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Soulbound: Era of the Beast Well, Who'd Have Known  The Knight-Judicator is a Stormcast archetype, representing those archers among the Stormcast who have shown excellent courage, wisdom and leadership. They are snipers and officers, commanding and rallying other Stormcast and overseeing the battlefield from high vantages to bring heavy fire support. They are famous for their ability to sense Chaos corruption, so they rarely have trouble choosing targets, and they prefer to arm themselves with blessed weapons to help purify their foes. They are trusted well by Sigmar, able to fire an arrow into the sky to call down his divine thunder in a blazing blast. Because the Knights-Judicator are able to sense Chaos's touch, a fair number of them end up assigned to helping a Binding rather than leading a squad or army. They wear the thunderstrike armor, meaning they excel at operating independently even under the Cursed Skies, and this makes them pretty great support for a Binding that is hunting infiltrators or goes up against Chaos a lot. They often serve as scouts for Bindings associated with a Free City or Dawnbringer Crusade, and they often take it on themselves to clear a path for more fragile mortals. If you want a charismatic figure with a really flashy light show on command, you can't really go wrong here. Knights-Judicator are Stormcast only and have Body 4, Mind 3, Soul 2. Their Core Skill is Ballistic Skill, plus a good selection from Awareness, Athletics, Ballistic Skill, Beast Handling, Determination, Devotion, Intuition, Lore, Reflexes, Survival, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talent is Faithful Gryph-hounds (Knight-Judicator only, you get two Gryph-hounds as Loyal Companions, which get a bonus to Toughness equal to your Soul each. Unlike normal Loyal Companions, they can't act independently - instead, you must spend an Action to direct them, allowing them both to Move and take a single Action, which can be different ones for each of them. If one dies, you can use a Train Companion Endeavor to bond with a new one.), and they get two from among Gaze of Sigmar (Knight-Judicator only, requires Theology Training and Focus 1, once per day you can spend an Action to target a single Zone in Long range and call on Sigmar's lightning, dealing (Doom) Damage that ignores Armor to everything in the Zone), Hail of Doom, Hunter, Patient Strike, Pierce Armor, Sigmar's Judgment or Tactician. They begin with a suit of Thunderstrike Mail (Medium Thunderstrike Armor), a Terminus Greatbow, a Warblade (a Sword), a Sigmarite holy symbol, and 75D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Knights-Relictor are Stormcast who stand at the forefront of defending mortal lives. They carry with them the relics of divine martyrs in their censers, spreading sweet incense to help purify the land and protect their charges. Normally, the burning of relics of the holy dead is sacrilege of the highest order, but Sigmar has expressly told the Knights-Relictor to do this, for he cannot place even these saints' dead bodies as more important than living souls. The Knights-Relictor, in times past, were the guardians of the Temple of Ages, where Sigmar stores all the lore the Stormcast hold on death and spirits, and they understand exactly what they are doing with their censers and the souls they disturb - but the living must take precedencer. Knights-Relictor have noted that when Soulbound die, their souls explode and then dissipate, but their bodies remain intact. Some Knights-Relictor work with a Binding for the explicit purpose of gathering their bodies after their deaths, to turn into martyr's relics. (This is, after all, the most likely way any Soulbound is going to die.) Other times, the Knights-Relictor find a common cause with a Binding, such as defending a Dawnbringer Crusade or trying to purify and purge the Cursed Skies over an area. While the Knights-Relictor are Sigmarites (obviously), they also are pretty much all huge theology nerds and love to learn more about the religious lore and practices of other cultures, both for fun and to gather new lore for the Temple of Ages. Knights-Relictor are Stormcast only and have Body 3, Mind 2, Soul 4. Their Core skill is Devotion, with a decent selection from Athletics, Awareness, Determination, Devotion, Dexterity, Fortitude, Medicine, Might, Reflexes, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talents are Sacred Remains (Knight-Relictor only, when you start the game, make a Theology roll. You have Sacred Remains equal to your successes. As an Action, you can burn one Sacred Remains to cast any single Sigmar or Universal Miracle, even if you don't know it. Alternatively, you can burn one as a Free Action to sustain or empower a Miracle you know. You replenish your Sacred Remains with another Theology roll as above whenever you Rest in a city or have any downtime, which doesn't require an Endeavor. Your cap is (Soul+Theology Training) Sacred Remains. If a PC dies and gave prior consent, you may harvest their body for Sacred Remains, which fills you up to cap and reduces Doom by 1.) and Blessed (Sigmar), plus two from Fearless, Iron Will, Rending Blow, Scholar, Strong Soul, and any Miracles of Sigmar. They start with Thunderstrike Plate (Medium Thunderstrike Armor), a Relic Maul (a Warhammer), a Relic Censer, a lockbox for putting bones in, and 100D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Knights-Vexillor are the most dedicated and toughest Stormcast, and while Sigmar has loosened the restrictions of the Eighth Law, which is the one mandating all STormcast must win in the Gladitorium before they're allowed to return to active duty, no Knight-Vexillor ever takes the exemptions or easier tasks, even given the harsh pace of the war. A Knight-Vexillor must always claim their title by proving their resilience in combat against monsters and other Stormcast after each death, showing they still have the right to bear the sacred standard of Sigmar. This resolve has earned all of them thunderstrike armor, to help keep their sacred artifacts safe, and they are living symbols of faith and light in the darkness. The banner of a Knight-Vexillor can even draw on the power of the Anvil of Apotheosis, and the magic within them can be harnessed to call on comets, move allies through the aetheric wind or heal the dying. Knights-Vexillor that work with a Binding bring these abilities with them, and often they do so because a Binding is capable of achieving more than the material victories of warfare. When a Knight-Vexillor chooses a Binding to support, it is because they believe the party's success will be critical to the morale of Order forces everywhere the party goes. They understand the power of symbols, and they lend their own symbolic weight to a Soulbound group, using them to declare that Sigmar stands with anyone that is ready to make the world better. A Knight-Vexillor must be Stormcast and has Body 4, Mind 2, Soul 3. Their Core Skill is Determination, with a decent selection from Arcana, Determination, Fortitude, Lore, Might, Reflexes, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talents are Holy Standard Bearer (Knight-Vexillor only, you can wield a Sigmarite standard in one hand and attack with it as if it were a Warhammer, and any ally within Medium range that can see your standard gets to add your Determination Training and Focus to any roll to resist or recover from Charmed or Frightened. Also, you can spend an Action to plant your standard and declare that no one will falter today. While you remain in the Zone where you did this, you and all allies in your Zone add your Determination Training and Focus to all Death Test rolls.) and Iron Will, plus two from Diplomat, Eidetic Memory, Fearless, Hard to Kill, Scholar or…Iron Will. (Edited in, they errata’d out casting for Iron Will as core, but I’m pretty sure you can’t take that twice?) They begin with Thunderstrike Plate (Medium Thunderstrike Armor), a Sigmarite Warblade (a Sword), their choice of a Banner of Apotheosis, Meteoric Standard or Pennant of the Stormbringer, and 100D of Aqua Ghyranis. (We'll get into what the banners do later.) Next time: Bat elf, snake elf, doot tree, man with hat Mors Rattus fucked around with this message at 07:47 on Apr 4, 2023 |
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Apr 3, 2023 22:43
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast I really like the two upcoming mutant elf archetypes, even if a time may come when I can't play every single snake elf as Jack Garland from Stranger of Paradise. Of the taser boys in the current preview, Judicator is definitely cool, but I worry about how well those dogs will scale into the late game. Taking a downtime action to recover ONE of them seems a hefty penalty. Summoning spells and rituals can give you better stuff, for less of a cost, and you won't be taxed actions to use them in combat. A friend of mine is really fond of Relictor as a highly adaptable magic user, who can pull out niche miracles when needed and insulate the group from the consequences of losing a fight. On the other hand, keeping track of d&d wizard style spell slots with your sacred remains does mean that you might not be as consistently useful. Vexillor seem pretty good. You are a serviceable fighter-priest who can do stuff other priests cannot. Depending on the standard you choose, you can access some very nice magic options. Their real strength comes out if you build the party around the buffs they are offering, that bonus to celestial casting could be pretty nice for pushing your team's magic power just a bit further.
