Suggestions

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

@Spell: I was dreading doing the actual number crunching, so thanks for saving me the trouble. I knew they needed fixing, I was just too busy putting everything up to actually look at them. Will fix up now....

If you want to come up with custom spell, or even custom elements, make 'em up and post them or PM them to me. Just keep in mind the general balance.

@The Longbow: It was more of a joke really, anyone trying to arc a shot a mile was going to miss anyway.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Suggestions

When it comes time to actually roll a character I might make my own unique element and even throw in a few extra utility spells for other elements... but it isn't that time yet.

 

[Pheonix Alugere]

Re: Suggestions

Most forms of armor are very difficult to tear off, so monsters will usually just try to move them out of the way or take them off of you rather than tear it off with brute force.

To tear armor, make a d20 + Body Check vs the armors tearing point.
...


Cloth Armor: EV = 0, AV = 2, TP = 10.

Leather Armor: EV = 1, AV = 5, TP = 20.

Elven Bramble Armor: EV = 2, AV = 12, TP = 18.

Chainmail: EV = 5, AV = 12, TP = 38.

Plate Armor: EV = 10, AV = 20, TP = 50.

Judging by the first half of the quote, you intended to make the armor hard to tear. However, I am guessing that monsters will have more than a body value of 10 and even with a value of ten they will automatically tear through cloth armor, leather armor would have a 50% chance to resist tearing and bramble armor would have less than a 50% chance.



My suggestion:
add the average monster body value to the existing tear point values. If the average monster body value is 25, cloth armor should have a tp of 35, if the average monster body value is 5, cloth armor should have a tp of 15, etc..

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Increased all of them by 10. Also, most monsters will just bypass armor entirely when going for penetration, which is a grapple action. The only armor for which this is impossible is Plate armor, which has to be destroyed or removed. Removing armor is grapple action which the resistor gets a 10 point bonus to.

I'm actually going to put all of that in the Rules piece.

 

[Pheonix Alugere]

Re: Suggestions

Ok, also, however:

Regeneration: Health, Pleasure, and Energy all regenerate at 1 point every 6 rounds. A round is 5 seconds, so you regain a point every 30 seconds. Note that you only regenerate if you haven't lost any points in that stat in the last 6 rounds.

Health/Pleasure/Energy damage: A character a 0 Health or energy passes out. A character at 0 pleasure loses 2 Health and orgasms, stunning them for one round. none of these values can go into the negatives, and pleasure damage going past a characters orgasm mark is ignored. Unconscious monsters can be executed, but unconscious characters cannot.

Seeing as how spellcasters are casting spells not with the traditional sort of energy, but instead with an alternate hp count, I'm going to go ahead say that energy regen should only stop if the character has taken energy damage.

Also, I'm going to presume that either monsters that deal energy damage are exceedingly rare, or target the closet player to themselves and never go for the casters.

Simply put, having energy dropping to 0 being the same as hp doing so is like playing D&D but saying that if your spellcaster uses up all their spell slots their character dies. Or, inversely, it's like having characters spend hp to make an attack.



Suggestion:
If energy hits 0 the character has a penalty on rolls, but remains conscious.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Regeneration is per type. You still regenerate Health and Energy if you've taken Pleasure damage, for instance.

Energy drainers are mostly the higher end demons, or daemons. If you piss off a daemon, I can't do anything for you, since they're not going to be interested in the characters besides occasionally rescuing them after killing whatever demon captured. The higher end demons are all going to be fairly intelligent, so they're either going to retreat or go for whoever they can take out first.

For magic users, you don't use a whole lot of energy against vanilla enemies, which are all significantly weaker than the PCs. For spirit users, you're going to spend maybe about 5 points on the average monster if you need to use your powers at all, depending on whether you took any "Natural" Talents.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Suggestions

Okay, looking again at your example character with the revised "difficulty" of "Spell level times 5" : (1d20 + 22/2 (mind) + 8 (fire) + 4 (evocation) = 1d20 + 23 = 24-43, 26-45 with warmth.)

