A Different Take on Imbuements

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by naloth

This seems a bit low for what you can do with them. I'd suggest making it an advantage (perhaps 25 or 40 points) that you can take limits against such as category (only certain weapons or weapon skills) or quantity (only 1-4 techniques).

That can work as well, but I was largely working off of a combination of how Techniques work and how GURPS tends to price "bundles." Unique Technique [1] per Technique is typical. [3] for having a Wildcard Perk of sorts is also in keeping with GURPS. [5] to have it work for all uses is consistent with GURPS' general "5 is all" trend (seen with things like Off Hand Weapon Training -> Ambidexterity). [15] to combine the two is simple multiplication. Still, if you feel the above undercharges, feel free to use whatever pricing you'd prefer.

Originally Posted by naloth

Using Enhancements and Limitations is great. There are tons of modifiers already created and adapting them for this seems like a good idea.

It also has the advantage of being rooted in already-existing rules, whereas I think with Imbuements the authors largely just went with a prerequisite that felt "right" (granted, that's where a lot of Enhancement/Limitation values come from, but there are a lot more to work off of).

Originally Posted by naloth

The mechanics of Techniques, though, are problematic. First off, Techniques are rather cheap, and even though you've capped the effective level, it's just not much of a point investment compared to what you could do with Imbuements or other advantages.

In general, even ignoring the cap (which I'm starting to think would be a good idea, honestly) you'll likely end up paying more to be able to do some nifty trick with a sword than you would to have an Innate Attack or Natural Weapon that let you do the same thing when completely unarmed. There may be some cases where the above works out to be a bit cheaper, however.

Originally Posted by naloth

Second, this encourages high skill since everything is based off the skill value. Third, 4 techniques would pay for a skill level anyway. Any trickshot archer would invest mostly in skill and put the bare minimum required to use the Technique (zero if they can be defaulted, otherwise 2 points per trick).

Yes, this is a general problem with Techniques, and probably exacerbated here due to the fact a character likely has one or more mundane Techniques with the weapon already. Making separate skills doesn't help a lot either, it just means the character is even more encouraged to pump everything into a high DX. Also, it's likely to make things far too expensive.

Originally Posted by naloth

Having to calculate this for each skill is a bit annoying, but something that can be done in advance. I'm just use a flat -5 or -10 to ignore the fatigue cost, applied to the Imbuement skill prior to assessing if it's lower than your weapon skill. For increases Powers 161 already lets you add +1 skill per point of fatigue.
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I like the idea here, but I'd have to try it out to get a feel for it. You definitely get a lot more for each FP.

This is based on Godlike Extra Effort (P161), which is -1 per (5xFP spent)% and lasts for 1 minute. I opted to double the effectiveness for instantaneous effects like attacks (much as things like Cost FP are worth twice as much if assessed per second rather than per minute), and for flavor used skill instead of straight attribute (which GURPS treats as equivalent), and also simplified attack-related rolls by making them DX-based and combining the "did I use the effect" and "did I hit" into a single check.


I basically worked off the assumption that having a weapon gave the character a Natural Weapon (Pyramid #3/65) with various modifiers (for Reach, weight, damage, being a Gadget, etc), then let the character use Godlike Extra Effort to temporarily boost the weapon, just as he/she might be able to do with a Natural Weapon. And, of course, "penalty suffered under these specific circumstances" (that is, when using this particular flavor of Extra Effort) is prime grounds from a Technique.