Talents for MH:RPM Paths okay?

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

Adaptive and flexible (near-)godlike power is expensive, yes.

That assumes the full 40 points in ritual adept, high thaumatology skill, high magery for RPM skill cap, etc.
But basic RPM is not all powerful by a long shot, which is good for many other settings.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That assumes the full 40 points in ritual adept, high thaumatology skill, high magery for RPM skill cap, etc.
But basic RPM is not all powerful by a long shot, which is good for many other settings.

"A monster has killed your children, your husbands, your wives. A beast wearing the shape of a man. I can kill it, but I need your help; your lives in exchange for his. Will you kill him?"
~ an offer made to the surviving people of a brutal raid as they look over the burned ruins of their homes

1 Generic Human w/ Thaumatology (IQ/VH), 12- [16] and Path of Body (IQ/VH), 12- [16] (Total [32]) (No Magery, No Ritual Adept)
11 Generic Humans [0] per casting

Ritual: Die, You Monster! (342 Energy)
* Greater Destroy Body (5 Energy)
* Damage (20d) (76 Energy)
* Range (100 miles) (30 Energy)
* Subject Weight (300 lbs) (3 Energy)
* Greater Effects Multiplier (1 Greater Effect) (x3 Energy)

Has Connection; Has Consecrated Space; 11-minute casting; Effective Skill 7-; Tapping Energy Source (Willing Sacrifice) (10 FP, 60 HP) x11. At 33 Energy per Willing Sacrifice, thats' 11 people for a total of 363 Energy. It has a high chance of being resisted, but that simply means that you do it again and again and again (until you run out of willing sacrifices).

Replace Destroy with Create, replace Body with Energy, add Area Effect, remove Subject Weight and adjust Damage to be Burnng, and you can call a column of all consuming fire from the heavens down on your target area that doesn't care what its' resists are. It'd likely even cost less lives and cause more destruction! :grins:

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

Me neither.

I'm also not at all happy that GURPS needs a hard disadvantage limit. In a more thoroughly designed system, there'd be no need for such a thing.

I find that it doesn't. Where people do probably need such a rule though is where GMs dont enforce the disadvantages well. So that is more a case of a rule/guideline helping the GM then fixing a hole in the system.

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I'm also not at all happy that GURPS needs a hard disadvantage limit.

GURPS doesn't need it. Which is why both having one at all, and having it at a specific point, are recommendations, not absolute rules, in GURPS.

[cmdicely]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

I don't like rules that explicitly disallow valid character concepts, especially when they mimic real world possibilities.

Increasing divergence between a derived trait and a base one beyond the normal limits isn't prohibited absolutely in GURPS -- it just usually isn't free. That's rather the point of, e.g., the Special Exercises Perk.

[Lamech]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

"A monster has killed your children, your husbands, your wives. A beast wearing the shape of a man. I can kill it, but I need your help; your lives in exchange for his. Will you kill him?"
~ an offer made to the surviving people of a brutal raid as they look over the burned ruins of their homes

1 Generic Human w/ Thaumatology (IQ/VH), 12- [16] and Path of Body (IQ/VH), 12- [16] (Total [32]) (No Magery, No Ritual Adept)
11 Generic Humans [0] per casting

Ritual: Die, You Monster! (342 Energy)
* Greater Destroy Body (5 Energy)
* Damage (20d) (76 Energy)
* Range (100 miles) (30 Energy)
* Subject Weight (300 lbs) (3 Energy)
* Greater Effects Multiplier (1 Greater Effect) (x3 Energy)

Has Connection; Has Consecrated Space; 11-minute casting; Effective Skill 7-; Tapping Energy Source (Willing Sacrifice) (10 FP, 60 HP) x11. At 33 Energy per Willing Sacrifice, thats' 11 people for a total of 363 Energy. It has a high chance of being resisted, but that simply means that you do it again and again and again (until you run out of willing sacrifices).

Replace Destroy with Create, replace Body with Energy, add Area Effect, remove Subject Weight and adjust Damage to be Burnng, and you can call a column of all consuming fire from the heavens down on your target area that doesn't care what its' resists are. It'd likely even cost less lives and cause more destruction! :grins:

A slightly more expensive, but still extremely nasty option. Besides you'll need some points to convince those willing sacrifices anyway. How about magery 0. [5] Thaumatology 14 [20] Luck (magic) [12] Ally Group (normal people who will contribute FP for cool buff spells)*100 (always available) [48] It costs 81 points total, gives 8 in each, and from FP alone provides 300(!) energy to cast spells. Think of the crap you could pull with that kind of power. Well I suppose it would be all buffs for the party, but several 300 energy point buffs? That's nice.
And its not relegated to when you have a willing sacrifice.

[dataweaver]

I think you missed the point of Sunrunners_Fire's example. If he can find a dozen or so of the recently devastated townsfolk who care more about revenge than their own lives, he can exact punishment on the person responsible for destroying the town. It needn't be a cynical ploy or a powergaming stunt, and can in fact be quite heroic (in a dark vengeance sort of way) if roleplayed properly. I suspect that such a character wouldn't make a standard practice of doing this sort of thing; but one of the points of RPM is that you don't need to make a standard practice of any given spell: the improv nature of spellcasting means that any given spell can potentially be a once-in-a-lifetime casting, suitable to the situation at hand but (hopefully) never to be repeated.

Personally, I'd go for an effect that's built around taking the energy from your willing sacrifices to summon their ghosts and/or the ghosts of the slain townsfolk, amp them up, and set them loose on the perpetrator. Much more satisfying and poetic to let the victims deal out justice directly, instead of just enabling you to do so on their behalf. Of course, that all depends on which Paths you know.

Oh, and I too am so looking forward to the RPM book. :)

[Peter Knutsen]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That assumes the full 40 points in ritual adept, high thaumatology skill, high magery for RPM skill cap, etc.
But basic RPM is not all powerful by a long shot, which is good for many other settings.

I'm pretty sure that GURPS Spirits had an Adept trait that was levelled.

It seems to me that the Ritual Adept trait from MH1 can perhaps be similry split up into component parts, so that a character can have some of the benefits. Perhaps acquire it step by step, if it is learnable.

[sir_pudding]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I'm pretty sure that GURPS Spirits had an Adept trait that was levelled.

It still is in the Path/Book system.

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by Peter Knutsen

I'm pretty sure that GURPS Spirits had an Adept trait that was levelled.

It seems to me that the Ritual Adept trait from MH1 can perhaps be similry split up into component parts, so that a character can have some of the benefits. Perhaps acquire it step by step, if it is learnable.

Oh, I caught that. Space, Materials, and Time twice to make 40 points. The consecrated space is the most limiting, in my opinion, for the low fantasy but highly mobile settings I like.