Level 1: 24-43 vs 5 -> 100% success
Level 2: 24-43 vs 10 -> 100% success
Level 3: 24-43 vs 15 -> 100% success
Level 4: 24-43 vs 20 -> 100% success
Level 5: 24-43 vs 25 -> 95% success (100% with warmth)

Non-fire evocations (16-35)

Level 1: 5 -> 100%
Level 2: 10 -> 100%
Level 3: 15 -> 100%
Level 4: 20 -> 80%
Level 5: 25 -> 55%

Non-fire non-evocations (12-31)
Level 1: 100%
Level 2: 100%
Level 3: 85%
Level 4: 60% (Note: can't actually use these)
Level 5: 35% (Note: can't actually use these)

With these rules a non-min-maxed spellcaster is all but certain to succeed in a level 5 spell in their chosen element and school (though of course they still have to hit). Outside their element they're still 100% certain of level 3 spells, reasonably certain of level 4 spells, and about 50/50 with level 5 spells. Outside their chosen school they have a small chance of failure on level 3 spells.

That seems reasonable to me - considering energy cost and the fact that you still have to hit - though a slightly lower chance of success would as well.

At this point I'd like some clarification on the restrictions on level 4/5 spells - do you have to be an evocation specialist to use an evocation level 4/5 spell, even if you specialize in the element in question, and vice versa? (So... could a fire/evocation cast a level 4 water/evocation spell? Could a fire/transmuter cast a level 4 fire spell? As it's worded I'd guess the first but not the second, but I'd suggest allowing both.)

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Suggestions

Hmmm... you've posted what the penalty is for being pregnant... but you haven't posted anything that indicates how likely getting pregnant is. Does it vary according to monster, e.g. implantation monsters have a higher likelihood than sperm-and-egg monsters?

(So... could a fire/evocation cast a level 4 water/evocation spell? Could a fire/transmuter cast a level 4 fire spell? As it's worded I'd guess the first but not the second, but I'd suggest allowing both.)

Actually, the way I read it is the SECOND is permissible. Since different levels of an element's spells don't necessarily have the same evocation/transmutation/conjuration descriptions, for example Light 4 is E/C, depending on effect, but Light 5 is only E.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Pregnancy: Yes, it depends on the monster. Almost all of the Fey and demons except the lords breed through planting an embryo in the womb of their partner when they orgasm. Plants and some demons and Fey lay eggs, but the effect is the same: instant and guaranteed. Only beasts and the Fey/Demon lords use the traditional sperm and egg method, which produces unique individuals. I'm just going to go coin flip on it, 1d2 success on a 2, unless you've got the Fertility Flaw.

Spells: You have to specialize in that element to use its level 4 and 5 spells. In other words, Harry can use Level 4 and 5 fire spells, but that's it for the high end spells. He can't use Hellblast or Near-Zero.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Suggestions

Okay, that makes sense with regards to high-level spells. Now, I'd like to make up two mild utility spells (it's not like you can know a limited number or anything).

Light
1) Cryptic: leave a written message on any surface, readable only by the person or group described aloud as part of the spell. Lasts until read once. (Group could be "females", "mages", "left-handed bow enthusiasts that are pregnant"... anything. But the simplest illusion spell can fool it if the caster can guess the target. For a person a name or description will do.) Transmutation.

Force
2) Feather Fall: Stop falling damage on yourself and anything you touch. Requires one additional energy per turn to maintain. Transmutation.

I'd also like to PM you a full element if that's okay...

Edit: As per Tassadar's Post

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Go ahead and send it. The first level spell I'll okay as is, since something like that could easily draw enough energy from the air to exist indefinitely. I'll call it Transmutation.
The Force spell I'll okay, on the addition of a 1 energy per turn upkeep. That one's Transmutation.

The rules I used for deciding school were very vague, and sometimes cross over each other.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Suggestions

Hrmph. Unarmed damage without the talent is d4 + Body/4. Unarmed damage with the talent is (d8 + 2) + Body/5.

A 10-Body character gets 4-7 without, and 5-12 with.
A 20-Body character gets 6-9 without, and 7-14 with.
A 50-Body character gets 14-17 without, and 13-20 with.
A 62-Body character gets 17-20 without, and 16-23 with.

A decent benefit to a low-Body character... but not terribly useful to the combat-oriented characters it's really intended for. Maybe change the talent to be (d8 + 2) + Body/4, instead? So the difference between an untalented and a talented, would be that the former gets d4 and the latter gets d8 + 2?

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Fixed.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Suggestions

Hm. Another thought:

Change "To Hit" from "d20 + Main + Others/2" to "d20 + Main". Then remove the +10 everyone gets to their Dodge.

