[MH] [RPM] Witch Power Up?

[Sunrunners_Fire]

We all know how this goes: I have a player that wishes to power-up his witch character. He is looking to do something resembling (one or more of) the following ...

) A leveled trait that reduces the greater effects multiplier by reducing the effective number of greater effects used.
) A leveled trait that acts as a multiplier on gathering ambient energy.
) An additional two levels of Path/Book Adept, to reduce Time associated with gathering energy and tapping energy sources further.

... he is also considering buying up his magery for the additional energy, or possibly an artifact energy reserve directly. I'm aware of how to price the additional levels of Path/Book Adept, the additional magery and the artifact energy reserve. I'm unsure on what price to assign the two new traits though.

Opinions?

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

I'm unsure on what price to assign the two new traits though.

Opinions?

I wouldn't. reducing those multipliers would be an exponential benefit. Adding to his ER is how I would handle it.

[Lamech]

Either of those first two things will fully multiply his power. MH magic can do enough stuff with just a high level of skill and things to eliminate failure on rolls. (MH destiny, luck, super luck). So what I would say to make him more powerful is: destiny if he lacks it, a bunch of skill and eventually super-luck only for altering crit fails on MH magic (-40%). I'm reasonably certain he would also be allowed to buy luck: magic only -20%.

With those things he can make skill rolls until he hits 15 skill and not worry about exploding. Then every point of increased skill means he ends up getting 3*(current skill-10)ish extra energy for his spells. He already has a quadratic growth curve to his strength.

He does not need a full multiplier to his strength, he should be doing more than enough... but if you really want to stat it up as duplicate. Add the feature "only for magic purposes" (the same one ER has basically) and reduced time "+20%" and give it all the same penalties of normal multiple people working on one spell. The dupe is only there for magic purposes. (Much like an ER) since it has reduced time he can "separate" when ever casting happens or "merge" when ever he stops. (Also its not unfair that his dupe can't be attacked. They enemies can just kill him! It should all work out...)

[blacksmith]

Compartmentalized mind would let him assist himself in gathering energy. Or gather energy while doing other things.

[PK]

Originally Posted by Sunrunners_Fire

) A leveled trait that reduces the greater effects multiplier by reducing the effective number of greater effects used.

That'd a pretty big power-up. Even a couple of levels would seriously blur the distinction between lesser and greater effects, and remove one of the things that makes huge amounts of accumulation necessary. I'm not certain how I'd price that -- I've never even considered it. I'll have to get back to you

) A leveled trait that acts as a multiplier on gathering ambient energy

Already exists -- that's exactly what high levels of skill are for. With a skill of 12, you draw approximately 2 energy per try. With a skill of 14, you draw 4. With a skill of 18, you draw 8, and so on.

) An additional two levels of Path/Book Adept, to reduce Time associated with gathering energy and tapping energy sources further.

And that's what skill is for as well. If you want to accumulate energy every second, just buy +4 skill and soak the penalty for doing so.

Be careful not to reinvent the wheel. If you invent several new advantages to replace the effect intended by high Path skills, you'll eventually remove all reason to have Path skills at all. The way RPM works, someone with Path skills in the 17-18 range is vastly more powerful than someone with 13-14 skills, because they can draw more energy more quickly. See the Quick-and-Dirty box in MH4 for actual numerical comparisons of how much extra energy a few levels of skill gets you.

he is also considering buying up his magery for the additional energy, or possibly an artifact energy reserve directly.

That's the idea -- Magery is the obvious power-up for witches for a reason. There's explicitly no cap on Magery in RPM unless the GM sets one. If someone wants Magery 20, that's fine; it won't break anything. And it's no coincidence that Magery 1 [10] costs the same as Energy Reserve 3 [9] + Special Exercises (Can raise Path skills by one level) [1], so buying an artifact as a gadget-limited ER won't hurt anything.

[lexington]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

And that's what skill is for as well. If you want to accumulate energy every second, just buy +4 skill and soak the penalty for doing so.

It's likely easier to placate the player by "inventing" a 16 point advantage (or 10 point, since the advantage can't go toward doing other things that skill can).

With a not so math savvy group you can get people interested in a free +1 to hit with their innate attacks for just 4 points.

[PK]

Originally Posted by lexington

With a not so math savvy group you can get people interested in a free +1 to hit with their innate attacks for just 4 points.

Hah, I guess that's true. I've bundled skill-bonus power-ups like that before, but it was usually for convenience as part of an "easy-grab" package, not for obfuscation purposes.

Still, you're starting with a skill bonus as your base, which is my point exactly -- there's no need to invent a truly new advantage for this -- but it's fine to cobble together a fake one out of the true means for achieving the effect: higher skill.

It's likely easier to placate the player by "inventing" a 16 point advantage (or 10 point, since the advantage can't go toward doing other things that skill can)

That would only apply to one skill, though. It sounds like he's hoping to affect all of the accumulation rolls. So since you'd have to bump Thaumatology as well, that'd be 16*10 = way too much for most players. :)

Here's how I'd probably approach that if you wanted a leveled advantage. A Talent for 10 skills would be 10 points/level. I'm hesitate to ever allow someone to just buy "Casting Talent," mind you, but since the skills are all IQ-based, it's no different than buying "IQ!" in most games. (In my games, "IQ!" costs 20/level, so it's less of an issue, mind you.) So let's use that as the base for a generic "+1 to casting rolls."

So that's Casting Talent (Accessibility, Only for offsetting fast accumulation penalties, -50%) [5/level]. Each level only reduces the penalty to reduce the five second accumulation time by one second per -1. By extension, this also applies to "Blocking" Spells, but nothing else. (For non-adepts, this doesn't change the -5 penalty to use adept times. Instead, each level removes -1 of the penalty to reduce accumulation time by one minute.) Call it "Fast Casting" and you've got an advantage.

[blacksmith]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

That's the idea -- Magery is the obvious power-up for witches for a reason. There's explicitly no cap on Magery in RPM unless the GM sets one. If someone wants Magery 20, that's fine; it won't break anything. And it's no coincidence that Magery 1 [10] costs the same as Energy Reserve 3 [9] + Special Exercises (Can raise Path skills by one level) [1], so buying an artifact as a gadget-limited ER won't hurt anything.

Is a talent to raise Thaumaturgy and path skills as an addition to magery ok? It would be a 10pts per level one.

[Sunrunners_Fire]

:hmms:

Thank you for the opinions. Heh.

[Tinman]

Originally Posted by Rev. Pee Kitty

And it's no coincidence that Magery 1 [10] costs the same as Energy Reserve 3 [9] + Special Exercises (Can raise Path skills by one level) [1]

I always thought that was ER 3 + 1 conditional spell slot.