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Apr 4, 2023 00:47
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Falconier111 posted:I'm just a casual fan of the original AU; I stumbled across this PDF when I googled Replay Value AU because I forgot where it was originally posted. That said, you're right on the money for what happened – the author directly credits that lack of internal organization as the reason the RP failed and says she chose to use Chuubo to provide a mechanical basis and arbitrator for everything to keep things from spinning out of control again. mellonbread posted:The guy who made the tumblr post is overrating his role in the whole affair. The actual disappearance of the IRC happened a year or two after the events he's describing (I think. I suspect Falconier was also a firsthand witness and may have a more accurate read on the situation). If you really want a first-hand witness, hi. Falconier111 posted:
Side-note, eternityBraid and cognitiveMistake are characters of OJ's, but not ones she played during RV Classic. I think they were created around the time she started working on the User Guide. mellonbread posted:It was pretty rare to see people do a full blow-by-blow of all the various game interactions, for the same reason you would very quickly get tired of writing and reading blow-by-blows of someone playing an MMO. The primary mode of play was the characters would discuss some inane thing in the irc channel, and a guy would log into the chat begging for help with a life and death issue. Maybe a glitch with the game that was going to kill them, maybe another player in their game session who was a Silent Chief Yurt style serial killer. But because of the social dynamics of the fictional chatroom, the guy whose life was in jeopardy would have to fight to have his problem taken seriously, to have the experts in the community decide he was worthy of help, and to actually listen to his problem rather than just offering a platitude they would normally offer an inexperienced player. Anything more in-depth than that usually took place in a vignette pre-arranged by the participants. Basically, yeah. Most of the characters in the IC community did care and wanted to help, but not all of them were equally good at being helpful. And the IRC was also where they came to unwind and have some interactions that weren't being dictated by SBURB, in addition to being where people came to seek help. I'm really interested to see more, if you want to keep going, Falconier! It's cool to see someone analyzing something that was a major part of my life.
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Apr 4, 2023 05:31
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast Head's up, it appears that you got the old, non-errata-ed version of the book. Knight-Vexilors do not have Spellcasting (Celestial), they have Iron Will as their other Core Talent. You can download the most update version from DriveThru. I'll comment on the Stormies in bit more depth later, I gotta go to work.
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Apr 4, 2023 06:09
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Warden posted:Head's up, it appears that you got the old, non-errata-ed version of the book. Knight-Vexilors do not have Spellcasting (Celestial), they have Iron Will as their other Core Talent. Fixed, thanks! Oddly the optional talent list still has Iron Will. You can’t stack it, I checked.
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Apr 4, 2023 13:05
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Sword World 2.5 Pedantry corner I've been watching other game threads in TG where people have been talking/arguing about rules and additions. Rather than poo poo up threads with "This is how a Japanese game you've never heard of does it!" posts, I thought I'd do it here, in a thread that I've already thoroughly poo poo up. Pathfinder thread posted:Recall Knowledge checks A character with the Sage class has a second, higher target number on that same roll which will let the party take advantage of any weak points the monster has. This usually gives bonus damage when using a certain type of attack. If nobody with the Sage class makes this higher roll, the party can't use the weak point effectively even if they're using that type of attack. D&D One thread posted:Adding guns to D&D Being able to fire a gun doesn't make you good at it. For maximum effectiveness, Artificers are strongly encouraged to take the Marksman class as well. Artificers also have various Grenade spells, which lets them sacrifice a small magisphere to blow things up.
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Apr 4, 2023 15:26
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast You got things a bit wrong here. Loyal Companions cannot act independently at all, it always takes an action (however, if you are riding one, you can use their Move instead of yours). So Faithful Gryph-hounds is an upgrade in that way. However, their only use in combat is attacking two non-Swarm minions in one action, or using them as last-ditch ablative armor by having them take the Defend action. Bird-doggos don't have good stats, and Judicator only has Soul 2, and have other things clamoring for skill xp usage beside Beast Handling, so using endeavours to train the pets does not work super well. Knight-Judicators are overall very solid ranged Archetype, though later on they run into the same problem of Accuracy being based on Mind+Ballistic Skill with far fewer ways of boosting it otherwise compared to Melee, and they don't really use Mind for much else, so 7xp is a bit steep. I'd do the same as with Windchargers, get Ballistic Skill Training to 3 and then Focus to 3, so you can flip into sixes for certain hits and ignoring armor thanks to Pierce Armor. quote:Knights-Relictor These guys are the kings of action economy. They start with Soul 4, have access to the excellent Strong Soul Talent (add Devotion to Soul for calculating Mettle), so they can easily start with whopping 3 Mettle, and can get to 4 Mettle by just raising Devotion training to 3. Add in the Sacred Relics allowing Free Actions a few times per adventure and you got a real monster. They also have a very good Skill selection. quote:Knights-Vexillor Quite strong and decently versatile archetype. The Banner mechanics are interesting, and allows them completely leave out Mind and Channeling and still cast a limited selection of spells.
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Apr 4, 2023 19:09
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mors, what in god's name are you doing with the post subtitles, I do not understand
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Apr 5, 2023 09:46
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They’re the lyrics to one of the songs from Beauty and the Beast.
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Apr 5, 2023 11:50
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Nessus posted:John Courage’s only argument on Amtrak is with the conductor— to stop before they reach the bridge the Nephandus sabotaged!!!! By the way, what's Qui La Machinae? Google somehow fails me. Also, I was a little disturbed by the Paradox Realms being presented as their own fully functioning realities. Seems like some God-level Paradox spirits at work - and some implications for when you pop them.