Encourages players to stick to one form of attack, and makes calculating To Hit simpler.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

I was going to do that, but I didn't like the idea of penalizing people for not specializing. That would also make the "Natural" Talents rather pointless.

Also, I'd very much appreciate it if everyone put their unarmed attack on their character sheet, regardless of whether or not you plan to use it.

 

[DeMatt]

Re: Suggestions

Well... my quibble with having all the stats contribute like that is this - I'm plotting out a Succubus, and I gave her 20-20-10 + Strong of Body, for stats of 26-20-10, and then I gave her a longbow. Her To-Hit bonus with the longbow is 41, while her Dodge is 38. She's not particularly combat-oriented, yet according to the rules thus far, she'd attack herself with a roll of d20+41, and defend with a 38. So she'd hit herself every time. Assuming there's supposed to be a d20 added to her Dodge, and ties are won by the defender, she'd still hit herself better than half the time - 61.75%, to be precise.

Making the changes I suggested would revise her To-Hit bonus to 26, and her Dodge to 28. So she'd end up hitting herself somewhat less than half the time - 38.25%.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

That's what defensive fighting is for, sacrificing 1 point of to-hit gives 2 points of dodge. So, for 5 points of to-hit, you get an additional 10 dodge.

However, I am willing to leave it up to popular vote: once I get 3 to 5 votes, I'll just go with whatever one people like more.

 

[thetwo]

Re: Suggestions

Okay, got the details worked out with Tassadar so it here goes: my new element.

Storm
1) Roiling Mists: Pull moisture from the surrounding air to create a patch of fog no larger then a room. Reduces the perception of things inside by 4, but may draw unwanted attention from the outside. Alternatively, a much smaller patch of mist may be used to "clothe" the caster in mist or storm clouds. Transmutation.
2) Dust storm: Redirects minute flows of air to create a dust devil, impeding movement and reducing perception by 4 in a 20 foot radius around the target and dealing M/8 damage each round. Costs 1 energy per turn to maintain. Transmutation.
3) Gust or Downburst: Manipulates the local air pressure to create an intense burst of wind in a horizontal or vertical direction. If the target fails a Mind vs Body check, it is pushed 10 feet, dealt d6*M/4 damage, and stunned for one round. As Downburst, deals d6*M/3 damage in a 10 foot radius and stuns for one round. Transmutation.
4) Call Lightning: Manipulation of the local electrical properties pulls a bolt of lightning from above, dealing (d10 + 2) * M/2 damage to anything within a 20 foot radius. Anything within 20 feet is stunned for one round if hit. Anything within 5 feet is stunned for one round. Transmutation.
5) Wrath of the Gods: Radically alter the local weather, creating a devastating storm of lightning and hail. Anything within 40 feet of the target takes (2d6 + 1)*M/2 damage. Costs 5 energy per turn to maintain. Transmutation.
5) Air Drown: Create an area of pressure too low to breathe, dealing (2d6+1)*M/3 damage to any creature within 20 feet of the target and drawing affected creatures up to 5 feet toward the center of the effect. Flight powers relying on air don't work within the area. Costs 5 energy per turn to maintain. Transmutation.

I've been told that anyone may add more spells to elements of their choice (you'll note two level 5 spells, the second added when I realized the first was identical to an already existing effect) and that the restriction really lies with energy and turns rather then spells.

 

[Tassadar]

Re: Suggestions

Also, you can just put spells of the same level under the same heading, and include an "or" to tell me when the spells change. It's up to you really.

I was considering putting up a changelog thread to indicate when and how I added things to the game or changed rules. Also, I was considering putting custom spells and such in their own thread.

 

[Goldstein]

Re: Suggestions

Pyrokinesis and Mind Cutter seem to be out of balance with each other, unless I'm missing something. Pyro effectively costs one-half of Mind Cutter, and does somewhat more damage. Example using 15 energy:

Mind Cutter: 45 energy to cast, [1-10] x 15 = [15,30,45,60,75,90,105,120,135,150] damage
Pyrokinesis: 20+1 energy to cast, [1-6] x 2[15] = [30,60,90,120,150,180] damage

Assuming equal chance of getting each roll result, MC does 82.5 avg damage and Pyro does 105. However, that ignores that Pyro costs roughly half of MC. On average, using 15 energy, MC does 1.833_ damage/energy and Pyro does 5 damage/energy.

Do enemies have a chance to move out of the Pyrokinesis before the damage is applied or something along those lines?