Equipment for Iconic Characters and William Headley's Powerstone-enchanting potential

[Plane]

B308: there is a "chain gun" for C-38 but it seems like it would have infinite ammunition as statted. Do we interpret that as him generating ammo as needed via his "diet" ?

B311: Dai is skilled in knife/shortsword, even with disad wealth: poor he could probably afford a cheap weapon, do we assume he carries one around?

B312: Louis is shown with a Force Sword, is skilled with one (B313) so do we assume he has a standard version of one bought with his average wealth?

B316 Iotha mentioned using bow/rifle. Presumably she might own such weapos via her average wealth, but how would you decide which one to give her?

B319 Sora is skilled in broadsword/garotte/knife/smallsword/tonfa. Would you just give her average versions of those, depending on what average wealth buys?

B321 since Janos is 'filthy rich', I guess you could just assume he owns at least one of every type of pistol/saber as a collector?

B323 would you just figure the axe/mace of Xing is for wielding a wrench? Would she bother to keep spears around the workshop? She's 'struggling' so she couldn't afford much in the way of weapons if she wanted a spare budget for repair supplies?

now for the most interesting...

- - -

B314: William Headley collected "artifacts of subtle and terrifying nature". One of which is listed under his appearance on B315 "a magical walking stick" which is perhaps what he's holding in 314's drawing, which looks to have a gem on the tip of it.

That could be an artifact he found, or perhaps one he created himself? It seems like an obvious candidate for being a Manastone or Powerstone based on the art.

So let's brainstorm how feasible it might be for him to make one?

- - -

Since he has 'ritual magery' he in theory can cast something from any college, as techniques of paths that default to his Ritual Magic (hermetic) skill minus six (17-6=11) even if he hasn't put a point in them as he did for Necromancy.

M231 says Powerstone has a prereq count of 11 so that would mean his skill in it is 0, and I think to attempt a skill (or technique in the case of ritual magery style spellcasting) you need at least an effective skill of 3...

If M16 rules apply to Powerstone (minimum skill of 15 needed to attempt enchantment) then I guess he'd need to find ways of getting a +15 bonus to turn a gem into a powerstone. Well actually, let's say +14 because he opts to do "defenceless casting" (using a series of All-Out Concentrate maneuvers instead of normal Concentrate maneuvers to get a +1, even though this maneuver wasn't around when Basic set was published)

At a base cost of 12 energy (let's assume he is trying to make a One-College powerstone to get the ball rolling) if we use the M12 rules he could get +4 to skill by doubling the energy cost to 24, but to get the other +10 would require (+1 per 100% extra) 10x12=120 more energy = 144 total cost.

He might've begun with constructing a Manastone first. Despite being one-use only, constructing one would've been much more achievable. Instead of 12x12=144 he would only need 5x12=60 energy to make one. Then you build it big enough to assist you in making the enchant-only powerstone, which you then use to make an all-colleges powerstone.

That's still a big deal. Normally with Ceremonial Magic you can get up to 100 energy from spectators but that doesn't seem to be an optional for enchantments (assistants only, and the -1 penalty for each one helping works against the idea of spending energy to increase effective skill) and with 14 FP and 9 HP, William would have to risk killing himself to cast manastone alone since he does not have the Path of Enchantment or any of its techniques bought.

The only thing I can think of how he could've possibly gotten enough energy is via using Fantasy's "Meditative Magic" rules to stock up energy over several days. That's a lot safer than going into Point Debt or dabbling in Black Magic. If doing that, it would probably make more sense to just build your powerstones directly and not bother with manastones. That seems like the easiest way to allow Will to have created powerstones despite his default skill of 0 in the Powerstone technique (just meditate to build up a huge enough base to get enough + skill to cast it despite that).

In wondering how difficult this is though: if you need at least skill 15 in BOTH the spell "Enchant" and whatever spell you're putting on the item (Powerstone) then is there even a way to increase that?

Normally you would spend % more energy to increase your effective skill, but the Enchant spell doesn't actually have a cost, so how would you boost it? If you can't then you're basically out of luck, I guess?

I may be ignoring the applications of Symbol-Drawing (Hermetic Sigils) to the math of Headley possibly making his own magic staff... I never really looked closely at that skill...

*checks B224* first option is half MoS rounded down can be added to skill of ritual... interesting. Okay so with skill 14 if I get a +5 bonus for B346 spending 30x as long (not sure what base time of Symbol Drawing skill would be, any ideas?) with effective skill of 19 if he rolled a 3 he would have MoS 16 so he could add a +8 bonus...

That unfortunately still falls short. He only comes up from technique 0 to technique 8 and he I think needs technique 15 in Enchant? If he can't boost effective skill via spending more energy (because Enchant has no base energy cost) then what other options would there be to get him the rest of the way?

