Author Topic: Custom Power List  (Read 169343 times)

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #780 on: July 20, 2012, 10:40:00 PM »
Demonic Co-Pilot

You have a demonic co-pilot in your head.
Ask your GM to stat out your co-pilot disembodied skills these should proportional to your refresh.
Your co-pilot can maneuver to help or hinder your actions (say it decided to give you the berserk rage aspect which could be tagged for a +2 to attacking someone but could be invoked against you in heavy negotiations) according to it's agenda.
Fight for control: Every so often your demonic co-pilot might stop trying to influence you and directly fight you for control of your body (a discipline conflict) this shouldn't happen more than once a session and only when the gm deems appropriate and should be played out in character.

Basically treat a demonic  co-pilot as a gm controlled NPC inside the players head.



« Last Edit: July 20, 2012, 10:48:00 PM by ways and means »
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12401
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #781 on: July 20, 2012, 10:46:11 PM »
Huh, interesting.

Couldn't say whether it's balanced or not, though...maybe make it cost 0, so that the assumption isn't that the NPC will be unhelpful?

PS: Mind taking a look at the Master List thread? I could use your opinion.

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #782 on: August 04, 2012, 09:03:25 AM »
Time Accel [-2]
You have the ability to boost your relative speed to the rest of the world, this slows the world down from your perspective but each instant you spend like this is physically and mentally draining.
You can spend mental up to the limit of the size of your stress track to boost your physical attack or defense rolls.
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Locnil

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1303
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #783 on: August 04, 2012, 12:29:32 PM »
Isn't that basically Sacred Guardian, but costing double and minus the ability to satisfy Catches?

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #784 on: August 04, 2012, 01:23:07 PM »
Isn't that basically Sacred Guardian, but costing double and minus the ability to satisfy Catches?

All custom powers can be seen as re-formats of other powers to one degree or another.  ;) But yes it is meant to be a balanced mental stress boost power as opposed to the unbalanced sacred guardian. Unlike sacred guardian it costs more and has defined area's of effect, it is also re-flavored but the flavor could easily change depending upon what people wanted to do with the power. 
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12401
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #785 on: August 04, 2012, 11:02:24 PM »
Looks fairly balanced, at least on paper.

I like the fluff too, it's very fitting.

Can't totally shake my instinctive dislike for it, though. My opinion of Sacred Guardian is colouring my opinion of this.

Offline Locnil

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1303
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #786 on: August 05, 2012, 03:07:51 AM »
I see.

Well, if you want my take on it, I'd say it's powerful, in the same way spell casting is powerful - strong, but not overwhelmingly/game-breaking so. How good it is will vary based on the length of the combat, which makes this hard to judge.

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #787 on: September 20, 2012, 07:44:57 PM »
Anti-Magic Bullets [-3]
Your bullets cause all magic they touch to go wild and out of control damaging the caster of the spell. Any bullet fired by this gun will bypass any magic blocks against damage as well as add half the power of the block rounded down to the bullets weapon rating this requires 1fp for each use.   
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Sanctaphrax

  • White Council
  • Seriously?
  • ****
  • Posts: 12401
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #788 on: September 20, 2012, 09:49:33 PM »
This one needs more definition. Does it work against armour? What's a magic block? Can this instantly destroy wards of arbitrary strength?

And why does it only work with bullets?

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #789 on: September 20, 2012, 10:08:35 PM »
I should of defined it more tightly it works against spell defense so it doesn't effect toughness etc, the bullets are just a flavor thing from where I got the concept from. A magic block is basically any spell (costing mental stress) which is used for physical defense (directly vs stress/attacks) so Magic Blocks and Armour. As for ward I am not sure about conceptually a ward should be affected but it seems unbalanced so I decided against it.
« Last Edit: September 20, 2012, 10:15:02 PM by ways and means »
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Centarion

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 130
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #790 on: September 21, 2012, 12:18:35 AM »
It seems extremely narrow for a -3 power. While it is very strong in the situations where it is useful, the fact that it will come up fairly rarely would make me say this should not cost more than 2. Also, any magic user who figures out this power will just not use magical defenses anymore, and while this is pretty much equivalent to bypassing them, it does make the last part weaker. Why does it cost a fate point each time you activate it? It is certainly no more powerful than ACaEBG which (as far as I can tell) costs 3, and it is a hell of a lot more narrow.

Also, you said that it only works on spells "(costing mental stress)" does this mean it does not work for enchanted item's that provide magical defenses?

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #791 on: September 21, 2012, 12:54:52 AM »
It was balanced of all AEGB as the definitive wizard slaying power (much that AEBG is the definitive dragon slaying power) it is meant to affect enchanted items and I really need to find a way to word it better. Against someone like the Merlin who casts +30 shift block it is devastating but otherwise it isn't meant to be that powerful. Basically its a power for an assassins who want reliably one shot senior council members. Though if you think it isn't too strong then I could let it one shot wards as well which would be cool.
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.

Offline Centarion

  • Conversationalist
  • **
  • Posts: 130
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #792 on: September 22, 2012, 02:50:55 PM »
Ok, if you are using it against a 30 sift block with any frequency, then -3 is not so bad, likely too low. Maybe cap the bonus damage? If the bonus damage was capped at some reasonable amount, and it cost 3, then I think 1 shotting wards would be fine (but only if you know they are there and dispelled them with an attack, not just by stumbling into them).

I think the fate point should be "per wizard per scene" not per activation.

Offline Belial666

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 2389
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #793 on: September 24, 2012, 11:04:43 AM »
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.

Offline ways and means

  • Posty McPostington
  • ***
  • Posts: 1783
  • What Lies in the Truth, what truth in the Lies.
    • View Profile
Re: Custom Power List
« Reply #794 on: September 24, 2012, 11:31:15 AM »
Armour could be seen as a block vs damage but your right, I think I will go with your the definition any spell the bullet might interact with and keep it simple. A for using gates as infinite levels blocks that is a bit dubious anyway but even if you allow it a gate is defiantly not something you can do outside of your turn so any reasonable shooter moves half a step to the left and shoots around it given that gates are stationary. As for shape shifting blocks requires they require some serious justification given that we haven't seen a single wizard ever transform into something non-living given the inherit problem of non-living transformation aka I transfrom into a block of fire and don't transform back as I no longer have any a brain to make that decision. Not to mention transformation rituals are like +20 complexity and shouldn't really be used as a block anyway and take a full action at least again. Phasing in and out of the never never is two full actions well actually unless you are a supernatural at an appropriate point you can't phase in so its two gates.  The illusion is the only thing that really works as it is a block vs sight rather than a block vs attack thougg illusions are common enough to depreciate the power pretty badly.
« Last Edit: September 24, 2012, 11:38:18 AM by ways and means »
Every night has its day.
Even forever must come to an end....
I think.