Mage Blade

[Hannes665]

If you limit your Magery to 4 levels like other Talents do, you could include the Blade´s Skill in as part of the Magery Talent.

So a Mage with Magery 3 would get +3 to his skill using the blade.

So in a max Magery 4 game I would grant the user skill bonus equal to his Magery level and Dmg some thing like this.

Magery 0 +2
Magery 1 1d (2)
Magery 2 +1d+2 (3)
Magery 3 +2d (5)
Magery 4 +2d+2 (10)

Cost 3 FP to activate and 1 FP to maintain per min.

I would base damage on basic Thrusting Broadsword for easy game purpose, claiming that the energy is "solid" and the Mage is powering it thru his skill and talent. So a Magery 0 Mage would do Sw +4 total while a Mage with Magery 4 would do Sw +2d+2 (10) and with +4 in skill thus granting him extra +2 to parry with raised skill.

[Johnny Angel]

Making the blade "solid" is something I like. I envisioned the blade as being an embodiment of the mage's talent. I think that helps to make it a little more balanced by not having the Force Sword benefit of damaging anything you parry with it.

[Jabani]

Cool idea.

What about charging FP for every attack, or every time the blade does damage? The latter would even allow you to keep the damaging parry. It would almost be a curse as well, since you could easily knock yourself out in an effort to lay waste to thine enemies.

[Anaraxes]

Making the blade "solid" is something I like. I envisioned the blade as being an embodiment of the mage's talent.

What happens to the Magery, then, when you parry a heavy weapon or get a crit fail that breaks your weapon?

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Anaraxes

What happens to the Magery, then, when you parry a heavy weapon or get a crit fail that breaks your weapon?

hmm...

Will roll to avoid being mentally stunned seems like it fits with the idea.

[Dwarf99]

anyone got any good ideas for constructing these bad boys in a non Star Wars setting?

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I also don't want to step on the toes of Imbuements or Innate Attacks. I was trying to build something similar to both of those, but not exactly the same thing. Mainly I was playing with the idea of trying to fit something similar to a Jedi or a into a fantasy setting. From there, I was also playing with other ideas of how to refluff a few high/ultra-tech items into magical or supernatural items.

Yes, but Jedi in the Star Wars setting have things like blasters around them that do comparable damage and can be bought off the rack by anybody, and anybody in Star Wars can pick up a lightsaber, turn it on, and flail around with it without the proper training. If the mages in your setting don't have that sort of thing to contend with, then this is going to be a huge advantage for them putting them off the chart from other people with similar point totals. I'd personally do it as Advantages with Gadget limitations like malloyd is talking about (possibly unbreakable, but obviously capable of being stolen even if normal people can't use it), because that way it will cost a bunch of points and allow a lot of personalization.

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Making the blade "solid" is something I like. I envisioned the blade as being an embodiment of the mage's talent. I think that helps to make it a little more balanced by not having the Force Sword benefit of damaging anything you parry with it.

Destructive Parry is an enhancement in Powers that could be added or not if you build this with advantages... Depending on what kind of magic they specialize in, people could have fun variations like a Fire Sword that does lots of Burning damage with double-plus Incendiary on it, a Lightning Sword that does lower Burning damage but Stuns and ignores metal armor, a Crushing Wind Sword with Double Knockback that can't be Parried, a Necromancy Sword that inflicts wounds that never heal (mwahaha) (with Side Effect: Unhealing and Extended Duration: Permanent until dispelled), etc, and it'll all be point-balanced with people whose Mage Sword does something else, people who put all their points into ST, etc.

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

I'm not 100% sure how mana levels should impact the power of a Mage Blade. Campaigns 481 has guidelines for how magic items function at different levels of magery, but I envision Mage Blades being a little bit different from being just another magic item. An idea I've considered is having the magery level of an area effect the level at which a Mage Blade functions. Low Mana would cause a MB to function at one level less; high mana would cause a MB to function at one level higher.

I think +1 is a little weaksauce for the effects of mana on one of these things, personally... I'd treat it like a spell and say that No Mana will kill it dead no matter what, Low Mana costs double FP and halves damage (and other effects, like armor divisor, if applicable), High Mana turns the FX up a notch and lets anybody use it, and Very High Mana does the above, draws the FP to power it from ambient mana, and turns any failure using it in combat into a roll on the Critical Spell Failure table.

Originally Posted by Dwarf99

anyone got any good ideas for constructing these bad boys in a non Star Wars setting?

I'm pretty sure that's what we're all talking about here.

