shadow Manipulation [-1]
This reminds me of some powers I helped set up for a shadow-user I GMed.
Dark Void -1
Effects: You can increase the shadows within a zone. Add the aspect sticky aspect Increased Shadows, by using discipline. This can be opposed by a counterspell.
Myrrk Void: Your shadow-increasing skills rival the Myrrk itself. Give a +1 to attempts to create shadows, and add the aspect Near-Myyrk alongside Increased Shadows.
Shadow Warp -2
You can travel from shadow to shadow with a distance up to one zone. This requires no roll, but in order to escape into the shadows while being attacked use Athletics. When emerging from the shadows, roll stealth against all nearby enemies' alertness. If you succeed, you gain a relevant aspect. If not running away, you may then make an attack as a supplametal action. (Yes, you can warp into an enemy's shadow).
The Hidden Voice [-1]Okay, sorry, but I'm going to be brutally honest: Broken much? Incite Emotion--a much less refined version of what you're positing here--starts out at a -1 for a touch range attack. This version here merely requires line of sight that need not be reciprocal, which is absurd.
Description: You can speak directly in to the mind of anyone you see (they don't have to see you), the selected target must then make an empathy roll vs your deceit to realise that these are not thier own thoughts, if they fail this roll then any social attacks via the link count as an ambush and are also upgraded to mental stress as the target believes him/herself to be the source of these thoughts.
The Language of the mind is the same [-1]
You can this power to communicate with anything sentient that you can see.
How would you guys price this power? It's totally only meant for NPC's, specifically I made this for a "character" that's a pair of twin rat-demons.I have some ideas for a couple of fun little trappings for this:
Two Bodies - There are two of you acting as one character. You can shrug off a Taken Out result of "dead" once and only once, unless you can recover from death. Until this happens, you act at a +1 to all your Skills.
An Upgrade to Beast Change
Shapechanger Recovery.[-1] Once per scene, when you change shape from human to beast (or back) you may spend your whole turn and a fate point to take an immediate "free" recovery period equal to an extra scene. This will clear your stress track and mild physical consequences, and possibly larger consequences if you have an ability that lets you heal quickly.
It seems like a little much for -1, but not enough for -2.
It gives you the benefits of Cassandra's Tears without the drawbacks, something like Psychometry, and about half of Guide My Hand. I'd probably juice it up a little to make it worthy of -2.
Also, I'd remove the fixed difficulty of 3 for Bits and Pieces in order to give the GM a touch more freedom. Suggested difficulties are fine, but fixed ones bug me somehow.
Possible upgrades to this power could be the "lucky arrival" part of Guide My Hand or letting I've Done This Already be used for physical attacks.
Made this for Jinn, (actually, took Jinns idea and refined it), no clue on it's balance.
Embodiment of the Living Tempest [-3]
Musts: You must have an Aspect that represents your connection to storms.
Description: As someone whose very life force is tied to the wind you can, at need, become the living embodiment of a tempest. You undergo a transformation becoming an elemental being, though the cost is great.
Effects:
Storm Form. Your body becomes insubstantial as a thundercloud. You temporarily gain the ability to fly, and you gain armor 3 against any effect excepting those that might disperse a cloud (ex: air evocations). In addition you place the "Fury of the Storm" aspect within the zone you occupy for the duration of your transformation. Maintaining this form is mentally straining, each round you remain in this form you take one mental stress.
Leashing the Storm Within. Controlling the storm is difficult, and distractions can be deadly. Any effect that causes you physical stress while in this form also shakes your control. In addition to the physical stress taken you also take one mental stress. If you are "taken out" you loose control of the storm, reverting to your physical form and unleashing the storm to run rampant. Treat this as a weapon 3 attack on everyone in the zone (including you) at your conviction rating.
Fury of the Storm. Storms are intensely powerful and majestic events. You may harness the power and majesty of the storm within for your own purposes. Any Air evocation you cast while in this form automatically has two "free" shifts of power (though, you must still roll high enough to control these shifts), and you may roll intimidation checks at +2.
When you have to reflavor or butcher nearly every power you use to create the desired effect- just make a new one.
I'd recommend amending Spiritual Weapon to remove the weapon rating when the scythe is used to deal mental stress
Mental stress is generally considered a more powerful form of attack than physical stress, as it is less commonly resisted (there's no [X] Toughness / Recovery for mental stress and consequences, for instance)
I'd recommend amending Spiritual Weapon to remove the weapon rating when the scythe is used to deal mental stress
Mental stress is generally considered a more powerful form of attack than physical stress, as it is less commonly resisted (there's no [X] Toughness / Recovery for mental stress and consequences, for instance)
I'm not so sure, compare it to Incite Emotion. He's spending two refresh here, and he still has to attack and hit them. It's much less subtle and less easy to use than that.
Of course, it'd be rather difficult to justify KILLING the target with just Incite Emotion, whereas this power does so explicitly
Immaterial Edge looks good, Manifested Item looks weird but generally harmless.
Spiritual Weapon makes me nervous. The scythe in question here is probably weapon 5, which makes it downright lethal. But I don't feel confident calling it overpowered.
My advice is to playtest the heck out of this.
PS: Am I to assume that the powers I posted are reasonable?
Well, you don't actually get free specializations with Elemental Command. So without Refinement, it's worse than Channeling in every way.
I'm mostly worried about people taking Elemental Command and the max number of Refinements. Is it more broken than someone doing the same with Channeling or Evocation? I'm not sure.
Short-term precognition -2
Description: Your can see a few a moments into the future
Must: You must have Cassandra’s Tears
Pre-emptive Evasion: your dodging checks are made at a +2
I saw you coming: you have a + 2 to alertness check to avoid ambush
Skills Effected
Athletics, Alertness and some other physical skills
I considered putting the +2 for I saw you coming up to +4 as precognition would make ambushing someone next to impossible do you think that be balanced?
[-1] Item of Power – Saint Peter's Crucifix
Description: This wooden crucifix is a potent relic rumored to have been carved by the hand of Saint Peter out of the wood of the True Cross when he founded the Church in Rome. Allegedly stained by the blood of the Son of God, and having been passed down from one member of the clergy to the next for over 2000 thousand years, potent Faith has given it a power all its own.
Effects:
Bastion of Faith – Your very presence, backed by the force of your rock solid Faith, is anathema to Supernatural beings of malicious or ill intent. Effects; Shield of Faith. You may spend a Fate Point to create a threshold with a value equal to your Conviction within your current zone for one exchange. You may extend the duration by one more exchange by taking a supplemental action on your next turn. It only repels beings with malicious or ill intent, that are antithetical to Faith of the bearer.
Visions From On High – Those who pray over this item sometimes receive visions and prophetic messages from God, giving you cryptic and often difficult to interpret future knowledge. But in this day and age where so called prophets are a dime a dozen especially with the Cassandra Tears scam artists few are likely to believe you. Effect; Gift of Prophecy. This places an aspect on the “world” related to the prophecy that remains until it comes true or is otherwise resolved. Whenever trying to warn people about what you foresee, you are at a –2 to any attempts to convince them that what you’re saying is correct.
Holy - This Crucifix is a powerful holy symbol in its own right. Its very touch is like holy water or that of a cross or other symbol of faith backed by the belief of the possessor.
It is What it is - Its a big wooden Crucifix, about a foot long about the length and size of a Dictionary. (Weapon: 1, if used to hit someone)
Unbreakable - As an Item of Power, it cannot be broken, save through dedicated magical ritual predicated upon perverting its purpose.
Discount Already Applied - As an Item of Power, the Crucifix already includes the one-time discount (page 167). This means that if the character possesses more than one Item of Power, the one-time discount will not apply on that second item. The base cost of this item [-3] refresh.
Wrote this for Samael.
Miracle Man [-1]
Description: You are able to perform old school miracles, but at great cost.
Effect:
Bargain For Miracle. Negotiate with your gm for an appropriate cost in fate points for each miracle you perform. This power is potentially limitless in scope, given enough fate points.
Heh. I have to put that onto a character one of these days.
I thought that it was broken until I realized that it affects you too. I now think that it might or might not be okay.
What's the defence skill? And does area mean zone or scene?
Mana Locust (Minor Power; -2)
Detect Magic: Within your zone, you are aware of the presence of effects created through Spellcasting Powers, and can recognize individuals possessing Spellcasting Powers. This does not reveal the nature of any Spellcasting Powers, nor does it pierce veils or similar effects, although it does confirm their existence.
Magic Drain: Whenever an effect created by a Spellcasting Power originates from or targets your zone, its effectiveness is reduced by two shifts.
Mageslayer: Add +1 to attacks made against characters possessing Spellcasting Powers.
A locus would be a hub. A locust would be a voracious devourer. I imagine it wasn't a typo.
As for the power itself, it seems to be a supernatural sense, a superstunt and a stunt. The supernatural sense is fairly broad too.
A fairly broad Supernatural Sense that seems, from the text, intended to be automatically successful, at that.
I assume Magic Drain is reducing shifts of power, is it not? For a spell that contains multiple factors each requiring their own power allocation, how do you determine which shifts are 'drained'? (say, a maneuver at power 5, applied across 3 zones (for +6 power), and persisting for 4 exchanges (+3 power)...which of the 14 shifts of power are drained?)
It occurs to me that 'spellcasting power' should be more clearly defined, just to exclude the possibility of that otherwise vanilla mortal who unwittingly investigated Outsiders (and thus gained Lawbreaker, listed under 'Spellcraft' in the Supernatural Powers section of YS) from being subject to that bonus.
"Force Lightning of Lolz" [-2]
You have the power to make electricity arc between your finger tips and lash out at your target.
This counts as a weapon:2 electrical attack for up to 2 zones targetted with your weapons (or guns) skill.
That's one that bothered me, it's Breath Weapon with a free extra zone of rang and the ability to use guns to hit with it.
On the other hand, it doesn't appear to be useable for maneuvers
Then it's claws with two extra zones of range. Still don't think it's balanced.
Then it's claws with two extra zones of range. Still don't think it's balanced.
Claws is underpowered (for a power) in any case, as is Breath Weapon. They are not great chooses for balance discussions.
Well, it's your game. Normally, if someone tried in a game I played to take an existing power, repackaged and buffed, they'd get laughed at.
Do you have any actual suggestions?
I believe the unhelpful snarkiness was more likely directed at BumblingBear.D
Malevolence looks fine.
Well, it's your game. Normally, if someone tried in a game I played to take an existing power, repackaged and buffed, they'd get laughed at.
Ah! My apologies for misunderstanding, Gatts! Quote tags, people! ;)
Cool - thank you.
"Force Lightning of Lolz" [-2]
You have the power to make electricity arc between your finger tips and lash out at your target.
This counts as a weapon:2 electrical attack for up to 2 zones targetted with your weapons (or guns) skill.
"IP?... Please" [-1]
You can hack into the internet and surf with your mind from any wire connected to the grid upon touch.
"Dirty little secrets" [-1]
You can touch an electrical device like an iphone or laptop and mystically know if there are porn pics or other incriminating things on them. This also give you a pretty good idea of what they are.
"Handle aura" [-1]
If you see someone in person who you've interacted with online, they will appear to have an aura to you. The color and feel of the aura will give you a very good idea of what their handle or user name was as well.
