Thaumatolgy sorcery question

[dataweaver]

I'd go with Techniques for each “move”.

Oh, and I'd also look into Chinese Elemental Powers.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by Jaware

I'm not through building it yet. I'm just tinkering.

I'm thinking sorcery, more or less, modified pretty heavily. Using the path skill and thaumatolgy skill limits, but sorted out more like a martial arts skill being the limited and then each "move" having a skill, like in the psionics book, and those skills are a will based karate or something along those lines.

Originally Posted by dataweaver

I'd go with Techniques for each “move”.

Oh, and I'd also look into Chinese Elemental Powers.

I'd second this.
I'd go with a base power such as Control (specific element) and each style has a list of Techniques for power stunting and signature moves could be bought as alternative abilities and forgo the Techniques (I'd let players trade points in Techniques towards alternative ability costs representing practice) so signature techniques dont have the associated FP cost and are more reliable to use - since they dont need a roll.
Each style could use Will for the rolls or buy a skill such as Earth Style (IQ/H) for rolling against. That is a similar model to GURPS Psionic Powers and adds flavor.

[zoncxs]

Originally Posted by Refplace

I'd second this.
I'd go with a base power such as Control (specific element) and each style has a list of Techniques for power stunting and signature moves could be bought as alternative abilities and forgo the Techniques (I'd let players trade points in Techniques towards alternative ability costs representing practice) so signature techniques dont have the associated FP cost and are more reliable to use - since they dont need a roll.
Each style could use Will for the rolls or buy a skill such as Earth Style (IQ/H) for rolling against. That is a similar model to GURPS Psionic Powers and adds flavor.

This is a really good way to go. For my own martial arts game I combined Psionic Powers, Sorcery, and Chinese Elemental Powers to make my own system and it works similar to this.

I don't have a core ability, each ability is bought separately and have a list of techniques. This is how I handle non offensive abilities. Offensive ones are handled with imbuements. Which imbuement each element can use is irrelevant because its all based on how the user uses the element.

For example, air can cut, justifying the cutting imbuement skill, and so can water and earth and even fire (and lightning and ice if you got more than 4 elements). So instead of trying to break down which element got what imbuement skill I simply have the imbue advantage have limitations to a certain element (even go as far as having the environment limitation).

For the over the top damage I simply allow god like extra effort and the focus technique (Chinese Elemental Powers). So each practitioner has ER that is mainly used for using ability techniques and extra effort. Allow them to buy Striking ST with some form of limitation and I was done.

Another thought I had was to use the control advantage as a wildcard power and then have "known" abilities as A.A.. So you can do anything that the GM agrees with as long as it cost (roughly) less than or equal to the point cost of your control advantage (without the x4 from being a wildcard power). And for things you do regularly you can buy has A.A.. I also allow for Point-Powered Abilities, this cuts the cost of an ability down again, to 1/5 the cost, but in order to use it they have to spend Character Points. That is great for those one off powers that they only use in very dire situations.

[AlexanderHowl]

I think that gets more expensive and more complicated that going the route of RPM. For example, a IQ 12 [40] character could take Magery 18 [185], Ritual Adept [40], Thaumatology (Water) (VH) IQ+18 [80]-30, and Path of Water (VH) IQ+18 [72], which would cost 417 CP. With a greater control effect (and with taking a -4 to reduce the time require to one turn per roll), such a character could move a cubic kilometer of water from several kilometers away with just 10 turns of gathering energy. They would not have to do anything to their opponents, their opponents would likely drown before they swam to air.

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think that gets more expensive and more complicated that going the route of RPM.

I think the timing is all off for RPM. Bending tends to be quick, taking a second or two of windup for all put the most powerful attacks. RPM uses 5 seconds as the minimum time to do almost anything, and usually takes more time. Even soaking penalties to get gathering attempts down to 1 second, you still want multiple attempts most of the time. RPM is not for everything.



The techniques in the psionics books are a good thing to base bending on. Not with those exact abilities, of course, but the concepts work well.



Throwing in Control as an alternate ability, or more likely the ability everything else is alternating off of is a good idea. But most of the time it should be passed over in favor of using some other ability.

[dataweaver]

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

I think that gets more expensive and more complicated that going the route of RPM.

I've been noticing a trend: someone suggests a magic system that they want to implement. It doesn't matter what it is; you always respond with “I think you should use RPM for this.”

[AlexanderHowl]

It is a flexible system. Anyway, the problem with bending is the sheer mass that powerful benders can move. Look at Toph (the earth/metal bender), she regularly moves dozens of tons of earth without any issues, and she is capable of moving hundreds of tons of earth at a time. Rapid bending could be a combination of conditional rituals (which would have to be part of a separate delay effect rather than a Path of Magic effect) and energy reserve.

[Pragmatic]

Link to 2007 thread on SJ Games forum about bending as a martial arts style with other stuff.