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Apr 5, 2023 15:18
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast Well, Who Indeed  Khinerai are made from the combination of an aelven soul and Morathi-Khaine's own blood. They are the harpies of Khaine, born from Morathi's resentment and anger, and they have been her loyal assassins for centuries. Until recently, they had to hide what they were, appearing from the sky to murder and using illusions to conceal their wings among those not of the Daughters of Khaine. Now, however, Morathi feels no more need to conceal the Scathborn, as she has named her monstrous aelves. She has revealed the Khinerai and their serpentine sisters, and now they fight openly in her name. Occasionally, now, Morathi might select a Khinerai to join a Binding during the ritual periods when she gives them their duties, the Gristead. This would be a good way to get rid of a Khinerai that doubts her divinity - a growing problem now that the Daughters are splitting and the Khinerai are no longer kept within hidden aeries. Morathi, after all, would much prefer any such doubters not influence their sisters much. However, Sigmar and Grungni have also both been applying great pressure to Morathi to get her to contribute more to the Grand Alliance, and this might also lead her to assign some Khinerai to Bindings even if they aren't problem children, hoping that she can use her loyal harpies to control the Bindings while getting the other gods to leave her alone. Khinerai are DoK Aelf only, starting with Body 3, Mind 3, Soul 2. Their Core Skill is either Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill, plus a good selection from Athletics, Awareness, Ballistic Skill, Dexterity, Intimidation, Reflexes, Survival, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talent is Morathi-Khaine's Glory (Khinerai only, you have wings and a Fly (Fast) Speed, but only while you aren't wearing Medium or Heavy Armor.), plus 3 of Ambidextrous, Death From Above (Khinerai only, if you use your Move to fly at least one full Zone directly toward a target, you can spend an Action to throw a Barbed Javelin with extreme force. A Barbed Javelin thrown this way gains Penetrating and deals double damage for this attack.), Furious Descent, Graceful Landing, Hit and Run or Orientation. They begin with a suit of Leather Armor (Light Armor), a Barbed Sickle (a Sword) or a Barbed Javelin (a Javelin), a Heartpiercer Shield, a Scathborn's Guise, an icon of Morathi-Khaine and 20D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Melusai are born from aelven souls and the blood of Morathi, and it is her unconscious vanity that makes them resemble her Shadow Queen form - the form that was her true form when she didn't have two bodies. The most trusted Melusai are promoted to the rank of Ironscale, serving as Morathi's generals and bodyguards, while the lower-ranked Blood Sisters and Blood Stalkers still outrank most Witch Aelves...if they act openly as Melusai, anyway. When they do not, they mix with the rank and file as spies for Morathi-Khaine, hiding their true nature with illusion. They are sneaky wizards of great skill, but now, they need not hide their strength away, and many openly take to the field to battle the enemies of Khaine. Before Morathi-Khaine became a god, almost no Melusai ever joined Bindings, as Morathi wished to conceal their existence. Now, this is not a concern, and many Melusai actively seek out the Binding. They see it as a way of emulating Morathi's own ascension, growing closer to divinity - even if it means linking their souls with non-Khainites. While most Melusai still only become Soulbound on orders from Morathi, a growing number are becoming independent of their creator. Several have taken it on themselves to seek out gods and bargain their way into Bindings. All to better serve Morathi-Khaine, surely. Definitely. There's no way that they're growing less loyal to Morathi, that would be silly. Melusai are also Khainite aelf only, with Body 3, Mind 3, Soul 2 and Core Skill of either Ballistic Skill or Weapon Skill. They also get a good selection from Athletics, Awareness, Ballistic Skill, Beast Handling, Determination, Devotion, Fortitude, Guile, Intimidation, Intuition, Might, Reflexes, Stealth, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talent is Shadow Queen's Grace (You have the lower body of a snake, giving you a Fast Speed and immunity to Prone.), plus 3 from Blessed (Khaine), Constriction (Melusai only, requires Might Training and Focus 1, you have Advantage on opposed rolls to grapple, and if you successfully grapple an enemy, you can deal (Might Training+Might Focus) Damage that ignores Armor, and can deal this damage for free again at the start of each of your turns if the target is still Restrained then.), Contortionist, Hail of Doom, Intimidating Manner, Loyal Companion (Blood Wyrm), Pierce Armor, Scath Touch (Melusai only, when you kill an enemy with a melee attack, you can spend 1 Mettle to tear out their crystallized heart and leave them as an eternally conscious crystal statue, forcing all enemies in Medium range that can see you to roll Determination, harder the stronger the guy you killed was. If they fail, they become Frightened of you until the end of your next turn. The GM may rule that robots, daemons or other such beings have no hearts and thus can't have this done to them.), or any Miracles of Khaine. They begin with Armored Plating (Medium Armor), a Heartshard Glaive (a Halberd) or a Heartseeker Bow (a Bow) and a Scianlar (a Sword), a Scathborn's Guise, a shed scale of the Shadow Queen, and 50D of Aqua Ghyranis.  Warsong Revenants are born from ancient soulpods that were kept hidden in the Oak of Ages Past, waiting for the right time. Alarielle released these pods into the River Vitalis after her Rite of Life, and the Warsong Revenants rose from the seeds. As they were born, they played their great flutes, cleansing the taint of Nurgle from the wetlands around their birthplace and causing the Gor-kin that lived there to die of internal bleeding. They have since spread to various Sylaventh groves, bringing their unique interpretations of the spirit-song with them. While each plays a different tune, they all seek to spread the power of life throughout the Realms. While some Warsong Revenants prefer to work alone, others seek a harmony with others. For many, it is actually easier to become Soulbound than it is for other Sylvaneth. They have few memories within their lamentiri, so less is lost by giving up their rebirths. However, this only makes it harder for some of them, knowing that they will only ever have the one life...and it's not as though there's all that many Warsong Revenants to begin with, and Alarielle doesn't seem to plan to plant too many more any time soon. Alarielle only asks the Warsong Revenants to join Bindings when she is certain that it will enhance their internal song and allow them to spread it all the more. Warsong Revenants must be Sylvaneth and begin with Body 2, Mind 2, Soul 4. Their Core Skill is Entertain, and they get a small selection from Beast Handling, Entertain, Fortitude, Lore, Medicine, Nature or Survival. Their Core Talents are Alarielle's Song (Warsong Revenant only, when casting Jade spells or unbinding, you can use Soul (Entertain) instead of Mind (Channeling), and your Entertain Training and Focus are used instead of Channelling for any Talent requirements. As an Action, you may play a song, of which you have two. The Ballad for the Brave has you make an Entertain roll, and for each success you pick an ally in Medium range, healing them of the Frightened or Stunned conditions instantly. The Everqueen's Warsong has every enemy in Medium range roll Determination against your Entertain, with failing causing Frightened of you until the end of your next turn.), Unbind and Spellcasting (Jade), and they get 2 from among Animal Friend, Diplomat, Fearless, Swarm of Spites (Warsong Revenant or Branchwych only, as an Action, you can roll Entertain or Channelling to summon Spites based on your successes. They appear as a Swarm in your Zone, and on your turn you can give them a simple verbal command as a Free Action. They will obey you to the best of their ability. You can have only one Swarm at a time, with a max number of Spites in it of (Soul+Entertain Training or Mind+Channelling Training). While your Swarm is in Medium range, you can spend an Action to make the same roll as you summoned them with to add more Spites to the Swarm. You can dismiss the Swarm as a Free Action.) or Witch-Sight. They begin with an Arboreal Cloak, a Spirit Falchion (a Greatsword), a Warsong Flute, and 280D of Aqua Ghyranis.  The Witch Hunters are members of the Order of Azyr, formed by Sigmar after the sealing of Azyr during the Age of Chaos. The Order was made to protect mortals from the subtle corruptions of the Dark Gods, training them in investigation and combat so they might detect the touch of Death or Chaos and defeat it where more open warfare would fail. Most know the Order's members as Witch Hunters, and they are widely known througout the Free Cities for their efforts. Their uniform is a long coat and many weapons and occult tools. They are often grim people, and certainly most people think of them as somber, dangerous sorts, even if not all of them are actually dark and humorless. While many Witch Hunters are happy to do their work armed only with their wits, guns and knowledge, others dream of becoming something greater. Joining a Binding gives them a chance at that, yet allows them to retain their basic mortality so that they don't lose touch with their origins. Soulbound Witch Hunters don't have to fear being turned by a vampire or tainted by Chaos, either, which helps them confront their foes without fear. That's a big bonus now that they can't always count on having a Free City's forces at their back, given how many are now busy sending soldiers out to protect the Dawnbringer Crusades. Witch Hunters often get along well with other seekers of truth and knowledge, such as Knights-Azyros or Isharann Soulscryers, but they also often end up as the voice of suspicion and cynicism in more optimistic Bindings. After all, they know all too well how easy it is for people to lie and conceal their evil deeds. Witch Hunters can be Human, Duardin or Aelf, and they begin with Body 2, Mind 3, Soul 3. Their Core Skill is Guile, and they get a large selection from among Arcana, Awareness, Ballistic Skill, Determination, Devotion, Fortitude, Guile, Intimidation, Intuition, Lore, Reflexes, Stealth, Survival, Theology or Weapon Skill. Their Core Talent is Bane of the Witch (When investigating or tracking traces of Chaos taint or witches, you double Training on all Mind rolls.), plus 2 from Ambidextrous, Backstab, Blessed (Sigmar), Gunslinger, Guts, Intimidating Manner, Iron Will, Point Blank Range, Sigmar's Judgement, Underdog, Vanish, or any Miracles of Sigmar. They begin with Leather Armor and a Leather Coat (Light Armor), 2 Weapons of Banishment (more on those in a bit), an Iron Torch, Nullstone Manacles, a bandolier of various esoteric tools and 100D of Aqua Ghyranis. Next time: New tools and methods.
