Critique - Battle Aura advantage

[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?