"Noob security systems" (requires IP?... Please) [-1]
If you access the network inside of a building using your "IP?...Please." power, you will be able to see the layout of all the security systems. For the price of a fate point, you can temporarily turn them all off as well.
Sorry about the misunderstanding, I drop quote tags in reply once and I go and upset people, that'll teach me.
IP? ...Please
I'd leave this at -1. Being able to connect with your mind from electrical circuity is about up there with a high-quality wireless device; the hands-free and always-working advantage is what makes it worth a whole point of refresh. It's convenient and interesting, not strong.
Force Lightning / Breath Weapon / Et Cetera
A pistol is a Weapon:2 that can target multiple zones away, and with the application of Resources can make spray attacks. A -1 stunt could give it maneuvers. Channeling is -2. This is the important thing to remember. How many weapon:2 attacks do you need to match up to four weapon:6 attacks? What about potions and maneuvers and...et cetera.
I am a firm believer that systems should not contain options that are ludicrously underpowered compared to others with similar function. Why would I want Inhuman Strength, if Unspeakable Strength is also -2 refresh and functions at Mythic level? That's actually...pretty close to the debate here.
I'd make Force Lightning 1 refresh and extend the range cap to Discipline zones away, with a 1 refresh upgrade to Weapon:4 and a 1 refresh upgrade to grant it maneuvers. That's about what having a mind-gun is worth to me over Channeling (Electricity).
It is, I gather, a hypothetical power invented for the sole purpose of demonstrating the point.
It is, I gather, a hypothetical power invented for the sole purpose of demonstrating the point.
Ooh, I really like Blood Magic.
Antimagic Field [Minor Power; -1]
Antimagic Field: Evocation spells cast within your zone inflict one extra mental stress on the caster.
Me too.Simply note that physical stress and Consequences that have been self-inflicted with Blood Magic cannot be healed with recovery powers and bypass Toughness.
However, I think it /could/ be OP for a character with supernatural recovery.
They could go for broke and add 4 shifts of power from 2 minor consequences, plus 4 shifts of power from their moderate consequence, and their stress track to one shot. And of course with inhuman recovery they'd be right as rain by the next scene.
That would probably be a power boost of +11 just to the shifts of power, and that's BEFORE adding the control shifts or any stacked aspects there.
We could be looking at a 50 shift attack.
That's more than most emissary of power wizards can do (even taking a buttload of sponsor debt).... and all for 1 refresh.
Simply note that physical stress and Consequences that have been self-inflicted with Blood Magic cannot be healed with recovery powers and bypass Toughness.
Or, if you want to be nice--the character did, after all, pay for the power--then have the recovery power work, but at the speed and efficacy of the recovery power one rank below what they have. So, for Blood Magic-induced stress and Consequences, Inhuman Recovery would have no effect, Supernatural would work as Inhuman, and Mythic would function as Supernatural.
For a power improving channeling, but banning any later upgrade to evocation, I think I might recommend removing channeling's prohibitions regarding refinement (allowing Refinement to be used for Specialization bonuses, though still observing the 'pyramid')
Natural Channel [Spellcraft, -1]
I like the poetry of this ability, but I think Discipline still makes sense for even this sort of casting. If forced to provide an alternative, I would propose that Athletics (instead of Fists) sub for Discipline, but Athletics is already a pretty loaded skill. I also feel that Conviction still accurately reflects one's inner will, even if that magic is coming from within. But if I had to find an alternative, Endurance makes the most sense to me.
If the goal is for a sort of Martial Artist type of "magic," then a new version of Channelling using Fists/Athletics/Endurance makes more sense. But if we're just cannibalizing the caster's body, then maybe this can just be a Supernatural Stunt that switches from Mental Stress to Physical Stress, without changing around the base spellcasting skills.
That would be the same thing as evocation but with one extra refresh.
You need 3 trees to specialize with any degree of efficiency. It costs 1 point of refresh for each new school of magic, so channeling with 3 schools of magic would be 4 refresh instead of the 3 for evocation.
...and this is a problem because? They're spending more refresh to get what is otherwise a lesser benefit (since they still don't get the inherent specialization), in exchange for a relatively minor benefit of using different skills.
It wasn't recommended as a 'method of houseruling' but as an addendum for the proposed power if the creator was dead-set on including a potentially troublesome clause
There are a couple powers I'm planning to make that I'd appreciate help with.Broken, Borked, Beleted.
The first is one that hurts people who attack you. Like a porcupine. I'm thinking a version of Riposte here, that does not require you to sacrifice an action, does not let you use a weapon, and only works against unarmed attacks. Upgrades would let it work against other things and give it a weapon rating.
The second would create an environmental hazard around you. This one I'm less sure how to model.How to model... feed some beans and burritos to a male skunk? :D
Retribution [-2]
Prerequisites: Either Evocation, Thaumaturgy, Sponsored Magic or Guide Thy Hand
Attacking you is a dicey proposition for the attacker; anyone who attacks you in melee combat receives the same damage against them.
Upgrades:
The Mark Of Caine [-3]: Big Mistake to attack you. All damage done to you is repaid sevenfold.
I'm not sold on those prerequisites. Why wouldn't the Nevernever's Dire Flaming Porcupine of Death (obviously not being a practitioner of any stripe, nor being a creature of Faith) be able to have this power?Okay, that was just a thought, a massively rough draft. But I'm not hearing anything helpful or constructive out of you guys, either. If that's so broken, then I challenge you to make something that isn't.
As for Mark of Caine...no. Just no. Just throwing a fist to the gut (calling it a 1 stress hit) of a character with that upgrade would be capable of killing most humans outright (7 stress being comparable to a solid hit from a hunting rifle). Combined with the fact that the combined cost is less than a +0-Catch-ed Mythic Toughness...
The first is one that hurts people who attack you. Like a porcupine. I'm thinking a version of Riposte here, that does not require you to sacrifice an action, does not let you use a weapon, and only works against unarmed attacks. Upgrades would let it work against other things and give it a weapon rating.
Why would you be sorry for starting with Claws?
Damage Shield [-1]
Damage Shield. Whenever a character makes an unarmed attack against you and misses, they take physical stress equal to the difference between their attack roll and your defence roll. This might also trigger on some maneuvers, if the GM deems it appropriate.
Mutual Damage Shield [-1]. (Requires Dangerous Damage Shield) This power triggers when you are hit as well as when you are missed. Treat the attacker's threshold shifts as negative shifts for the purposes of calculating this power's damage.
Is the combination of Dangerous and Lethal intended to produce an effective weapon:4 or weapon:6 shield?
But this way is mechanically cleaner and doesn't make success bad.
rule that the porcupine would be just the basic Damage Shield, with a successful Fists check indicating Murphy hit a soft spot?
Yeah, Fire Elementals probably need the Mutual Damage Shield upgrade.
Honestly, the game rules are going to create insane situations every once in a while. For example, the current RAW allows you to punch fire elementals and suffer no harm whether you miss or not. The GM is expected to swoop in with compels or creative description at that point.
In situations like that, you might as well just use whatever you would have used if this power doesn't exist. A compel not to attack with Fists seems like the best idea to me.
And it's definitely not crass to use this for attack reflection. What does crass even mean in this context?
I wouldn't worry about what people think of your snook if I were you.
Anyway, after talking a bit to Belial666 on the Demons! thread I've got a first draft of the other damaging aura power.
Dangerous Aura [-2]
Description: Standing near you is dangerous.
Musts: Nothing in particular.
Effect:
Dangerous Aura. This power makes a Fair physical attack against Endurance at weapon 0 against each character in your zone each turn. EDIT: Please note that this power can be turned off and does not affect the user.
Extra-Dangerous Aura [-1]. This power makes Great attacks.
Super-Dangerous Aura [-1]. This power makes Fantastic attacks.
Hyper-Dangerous Aura [-1]. This power attacks at weapon 2.
Mental Aura [-1]. This power inflicts mental stress and is resisted with Discipline.
For timing, I'm thinking that this would activate at the end of the attacked character's turn. I'm currently debating whether or not it should affect characters who run through your zone. An upgrade that makes it affect a wider area might be a good idea.
I'm not totally satisfied with this. I'm kinda wondering whether I should let people take Potent Spell-Like Ability more than once.
I think that a cap of (Lore) purchases of Potent Spell-Like Ability would be fine for attacks and rituals. But blocks and multi-aspect thaumaturgy maneuvers would be a nightmare.
That's a problem, in my view. Sure, it's easily solved by not building characters like that. But a custom power has to be balanced against the worst case.
I couldn't say how balanced that power is, but I'm not sure I agree that a power should be balanced around the worst possible case. People will always find a way to make ridiculous characters, and it is the GM's responsibility to say no. A power, in my opinion, should be balanced in the case it's going to be used. While that's not always obvious, you should at least only balance it against the worst reasonable case.
Good idea, Belial, but it kinda hoses characters with only one spell. It's clearly designed for a sizable set of abilities. So I think I'll stick with what I have.
Anyway, does anybody here have any good ideas on how to handle phasing or voluntary intangibility?
Anyway, does anybody here have any good ideas on how to handle phasing or voluntary intangibility?
Anyway, does anybody here have any good ideas on how to handle phasing or voluntary intangibility?
I'm thinking that a slightly stronger version of Gaseous Form might be our best bet.
I was thinking that the intangible character would be able to act freely, but not be able to affect the material world.
I'm not sure what would be able to harm the intangible character.
Focused Study is more or less Refinement for people who have Channeling and Ritual. It's always bothered me that people who focus in one particular element can't actually get any better at that element (unless they make an item).
Alas, the setting strongly privileges full-powered spellcasters, so the rules support that. Which I do not intend as actual criticism of your proposed powers.None taken, of course. But at the same time page 76 (the sticky notes) makes it sound like some of them should be incredibly capable (that's a literally phrase from "Harry") so I felt the rules should really reflect that.
I think that the first power (Focused Study) is better than Refinement. This in my opinion shouldn't be. I think adding two rote spells should be added to the Refinement power in any game that this power is allowed also. I think perhaps choosing only one option per refresh is more balanced. Perhaps allowing two choices per is fine but once all choices are picked (each only allowed to be chosen once) the power cannot be taken again.Not a bad suggestion. What if they still had to obey the column limits? In that instance they'd be limited to a +1 bonus and a +2 bonus for channeling and ritual. In which case this is more or less refinement then.
While on the topic I think it is entirely possible non wizard spell casters get the shaft in the long run, I'm not sure how to fix that, but this doesn't seem quite optimal to me.This is so freaking true. My players are now sitting at 13 refresh and the wizard is just an utter powerhouse. It's gotten to the point where the rest of the characters are feeling overshadowed. And unfortunately, the normal balance of compelling the wizard like crazy only makes him stronger in the long run. I've no idea how to close the gap.
Focused Mastery -2 (this costs too much for what it does.That's good to know. See, I was worried that it was too cheap for what it offered.
The closest thing to keeping casters in check is forcing them to take metal stress for spells. Letting them skip that is a bad idea. If the power is allowed it should only be allowed once, not several times (one signature spell ever). I also think letting them cast it multiple times per day without stress is a poor idea. Maybe only allow the casting without stress once a day?Yeah, the power might well be much too powerful. And I never intended it to be taken multiple times.
Signature Spell [-1]
Musts: Channeling or Evocation
Description: You've utterly mastered a single spell and have learned how to cast it with an economy of energy and motion.