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Apr 5, 2023 16:10
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JcDent posted:By the way, what's Qui La Machinae? Google somehow fails me. That thought never crossed my mind. And I suspect it didn't cross the authors minds either  Mage: The Implications.
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Apr 5, 2023 16:16
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Mors Rattus posted:Soulbound: Era of the Beast Death From Above seems really good. Doubling the scaling on your attack damage means you are blowing past a lot of the assumed defensive numbers for enemies. However, this is also locked to a very particular kind of javelin, and I don't think throwing weapons assume infinite ammo like regular ranged weapons. If you are playing a harpy, you might end up spending a surprising amount of time thinking about the logistics required to make sure you always have a sufficient number of Barbed Javelins handy.
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Apr 5, 2023 18:59
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You also cannot spam it without spending Mettle, because you have to use your Move to move at least a full Zone towards the target for it to proc. You could spend your Move to move forward, toss the Javelin as an Attack action, spend your Mettle to move away one Zone, repeat next round. Of course, you are then giving up the opportunity of spending the Mettle for another attack, but one attack at double damage with Penetrating should out-damage two regular attacks pretty much always, unless there are other factors at work. So yes, it is an extremely solid Talent.
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Apr 5, 2023 20:07
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Having done it myself I like trying to finagle making a witch aelf into something like 'heroic' while still keeping to at least the broad strokes of the Morathi aelves philosophy. And now you can do it as a half snake lady so I'm sure that's nice for somebody.
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Apr 5, 2023 20:31
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 I gave this game a lot of crap so far, but overall, I think the concepts and mechanics are actually pretty good. They're quick, easy to learn, and rather concise, which is a very good thing. I like big crunchy games a lot, really. I started with 2e DnD, I loved Exalted. I tried and actually enjoyed Eclipse Phase. But there's a growing trend to simplify TTRPG games and make them more accessible, which I also love. This hobby needs all the new blood it can get. But on that note, a lot of this game has been good, but flawed. However, the first thing about this game I really enjoy are Villains. It's not the mechanics so much, as they're not really that special. They're good, but what it really is is that that they match the flavor of this game, its modus operandi. Fabula Ultima wants to be a JRPG so bad, and in this case, it really works. We've spent a lot of time talking about Villains in Fabula Ultima, or mentioning them at least. But we've never actually described what a Villain is, and how they're different from a normal enemy or boss. The idea is that a Villain with a capital V is different from villains in that a Villain is supposed to be a reoccurring threat, and a memorable one at that. The bandit boss might be a hard fight, but he's not particularly memorable. But Cyrus, the bandit king, is. Julia, a sorceress who will stop at nothing to perform a ritual that might destroy the world... Because she seeks to save it. Gorgimire, the evil extra-dimensional entity who will bend reality to its will. And all of these Villains could be in the same campaign. Villains motivate the story as much as the PCs do. While the game claims that nothing major is supposed to happen without the PCs being present, Villains can ignore that rule (usually through GM Scenes). Whatever the Villains are, whoever they are, they are almost always connected to the PCs somehow. Their inclusion in the game isn't just as some random monster that must be confronted to save the world. Would Melfice have been at all a memorable Villain, if it weren't for his hateful connection with Ryudo? Would we have given two shits about Sephiroth if nearly every party member didn't have some connection to him? Heck, even Kefka's introduction in FFVI came entirely from how he related to Terra. To show this, Villains in Fabula Ultima almost always have bonds to the PCs, and vice versa, and they also often have opposing themes. To use a previous example, Terra's desperation to do something, ANYTHING good, opposed to Kefka's straw-nihilism fueled evil. The GM can use Villains wherever they see fit, but the Villains should be memorable. They should not be a one-off boss. Even if the party only fights a Villain once, it should be a fight led up to with much ado, and the fight should matter a lot. Luca Blight had three fights... But they were all technically in the same scene, and the entire game led up to the confrontation with him and spent a lot of time emphasizing how evil and wickedly powerful he was. Not to mention fighting his henchmen through the entire game. Now, let's get into the mechanics of the Villains. First, Ultima Points. We discussed these a little last post, but here's a small crash course along with new information. A Villain gains a number of Ultima Points at character creation. This is based on their narrative importance: Minor, which would include Cyrus, Major, which would be Julia, and Supreme, where Gorgimire sits. In that order, they get 5, 10, and 15. They can use them for three options: Escape, Invoke Trait, and Recovery. Escape I mentioned before, it allows them to flip the PCs the bird and just walk out. They can just leave, and possibly leave behind some henchmen or a Boss to fight in their place. They don't even have to be in a fight with the PCs, Sephiroth can just throw pieces of JENOVA at you and walk away laughing while you fight JENOVA's... Ear lobes or something. Invoke Traits let them do the same thing PCs can do with Fabula Points, they can reroll dice for more favorable results. And Recovery is something a lot of major bosses in JRPGs can do, particularly the MegaTen Franchise: Just remove all status effects and recover 50 MP. All this comes at a cost, though. While PCs can recover Fabula Points through various means, a Villain will only have what they have. Once it's out, it's out, and there's nothing they can do about it. Or is there?  "You think you've won? You think you've beaten me?! THE INSOLENCE!" Escalation. At any time during play, the GM can transform a Villain into a new character. It may be showing off their final form, or just that the Villain has slipped deeper into their madness, going from tragic to truly heinous. Instead of the Villain becoming a new ally, they reject redemption, and throw themselves headlong into the darkness. Beware the cornered wolf, and all that. When this happens, the Villain moves up in narrative importance, and thus become more powerful. They reset their Ultima Points to the new maximum of the Villainous power they now hold the next time they appear before the PCs. They're treated also as an entirely new character, and will have more powerful abilities. There is a caveat here that a Supreme Villain cannot grow more powerful, but it can attain a new form. Further, if a Villain hits 0 HP and has no Ultima Points left, they may immediately Escalate while still on the Scene, recharging their Ultima Points immediately. However, because PCs get a Fabula Point every time a Villain appears, the Escalated Villain being a new character means that they will also offer another Fabula Point here if they have already. So Escalating in front of PCs can also make the PCs regain an advantage. Of course, a Villain that can escalate every time they're defeated quickly grows tiresome, especially since Villains can just run away a