[isf]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Destructive Parry is an enhancement in Powers that could be added or not if you build this with advantages... Depending on what kind of magic they specialize in, people could have fun variations like a Fire Sword that does lots of Burning damage with double-plus Incendiary on it, a Lightning Sword that does lower Burning damage but Stuns and ignores metal armor, a Crushing Wind Sword with Double Knockback that can't be Parried, a Necromancy Sword that inflicts wounds that never heal (mwahaha) (with Side Effect: Unhealing and Extended Duration: Permanent until dispelled), etc, and it'll all be point-balanced with people whose Mage Sword does something else, people who put all their points into ST, etc.

I was going to use something like this for an "inspired by Star Wars" game where various psionic characters could build a device that channeled one of their psi powers into a manifestation (sometimes a blade); force swords for the TK's, affliction (emotion) blades for empaths, lightning whips for EK's and such. I think that an equivalent for mages is a useful idea.

[Johnny Angel]

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Yes, but Jedi in the Star Wars setting have things like blasters around them that do comparable damage and can be bought off the rack by anybody, and anybody in Star Wars can pick up a lightsaber, turn it on, and flail around with it without the proper training. If the mages in your setting don't have that sort of thing to contend with, then this is going to be a huge advantage for them putting them off the chart from other people with similar point totals. I'd personally do it as Advantages with Gadget limitations like malloyd is talking about (possibly unbreakable, but obviously capable of being stolen even if normal people can't use it), because that way it will cost a bunch of points and allow a lot of personalization.

Right... I realize that I need to tone down the damage. My original post was mainly intended as a starting point from which to work from; not a final product.

Originally Posted by Gold & Appel Inc

Destructive Parry is an enhancement in Powers that could be added or not if you build this with advantages... Depending on what kind of magic they specialize in, people could have fun variations like a Fire Sword that does lots of Burning damage with double-plus Incendiary on it, a Lightning Sword that does lower Burning damage but Stuns and ignores metal armor, a Crushing Wind Sword with Double Knockback that can't be Parried, a Necromancy Sword that inflicts wounds that never heal (mwahaha) (with Side Effect: Unhealing and Extended Duration: Permanent until dispelled), etc, and it'll all be point-balanced with people whose Mage Sword does something else, people who put all their points into ST, etc.

.

From my first post: "I am contemplating the idea of removing the burn damage from the base damage and having mages who are associated with a specific college of magic having mage blades with different effects. A fire college mage would deal burn damage; an earth college mage might cause extra knockback; etc; etc."

The idea of having different mage blades be different depending upon the style/school of magic is something I really like.

I'm still playing around with a bunch of different concepts for Mage Blades, but I haven't looked at the idea in a little while because it has been put on the back burner while I work on stuff for the campaign I am currently running. When I get some free time, I'll probably go back and play around with some of the concepts again. Until then, feel free to take the idea and run with it. Part of the reason I posted the concept here was to get different takes on it.

Originally Posted by isf

I was going to use something like this for an "inspired by Star Wars" game where various psionic characters could build a device that channeled one of their psi powers into a manifestation (sometimes a blade); force swords for the TK's, affliction (emotion) blades for empaths, lightning whips for EK's and such. I think that an equivalent for mages is a useful idea.

That's pretty cool.

One of the things I like about the idea in general is that it showcases an element which is generally associated with one type of story (Sci Fi) and allows it (with some tweaks) to be used in other types of stories and campaigns. Sometimes, when people are looking for inspiration for their games - I include myself in this statement, they get stuck looking for inspiration in only sources which match the genre of their game.

I like looking at different ways of doing things because it opens my eyes wider to what I'm capable of creating with the system. I briefly ran a space game a while back; I didn't have a handle on the ship combat rules yet, so I just used the vehicle stats from the Basic Set. Sports cars were refluffed into small, but fast ships; a van was presented as a cargo ship; etc.

[Gold & Appel Inc]

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

Right... I realize that I need to tone down the damage.

That's not what I'm saying at all; I'm saying I'd keep big honkin' damage on it but charge points instead of money if money doesn't get anybody else the same sort of attacks in-setting.

Originally Posted by Johnny Angel

From my first post: "I am contemplating the idea of removing the burn damage from the base damage and having mages who are associated with a specific college of magic having mage blades with different effects. A fire college mage would deal burn damage; an earth college mage might cause extra knockback; etc; etc."

The idea of having different mage blades be different depending upon the style/school of magic is something I really like.

Yes, I was agreeing with that and tossing out ideas for how I think it would work well with advantage enhancements.