Skills Affected: Conviction, Discipline, Lore
Effects:
Signature Spell. Choose one of your rote spells. The stress cost for casting this one particular spell is reduced by one. If this reduction would reduce the stress cost to zero you may only cast this spell for zero stress a number of times equal to your Lore rank, after which you must pay the normal stress cost.
I'm still really up in the air on Signature Spell. It was a neat mechanic I was toying around with and I wanted to write it up formally. I think it might be a bit strong for only 1 point of refresh, but it fills a bit too lackluster for 2 refresh. However, I was looking at the Incite Emotions and Beast Change powers. Both are more or less "one spell" that you can cast for free all the live long day. However, wizard spells are a lot more potent so I knew they shouldn't be unlimited. And linking it to Lore at least makes sure you have to keep a third skill up there (and does play into the Rote spell aspect). Thoughts on the power of this one?
Yeah, at this point I think I'm just gonna drop Signature Spell. It's a fun idea (in my head) but there's just no way to make it balanced and interesting. And it's not like wizards need any help.
Efficient Spellcraft. You've refined one spell so greatly that you can cast it with incredible efficiency. Treat your Discipline as if it were one rank higher than normal when determining the amount of mental stress you take when casting your signature spell.
Improvisational Block. You suck at casting any spell you haven't worked out ahead of time. You roll Discipline at -2 when casting a non-rote spell and such spells cost one additional point of stress.
I think you mean Conviction, not Discipline. Although letting the player choose between +1 power or +1 control might be a good idea.I do indeed mean Conviction. Maybe wording it with +1 control or power would be better.
What does "one additional point of stress" mean? Does it just mean -1 power? Or do all non-rotes cost 2 stress at a minimum?I mean that all spells cost 2 stress at minimum.
Phantom Slashes [–2] - You can choose when the damage of your attacks come into effect, this allows you to stack stress so that it all comes in to effect at the same instant or choose that it never comes into effect.
That seems potentially broken. Would this include the extra shifts from very successful attack rolls, or would it just be the Weapon:2/Spell:4/etc. shifts?
The current RAW-legal way to do this would be to execute multiple Maneuvers to set up Sticky Aspects like "Phantom Slash" that you could then tag later on in the conflict (similarly, at 2 shifts for each Aspect).
It was thinking you could store final stress after armour though I thought that might be a bit broken would only storing the weapons damage be less broken ?
Those stunts are really cool, I think that a weapons only version of this ability well strong (potential of massive weapons ratings) given all its costs (exchanges, +2 refresh) is probably reasonably balanced (at least by DFRP magic standards).
Mimic Sound -1
This character, after being exposed to a sound enough, can mimic it almost perfectly. Using Deceit, this character may mimic any sound that they could justifiably hear often (A guy on the streets won't mimic a jaguar's roar, and a tribal native won't be able to do a police siren). Performance could be swapped for Deceit with justification (like if the character is a comedian who's really good at impersonations). This only applies to general sounds, not speech.
Mimic Voice -1: This character after hearing someone speak for a long enough amount of time (Not a few words, but maybe a short conversation) can mimic that person's voice using Deceit. Just like Mimic sound, this can be used with performance as well.
I think they're both cool, but more stunts than powers. For a power, I'd combine them both and leave them at one refresh, otherwise it just isn't useful enough to justify magical abilities.
You may also want to find a way to work in ventriloquism (non traditional) to make hte siren sound like it's coming from a certain direction. Far more useful than a dead end alley emiting a siren.
I confess that I don't really understand how Phantom Slashes is meant to work.
Mimic Sound -1
Mimic Voice -1
Supernatural Tank Stunt/Powers
Armoured Core [-1]
Requires "Inhuman or greater Toughness" and "Shrug it off"
When using shrug it off to "dodge" an attack with endurance which does not bypass your toughness power add your supernatural armour rating to your dodge roll (+1 for inhuman, +2 for supernatural, +3 for Mythic Toughness)
Perfected Amoured Core [-1]
Requires Inhuman Toughness or greater, Shrug it off and Armoured Core
You can 'dodge' any attack with Endurance which does not bypass your catch regardless of the situation ie (grapples, ambushes etc).
Don't like them.
Armoured Core is too good for a stunt and too stuntlike for a power.
Perfected Armoured Core looks like a way to get Physical Immunity (except better) for less.
Enchanted Items do not surpass defence very well at all. Evocation does, but it misses occasionally. Especially if you have defence above 8, which is quite possible at Chest Deep.
PS: It occurs to me that I might be reading Perfected Armoured Core wrong. Could you explain it again, please?
Enchanted Items do not surpass defence very well at all. Evocation does, but it misses occasionally. Especially if you have defence above 8, which is quite possible at Chest Deep.
Transcendent Music [-4]
You can play an instrument with a level of skill and subtlety that you can almost make rocks cry and sooth the hearts of the darkest of people.
Superlative Musician: +4 to normal performance rolls with your instrument of choice
Listen to my Song: you can play an instrument so well that all in the area will stop and listen (a zone wide mental grapple at your performance skill to stop doing anything but listen to the music)
The Soothing Song: Whilst people are listening to your music they recover from mental consequences on step quicker than usual. (Inhuman Mental Recovery)
Should "dream or reality" give you any ability to shape the never never while not in your demense?
The use of "threshold" in Aegis Demon Shield has caused a great deal of trouble. I propose the following rewrite:
[-2] Aegis Daemon Shield - Your very presence, backed by the force of your rock solid Faith, is anathema to Supernatural beings of malicious or ill intent. Effects; The Emperor Protects. You may spend a Fate Point to create a shield of True Faith around yourself and your zone. This shield functions as a zone border with a value equal to the user's Conviction against all supernatural creatures that oppose the user, reduces the power and control of evocations that target characters inside of it by the user's Conviction, and reduces all stress inflicted by the natural attacks of supernatural creatures that oppose the user to characters inside of it by the user's Conviction. This effect only lasts one exchange, but it can be extended indefinitely at the cost of a supplemental action each exchange.
Formatting's ugly, but I think it gets the point across. Ask if you need clarification, complain if you don't like.
The use of "threshold" in Aegis Demon Shield has caused a great deal of trouble. I propose the following rewrite:
[-2] Aegis Daemon Shield - Your very presence, backed by the force of your rock solid Faith, is anathema to Supernatural beings of malicious or ill intent. Effects; The Emperor Protects. You may spend a Fate Point to create a shield of True Faith around yourself and your zone. This shield functions as a zone border with a value equal to the user's Conviction against all supernatural creatures that oppose the user, reduces the power and control of evocations that target characters inside of it by the user's Conviction, and reduces all stress inflicted by the natural attacks of supernatural creatures that oppose the user to characters inside of it by the user's Conviction. This effect only lasts one exchange, but it can be extended indefinitely at the cost of a supplemental action each exchange.
Formatting's ugly, but I think it gets the point across. Ask if you need clarification, complain if you don't like.
Size Doesn't Matter...: -1 (-2)?
Effect: You may wield any weapon regardless of might or endurance requirements. Tripod support weapons? No problem. Zweihanders? Child's play. Boat mounted 6 or 8 gauge shotguns for duck hunting? All are within the realm of possiblities for you.
...But It Sure Does Help: requires above power -1
Effect: Most any weapon you can manage to hold one handed you can wield in combat..also one handed. (likely quite abusable with two weapon training stunt)
They need refinement (not the power) but certain genres may make use of these. Anime characters and video game characters often carry and wield things they shouldn't be able to. The goal is to create something similar to this.
I think the massive weapons in anime are mainly wielded by people with super strength and years of training in the school of silly weaponry which would mean that inhuman strength or above would probably do most of what this power does.
[-2] Screw The Rules, I Have Money! - For a Fate Point you can substitute Resources for any and all rolls for a scene, regardless of justification.
It's balanced, Righteousness has a similar effect without a limit so long as you stay within your purpose plus a secondary effect. This removes the limitation of your purpose and the secondary effect, balancing each other in return for length.
Conceptual Killer:
[-2] Description: You can kill anything no matter what it is even if it does not have a body
For a fate point you can attack anything with weapons, this can be a song, a disease, a concept or even a memory. The more entrenched a concept the harder it is to kill.
A power I was thinking could combine well with a reskinned version of All Thing Equal Before God.
It's pretty darn cool, but I have no idea what I'd do if a player took it.
"Okay, so you kill his masculinity. I suppose he becomes a woman now...does that count as an extreme consequence?"
And so on.
By the way, something similar would be pretty interesting as a type of Ritual or Sponsored Magic.
Magic Lasoo Powers
Infinity Chain - [- 2]?
Description:You carry a weapon with a range only limited your perception
Your attacks have a range of your alertness (someone with good alertness has an effective range of three zones)
hey i noticed that there is kinda a covorsation going on but i had an idea for a custom sponsored magic
its called Cosmic fire
its the fire of our sun and other stars, very very hot fire, really hard to put out, it doesn't even need oxygen to burn.
You can't use the Hunger track to fuel powers for the simple reason that whenever you take hunger stress, you must lose powers with refresh equal to the stress taken. So, filling your 2nd hunger stress box means losing 2 refresh worth of powers. Filling your 4th means losing 4 refresh worth of powers.
Outside of Time and Space
making them count as stunts for stacking purposes would solve a lot of my problems.I really, really, really don't like it. Why? Two reasons;
Oh, and ways and means? Magic's stackability is heavily limited. The return on Refinement diminishes drastically as you purchase it.
I really, really, really don't like it. Why? Two reasons;
1) Speed Powers give a defense bonus. Strength powers do not give an accuracy bonus. To keep things equal, powers (and stunts) that boost accuracy must exist.
2) Defense stunts and powers are currently more effective that accuracy boosters.
3) I'd prefer PCs and NPCs of high refresh having something like accuracy 8-9 with weapon 6-8 rather than accuracy 6 and weapon 12-14 for the same cost. The first one makes for a steady but slightly slower combat. The second makes for combat that only lucky rolls matter.
And yes, a mythically strong guy dual-wielding quarter-ton maces or I-beams or rails in each hand has weapon 12 (6 strength, 4 weapon, 2 dual-wield). It only costs -7 refresh, leaving enough refresh for supernatural toughness. He will only hit at superb but being hit by him would feel like being hit by a locomotive.
First draft. Needs a good looking-over.
Dream or Reality [-2]
You are able to shape reality to your whim, as if the entire world was simply a dream of yours.
Skills Affected: Discipline
Musts: Demesne
Effects:
Sculpt Reality. You can always alter reality as if you were in your personal Demesne, though with slightly reduced effectiveness. This allows you to make declarations and maneuvers related to the nature of the local reality with your Discipline skill. The duration of the changes created by this power is variable, but it's generally at least one scene.
Offensive Sculpting. You may use the world around you as a weapon. This allows you to make Weapon: 0 attacks with your Discipline skill against anything within your line of sight. You may make spray attacks with this power. You may also attack entire zones with this power, although you suffer a -2 penalty to do so.
Improved Sculpting [-1]. Your Offensive Sculpting attacks are now treated as Weapon: 2.
Powerful Sculpting [-1]. Your Offensive Sculpting attacks are now treated as Weapon: 4, and any scene aspect you place with Sculpt Reality is automatically made Sticky.
Counter-Conceptual Interposition [-1]. You may use your Discipline skill to defend against physical attacks.