lot before that point as well. How do you keep this from being annoying, rather than threatening? It's a delicate balance, the game admits, and Nurse Cleric has some advice:  Finally, while we're not getting into how to actually make a Villain yet, we do have an important topic for discussion: Villains and Fabula Points. Obviously, when a Villain appears in a Scene, every PC gets 1 Fabula Point, even if they're not present on the Scene. But what about the edge cases? Well, for one, if a Villain has a disguise or an alter-ego they use to peaceably interact with the PCs, or to poison the King's will against the PCs, or in any other occasion where they are not obviously the Villain, there are no Fabula Points given out when they appear. If the deception is revealed, then they will whenever they appear from then on. If multiple Villains are on a Scene, PCs gain a Fabula Point for each one, to a maximum of 3 per Scene. Clever Players might orchestrate plots to force multiple Villains into a Scene somehow. If a Villain's presence extends for multiple Scenes without them actually leaving (like spotting them multiple times through the same dungeon), the PCs only get the 1 Fabula Point when they first appear. GMs should consider throwing out a GM Scene and having a cutscene focused on the Villain if the PCs are running low on Fabula Points with no good opportunity to refuel. It's just good sense. So, before we move on, I'll use my previously given examples as good examples of how Villains work in this game. Cyrus, the Bandit King, wishes to use his charisma to unite all the bandit gangs of the continent under his banner. If he does, he will become a force to be reckoned with even in the Fourfold Queendoms, and the PCs must stop this. This looming threat is actually only a Minor Villain in the grand scheme of things, so while he's dangerous, he only has 5 Ultima Points. The PCs don't encounter Cyrus directly, but they do fight his henchmen a lot, and the constant threat of his plan makes the Players focus on the ticking Clock towards his goal, building the hype. When they finally fight through all of Cyrus's forces and face him, he spends all of his Ultima Points in the fight to either Recover or Invoke his Traits, making a rough encounter that really tests the endurance of the early-campaign PCs. He doesn't Escalate, but he doesn't Escape either, fighting to the bitter end for the sake of his pride. Julia is a seemingly cold and ruthless wizard who has used her magic to cause chaos, and takes what she wants without hesitation. She is worrying the Queen of the land with how many magical artifacts she has amassed, and while the PCs have encountered Julia before, she showed little interest in them. The Queen tasks the Party with pursuing Julia. The Major Villain takes up a good bit of the campaign as the wizard proves to not only quite powerful, easily able to wipe the floor with a weaker band of heroes, but she also continuously summons monstrosities to deal with the PCs while she focuses on "More important things". She spends a lot of her 10 Ultima Points on the Escape option, forcing the party to fight her summoned eldritch horrors instead of her. Eventually, her first defeat results in her fleeing, and the Players can pat themselves on the back for managing to surpass a great Villain. The truth is, however, she was only caught off guard, and she Escalates to show that she is actually taking the PCs seriously. The next time they meet, she shows her TRUE power as a Wizard. With an impressive 15 Ultima Points and a new array of spells and abilities, she proves a terrifying opponent, and they only finally defeat her by the skin of her teeth. Stunned, she tells the PCs a dark secret, the reason for her villainy, and joins the Party as a new PC, controlled by someone who wanted to enter as a badass wizard. Gorgimire is the Supreme villain. Julia was amassing all her power to use it to keep Gorgimire out of their world, because she did not believe the dark, eldritch being could be defeated. But she was running out of options, and the PCs might gives her hope. Gorgimire is nothing to be trifled with, however, and it shows this by breaking reality ever so slightly. Just a small touch of its power, yet still enough to change their world forever. The PCs struggle to adjust to their world, ruined, and to gather some magical implements that might allow them to weaken the horror... Its staggering 15 Ultima Points make fighting it a properly daunting idea! After all, the PCs barely beat Julia, and she was only mortal! Of course, Gorgimire cannot grow stronger than what it already is, but the GM has a nasty trick planned: Gorgimire is faced by the Party, and they manage to seemingly wound it... Only for Gorgimire to Escalate! It can't gain more than 15 Ultima Points, or become stronger, but it CAN change out its abilities and spells for something new entirely, as it focuses its reality-bending power into a form more suited for fighting the PCs! Now facing the final form of the final boss with a renewed 15 Ultima Points, they have their work cut out for them... Cue the operatic music with ominous choir! I said it before, and I'll say it again here: Villains are something Fabula Ultima does right. It wants to be a JRPG, and I think it really, actually manages to give that feel with this part of the game. It translates so well into the mood. Tragic Villains that want to be something great. Dark heroes who will stop at nothing to save the world even if they have to break a few eggs. Evil Gods that simply want to wreck everything, and rebuild the world in their own image. And most importantly... The Villain who seeks redemption, and finds themselves allied with those that they assumed would hate them. Villains have always been a huge focus of JRPGs in general. They drive the story as much as the main characters do. Their actions, their agency, matters just as much. They are, in a way, main characters in their own right, not just the antagonist the Player has to defeat to save the world. They shouldn't be killed by a mere lucky series of rolls, or a ridiculous plan to one-shot them that somehow manages to work. They will survive to fight another day, to keep the narrative flowing, but in a way that doesn't punish the Players for being clever. They still made the Villain waste a resource they can't get back, after all, and that's one more point that can't be used to gently caress with them later. Moving on from Villains, let's talk Inventory!  So, Fabula Ultima has a pretty abstract idea of how inventory and items work. You keep track of what weapons, armor, and accessory you have on you, but instead of worrying about everything else, the game assumes each PC has whatever they need to properly perform their role in the party. But for everything else, there's IP. Each PC has 6 IP to start with, and they can use them to pull a consumable out of their pack to immediately use (it can't be held for later, it has to be used now). These are pretty important, as not every Party will have a healer, or have a healer PRESENTLY with them. Magic Tents are also an invaluable (but expensive) item that can completely negate the worry to find a safe place in the wild. Elemental Shards are very effective, as well, and a good way for martial-focused characters to deal a hefty amount of damage to enemies by targeting their weaknesses (20 damage if it hits a Vulnerability, and it's ranged!), but also great if your mage doesn't have the proper Elements to deal with a new enemy. IP are precious resources, and you can't restore them normally by camping. Rest will not restore IP, and characters can't give IP of theirs to another character, either. Instead, they can restock when in a civilized area at the cost of 10 Zenit per IP. A merciful GM might also provide IP points to desperately low PCs when they find treasure or supplies, or give a free use of a consumable when they find a Tonic or Remedy in a chest. There is another use for IP, though, aside