Critique - Battle Aura advantage

[Varyon]

I like it. I could also see it being used as the basis for an Alternate Ability set - maybe you can solidify your aura into something akin to a sword (Innate Attack or Natural Weapon), focus it to propel yourself through the air or walk on nothing (Flight, Super Jump, Walk on Air, Walk on Liquid, Clinging, etc), etc. These would be cases where you aren't consuming it for power, but rather sequestering it for something else - and I'd have the AA only sequester an amount of equal value (so if you have 5 levels of a baseline Battle Aura, for [25], and you have an Alternate Ability nominally worth [15] - which you buy for [3] as an AA - it only locks up 3 levels of Battle Aura, leaving you with 2 to make use of).

I'm not certain [5] is the right price for Battle Aura. Energy Reserve is [3]/level, so let's compare to that. BA is better than ER in that you can continuously renew it, albeit at a mounting iteration penalty, and it gives a bonus to use and resist Intimidation. BA is worse than ER in that it requires a roll to activate (and this calls for specialist skills outside of combat or similar*), individual activations can be "wasted" by failing SC rolls, it risks deactivation if Stunned (and automatically is deactivated if knocked out or if failing a Fright Check), penalizes stealth (it also makes battles cost an additional FP, but that's pretty minor in the grand scheme of things), and requires a full hour of rest to get rid of the iteration penalty.

That ability to continuously remanifest the Aura is indeed powerful, but is that enough to not just negate all the drawbacks but leave the Advantage being worth an additional +67%? It honestly feels more like a wash to me, making BA the same [3]/level as ER (note this would change the Armoured Enhancement to around +30%, so it's still around [1] per DR).

Well, except for that Intimidation bonus that's a bit of a fly in the ointment. Sure, that looks like a relatively minor benefit, but it would be built as something like Racial Skill Bonus: Intimidation +2 [4] + Fearlessness 2 (Intimidation Only -50%) [2]. I could see that getting reduced to [2] or so from the plethora of Limitations involved, which would match the [5]... but you only get that full +2 for the first level, and after that it's only +1 per 5 levels. I'd be inclined to have Battle Aura be [5] for the first level, and [3] per level after that (much like how Sorcery costs more for the first level). In that case, rather than having the Armoured Enhancement for Battle Aura, you might opt to allow characters to buy Damage Resistance with Battle Aura -80% as a Limitation, with all the effects you list for that (Flexible; Extra Semi-Ablative, losing 1 point per 5 damage instead of the typical 1 per 10; loss of DR also results in loss of Aura; current DR cannot exceed Aura level).

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Varyon

I like it. I could also see it being used as the basis for an Alternate Ability set - maybe you can solidify your aura into something akin to a sword (Innate Attack or Natural Weapon), focus it to propel yourself through the air or walk on nothing (Flight, Super Jump, Walk on Air, Walk on Liquid, Clinging, etc), etc. These would be cases where you aren't consuming it for power, but rather sequestering it for something else - and I'd have the AA only sequester an amount of equal value (so if you have 5 levels of a baseline Battle Aura, for [25], and you have an Alternate Ability nominally worth [15] - which you buy for [3] as an AA - it only locks up 3 levels of Battle Aura, leaving you with 2 to make use of).

I've been pondering ways to have "aura-powered" abilities (as it's a very common feature in the settings I'm using for inspiration, e.g. Semblances in RWBY); that sounds like one possible way to implement that.

Originally Posted by Varyon

That ability to continuously remanifest the Aura is indeed powerful, but is that enough to not just negate all the drawbacks but leave the Advantage being worth an additional +67%? It honestly feels more like a wash to me, making BA the same [3]/level as ER (note this would change the Armoured Enhancement to around +30%, so it's still around [1] per DR).

I prefer to have abilities have base costs divisible by 5 for easier calculation; what might be a good way to increase the usefulness to justify 5/level?

Originally Posted by Varyon

I could see that getting reduced to [2] or so from the plethora of Limitations involved, which would match the [5]... but you only get that full +2 for the first level, and after that it's only +1 per 5 levels. I'd be inclined to have Battle Aura be [5] for the first level, and [3] per level after that (much like how Sorcery costs more for the first level).

Hmm. I prefer to avoid having a variable cost per level because it feels clunky; the bonus mainly exists for flavour reasons, anyway. Would a flat +1 per level, with a minimum of +1 even at lower levels, work?

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

I prefer to have abilities have base costs divisible by 5 for easier calculation; what might be a good way to increase the usefulness to justify 5/level?


Hmm. I prefer to avoid having a variable cost per level because it feels clunky; the bonus mainly exists for flavour reasons, anyway. Would a flat +1 per level, with a minimum of +1 even at lower levels, work?

Combining these two, maybe something like +1 to each of using/resisting Intimidation, resisting Fright Checks, and resisting unconsciousness per level. That would be something like Racial Skill Bonus: Intimidation +1 [2] + Fearlessness 1 [2] + Hard to Subdue 1 [2], for the same [6] as for the first level above (again, reduced to [2] on account of the Limitations).

[Bicorn]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Combining these two, maybe something like +1 to each of using/resisting Intimidation, resisting Fright Checks, and resisting unconsciousness per level. That would be something like Racial Skill Bonus: Intimidation +1 [2] + Fearlessness 1 [2] + Hard to Subdue 1 [2], for the same [6] as for the first level above (again, reduced to [2] on account of the Limitations).

Fright Check and unconsciousness resistance bonus certainly makes thematic sense with the source materials. Thanks!

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Varyon

Combining these two, maybe something like +1 to each of using/resisting Intimidation, resisting Fright Checks, and resisting unconsciousness per level. That would be something like Racial Skill Bonus: Intimidation +1 [2] + Fearlessness 1 [2] + Hard to Subdue 1 [2], for the same [6] as for the first level above (again, reduced to [2] on account of the Limitations).

+1 to Intimidation and Fearlessness is only a.point less than +1 Will which does the same thing and more.

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by sir_pudding

+1 to Intimidation and Fearlessness is only a.point less than +1 Will which does the same thing and more.

+1 Will [5] and Hard to Subdue 1 [2] also works well with the source material, and I think would fit within the ~[+2] above ER's base 3 when keeping in mind all the functional Limitations involved. That's good advice, yeah.

[Bicorn]

A straight-up Will bonus would reduce the risk of losing the aura after a stun, though, which I feel is a pretty important aspect of the sort of scenes the advantage is trying to emulate. ("Oh no! He was knocked out of Super Saiyan mode!")

[Varyon]

Originally Posted by Bicorn

A straight-up Will bonus would reduce the risk of losing the aura after a stun, though, which I feel is a pretty important aspect of the sort of scenes the advantage is trying to emulate. ("Oh no! He was knocked out of Super Saiyan mode!")

Simply state the Will bonus doesn't apply to the roll to keep the battle aura up after a stun. We're largely eyeballing costs here anyway, so there's some wiggle room in how things apply (plus, that would be a fairly small Limitation on Will anyway). I'd probably take it a step further - the Will bonus also doesn't apply to rolls to renew the Battle Aura (if you opt to do so while it's still partially up). Goku would probably have a Perk or similar to ignore this restriction, however - while I've only watched Dragonball and some of Dragonball Z, Goku seems to be a habitual rule-breaker when it comes to stuff like this. "Kaiouken not quite cutting it? That's alright, I'll just stack 10 instances of it on top of each other."