MAGICAL WORKSHOP [-1]
Description: You don't need tools to make things. Your magical powers/your communion with the small gods of the world/the toolkit implanted in your stomach/something else will suffice.
Skills Affected: Craftsmanship
Effects:
Magical Workshop. You are always considered to have access to a workshop with a rating equal to your Craftsmanship skill.
Magical Worksite [-2]. Your workshop expands in scale, allowing you to handle the construction of entire buildings single-handedly. You are always considered to have the assistance of a full team of workers with all appropriate tools and machinery when attempting to build or repair stuff.
FLOATING EYES [-3]
Description: Your eyes aren't in your skull: instead, they fly around under your psychic control.
Note: Taking this power means that you don't have normal eyes.
Skills Affected: Alertness, Investigation, Lore, (Discipline)
Effects:
Faraway Eyes. Your eyes can move around independently of you, although they must stay roughly within a mile of your main body. You can see through them, making appropriate skill checks as normal. They do not have access to any of your powers (except for appropriate Supernatural Senses) but they act as though they had Wings and Diminutive Size. Their skills are equal to your skills. They cannot attack or maneuver. It requires a supplemental action to direct them. If they are damaged, you take the damage in the form of mental stress.
Eyes Above Me. You get +2 to your Alertness skill and to the perception trapping of Lore when both of your eyes are nearby. However, you take a -2 penalty to those rolls when both of your eyes are away from you. Also, you are blind when your eyes are not present.
Power Channel [-1]. Pick one of your other powers. Your eyes have access to that power. If that power requires you to take an action, then you must take an action in order to have your eyes use it.
would it still be with a drum beat and i think if you wanted to and u succeeded well enough according to that description bring someone back as themselves not a zombie
Absorption [-3]: You can feed off the energy of your enemies attacks.Need some clarification on Absorbion, do you get a free tag every time you're hit? If so, it's pretty good, if not then it seems like a waste of refresh: worse than just spending a single fate point, and would be much better suited to an aspect.
Anytime an Enemy physically hits you in combat (he succeeds his attack roll) you gain a temporary aspect relating to being charged which can be freely tagged once.
Elemental Absorption: [-2]; You can feed off a certain element. (fire, air, earth, spirit, water)
Anytime someone attacks you or you come into contact with your element you can gain a temporary aspect relating to being charged up which you can freely tag once.
[-3] There Is No Salvation
There are many powers in the world that make it their business to level the playing field and give inferior creatures a "fair" chance by rewarding their inferiority.
Sometimes though, rejoice, despair, Fate does not care. This is where you come in; removing all external crutches you put all creatures in their rightful place in the world.
Effect: Pay a Fate point. For the duration of the scene, only your actual catch can negate your toughness and recovery powers.
The anti-faith powers look OK, I guess, but I somehow find them aesthetically displeasing.
Composite Personality is just reverse-Beast Change, right? How does it interact with Beast Change and True Shapeshifting?
I have no idea what See-Saw Mentality is supposed to do. Explain, please.
I like it.
Balance looks pretty good, since Hunger stress is actually worse than mental most of the time.
Although I'd be worried if people are allowed to mix and match mental and hunger stress.
Can they?
The reason I thought that the undead couldn't have evocation is that evocation is magic drawn partly from life so it wouldn't make sense for something dead to have it without a sponsor.
Magic Eater[-2] - Anyone who makes the mistake of targeting a magic eater with magic shouldn't be surprised when it back fires dramatically.
When ever targeted by magic a magic eater can spend their turn in advance to wrestle control of a spell from the caster (direct discipline contest). Succeeding this contest allows the magic eater to redirect the spell to his chosen target.
I don't understand.
Could I get an explanation or an example, please?
I don't think that this is a good idea.
Human sacrifices are pretty freakin' powerful in this game. This power would make them easy to acquire, and it might even avoid the Lawbreaker problem.
That's scary powerful.
Um..no.
If human sacrifices were supposed to be really easy, then they wouldn't give 20 complexity.
You do stuff like that, you can expect complications.
Besides, this is excessively convenient. Kidnapping and imprisoning people just in case you eventually need them as sacrifice fodder is massively impractical. This is mechanically equivalent and very easy.
Rename Narrative Control to GM fiat and call it a day.
Bit of a Work in Progress that I would like some feedback on, particularly in regards to pricing.
GEIS [-?]
You have a touch of the Faire in your blood, not enough to render you a full Changeling, but enough to give your words have a much more significant impact.
[...]
I like it for Glamours. Not so much for Evocation. You can probably guess why.
I like the idea of Self-Sponsored Magic, but I am unable to understand the mechanics. Please explain further.
I like the idea of Self-Sponsored Magic, but I am unable to understand the mechanics. Please explain further.
Skepticism Beyond Reason has problems. To start:
1. It should cost more. The increased cost on other powers is not a good way to balance an undercosted power.
2. Some of its effects are hard to understand.
3. The anti-faerie thing makes little sense to me. How is it connected to the rest of the power?
4. If this is a power, then it's a power. Saying otherwise makes little sense.
The Anti-Fairy thing is a reference to Peter Pan where if you say I don't believe in fairies (clap clap clap) then a fairy falls down dead.
Decoy
Cost: -3
Activation Speed: Supplemental Action
Description: There have been many precedents of high-speed fighters utilizing persistence of vision to fool their enemies to attacking where they aren’t. This power takes that to another level, allowing a life-and-death game of Three-card Monte with your own body on the line.
Musts: Supernatural Speed, or Mythic Speed, or the Faster than the Eye or Like the Wind trappings from those respective speed powers.
Skills Affected: Athletics, Weapons, Fists, Guns
Effects:
Twin Me: You move quickly between two points in the same zone, stopping slightly in each one, so that it seems that there are two of you. You gain +2 to defense rolls, as your attacker can’t be sure which one of you to attack at what time. You also gain +2 to your attack rolls, for similar reasons.
Triple Threat: Similar to the Twin Me power, but only available if you have Mythic Speed or Like the Wind. Three of you will seem to be in the zone at the same time, providing +3 to attacks and Defense.
Multiplicity: [-2]: For a Fate point, you can sacrifice some of your individual speed power bonuses and the bonuses to attack and defense in the above trappings for a scene; but in trade you receive a more powerful result: Your multiple images can seemingly attack and defend separately. Your multiple selves have your (natural) Alertness for Initiative, and cannot move more than 1 zone away from the other(s), but are allowed to attack different targets (Or the same target multiple times!). Be careful, though, you still only have one Stress track and set of Consequences, and your multiple selves can all be hit!
Notes: At any point you can stop using this power as a free action, and can choose which multiple stays. In the case of Multiplicity your initiative does not regain the benefits of your speed bonuses until the beginning of the next exchange.
Good ideas, not so good mechanics.
Imageless works, but I think it would work better if it simply made all attempts to record your image with a machine fail. If you don't show up on film, you don't show up on film.
And Reflectionless isn't worth another point of Refresh, I think. Fold it into the base power.
Decoy has a great number of issues.
1. "Activation Speed" doesn't mean anything. You may want to explain it a bit more.
2. I don't think it's possible to get the trappings of Supernatural/Mythic Speed without taking Supernatural/Mythic Speed.
3. The power having the same cost but providing more benefit if you have Mythic Speed is bad. If it's worth 3 refresh when it gives +2, then it's unfair for it to give +3.
4. Twin Me and Triple Threat are horribly boring.
5. Twin Me and Triple Threat are prime munchkin-bait.
6. It is unclear how Multiplicity works with zone attacks.
7. Anything giving multiple actions is worrying. I believe that in principle it can work, but that it'd be tough to do right. This might be balanced, but it also might really not be. Have you tested this in play?
Good ideas, not so good mechanics.
Imageless works, but I think it would work better if it simply made all attempts to record your image with a machine fail. If you don't show up on film, you don't show up on film.
And Reflectionless isn't worth another point of Refresh, I think. Fold it into the base power.
Decoy has a great number of issues.
1. "Activation Speed" doesn't mean anything. You may want to explain it a bit more.
2. I don't think it's possible to get the trappings of Supernatural/Mythic Speed without taking Supernatural/Mythic Speed.
3. The power having the same cost but providing more benefit if you have Mythic Speed is bad. If it's worth 3 refresh when it gives +2, then it's unfair for it to give +3.
4. Twin Me and Triple Threat are horribly boring.
5. Twin Me and Triple Threat are prime munchkin-bait.
6. It is unclear how Multiplicity works with zone attacks.
7. Anything giving multiple actions is worrying. I believe that in principle it can work, but that it'd be tough to do right. This might be balanced, but it also might really not be. Have you tested this in play?
Other than the skills used, the lack of maneuvers, and the take-out results, is Crimson Eyes Of Destruction any different from Incite Emotion with all upgrades?
I actually think that the Multiplicity part of that power might well be balanced. But it needs testing.
And the rest of the power can just disappear or get completely rewritten. It's uninteresting and bad.
1. Holding people in nasty places is just a grapple combined with abuse of an environmental hazard. Dropping someone is just narration on an attack, according to YS page 319.
2. Blades Of Force would be pretty useful for people who either lack the strength to lift something worth Weapon 4 or who spend time in wide open spaces. Or to people who want to avoid the massive property damage incurred by using a car as a bludgeoning instrument.
Also, you aren't supposed to be able to wield guns with this. Not that you'd need to...
3. Why upgrade the range to LoS? I'm not opposed to the idea, I'd just like to hear the reason.
4. I don't intend to fold basic defense and flight into the base power. Here's why:
4.1. There are valid character concepts that include telekinesis but not flight or shielding. It should be possible to stat up a character with telekinesis who can't fly. Especially when you consider that some telekinetics won't have the power to lift themselves.
4.2. I want the base power to remain fairly affordable. Folding in those two trappings would make it rather expensive.
Skepticism Beyond Reason has problems. To start:
1. It should cost more. The increased cost on other powers is not a good way to balance an undercosted power.
2. Some of its effects are hard to understand.
3. The anti-faerie thing makes little sense to me. How is it connected to the rest of the power?
4. If this is a power, then it's a power. Saying otherwise makes little sense.
This was originally intended to be a stunt tree, but I think it's more appropriate as a power. Added an extra mild consequence because I felt that the power was a bit weak, and because it seemed fitting.
FEEL NO PAIN [-3]
Description: For some reason, physical injury doesn't even bother you.
Skills Affected: Endurance, Discipline
Effects:
Feel No Pain. You are immune to pain, and suffer no stress from attacks based on upon pain. You automatically succeed at any roll made to endure or ignore your own suffering. More importantly, your physical consequences cannot be tagged or invoked.
No Pain, Just Gain. It takes an excessive amount of punishment to put you down for good. You may take an additional mild physical consequence.
In case it isn't clear, I'm looking for feedback on everything I just posted.
This was originally intended to be a stunt tree, but I think it's more appropriate as a power. Added an extra mild consequence because I felt that the power was a bit weak, and because it seemed fitting.Isn't this really just Physical immunity with a Catch of "Only against pain based attacks" +2 against specific, +2 easy to come by, +1 or 2 for knowledge...
FEEL NO PAIN [-3]
Description: For some reason, physical injury doesn't even bother you.