Barring house rules (like for example allowing attempts to enchant at less than skill 15, keeping in mind the 'power' will end up being too low for the object to function unless you get a crit success that adds 2d to it) the only option I can think is to allow Extra Effort (FP spent) to temporarily increase magery as a leveled trait (and thus increase his default technique in Enchant) but that would require many FP per minute and several will rolls. That's assuming you allow Extra Effort to be used on Talents, which is an iffy concept and probably illegal?

If it were possible for William Headley were to spend 1FP/min to use Extra Effort (or maybe 2+ FP using Godlike Extra Effort, to lower the penalty on the Will roll) to boost his Magery levels in Very High Mana, could he perhaps get those FP back the next second, allowing him to maintain it the entire hour it would take (minimum) to perform an enchantment?

If you can't EE for Magery then maybe "Using Abilities at Default" you could do something else to generate a bonus using FP to create something temporary? Like a +3 for temporarily having Single Minded or +2 from temporarily having Autotrance? Or buying +IQ as an ability-at-default? Basically generating "Magical -10%" versions of these mental advantages which you could try to temporarily acquire based on having the Magery talent (similar to how having a Psi talent allows you to purchase psi abilities) ?

M205 "Symbol Drawing" rules seem like an area that Headley could explore in the future to lessen his cost. He has the required prereq, but those symbols lack defaults so as-written he doesn't have them.

T52's "Paut" does doesn't last long enough (5min) for enchantment unless it's possible to drink it at the last second before completing the ritual. Anyone with Ritual Magery should in theory be able to cast the Meta spell of Raise Cone of Power (also T52) though I'm not sure the exact prereq count. You need to know either Pentagram (M231:PRC=9) or Restore Mana (M234:PRC=14) plus Lend Energy.

I don't think LE would increase the cost though because Pentagram requires Spell Shield requires Magic Resistance requires "one or more spells from seven different colleges" one of which might've been lend energy. So the PRC should just be one higher than pentagram, meaning a -10 penalty.

That's still incredibly hard but 1 easier than the -11 penalty that Powerstone needs (M227 tieing the -10 PRC penalty for Enchant) which sounds bad...

But the major benefits to Raise Cone of Power is that if you cast it ceremonially:
1) unlike enchantments you CAN rely on the 'spectator' energy bonus of up to 100
2) unlike enchantments, you don't need to get a minimum skill of 15 to use it, you can presumably roll the dice so long as your effective skill is brought up to at least 3

The downside is that to draw on the Cone, you need to step out of it and at least one person who "knows the spell" has to be able to maintain it. Luckily that should be pretty simple with Ritual Magery since in theory everyone "knows the spell" so long as they have the Ritual Magic skill.

Unless there's something preventing energy from Cone of Power being used to fuel enchantments, this might be an alternative to Meditative Magic for how Headley (w/ an apprentice w/ 1 point in Ritual Magic to continue the cone for him) could've created a Powerstone using a group of helpers.

If COP can be used for enchantments then this would be a way around the usual restriction of not being able to use spectators to contribute energy to enchantments, though incredibly costly/risky/lengthly process to get around it.

[Stormcrow]

I don't think the "iconic" characters were designed with this level of scrutiny in mind, but...

The iconic characters are presumably used in the following way: ISWAT assigns them needed equipment, but for anything else they have to rely on their own cash. (Otherwise why give them Wealth levels?) ISWAT is not listed as a Patron, probably because they can't help when things get bad, but it also means the iconic characters can't ask them for favors or special equipment. The cost of living rules probably aren't in use, since they all have different Wealth levels but do the same job. We don't know the Wealth level of the job or the pay, so the best we can do is guess how much each character should have.

C-31's weapon pods don't have the Limited Use limitation, so the ammunition is infinite. This leads him in a cinematic direction.

It's up to the player to decide whether the characters have equipment individual to themselves, since ISWAT probably doesn't supply them. If ISWAT does supply them, then taking any level of Wealth other than Average is either wasted points or free points. Since these are pregenerated characters without a set number of character points for each team member, it's simple enough for the GM to just delete the Wealth traits from each character, adjust point totals, and give each character whatever seems appropriate.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Stormcrow

C-31's weapon pods don't have the Limited Use limitation, so the ammunition is infinite. This leads him in a cinematic direction.

GURPS Powers has a mechanism for gradually applying FP costs (I think 1 per hour or per minute) when using powers without limiting factors like Costs FP or Limited Use, but that's complicated here by C-31 (B309) being a Machine (B263) and thus having no FP...

Machine does not include "Doesn't Eat" (and C-31 doesn't have that atop it) and starvation rules involve dealing with FP loss. Machines can even take "increased consumption" if they need more fuel... but what happens if trying to operate on empty?