from the consumables. As I said, everyone is assumed to be carrying what makes sense for their role already. A Thief doesn't need to use IP to make a set of lockpicks, and the Sharpshooter doesn't need to keep track of arrows, bolts, or bullets. But sometimes, the situation calls for some weird stuff. Ball-bearings are very useful for making a tripping hazard, but is the Thief really carrying those? They sure are, for the cost of 2 IP! These work differently from consumables. Their cost isn't set, but instead are "generally" 2-4 IP, at the GM's discretion for how useful the item is or how unlikely it is they'd have that item. While it's pretty normal for the Tinkerer to have mechanical tools, explaining why the Arcanist does is a drat sight harder to justify, and costs more IP because of it. Also unlike consumables, these items are not immediately used up when created, and can be used multiple times as they're effectively added to the PC's inventory. However, the GM should never be allowed to sell these items for more than five times their IP cost, or they will quickly find the PCs filthy rich as they exploit such an obvious loophole. There are much more direct ways of breaking this game anyway. The game does want to note here that these items will never have any direct mechanical benefit. They might allow the PC to DO something, but not to get a +1. So, what are we missing here that helps identify this game as a JRPG? A world map! Which this game needs, and is made in character creation. Not just by the GM, but by all the Players as well. They build a world together, and establish the main regions and cities. There's still plenty to see and do out there, though, and this only covers the broad strokes of the world, not all the specifics. So, Fabula Ultima is at least partially a hex-crawl, which is a kind of game I adore. When they're traveling around, the basic unit of movement is the Travel Day: the average distance covered during a single day of travel. Go figure. For a journey, we follow the following steps:  Of course, sometimes things take longer than expected. Poor conditions or a particularly involved stop might extend the length of a journey, or sometimes a stroke of good luck provides a faster route, so the GM has the final say on how many travel days a journey will take. If you find yourself having fractions of a travel day, just round up to the nearest whole. The danger for an area increases based on the amount of monsters there are, and the area. Similarly to Dragon Quest games, the 'encounter rate' will be higher in mountains than it will be in grasslands, and on guarded roads it'll be unlikely they'll run into any danger. But again, the threat of an area isn't just determined by environment. While a Prairie might be mostly safe, if the area is being patrolled by hostile forces, the threat level is elevated several stages. There's another table here, showing the threat level and the die rolled to see if there's an encounter in a day, though it doesn't actually mention the effect enemy patrols or high monster-concentration should have, the book just tells us that should affect things. Likely common sense is required.  Sometimes, a danger can be resolved through a series of checks or a clock, but a Conflict Scene might be more appropriate in a lot of situations! While a fight is pretty dangerous, sometimes you have to cross dangerous terrain instead, or face a blizzard in your path. The PCs might be faced with an even more dire situation: Someone dropped the MacGuffin and they need to recover it immediately. We get yet another table here showing the damage that a danger might deal if it's not a straight up monster,. Previous tables like it have showed the damage escalates depending on level. At level 5+, a minor danger like hidden ditches dug by groundhogs might deal 10 damage from a sprained ankle. But the Massive danger of a thunderstorm could hit characters with 40 damage when they get struck by lightning, which is... A lot of HP to lose! Every 20 levels, the damage generally goes up by +10 for Minor and Heavy damage, but Massive damage instead increases by +20 every 20 levels, which is... Yikes. These could conceivably one-shot some PCs and then some. Some dangers, like Miyazaki-land, might deal status effects like Poisoned instead of dealing direct damage. Discoveries, on the other hand, are a good thing. When the PCs find a Discovery, it should be unique and useful because they don't (or shouldn't, depending on how your dice go) happen that often. Sometimes a Discovery can be dangerous, with a reward well worth it, but mostly they should be things like finding a hidden village, a chance encounter with a friendly group of adventurers, or maybe even a clue to future adventures. Of course, as the PCs travel and discover new things, the GM should update the map with new landmarks, so PCs can revisit something interesting. Same goes for if the PCs hears rumors about a nearby dungeon in town. Players can also add things to the map by spending Fabula Points; the map doesn't just stop being a collaborative effort once the game starts. Next time, we'll get into dungeons, a relatively short topic, and magic, which is less so. To send us off, have this map! 
Mecha_Face fucked around with this message at 22:46 on Apr 5, 2023 |
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Apr 5, 2023 22:39
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IP's are absolutely my most favourite Fabula Ultima mechanic. It's a great way to have players still have a resource that's rare and not just on some sort of cooldown, while also removing a lot of book-keeping and tracking of fiddly individual potions and tools. On the other hand, while I appreciate what the game tries to evoke with the villain escalation mechanics, I've never really liked narrative mechanics much, i.e. mechanics that directly enforce some form of story structure. To me it ultimately just makes those particular story events feel predictable and unexciting when they're enforced directly by the rules, rather than growing naturally out of the story and player choices.
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Apr 5, 2023 23:06
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Warden posted:You also cannot spam it without spending Mettle, because you have to use your Move to move at least a full Zone towards the target for it to proc. You could spend your Move to move forward, toss the Javelin as an Attack action, spend your Mettle to move away one Zone, repeat next round. Of course, you are then giving up the opportunity of spending the Mettle for another attack, but one attack at double damage with Penetrating should out-damage two regular attacks pretty much always, unless there are other factors at work. There's definitely environments that can restrict movement, but harpies have a Fast move speed and flying if they give up on clanky armor. You can move one zone, take an action, and then spend the rest of your movement backing up. The wording does suggest you'll need to move a zone for every shot, but if you're just making one attack I don't think you need to spend Mettle. Theoretically, I think a perfect DPS turn would be a move to Medium range, a throw, the second half of movement closing to the same Zone, and spending your one point of Mettle on a second throw. It's not a guaranteed boss-killer because of the Wounds system, even if you used Soulfire, but it is REALLY nice for deleting big health bars. If I was composing a team for maximum synergy, it might be really interesting seeing how harpy javelineers synergized with Lore of the High Peaks creating new chasm-zones on the battlefield. Two skirmishers and two mages creating new space in between them and enemies seems like it could end up breaking the game as long as you're fighting in a frictionless Tactics Dimension. Of course, when you take the fiction into consideration, that's probably more collateral damage than a Binding generally wants to cause.