Skills Affected: Endurance, Discipline
Effects:
Feel No Pain. You are immune to pain, and suffer no stress from attacks based on upon pain. You automatically succeed at any roll made to endure or ignore your own suffering. More importantly, your physical consequences cannot be tagged or invoked.
No Pain, Just Gain. It takes an excessive amount of punishment to put you down for good. You may take an additional mild physical consequence.
In case it isn't clear, I'm looking for feedback on everything I just posted.
and you only get 1 command.
Ever per subject?
I don't think so. The "every round" part is far too brutal, and it seems unfair to be completely screwed if you don't have Thaumaturgy. Basically this lets you inflict instant take-out with a maneuver on most of the world's population.
Also it beats up Domination and takes its lunch money.
I think a compel-based mechanism might be good. Something like:
"You may make Presence or Deceit maneuvers to force eye contact, which gives an aspect phrased in the form of a command. The aspect never goes away barring plot or ritual magic. You may spend FP to compel the aspect whenever you please, and the GM may compel it as well."
How's that look?
It's still pretty brutal. Maybe too much so. But it ought to be at least somewhat brutal...
First power looks like a stunt. +2 to Disguise. There you go.
Second power really highlights the problems with size powers by RAW, but it isn't bad in itself. I suggest allowing it as a supplemental action by default and maybe reducing the cost.
PS: Hollow, if appropriately upgraded, can be used to make vehicles and buildings as characters. It isn't the pointless little gimmick power that it might look like.
Vibro-Sword [-1] Your sword vibrates at an incredible frequency that allows it to cut through material cleanly but makes the blade pretty unwieldy.
Vibro Cut - Add +4 stress on a successful strike.
Unwieldy Blade - There is a -1 penalty to accuracy when attacking with the blade.
Someone really likes making everything bypass toughness,(click to show/hide)
Dunno about overpowered, but I don't like it.
Snickerty-Snack is boring and questionably balanced. Stacking restrictions are there for a reason.
And now that I'm paying attention, All Creatures Are Equal Before God does show up an awful lot on IoPs. I wonder why.
I also disagree that in the book (Your Story), you cannot take the claws power multiple times. (not adding damage, but representing other modes of natural attack) This seems to allow someone to have horns, claws, breath weapons [magma chili farts! Skunk blasts!], bladed wings, a tail, and eye beams.... or something. So that's good also.
CHAOTIC FATE [-0]
Description: For whatever reason, the randomness of your life is much greater than normal. Your personal bell curve is pretty flat.
Skills Affected: All
Effects:
Chaotic Fate. All of your rolls are made with six fudge dice instead of the standard four.
Aura Of Chaos [-1]. All rolls made in your presence are made with six fudge dice instead of the standard four.
ORDERED FATE [-0]
Description: For whatever reason, the randomness of your life is much less than normal. Your personal bell curve is pretty pointy.
Skills Affected: All
Effects:
Ordered Fate. All of your rolls are made with two fudge dice instead of the standard four.
Aura Of Order [-1]. All rolls made in your presence are made with two fudge dice instead of the standard four.
CONTROLLED FATE [-1]
Description: You can control probability to a limited extent, making life more or less predictable through magical power.
Skills Affected: All.
Effects:
Fate Control. Whenever you roll, you may choose to roll any number of fudge dice between two and six.
Aura Of Control [-1]. Whenever someone in your presence rolls, you may choose to have them roll any number of fudge dice between two and six.
PROBABILITY MANIPULATION [-3]
Description: God's dice are loaded in your favour. Your luck is literally supernatural.
Skills Affected: All
Effects:
Weighting The Dice. Whenever anyone in your presence rerolls dice, you may "lock down" one of those dice. Doing so ensures that the result of that die is the same on the reroll as it was on the original roll.
Palming The Cards. Whenever you are involved in an opposed roll, you may cause your opponent to reroll by invoking an aspect.
Fixing The Wheel. You may take a point of sponsor debt instead of spending a Fate Point when invoking an aspect in order to cause a reroll. Sponsor debt taken this way represents accumulated bad luck, karmic backlash, or the build-up of paradoxes in the structure of reality.
PS: I was considering having Palming The Cards work on any roll made in your presence. Would that be fair? Would it be worth an extra refresh?
I was specifically referring to D&D4e, though I suppose the new d20 version of Star Wars is applicable as well, where ones character is really defined by ones powers. As an example, if someone were to create an archery-based ranger, it would likely be virtually identical to a ranger with the same theme created by someone entirely different.
I strongly suspect that you posted to the wrong thread, justin.
Sentai Custom Powers
[-1] Transformation Sequence - Your transforming between forms takes an entire action but whilst transforming you have Temporary immunity from all harm, this immunity can only be used once a scene. (As everyone knows you cannot interrupt a transformation sequence).
[-2] Named Attack - You have a special attack whose name you must yell to use but doing so gives you a +1 boost to accuracy and +2 to weapons rating for the attack.
[-1] Who do you think I am. - Your your awesome fighting spirit and determination make you hard to control or put down, you can use conviction as a defense against social and mental attacks.
[-1] Redeeming Punch - You can use your fist skill as a social attack skill when trying to redeem someone turned the dark side, because actions speak louder than words.
[-1] Our Powers Combined - Anyone with this stunt can sacrifice their turn to give a +2 bonus to anyone else with this power without rolling anything because they automatically know how best to assist each other.
PS: I was considering having Palming The Cards work on any roll made in your presence. Would that be fair? Would it be worth an extra refresh?
Perfected Toughness [-2]
Your great toughness means you can take hits that would obliterate other men entirely but you cannot do so repeatedly.
You can use more than one stress boxes per attack and so can soak much higher levels of stress per hit.
If someone hits you with 30 shifts of stress (and you have mythic toughness) you could take a 10,9,8 and 3 shift stress boxes to soak the damage without any consequences.
I thought Gollum was a living being, not a stone statue :D
(read: Think you mean Golem. And Golems aren't normally made of Stone, they are made of clay)
I don`t think it`s balanced. Corpse Body isn`t really a meaningful drawback in many games.
And armour 2 for 1 refresh is rather a lot.
So it's like Blood Drinker, but the to-hit bonus is replaced with a new mode of attack.
Does Field Of Cold hit you if you use it on your own zone?
Hm. Not sure on the three zone range - it's good balance-wise, but it does kinda rule out shorter range effects; it means there's nothing inbetween claws vs. built in rifle. ...I'm not sure that there's a good solution to that, though, or even if it's really a problem.
...I'm assuming the "Integrated Weaponry" upgrade referenced under "Ranged Weaponry" is a reference to "Summoned Weaponry"?
And I'm not really sure about the requirement of Imprecise needing Selective. I can kinda see it from a game mechanics stand point, but it just feels slightly loopy from a narrative standpoint. Then again, I suppose from a narrative standpoint, you'd never see the underlying mechanics anyway. So... carry on.
Some of you might remember an old argument about what skills one ought to be able to use with the Natural Weaponry custom power. You might also remember that my solution to the argument was pretty lousy.
Well, I think I may have found a better solution now. Feedback would obviously be appreciated.
NATURAL WEAPONRY [-1]
Description: Your body contains or can produce some kind of weapon or attack.
Note: You have to pick one type of weapon (eg. fire breath, metal claws, three-foot tusks) when you take this power.
Skills Affected: Fists, Weapons, Guns, Discipline
Effects:
Natural Weaponry. Your body contains a weapon with a rating of 2. This weapon has a no range, is not capable of spray attacks, benefits from Strength powers, and is wielded with the Fists skill.
Potent Weaponry [-1]. Your natural weapon has a rating of 4.
Summoned Weaponry [-0]. You must take a supplemental action to create or draw your natural weapon before you can use it. In addition, you may wield your natural weapon with the Weapons skill.
Ranged Weaponry [-1]. Your natural weapon has a range of three zones and is capable of spray attacks. It may be wielded with the Fists, Weapons, Guns, or Discipline skill. It cannot be used with the defence trapping of Weapons unless you possess the Summoned Weaponry upgrade.
Area Weaponry [-1]. Your natural weapon may be used to make zonewide attacks.
Selective Weaponry [-1]. (Requires Area Weaponry) You do not harm yourself when making a zonewide attack against your own zone with your natural weapon.
Explosive Weaponry [+1]. (Requires Area Weaponry) Your natural weapon may not be used to make attacks that are not zone-wide.
Imprecise Weaponry [+1] (Requires Selective Weaponry) You suffer a -2 penalty to the accuracy of any zonewide attack that you make with your natural weapon.
Thanks, admiral. Not sure what that means, but thanks.
Inhuman Mental Stamina [-2]
You have strengthened your mind and your stamina over many years and can cast many spells without hurting yourself.
You have access to two extra stress boxes which can only be used for casting.
Supernatural Mental Stamina [-4]
You have strengthened your mind and your body over decades and can now cast many more spells than normal wizards without endangering yourself.
You have access to four mental stress boxes which can only be used for casting.
Mythic Mental Stamina [-6]
You have strengthened your mind and body over centuries to be capable of casting many more spells than a normal wizard could ever dream about.
You have access to six mental stress boxes which can only be used for casting.
It's been done. Some people think it's underpowered though.
See the Custom Powers Master List thread.
Why?
Taking these powers will make PC wizards weaker if you're playing at standard levels of power.
Why?
Taking these powers will make PC wizards weaker if you're playing at standard levels of power.
Supernatural Orator is cool but needs elaboration.
A Thousand Words In One is too strong.
Words With The Weight Of Worlds is boring and also turns the setting upside-down. Or at least tilts it 30 degrees.
Does Supernatural Orator change the skills used to defend or the range of permissible take-out effects?
PS: Do you need Supernatural Orator for A Thousand Words In One?
I think this is a power worth exploring. I feel only teleporting as far as a sprint roll can take you feels a littel short to me. I'm not sure how to make it farther without effecting balance. Just giving first impressions.
I think this is a power worth exploring. I feel only teleporting as far as a sprint roll can take you feels a littel short to me. I'm not sure how to make it farther without effecting balance. Just giving first impressions.
I think the costing method was genius.
Do speed powers effect sprinting distance for purposes of teleporting?
I think we could work together to make this power work better. Not sure it will be balanceed at all, but it would be a fun exercise to try.
Caveat: if you care about precedents set in the Dresden setting (according to the book and the rules), then teleporting reliably is very hard. It's one of those situations where, all things being equal, it is easier to use the Nevernever, or to just not use magic at all. But for those niche cases, the sprint roll appears to be the benchmark on how well it should work.
So if I teleport while grappled, the grappler moves with me?
I also would be interested to see this developed. I've been wanting to write up He Who Walks Behind for some time now.
Well, it's very hard to teleport for wizards. As far as Dresden knows.
Is it a supplemental action? Just once a turn or could you jump close to opponent, attack, jump away?
Sentai Custom Powers
[-1] Who do you think I am. - Your your awesome fighting spirit and determination make you hard to control or put down, you can use conviction as a defense against social and mental attacks.
I like that name.
New version:
PROBABILITY MANIPULATION [-3]
Description: God's dice are loaded in your favour. Your luck is literally supernatural.
Skills Affected: All
Effects:
Weighting The Dice. Whenever anyone in your presence rerolls dice, you may "lock down" one of those dice. Doing so ensures that the result of that die is the same on the reroll as it was on the original roll.
Palming The Cards. Whenever you are involved in an opposed roll, you may cause your opponent to reroll by invoking an aspect.
