01-12-2019, 06:49 PM | #71 | |
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: North Texas
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
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I think I have a decent fix for the 'Radiant Burst' power (see below), but I'm still struggling with 'Smite'. One idea I did have would be to expand the types of foes that 'Smite' could be applied to. For example, the GM could rule that 'Smite' can be used against any supernatural and evil creature. Thoughts? Tier 4 - Radiant Burst (2000 XP): Once per day, the character can now deliver a burst of positive energy to every undead creature (or demon) in their hex or any hex directly adjacent to them. It has no effect against other creatures. Burst damage is 1d for each Power tier they have (i.e. 4d to start). No roll to hit is necessary, although intelligent foes in the blast radius may attempt to resist, taking half damage by making a successful adjDX roll. The energy burst will also paralyze unintelligent undead up to two hexes away from the character for 3 turns (assuming those closest are not immediately destroyed by the initial blast). As a secondary effect, all living beings caught within the blast radius receive the effect of the ‘Bestow Grace’ Power. This does not count against the daily uses of that Power. Note: The opponents that Radiant Burst can be used against may be expanded at the GM’s discretion and based on the nature of their specific campaign. For example, in some settings characters may be able to use the power against any 'supernatural evil’ creatures.
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“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.” -Vladimir Taltos Last edited by TippetsTX; 01-20-2019 at 06:13 AM. |
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01-13-2019, 12:26 PM | #72 |
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: North Texas
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
Another idea I just had would be to keep 'Smite' somewhat limited in scope, but add a non-Power (but thematically related) advantage to reward the character for sticking with the portfolio up to this point.
For example, if the character is a 'hero' they can select any of the following spells at the discounted price of 2 points instead of 3 (assuming they have the IQ necessary).
Alternatively, a wizard character might be able to aquire the above spells without meeting the IQ prerequisite or use them at a reduced ST cost.
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“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.” -Vladimir Taltos |
01-19-2019, 03:07 PM | #73 | |||
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: North Texas
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
Transferring Skarg's comments from the 'Heal spell' thread where I posed the following question...
I'm curious what you thought of my solution over in the 'Powers' thread. http://forums.sjgames.com/showpost.p...1&postcount=57 I considered many of the concerns and suggestions raised in this very thread as I was designing it (quite a long, but helpful exercise reading all those posts back to Steve's original proposal). Quote:
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Quote:
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“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.” -Vladimir Taltos Last edited by TippetsTX; 01-19-2019 at 03:10 PM. |
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01-20-2019, 08:31 AM | #74 |
Join Date: Dec 2017
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
Most of these sound a lot like spells. Why not just have people expend XP to gain the ability to cast spells, and perhaps add a spell or two that introduces a power you like? This would avoid the introduction of a new sub-system and just use one that is already core to the game.
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01-20-2019, 10:57 AM | #75 | |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
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One piece I noticed was you specified that you reduced the cost to recharge staff mana from 5 to 3, and only the wizard's own ST can recharge staff mana, but I assume that can be bypassed by someone using Aid to aid the wizard? As for wizards "needing" a melee weapon, it seems to me that many original TFT wizards chose not to learn staff, that avoiding melee is an even better plan in most cases, and that it's very easy to "fix" that issue, for example by retaining the original Melee staff spell (or equivalent), or having a cheap (or even free) talent which lets a wizard hold an attuned weapon and still cast spells. |
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01-20-2019, 11:27 AM | #76 | |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
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Also, in original TFT at least, and I would think even in new ITL, there would be a fair proportion of good wizards who do not get staff abilities, preferring to concentrate on other abilities. My own house-rules-in-progress have been separating the combat functions of staffs from the mana functions of staffs, because I like to think different wizards have different interests and should not have one path that lumps together mana powers with powerful zappy combat powers. |
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01-20-2019, 11:39 AM | #77 |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Pacheco, California
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
Focus(S) This spell comes in the same five levels as Staff at the same IQ levels.
Any wizard can have a focus or a staff at any given time, but not both. The focus doesn't have the occult strike of a staff and generally isn't a weapon at all. Instead it has the following two powers:
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-HJC Last edited by hcobb; 01-20-2019 at 11:44 AM. |
01-20-2019, 11:42 AM | #78 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
In general on using XP costs, I struggle to interpret them because I can't make sense of the RAW ITL XP use rules unless increasing IQ allows adding talents too, or some (? even better?) other house rule to make sense of them.
That is, personally I want to have all characters (including NPCs) have a consistent system for learning at least some things like swimming or horsemanship or a new spell without needing to somehow acquire and use 500 XP per point, while retaining the meaning of typical attribute point totals where average people are 30 points, 32 points is an above-average person, 35 points is notably more capable than most, and of course then there are many sub-30-point people in the population who are not considered cripples or incompetents, yet many of whom who stay below-average (q.v. the meaning of the word average). i.e. I want people to be able to learn something like swimming or be trained in a new weapon talent without implying everyone can add 500-1000 XP as easily, but instead increase their attributes, because that would mean to me that average people should be more like 36 points, which in many ways is very much not what I want. I say all that as context for commenting on your costs for these super-powers. Because the implications for a campaign are extremely different depending on whether the GM assumes these XP requirements are a big deal that few people could do, or whether they're trivial because a basic military training can give people 1500 XP worth of weapon talents, so there may as well be a trained Healing Corps that instead put that 1500 XP into level-2 healing Power so that the army has a lot of magic healers. Now, you did clearly say the GM can and should limit the availability of Powers, so this would only exist if the GM wanted it to, but it seems like how this is balanced is tied to how the GM relates to the RAW XP costs for learning talents. |
01-20-2019, 11:45 AM | #79 | |
Join Date: Sep 2018
Location: North Texas
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
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Yes, some of the Powers could be re-tooled as spells and that still may be the approach depending on how my playtesting goes. The reason I would prefer not to use the existing spells rules is that one of my primary design goals was to create an option for heroic abilities that are 'class' agnostic. The Channeling portfolio is a good example of this... the Powers can work just as well for a cleric-style wizard or a paladin-style hero. The XP costs would be the same for either archetype and having Powers as a separate sub-system means the GM can easily take them or leave them as the campaign or desired character concepts demand. In addition, and I know that the power-sets I've shared so far may not reflect this well, some of the Powers I intend to create will be less magical in nature. Some will be for more physical feats. BTW, check out the thread covering my Mystic Monk portfolio as well.
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“No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style.” -Vladimir Taltos Last edited by TippetsTX; 01-20-2019 at 04:28 PM. |
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01-20-2019, 01:18 PM | #80 |
Join Date: May 2015
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Re: New use for XP - Heroic Exploits
I wonder a bit about what it means in the game universe logic that there are these powers limited to 5 and possibly costing congruent XP, but being disparate things like super-jumping, healing, using staff magic, etc?
And more practically, what do the characters know about the limits and means of acquiring these powers, and what's their theory/thinking about what/why that is the case, and do they (and/or how) choose to acquire them and then do so? i.e. Does Sambo the Adventurer know he can develop up to five super-powers split between those various things, and that there will be the trade-offs the player can see about whether to get multiple paths or concentrate which will impact how quickly he can get them? How would I think about that as a player wanting to immersively roleplay my characters' decisions? |
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