03-21-2019, 09:32 PM | #21 | ||
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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Plus it burns a bit. Aside from style and a modest but appreciable damage bump, that could be important against creatures that are resistant to weapons but not burning damage, or are particularly vulnerable to holy energies. Quote:
You can change that! Divine Favor's mechanical structure doesn't rely on the flavor constraints. In a setting where small, low-cost damage prayers are appropriate, go ahead and roll them out! I certainly would in a dungeon fantasy sort of setting.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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03-21-2019, 09:39 PM | #22 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
It's allowed if you allow it. Those are guidelines, not strictures, not rules. Whether you use them is a world-building decision and worldbuilding is the GM's job.
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03-21-2019, 09:57 PM | #23 | |
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: 100 hurricane swamp
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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And jamming an enemies gun has just stopped 2d+ damage, and possibly for more than one round! |
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03-21-2019, 10:07 PM | #24 | |
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
And a side question, Divine Favor, page 6 states:
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Can I assume that the original injunction is just the thematic justification for why you can't have two alternate abilities on at the same time, and that prayers with the "Extended Duration, Permanent" enhancement do not immediately shut off if another prayer is invoked? |
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03-21-2019, 10:49 PM | #25 | |
Join Date: Jul 2008
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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Which has no effect on the consecrated ground. The ground is subject to a permanent Affliction. That the Favored character no longer possesses the ability to perform that Affliction doesn't make the Affliction that's already there go away.
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I don't know any 3e, so there is no chance that I am talking about 3e rules by accident. |
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03-22-2019, 12:28 PM | #26 | ||||
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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For an alternative that's built on a 2d+2 innate attack, how about this? Branch Drop Learned Prerequisite: Divine Favor 5 Learned Prayer Cost: 4 points. The trees aid you in the most direct way they can - by dropping a branch on the head of an enemy! This prayer only works in places where there are branches overhead - most places in a forest, but elsewhere, the target will have to be standing underneath an actual tree. Make an attack roll, with normal range modifiers, to target the right area, a 2-yard radius circle. Every person within the area selected is then attacked, with skill 14, by a falling branch. Since this comes from above, it ignores cover that doesn't protect from above, has no penalties for crouching, kneeling, or prone targets, and can't be blocked unless a target had previously stated they were focusing their shield above them instead of in front. If the attack hits, it does 2d+2 crushing damage. Statistics: Crushing Attack 2d+2 (Area Effect, 2 yards, +50%; Bombardment, skill 14, -5%; Environmental, rare, areas with branches above them, -40%; Overhead, +30%). This satisfies Divine Favor's criteria, I feel - a branch dropping on someone's head is a "believable coincidence". Quote:
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Another useful thing to keep in mind is that against obviously-supernatural opponents, you can relax the considerations about miracles being "subtle". Spirit Weapon is a good example, actually - because it's only useful against insubstantial creatures, who are obviously spirits, it's allowed to be a bit more blatant otherwise, burning its targets. Similarly, if you wanted to make up a prayer that set your hands alight with holy light that burned the undead, I'd probably allow that as a minor blessing, as long as the point cost was in the right ballpark. Quote:
Last edited by Kelly Pedersen; 03-22-2019 at 12:32 PM. |
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03-22-2019, 01:07 PM | #27 |
Join Date: May 2007
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
It should be born in mind that the strictures that low-cost miracles should not be flashy are not primarily for game balance, but to mimic the fact that, in reality and in many genres of fiction, the miracles worked by those who claim to be divinely favored tend to closely resemble coincidences (compare the number of recent Catholic saints whose qualifying miracle was causing remission of a disease that occasionally goes into remission to the number whose qualifying miracle was healing an amputation). If the campaign setting does not resemble the real world in this respect, but resembles instead Faerun or Mythic Israel where "miracle workers" are thick on the ground, the guidelines can (and perhaps should) be relaxed a good deal.
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03-22-2019, 01:19 PM | #28 | |
Join Date: May 2018
Location: Atlanta, GA
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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So are you saying the Advantage that was "afflicted" stays in effect for the duration of the Affliction, even though the Affliction itself is cancelled? It seems to be that way when you look at Consecrated Ground, but I was unsure. |
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03-22-2019, 01:39 PM | #29 |
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Saskatoon, SK, Canada
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Re: Powers - Divine Favor: How to reconcile the guidelines with the math
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