Fixing The Wheel. You may take a point of sponsor debt instead of spending a Fate Point when invoking an aspect in order to cause a reroll. Sponsor debt taken this way represents accumulated bad luck, karmic backlash, or the build-up of paradoxes in the structure of reality.
Stacking The Deck [-1]. Whenever anyone in your presence rolls dice, you may cause them to reroll by invoking an aspect.
I think so, but that means I have to spend a fate point every time I want to use this power does it not?
Not a fan.
The base Power seems to have no mechanical effect, and the upgrades encourage weapon value inflation. An ordinary two-handed weapon with all of these would be weapon 15.
Also, I'm not sure what "two-zone radius" means.
And I'm not sure why these must be attached to an IoP.
A re-roll is one of the standard effects of an Aspect Invocation. This power expands that effect, making it more useful. You can get a re-roll with any Aspect that is, in the estimation of the GM, applicable.
Does that answer your question?
You don't.
This power lets you fuel non-free re-rolls with debt instead of with Fate Points. And it makes re-rolls more advantageous to you.
It also lets you make other people re-roll, which is not normally possible.
But you can re-roll without it.
Interesting idea, but needs more juice. Most Sponsored Magics include some evothaum and an extra benefit worth roughly 1 Refresh.My first thought is that, where most magic hexes technology or at best ignores it, Urban Magic will interact rather effectively with most large machines. It won't be particularly useful for hacking a cell phone, but cars and power grids are innate parts of a city, and can be manipulated in far more interesting ways by Urban Magic than they could be by mortal wizardry. The most obvious evothaum would be transportation effects; by arranging coincidences in the transport grid, an urban sorcerer can move at surprising speed over both short distances (e.g., catch a passing vehicle for extra shifts of movement or dart through a hitherto-unnoticed gap in a zone boundary) or long (e.g., cross twenty miles of city in twenty minutes despite traffic, poorly arranged roads, and even active attempts at interdiction).
What does this provide, beyond basic spellcasting?
@Thugorp: You're very welcome.
@Vargo Teras: Good idea. So that's the evothaum sorted. What should the extra benefit be like?
Or maybe a Supernatural Sense?
Or maybe a Supernatural Sense?
The base Power looks pretty good. You could probably add a bonus to movement rolls without breaking anything, since it's not overwhelmingly strong for 3 Refresh.
You should clarify the interaction with grappling, though.
Long Range Teleportation doesn't need the bit about fleeing combat. Just say that it takes X time to use. Also, I think it might be a bit too good for 1 Refresh.
Sight Affirmed Teleportation looks good to me.
An upgrade that lets you take passengers would be cool.
PS: Do Wards stop teleportation?
True Glamours[-8]
Veils. With a moment of concentration, you may draw a veil over something (not particularly large—maybe the size of a small, tight group of people), hiding it from sight and other means of detection, as with the Minor Veils effect of Glamours. Use your Discipline or Deceit at +4 to oppose any efforts to discover the veil. You may set aside this +4 bonus to draw a veil over a whole zone.
Seemings. You are able to cause someone or something to appear to be other than what it is. You may use your Discipline or Deceit skill to oppose any efforts to discover that the seeming is something other than real.
Greater True Seemings. You may create up to five objects—and with some difficulty, even ephemeral creatures— out of ectoplasm. You can create creatures with up to -15 Refresh and 35 Skill Points. And even some machines. You may use your Discipline or Deceit skill to oppose any efforts to discover that the seeming is something other than real.
Updated the master list.
Anyway we can get that doc in another format or just simply in a post in this thread?
Isn't that basically Sacred Guardian, but costing double and minus the ability to satisfy Catches?
First, there are no blocks against damage. All blocks work vs attack rolls, not damage.
Secondly, the moment any wizard knows you have this power, they're going to use a different kind of block than a "block the incoming bullet" type of shield. A hypercognition-type or superspeed-type block that gives the wizard superhuman evasion skill rather than a physical barrier is the simplest option. A shapeshifting-type block that turns the wizard to air/fire/water for a split second so he flows around the shot or a spirit or void block that blinks the wizard out of existence or phases him in and out of the Nevernever also works. An illusion-type block that makes the wizard undetectable in various ways so you can't target them or skews your perception every time you attempt to target them is also good.
Third, the most effective defensive item is one that opens a gateway between the caster and the attack. Doesn't matter how powerful the attack is if it goes through the gate.
In conclusion, you need a much bigger power to counter a smart wizard.
Quick Rules question - The spellcaster could essentially be compelling the antimagic bullet guy so they don't work against his kind of block, right?
Is this an indirect criticism of Might Over Magic?
Because if so I'd like to hear more.
Hm, okay. I'm tempted to merge them for the list, but I'm not sure it's gonna be possible.
That aside, it looks pretty balanced to me.
PS: Is the anime in question A Certain Scientific Railgun, by any chance?
Hm.
I think this might be a good start, but there are some bits that need clarification.
For instance, who chooses which Powers get lost? That seems important.
And can you use this Power repeatedly on someone?
And just to be clear, using this does take an action, right?
PS: Is this inspired by the Hatchet Face discussion over on the Worm thread?
Hm, okay. Mind if I revise the Power to make all of that clear?
For what it's worth, though, I don't think this works for Hatchet Face. Hatchet Face doesn't actively use his Power, it just happens to anyone who gets close.
In that case then creating a portable threshold effect would be the best way to achieve the same effect within the DFRPG rules.
PHASING [-?]
You can phase through walls and other physical barriers, but thresholds block your movement.
Skills Affected: Athletics.
Benefits: Walk Through Walls. You ignore all physical zone borders to your movement, but thresholds act as zone borders to you.
What should this cost?
(I came up with this for an Outsider, btw...)
Check out Teleportation. It's on the master list, and it's being discussed in the other Power thread right now. It costs 2 Refresh before upgrades.I've seen it, but I don't think this does the same thing. This isn't an "use-activated" power, but a permanent change to your state of being, more like Spirit Form.
And how would that work, exactly?
Anyway, here's the revision. It's not really any different from what you wrote, it's just reformatted and clarified.
POWER NULLIFICATION [-varies]
Description: You have the ability to deny your enemies access to their magical powers.
Musts: You must decide what the base Refresh cost of this Power is before any upgrades.
Skills Affected: Discipline
Effects:
Power Nullification. As an action, you may attempt to nullify the Powers on any character in your zone. Make an opposed Discipline roll; if you win, your target must choose Powers of theirs with a total Refresh cost equal to the base Refresh cost of this Power. Those Powers stop working for the rest of the scene.
Diminishing Returns. If you use this Power multiple times against a single character in the same scene, they get a +1 bonus to their second defence roll and a +2 bonus to their third and so on.
At Range [-1]. You may use this Power against any character within your line of sight.
Area Effect [-2]. You may target an entire zone with this Power, draining the Powers of everyone in the zone except yourself. If you have the At Range upgrade you can target any zone in your line of sight, if not you must target your own zone.
Three more questions.
1. How does this interact with rebate Powers like The Catch? If you have Supernatural Toughness with a Catch of cold iron, does ditching Supernatural Toughness count as losing 4 Refresh or 1?
2. How does this work on someone who can't lose the specified amount of Powers? If you have Mythic Strength and no other Powers, what happens when I drain 3 Refresh of Powers from you?
3. What happens on a tied roll?
Is All Creatures... intended to ignore the extra stress boxes from Size powers?
How did you determine its cost? Assuming that a Sword of the Cross wielder would spend 4 fate points/session on their version?
I kind of think Tank shouldn't be able to apply Immunity even with the surcharge. (Well, actually it's fine with "against only one thing" immunities, but Nicodemus could get this power and create an invulnerable team of Denarians.)
Why can't your Projection have a lower Contacts or Resources rating than yours? I understand not higher, but if I create a projection that is a giant bear or something, it might not really be something I use to talk to people or buy things... especially if it isn't publicly known that the giant bear is 'me'.
I dunno, does it seem off to you? If so, in which direction?
If it can't apply Immunity, it's worthless.
Applying Immunity is the entire reason for the Power's existence. So I'm not changing that. And if "you are invincible" is a fair thing to buy with Refresh, why isn't "you and any friend of yours who stands close enough are invincible"?
Could increase the surcharge, though.
You still have the money and the connections while projecting your bear. So what exactly does it mean for the bear's Contacts/Resources to be lower than yours? That you have to perform your conversations/transactions with your main body rather than your bear? Is that meaningful?
If my Contacts is sufficient to know who Six-Handed Jack is, does my bear know? If no, how does that even work? If yes, then is my bear's skill actually meaningfully lower?
Although I guess it's really dependent on how common outright Immunity is. For 6 Refresh, Mythic Strength adds +6 stress and does lots of other things too... so you can often overpower Toughness just by doing more damage. And the guy with Incite Emotion (Lasting, Potent, At Range) is ignoring Toughness anyway.
Don't know what's right... just offering thoughts.
I wouldn't say having the tank with Toughness/Recovery/Superb Endurance take hits for the wizard or social guy with bad Endurance and no Toughness powers is worthless.
Yeah... I think that given you can defend multiple friends with Immunity and at a two-zone range for 5-6 Refresh, cheaper than it would be for any one of those friends to get the Immunity power themselves...
It is if you're hiding your real body behind wards and using your projection to actually do stuff.
...
I was thinking in terms of using Contacts to spread rumors and stuff, or getting in to talk to important people; if it's not publicly known that your projection is 'you', or among non-clued-in people, your projection may not have access to the same people that you do (even if it looks human).
Sorry, I was unclear. I meant worthless to me, not worthless to the people taking it.
I wrote that Power to model the invulnerability-sharing power of the Siberian. If it can't do that, then I have no actual use for the Power.
Yeah, you're right.
How much do you think it should cost?
Eh, I guess you could kind of justify a difference in skill between body and projection. But it still seems like a source of headaches, and I don't really want to make the upgrade stronger, so I think I'd rather leave it as-is. Compels can paper over problems like they always do.
Well, my initial thought was a surcharge equal to the cost of the Toughness/Immunity powers, minus 1 (for the Tank power itself)?
You still get to apply it to multiple people (especially with the within-two-zones upgrade) so it still comes out cheaper in total (than having everybody buy it).
Though, actually, that's only really true with Immunity. For Toughness, it's better for everyone to have the power than for just one guy with it to take hits for everybody, since the one guy will accumulate stress faster.
So I think your given surcharges are good for non-Immunity Toughness powers. Immunity just needs an extra surcharge.
Eh. I don't want to make the Power more complicated, and I'd like to keep the number of dice rolls to a minimum.
Have we ever seen the Siberian fail to protect someone who's near them? I can't remember that happening.
Aura of Protection is probably too cheap for what it does when involved with Immunity. At least with the Siberian, someone can perform a maneuver on them (jarring their contact with her) to be able to affect the target she's touching.
It's probably less thought out than Tank, but I think Siberian could use the Grant Powers ability I was working on. I think it's a bit more thematically close to what she does in the story:(click to show/hide)
In this case, she'd have Grant Powers ([-2] Base, Share Powers II (to 5 People, story-wise this is spot on) [-2], Refinement XIII [-13, for 30 points worth of powers], Limitation: Must be in constant contact [+8 depending for how debilitating this is]) for a total of -9 for the power. She might also need an upgrade to make the power automatic (as a free action) as that seems to be how it is in the story.