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Apr 5, 2023 23:10
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I feel like the villain mechanics are trying to mechanically formalize something that's very jrpg, but it's something that, imo, sucks horribly in jrpgs. The boss ending your chase with "haha, your princess is in another castle!" is horrendously underwhelming when there's a lot of narrative weight involved and no direct progression path being cleared, and the expenditure of a metacurrency that the villain can apparently replenish so long as they ever become more important doesn't really seem like a sufficient enough setback, on an emotional level, to make it feel like the villain lost and ran instead of escaping through annoying, tedious bullshit. This would probably be resolvable by simply adding "the villain's current plans will almost always fail if they use their points to escape a scene" or something less absolute but roughly equivalent, so that the players don't experience the sense of the entire sequence being a waste of time (as many, many jrpgs can provoke.) Sephiroth dropping his dream alien mom on a building and leaving, wasting your time, is tedious, not fun! Ruin a plan of his at least!
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Apr 5, 2023 23:16
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Jen X posted:I feel like the villain mechanics are trying to mechanically formalize something that's very jrpg, but it's something that, imo, sucks horribly in jrpgs. I think the easiest way to deal with it would be to at least loosely tie the villains' meta-currency to that of the heroes. If the villain spends Ultima to get away, the heroes get extra Fabula or Inventory Points. If a hero really, really needs some Inventory Points, he gets some - but then the villain gets extra Ultima Points. Like that.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:19
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Sounds like the way a number of Fate based systems work. Some kind of narrative imperative tokens focused on relationships between heroes and villains continually passing back and forth could definitely help keep the game focused on that primarily.
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Apr 6, 2023 02:26
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avoraciopoctules posted:Sounds like the way a number of Fate based systems work. Some kind of narrative imperative tokens focused on relationships between heroes and villains continually passing back and forth could definitely help keep the game focused on that primarily. Leaving a good bit of it as players' choice seems important too. "Um, yeah, last session was like, the 15th time that Steve the Bandit Lord has pantsed us and run away. We're all kind of sick of it now, so no deal on further Ultima for him. We're ending this now."
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Apr 6, 2023 07:54
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 Pathfinder Core Rulebook, Second Edition, part Fifteen, Sorcerer Speedrunning this one, because the history? There isn't any. Back in AD&D, "sorcerer" was the level title for a ninth level magic-user. Unlike monsters, where Gary took a bunch of names that might have been describing the same thing and stat-ed each one up (see brownie, pixie, etc, or ghost, spectre, wraith, phantom, etc.), he took every synonym for wizard and made them level titles (wizards being name level, 11th for a magic-user, though at 15th you can call yourself a mage, or archmage at 18th. Evoker, conjurer, enchanter, and necromancer also show up in the level titles, as does warlock). So while the barbarian is so wildly different from the 1st edition to 3rd edition incarnations as to be almost completely different classes, the sorcerer just didn't exist before 3E. It appeared fully formed from the idea of "what if wizard, but sucks?" Okay, that's being too harsh. The sorcerer is a simpler wizard. So that you don't have to deal with the scary Vancian magic and selecting how you're going to break the game each day, you have a set allotment of spells At first level, you knew two 1st level spells, and could cast them in any combination three times. Most levels, you'd gain an additional spell or two known, either of a level you had access to, or a new one (sorcerers were delayed a level on gaining new spell levels; a wizard learned 2nd level spells at 3rd level, and 3rd level spells at 5th, while the sorcerer gained access at levels 4 and 6... I don't know why anyone would find this complicated). It's actually close to how magic worked in the original Final Fantasy, where you'd buy spells for each level, and had so many slots to cast at that level (magic points as later Final Fantasies would use only showed up in D&D for psionicists). Sorcerers prized Charisma as their main stat, in contrast to the wizard with intelligence. This may have also been a reaction to charisma often being a dump stat in 2nd edition, to have a class (two with the bard) using it for casting. In lore, sorcerers carried magic in their blood, while wizards studied. Supposedly the blood of  On the face, the sorcerer looks comparable to the wizard. Better even, because while they're delayed in learning higher level spells, they spend most of the game able to cast twice as many spells as the wizards. Too, they get access to all simple weapons, not the limited selection of the wizard. And a high charisma could mean you can be the party's face. I think WotC looked at spontaneous casting as BIG POWER. If the sorcerer can do that, we need to hamstring them so they don't dominate the game (kinda like the monk, unarmed fighting gets overvalued). Sure, the sorcerer can use any simple weapon. Maybe grab a long spear, because you're still no armor and a d4 HP, so maybe reach will keep you alive. You're doing 1 damage over the average wizard's quarter staff (and a x3 crit). Both classes can grab a light or heavy crossbow, which became the standard for casters who'd shot their load (I hated this. Who had the fantasy of playing a great and powerful wizard... who occasionally plinked things with a crossbow because you're conserving your spells. It may be slightly better than the dart-tossing magic-user of AD&D, but not much. Give me a cantrip that does as much as a crossbow bolt, and I'll be happy that I can magic every round). Skills, the only charisma skill you're trained in is Bluff. And you're not getting a lot of skill slots compared to the wizard, who is pulling in bonuses slots for high intelligence. You don't have to spend each morning debating spells, you know what you can cast each time you level up. Which makes leveling up so important. When you get 2nd level spells, what do you take? Knock, so you can make sure the group can get in every locked room? Invisibility, for scouting and stealth? Melf's Acid Arrow for a bigger damage spell? Bull's Strength, to make the fighter better? Sure, you can toss more spells than the wizard, but your 3rd level fireball is going to hang on your neck when you go to fight fire giants, while the wizard just swaps it out for Lightning Bolt or Haste. Additionally, the wizard learns Scribe Scroll for free, letting them create a bunch of scrolls to extend their magic. Why memorize knock when you can just have a couple scrolls sitting around? And the wizard gets an additional feat every five levels for item creation or metamagic. Sure, the sorcerer can learn these, but they're spending their feats to do it. WotC would create a spontaneous divine caster, the Favored Soul, in Complete Divine. My recollection was it was an interesting class with some special abilities over the levels, but probably fell behind the cleric for versatility.  Pathfinder 1E buffs the sorcerer up a bit. They move to the d6 hit die (along with the wizard). Intimidate and Use Magic Device are additional charisma skills on their list. The biggest change is you select a bloodline, like dragon, celestial, or fey, gaining some additional spells and abilities.  Pathfinder 2e at least improves the art. The overview has no surprises, a charisma-based class with 6HP. You'll choose a bloodine, with 10 options. Interestingly, only Draconic and Imperial give you arcane spells. Most of them, like angelic, demonic, or undead, give divine spells. There are also two occult and two for primal. You can cast 3 1st level spells at 1st level, and know that many (one being from your bloodline). Gaining new spell slots also means learning new spells. There's no long the delay in higher level spells, although you're capped at 4 spells per level (the wizard can cast 3 a day at each level). At 3rd level, you can start to designate one spell per spell level as a signature spell, but I don't see what benefit that does. You'll rise to legendary spellcasting over your career. It says in your bloodline tradition, which I wasn't sure if that just meant the bloodline specific spells. A trip to the glossary showed that "tradition" refers to arcane, divine, occult, or primal- so draconic bloodline, you'll become legendary with arcane spells. Early feats can gain a familiar (previously a free feature for sorcerers); learn to counterspell (seems potent); or learn dangerous sorcery, which adds the spell's level to damage for instant duration spells. So a 9th level spell adds +9 damage; feels underwhelming for a 17th level character. Later feats can improve your familiar, or draw on little bonuses from your bloodline. At 14th level, you can take Reflect Spell, which lets you send a counterspell back at it's caster. Nifty. At 20th level? You can spend an action to have your next 5th level or lower, instant spell be cast without using a slot. Or take another 10th level spell slot. Or do metamagic as free actions
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Apr 6, 2023 08:30
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Man, I'd forgotten Bucklepants there. Forget all the OGL drama, that's what Wizards really needs to answer for.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:26
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The true key to a sorceror’s magic is bad fashion sense.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:29
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And, apparently, not having any bones in their body.