B426 Starvation involves FP loss (see also B104 enhancement for Fatigue Attack called Hazard: Starvation +40%) so I don't know how you deal with a "starving machine". Hazard: Missed Sleep is another such situation for many machines though it wouldn't apply to C-31 since he has the Mentality Meta-Trait of AI (also B263) which includes Doesn't Sleep.

I think I recall somewhere you have them lose HP or HT instead? Can't remember where I saw that though.

Anyway the idea I had to "pay for bullets" (and maybe for plasma shots) is to use the rules for gradual FP loss by using powers (they resemble the 'sprinting' rules I think) and convert them however you'd convert the starvation rules, maybe even treat them as FP lost to starvation for simplicity, except as HP or HT or however it works for "no FP" beings using FP-loss rules like Starvation, which is a thing for machines.

The "doesn't heal" aspect would make it really dangerous to try shooting bullets/plasma while low on fuel, meaning he'd need repairs, which I'm guessing would be harder to do on oneself.

[Stormcrow]

Originally Posted by Plane

GURPS Powers has a mechanism for gradually applying FP costs (I think 1 per hour or per minute) when using powers without limiting factors like Costs FP or Limited Use, but that's complicated here by C-31 (B309) being a Machine (B263) and thus having no FP...

C-31 was created before GURPS Powers was written. You can modify the character as you like, but if you're trying to understand why it is the way it is, you have to analyze it using only the Basic Set.

The fact of the matter is simply that C-31 doesn't have any ammunition listed for its chain gun. As written, you have to either hand-wave a justification (it builds and stores ammunition as part of its normal processes) or just ignore the ammunition problem (the cinematic option).

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Plane

That's still a big deal. Normally with Ceremonial Magic you can get up to 100 energy from spectators but that doesn't seem to be an optional for enchantments (assistants only, and the -1 penalty for each one helping works against the idea of spending energy to increase effective skill) ait.

No spectators for Enchantment. Participants in a Cone of Power might not count as "spectators" but will subtract as usual.

The only way i can think of is for Headley to have bought his magic staff as Signature Gear. Which is what he did.

So at TL8 1 pt of Signature Gear gets you $10,000 worth of Enchantments. Figure out how much Powerstone he could have gotten with that and you a l have a canonical / no House Rules needed answer.

If you do the math on Headley he's correct pointswise but not actually a very good spelcaster though I suppose he could depend on Buying Successes with Unspent CP.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

No spectators for Enchantment. Participants in a Cone of Power might not count as "spectators" but will subtract as usual.

I think you could have a lot of participants pump up energy in the cone and then leave so that it's just the 1 guy maintaining it.

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

The only way i can think of is for Headley to have bought his magic staff as Signature Gear. Which is what he did.

Rechecking B315, I see it right between Ritual Magery 1 and Talent (Healer), thanks.

It's weird because I remember specifically checking his advantages but not seeing it...

Originally Posted by Fred Brackin

So at TL8 1 pt of Signature Gear gets you $10,000 worth of Enchantments. Figure out how much Powerstone he could have gotten with that and you a l have a canonical / no House Rules needed answer.

M20 allows a 20-energy capacity stone for 7350

Guess the rest might be spent on other enchantments.

How do you figure it works if a character built up (or found) a powerstone themself, the GM assigns them a "Signature Gear" advantage based on what they create/acquire ?

[Gumby Bush]

If a character finds a thing, there's no point cost (typically).

If they want plot protection for it, then they can spend points on Signature Gear for it, otherwise the canny thieves guild might try to steal it, or when they drop it down a crevasse it is lost...

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Plane

I

How do you figure it works if a character built up (or found) a powerstone themself, the GM assigns them a "Signature Gear" advantage based on what they create/acquire ?

Signature Gear usually works with the player teling the GM "I want to spend this cp to get this piece of Sig Gear and the story is that I found it covered in dust in the library stacks at Miskatonic. ". Or whatever other story he wants. Valuable loot isn't actually very common in Headley's genre. Just cursed books that will drive you mad.

[Plane]

Originally Posted by Gumby Bush

If a character finds a thing, there's no point cost (typically).

If they want plot protection for it, then they can spend points on Signature Gear for it, otherwise the canny thieves guild might try to steal it, or when they drop it down a crevasse it is lost...

I don't mean like needing to spend unused character points to buy it, but just basically getting those points for free and having the higher power acknowledged on the sheet?

[Fred Brackin]

Originally Posted by Plane

I don't mean like needing to spend unused character points to buy it, but just basically getting those points for free and having the higher power acknowledged on the sheet?

Absolutely not. You can find a thing but if you don't spend pts to turn it into Sig Gear it remains just a thing on your equipment sheet.