That said, Grant Powers probably needs to be looked at and balanced still, but I feel like this might be the best way to go towards emulating Siberian's powers.
Which reminds me had an Idea for a Power that would need some real balancing to work.
Amp (-X): You have the power to amplify the powers of one your touching as an action, add X amount of refresh worth of powers that can only be spend on power upgrades, these powers last for a scene and can only be granted to one person at a time.
Upgrades
Device Amplify: [-2] You can amplify the power of objects, for example you could amplify the power of a gun (giving it strength powers based extra damage and force to shooting) or the Speed of a Vehicle (speed powers boost to driving as athletics).
This certainly isn't a currently balanced set of power but is there any way this could work?
Definitely more balanced. But I don't think you should charge for the ability to justify consequence recovery. That'd be weak as a stunt...
many people ignore those rules, and even people who don't can get Wizard's Constitution for free.
Maybe bundle that bit together with something more impressive, like Quick Healing?
Probably.
And Doctor provides actual Scholarship bonuses.
Voluntary Mimicry [-varies]
Description: Through the willing possession by ghosts or spirits you are able to take advantage of their powers and skills.
Skills Affected: All
Musts: You must set aside a number of points of your refresh equal to the maximum total refresh value of any mortal stunts and supernatural abilities you wish to copy from a target. These are called your mimic points. You must also take an aspect related to this power.
Effects:
Willing Possession: You may allow a single ghost to possess you for a period of yours or the ghost's choosing. This gives you the ability to communicate with the ghost telepathically and allow it to act through you, if you so choose.
Channelling the Dead: You may copy the supernatural powers of the ghost possessing you at the cost of one mimic point per refresh.
Mimic Stunt: You are able to clone any of your co-habitant's mortal stunts at the cost of one mimic point per stunt. These are permanent as long as the spirit is possessing you.
Mimic Skill: Allocate one mimic point to copy any one of your possessor's skill. This replaces your actual rating with that skill while the allocation remains in place.
I wouldn't rate my opinion that highly. I've made my share of mistakes.
Yes, but you've managed to hit the mark well enough a lot of the time that you're basically the unofficial authority at this point.
Well, I appreciate the vote of confidence. But please, don't be afraid to disagree with me.
Perfectly Consistent. Instead of rolling to hide or sneak around, you may simply use your skill as though you'd rolled a 0.
This is the only part I have a question about, and really it's only to make sure I understand it. Basically this says that you're always considered stealthed and if you choose to use this, you never have to roll. Correct?
It does seem balanced, though; Imperceptible is probably a [-0] power...
I added that trapping because without it, it seems like you're eventually gonna roll -4 and get found out if you try stalking someone long-term.Isn't that the point of rolling though? I think being able to just use your stealth skill without rolling is a bit boring. Flubbing rolls is how things get interesting.
Hard To See, Hard To Hit. You may use Stealth to defend against physical attacks. When dodging this way you may add Athletics bonuses from Speed Powers to your Stealth skill. However, you may not use Stealth bonuses from Cloak of Shadows or other similar abilities. Alertness modifies the relevant skills of characters who attack you while you are defending this way.I think this is where most of the balancing of the skill will take place. I'm not fond of the Alertness modifier. Decreasing the attacker's roll by one adds too much defensive power to a stealth power. Increasing the attacker's roll just doesn't make sense to me. If they are alert enough to not be fooled by your Supernatural Stealth, than their attack should be regularly effective, not more effective. Also, after a quick scan of OW, the only generic enemies that have an Alertness equal to or higher than their main attacking skill are Malks, Temple Dogs, Werewolves, and Lycanthropes. This modifier will be decreasing the incoming attack much, much more than it will be increasing or doing nothing to the incoming attack. Instead, I would suggest allowing the user to use this power against all targeted attacks (i.e non spray or zone attacks). I think it would be just as hard to hit Predator with a sword as it would be to shoot him with a fireball. What do you think?
Isn't that the point of rolling though? I think being able to just use your stealth skill without rolling is a bit boring. Flubbing rolls is how things get interesting.
I think this is where most of the balancing of the skill will take place. I'm not fond of the Alertness modifier. Decreasing the attacker's roll by one adds too much defensive power to a stealth power. Increasing the attacker's roll just doesn't make sense to me. If they are alert enough to not be fooled by your Supernatural Stealth, than their attack should be regularly effective, not more effective. Also, after a quick scan of OW, the only generic enemies that have an Alertness equal to or higher than their main attacking skill are Malks, Temple Dogs, Werewolves, and Lycanthropes. This modifier will be decreasing the incoming attack much, much more than it will be increasing or doing nothing to the incoming attack. Instead, I would suggest allowing the user to use this power against all targeted attacks (i.e non spray or zone attacks). I think it would be just as hard to hit Predator with a sword as it would be to shoot him with a fireball. What do you think?
Other than that I think the power is at the very least balanced-ish, opens the door for sneaky scions or Emissary's who don't want to take Channeling: Spirit of Glamours.
Well, the other guy is still rolling. But when it comes to Stealth, consistency is key. So I figured dropping the random element from 8dF to 4dF might be a nice extra for a dedicated sneaky character.Hmmm, my mind immediately goes to the scenario where a player with Superb Stealth picks of Supernatural Stealth, adds Superior Stealth, and tops it off with Cloak of Shadows. Suddenly there is a player who can sit at 9 shifts of stealth. An NPC would have to have an effective Alertness of 7 to have an honest chance of even detecting the player. How about the player can either roll their stealth, or simply use their skill at -1. This creates a more interesting decision. Do I get a sure fire -1, or do I chance flubbing the role and giving myself away?
Superior Supernatural Stealth could increase the floor boundary instead of adding a flat bonus.
I also changed Invisible attacks. Before someone could have Stealth and Fists at 5, and their opponents would almost always suffer a -1 to defend, essentially resulting in Fist attacks starting at 6. Having Stealth supplement attacks encourages people to have Fist and/or Weapons start at 4 or lower. This is minor but I think Stealth Powers should affect combat more indirectly than Strength/Speed/Toughness powers. Thoughts?
While it is a +1 buff to everyone, the corresponding attack will still be lower in practice. For the buff to take place, the user's Fist or Weapons would need to be 4 or lower, so even after the buff they're attack will only be starting at a maximum of 5 (assuming Superb skill caps). I do understand wanting your enemy's Alertness to be a factor, but I think it is a much larger buff than it appears. How often does the enemy have an Alertness at or above their highest attacking skill?
I'm not saying it would do away with the pyramid, I'm just saying you'd get more Refinements to throw around in exchange for loss of versatility.
Gah. I almost edited your post instead of replying to it. Still not used to being a mod.Sanctaphrax is now suffering Compels from his new mantle.
Yeah, I know. The numbers I gave took that into account.Hm. I guess you'd get an extra Refinement, assuming you round up, which I typically don't. Which is a holdover habit from D&D 3.5.
If you're looking to test the balance of this power, don't look at someone with 8 Refinements. Look at someone with 2. It's a much more common situation.
Plus, you want to look at the worst-case scenario when assessing balance. This power is strongest at low levels.
I don't feel my character has been massively effective with them.
My problem is that you can do zone-wide without hitting allies. There's nothing in the core book that allows that.
Generally, for a 'building block' power...
I don't think it should add to damage either. Strength already does that. Maybe accuracy but not both.
Maybe allow parries on an ambush as long as the weapon is drawn to tap into that aspect of combat.
Instead of damaging every opponent in a zone, let the person spend their action to block attacks on every ally in the zone...
That might be a good idea. I'm loath to make this ability any stronger, though.
What really worries me is something like a character with Mythic Skill, Inhuman Toughness, Inhuman Recovery, and a +3 Catch at Chest Deep. Legendary attacks at weapon 6, legendary defences against everything, and superhuman durability. Plus plenty of open skill slots, little gear dependence, the zone attack option, and the other side benefits of Mythic Skill. And that's without going for every available rebate.Well the simplest way to prevent this would just be to not allow your player to take the Mythic level of this skill, or at least not at lower refresh levels. The fact that this power can be fully utilized with only one skill could be a problem, but you'd probably have to wait until one of your players took this skill in game to see how balanced it actually is.
As I stated early: yes, the wizard can output lots of damage in many zones but not without hitting himself or allies.Remember that Wizards can pump up the weapon value of their attacks much, much more cost-effectively than a physical character can. Someone with Supernatural Strength and Skill is sitting on +2 weapons, +4 stress. A Wizard with Evocation, Thaumaturgy, and two refinements can easily reach +5 Control, +3 Power with Specializations and Focus items, and the gap widens the higher the refresh values get. Also, Weapons generally have an initial weapon value of 2 or 3, while magic generally starts at 4-5 at Submerged and above.
1. One With The Weapon.
This is similar to Superior Strength (YS 183) in that it doesn't count for attack and defense rolls, right? As in (assuming you have Supernatural Skill), you wouldn't add three to your weapons rolls claiming that your athletics modifies your weapons roll, right?.
2. Parry Everything/Perfect Defense
I'm not a fan of these, because Dodging gets moved to Weapons, I see very little incentive to take Speed powers, as (arguably) the most useful trapping has been moved elsewhere. Also, while deflecting bullets is awesome, how would you parry a fireball? Or a giant boulder? Or an explosion?
What if instead the three levels are thrown objects/"Slow" missile attacks (arrows are the only thing that comes to mind)/Bullets. The second level stinks but you see what I mean. I just think there are some things that are simply impossible to block with weapons, no matter how fast/dextrous you are. I think that these trappings step on the feet of the Speed Powers just a tad too much.
3. Strike Like The Sunlight
I think this is very cool, and you are paying 6 refresh for the power at this point, but I'm unsure about the ability to make zone attacks on two separate zones with the ability to avoid any friendly fire that accompanies zone attacks. I like the ability to avoid hitting allies (as the user is merely moving from target to target instead just spinning in a circle haphazardly), but perhaps drop the ability to hit the second zone, and instead remove the -2 penalty on zone attacks. This still allows the user to clear out groups of people, but just not two zones worth of people.
4.
Do you think you could expand these powers to Guns as well? As in, when taking the power the player can decide whether they want to apply it to Guns or Weapons? We've seen in movies people being able to shoot bullets out of the air, or blow away an entire room of people on a quick draw, and this power could be a good way to model a Kincaid type character.
You might have to tweak some of the wording on some of the trappings, but I think it could work nicely, what do you think?
Also, here's my two cents on a couple of points you guys were talking about.Well the simplest way to prevent this would just be to not allow your player to take the Mythic level of this skill, or at least not at lower refresh levels.
Any way these could be posted as a downloadable text file?
Anti-Magic Attack [-2]
Skills: Choose one of Fists, Weapons, Guns, or some other reasonable skill you can use for attacking. The attack only can be used with this chosen skill.
Effect: Your attack destroys magical spells that it touches, causing them to be partially or wholly released as either Backlash or Fallout (caster’s choice if the caster is present; default is Fallout). You must declare that your attack is an Anti-Magic Attack before rolling. When your attack strikes the spell, treat the spell as the defender with a Defense roll of Mediocre (+0). If the spell is on a character and the character attempts to dodge, the spell uses that defender’s defense instead. If it hits, determine damage inflicted to the spell, treating the spell’s active Shifts of Power as a stress track (no consequences are available)(The spell has Armor: 2 if it has reasonable cover in the GM’s estimation). When damage is fully calculated, release a number of Shifts of spell Power equal to half the damage done, which are immediately treated as Fallout or Backlash as discussed before. The caster determines which Shifts are released if present. Otherwise, the shifts are determined by the GM, using reason as a guideline. If the damage achieves a Taken Out result on the spell, ALL of the spell’s energies are released in one burst.
Anti-Magic attacks which strike the spell and take the spell out entirely with leftover damage may travel on to strike other objects or characters. Treat this as a supplemental action attack with shifts equal to half the remaining damage, using standard attack rules for the attack type.
Versatile Spell Destroyer [-1]: Choose another Skill that you can unleash Anti-Magic Attacks with. This can be taken multiple times as long as applicable Skills remain to apply it to.
Immobile Spell Destruction [-1]: Your Anti-Magic Attacks have Weapon 2. This ability can be taken up to 4 times, each time gaining an additional Weapon: 2. This bonus does not apply if a spell is on a target which is dodging your attack (but it does work on a Sneak Attack or Sniping or some other situation with an Unaware Defender).
Effects: You may use your chosen skill to heal consequences of your chosen stress track. Healing requires the target character to be in the same zone as the source character for the duration of the attempt. Healing takes one full scene to complete by default. This means that if it is activated mid scene, it won’t complete until the middle of the next scene, or it will need a full scene of its own to take place (such as going home and resting on a couch for an hour or two). In order to heal a given consequence, you must exceed its shift value on a roll of your chosen skill. Healing a consequence increases the speed of its recovery by one step, or by two steps if your roll is four better than it needs to be, or by three steps if your roll is eight better than it needs to be. A given Consequence can only be affected by Healing once, although multiple attempts from different characters or sources of Healing are permissible. Only the best use of Healing applies. This power may or may not affect extreme consequences; GMs should handle such issues on a case by case basis. This cannot erase the Aspect-changing effect of an Extreme Consequence. My personal view is that Extreme Consequences always take at least one full Story to heal AFTER the recovery period begins, minimum, and getting it that good is a roll of Legendary+8 (16).
Swift Healing [-1]. Your Healing does not take a full Scene to complete. With one application of this Upgrade, the time required becomes "until the end of this scene” (or about half a scene). With another, it becomes “immediately at the end of this exchange”.
Effective Healing [-1]. Your Healing rolls count as 2 points higher for determining if a successful heal shortens the time to recover as discussed above. The roll must succeed in the first place before this bonus can be applied. This variable can be taken twice; the second time, the bonus becomes 4 points of effective increase.
Stressless Healing (Requires Swift Healing 2) [-2]: Normally, healing is a painful, teeth gritting, stomach churning experience full of physical and mental challenges. Except for when Stressless Healing is applied. Stressless Healing bypasses all that. Your Healing can cure marked off stress boxes as well as consequences. To heal a stress box requires a roll of the value of that stress box. So the third box of stress on a character's stress track is a Good (+3) skill roll to cure. Multiple stress boxes can be healed at once. Doing so requires a roll equal to the value of all the stress boxes being cured added together. Consequences can also be cured in combination with stress. For example, Johnny Appleseed is in a bad way, having marked off three boxes so far and taken a Mild Consequence of Bruised Ribs: XXOX. To heal all of his injuries at once, a roll of 1 + 2 + 3 for the stress + 2 for the consequence, or a result of Legendary (+8), would cure all his ills at once. A roll of Legendary+4 (+12) would even shorten the time for the consequence to recover to the end of the scene, and a roll of Legendary+8 (+16) would cause Johnny to be fully healed at the end of the turn! Alternately, the consequence could be healed all the way at the end of the turn and the stress left untouched with a roll of Legendary+2 (+10). Any combination of effects is allowed with the shifts to cover it.
Versatile Healing [-1]. You may use your chosen skill to heal consequences from another stress track of your choice. This Upgrade may be chosen multiple times.
Ranged Healing [-1]. You may heal any target within 1 Zone away from yourself. The target must remain within that distance for the duration of the power activation. This Upgrade can be taken again to increase the range of Healing to 3 Zones distance, and again to make it line of sight. Whatever the case, unwilling targets or targets which are obscured/on the move may require a roll to “hit” them with the power, depending on the circumstances.
Unhindered Healing [-2]. Your Healing works even through objects. If the power is ranged, all penalties from intervening objects, anti-Healing barriers, Blocks, and other obstacles, are all reduced by up to 2. The power grants +2 to Diagnostic rolls to determine what ails a patient, and penalties for difficult surgery, trauma, or other obstacles appropriate to the situation (such as a mental Block when Healing mental trauma in a psychiatric patient) are likewise reduced by 2. To Heal through objects that completely hinder line of sight, some other means of accurately reaching or detecting the target is necessary.
Area Healing [-1]. Your Healing works on all targets in a Zone. This ability can be taken multiple times; each time the Healing affects an additional two Zones at once.
Selective Healing [-1]. Your Healing can be modified to not work against given targets; when your power would affect a target you do not wish to affect, you can declare it fails against that target. This Upgrade is most useful with Area Healing or misses of Ranged Healing.
On anti-magic as an attack: I thought that was the best way, but saw that it would make it far too strong unless I limited somehow. So I went with one released shift per 2 damage. And nah, I don't think normal weapon rating should apply for this. XD
Hmm...what about the spell power being 1 Armor per 2 shifts of spell energy, but ALL damage after this armor releases power? Would that balance better?
On the spell defending: Hm. But if I have it treat the unattended spell as having a defense of better than mediocre, I can only really see its actual power then determining the defense, which makes really strong spells - hell, most spells I could see wanting to punch out - pretty much indestructible. I can't think of a better way to work it. Besides, I do think an unattended spell should be easy to tear apart unless it was constructed in such a way as to be hard to take down. For example, a Ward would use its defensive rating to defend instead. So it isn't going to always be mediocre, which means I need to buckle down and actually work this bit out!
On the attack continuing on after the spell is torn apart: I was just going to treat the spin as an effective attack against the target. It reminds me of the of the Warden sword strikes; the attack tears through the spell and then just keep going. I couldn't think of a way to do it that works super well. How would that be done as a Compel? If it were a Compel I wouldn't have accuracy to affect damage rating, so just base weapon rating for the stress? That means a fist attack with Weapon: 0 does nothing, so that isn't desirable -_-
On backlash: it is released into the caster or current controller of the spell if present. If not, the GM can either use fallout or send it into someone else as a Compel, probably into the person physically punching it :P
For healing consequences: I was toying with the idea of having a consequence heal cost a Fate point from either the healer or the one healed, or cause a "Fate Debt" if it cannot be paid, sorta like sponsored magic. Or perhaps have it so each consequence slot a character possesses can only be cleared once per story by a healing effect as their bodies reserves are getting "used up".
Stressless healing: It would take a dang good healer to consistently heal all damage as it is received...and how would they then ever attack? O_o...reinforcements would show up sooner rather than later...Anyway. I do think that the buildup of stress represents the weariness and slipping that comes from a high concentration and high stress scenario, such as combat, and not from plot armour. So I shall respectfully disagree, while simultaneously saying that yea it could be overpowered if applied correctly. I'm not attached to the rules I wrote, but I do think stress healing should be possible.
Hm. Could just remove the ability to heal more than one box at once. One heal action=heal one stress, one attack action=cause one stress. Never get ahead that way.
On Selective Healing: Having someone heal the wrong person would be a hilarious Compel, but the Selective Healing isn't to prevent that. The GM can still Compel it through a bit more of a wiley approach, such as distractions, illusions, etc. Selective Healing is meant to be paired with Area Healing, because Area Healing automatically targets the whole zone and all inside it, even enemies. It is meant to show the difference between a burst of holy healing light washing over everything and pinpoint holy light-vines wrapping around the devout and gentling their wounds as they bask in the holy glow.
It reminds me of Luccio's pinpoint fire whip. It's the difference between blasts of power and pinpoint precision. Depending on the concept for your healer, that precision might be a necessary part of the character. :)
Thank you so much for all your feedback. It's given me a lot of things to think about.
If you're gonna represent spell destruction as an attack, then I think attacks should do nothing until and unless they take out the target spell. That's how attacks work. Even consequences don't come into play unless the attack is capable of scoring a take-out. (Barring weird edge cases.)
Actually...thinking more about the attack model, I'm pretty sure I don't like it. It inherently adds complexity to spells, giving them stress tracks to pay attention to when previously they were dead simple. Rolling against a difficulty seems better.
I think the duration is probably more important than the power, when it comes to destroying a spell. Ending a spell that'll last for three more exchanges is a lot less impressive/useful than ending one that'll last for three more years. Even if the power is similar.
Compels can work however the GM wants. Just pick a number, that's the accuracy.
I don't think it's a good idea to make a high roll a bad thing, and I don't like the extra complexity of having attacks pass through like that. I suggest dropping the whole idea.
I think fallout is generally going to make more sense. Smashing a wall of fire ought to work more or less the same whether the creator is nearby or not, and intuitively it seems more reasonable for spells to burst chaotically rather than in a directed manner.
So if I were you I'd just not have backlash happen when spells are damaged/destroyed.
I think the second approach is probably a good one. Keeps the power useful, but puts limits on its effectiveness.
You've made healing pretty easy. If you can beat a stress box's value more reliably than the attacker can hit, you can heal forever and still make the occasional attack. And that's very feasible.
Reinforcements are just as likely to be on the healer's side.
And yes, stress is weariness and minor injuries. But it's also a plot shield - it's the right to say "that bullet didn't really hit me, at least not directly". Treating it entirely as a measure of exhaustion doesn't really work - your stress can be stripped away from you in a volley of gunfire without you moving a muscle, rendering you vulnerable to further shots. That's not how tiredness or injury works.
Why should stress healing be possible? It doesn't seem to add anything either narratively or mechanically.
I think the difference between healing light bursts and healing light vines is best represented through Aspects, rather than Powers. Bear in mind, a fire whip and a fire blast can be mechanically identical.
I can see some (narrow) uses for it with Area Healing, but I'm not sure Area Healing should even exist. Like I said, I think it'll generally be either useless or overpowered.
And the ability for Ranged Healing to hit the wrong person seems like unnecessary complexity.
Oh holy heck, that's a great idea. Have the power work by moving the spell down the duration table in some fashion. :D
If the caster is present I would imagine them trying to bind up those energies and suck them away, use their will to prevent the energy from bursting loose in the same way as taking backlash is suffering extra stress to prevent energy from bursting loose. Or put another way, perhaps I should have it be the caster can take an action to perform a block to prevent the spell energy from being fallout, which entails a containing-spell which is the stress. Either way, the fallout should be preventable in some way if the caster is present, provided the caster has time to understand what just happened and react accordingly. This goes double if the caster already knows the enemy can tear spells apart, such as seeing their buddy's spell torn apart a moment before and having a second to brace.
I feel it does add something narratively. It washes away fatigue, reinforces the mind, etc. It represents preventing consequences by infusing the target with energy, or even luck in some cases. An infusion of luck from a minor luck-goddess could be represented as more "plot armour" as you describe stress here. The idea is that the mechanic, itself, can represent fluff and to me is thus valuable. I don't know how to actually make it workable and fair at this time, though.