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Apr 6, 2023 13:57
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Bones are what prevents you from performing magic intuitively.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:04
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Signature spell lets you get the benefit of heightening a spell without having to learn it twice. In PF2E, spells don't scale based on your caster level, but the level of the slot they're prepared in. Except spontaneous casters have to learn the spell at the new level if they want to heighten it, unless they make it a signature spell which makes it so they know it at every possible level. There's also a class with the "Unlimited Signature Spells" feature which, you guessed it, makes all your spells signature spells.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:21
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Mors Rattus posted:Bones are what prevents you from performing magic intuitively.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:31
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Nessus posted:But what about skeleton wizards??? Wizards perform magic through study, they’re fine. Skeleton sorcerers, however, must develop a workaround.
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Apr 6, 2023 15:39
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Dwarven magic resistance in many settings is actually just because they have denser bones than other species, making it harder for them to use magic and to be affected by said magic. Going by this logic, birds are inherently incredibly magical creatures.
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Apr 6, 2023 16:10
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wdarkk posted:Signature spell lets you get the benefit of heightening a spell without having to learn it twice. Yes but that class also has bounded spell slots so without the Unlimited Signature Spells feature they wouldn't be able to cast spells  Mors Rattus posted:Wizards perform magic through study, they’re fine. Skeleton sorcerers, however, must develop a workaround. This is unfortunate as skeletons have a boost to charisma with an intelligence flaw.
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Apr 6, 2023 17:03
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IthilionTheBrave posted:Dwarven magic resistance in many settings is actually just because they have denser bones than other species, making it harder for them to use magic and to be affected by said magic. How else do they fly then, duh! 
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Apr 6, 2023 17:54
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Through sheer force of will!
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Apr 6, 2023 17:59
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Mors Rattus posted:Wizards perform magic through study, they’re fine. Skeleton sorcerers, however, must develop a workaround. yeah they just stick a cool orb in their skull or somewhere
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Apr 6, 2023 18:30
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Nessus posted:But what about skeleton wizards??? They've got a ton of options... a skele-ton. 
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Apr 6, 2023 18:49
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wdarkk posted:Signature spell lets you get the benefit of heightening a spell without having to learn it twice. Ah, I misreading that then. I thought it was saying if you make a spell a signature spell, the heightened version was also a signature spell. Not that you needed to make it a signature spell to get the heightened versions. Thanks, that makes more sense.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:20
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You could, in theory, learn fireball as a 3rd level spell and again as a 6th level spell and then you'd be able to cast fireball at 3rd or 6th level but not inbetween, and it's taking up two of your spells known. Signature spells can be cast at any level that's available for them if you know them once.
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Apr 6, 2023 20:33
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Soulbound: Era of the Beast And Who'd Have Guessed They'd Come Together On Their Own While there's a bunch of new Talents, they're all tied to the new Archetypes so I don't need to cover them independently of that. Instead, let's talk about the new Endeavors! Consult the Wind: Hurakan Windcharger only. You are always accompanied by your aelementor, since it's a wind spirit, and so you can ask it for help. Being a wind spirit, it may just fart at you and giggle or prank you, but even this can teach you. You may consult with your wind spirit as a DN 4:8 Athletics test, three rolls over a week as you run around, parkour and otherwise hang out with your highly mobile and easily bored spirit friend. If you succeed, you gain some of its nature, increasing your Speed one step until your next downtime period, and once before the next downtime period, your aelementor will slow your fall, causing you to automatically roll the best possible roll you can make to avoid fall damage. Detect Corruption: You must have Training or Focus in Intuition to do this, and it lets you detect the subtle touch of evil. It is a DN 4:8 Intuition roll, three rolls over a week. If you succeed, your meditations and/or study of deception and its signs go well. You automatically succeed on the first Intuition roll you make before your next downtime period to tell if someone has hidden or suspicious motives. Imprison: You talk to the GM about a threat that you think the party is not capable of permanently defeating. The two of you decide what it will take to imprison that evil, with the price being higher the stronger it is. Over the downtime period, you discover this method, which absolutely will work to seal away the evil you picked. You will have to make the opportunity to pull it off yourself during your adventures, and you will need to decide if the price is worth paying - but if you pay the price and perform whatever you figured out, it will work. Preach Unorthodoxy: You must have a Blessed Talent. Basically, the way this works is you come up with an unorthdox or otherwise divergent theology around the god you worship. Doing so allows you to use the spell creation rules from the core to construct a new Rite of Life: Sylvaneth only. You may raise your voice into the chorus of the spirit-song to tap into a miniature version of Alarielle's Rite of Life, purging Death or Chaos energy. This is a DN 4:10 extended Devotion or Entertain roll, with three rolls over a week to properly harmonise the song. If you succeed, until your next downtime, all non-Minion living beings in the region gain your Devotion or Entertain Training in bonus Toughness over their cap, and all creatures in the region that profane the lifecycle (for example, Daemons and Undead) have their max Toughness reduced by your Devotion or Entertain Training, to a minimum of 1. Sanctify: You imitate the Lumineth method of purifying lands - aggressively carving the Yngra runes of purification, rescue and imprisonment to lock out dark power for a time. It is a temporary measure, but gives you a chance to drive out the evil for good, and every faction has a similar method if you don't want to use Lumineth runes. The game assumes the PCs all just combine whatever methods they know, and the Endeavor must be done by the entire Binding and any non-Soulbound PCs as well, like Stormcast. When you use it, the Doom is halved for the duration of the next adventure. It returns to its normal level after that, and you can only use Sanctify once in a specific region. Seek Your Heritage: Draconith only. You seek out traces of the lost Draconith civilization, flying at high speed across the land. This is a DN 4:8 Survival roll, three rolls over a week, to find ruins or other suitable lairs for dragons. If you succeed, what you discover makes you feel bold and proud, and your max Mettle increases by 1 until your next Downtime. If you fail, you become very frustrated but do gain a greater understanding of the area, getting a bonus die to Mind-based Survival rolls when navigating the area until your next downtime period. We also get new gear! Some is buyable, some isn't. Arboreal Cloak: These cannot be bought, as they are made out of a leaf curtain that grows only on the Oak of Ages Past. They may seem fragile, but Ghyran's magic flows through them and makes them extremely strong and tough. Anyone wearing an Arboreak Cloak has a Fly (Fast) Speed and gets +2 to their maximum Wounds. Banner of Apotheosis: These also can't be bought - they're rare Sigmarite standards made from starsilk mixed with shavings of metal taken from the Anvil of Apotheosis. When invoked, they emit a holy light that strengthens armor and flesh. Anyone wielding a Banner of Apotheosis can cast the Hallowed Ground, Healing Light and Purifying Blasts spells, and they use Determination instead of Channelling to do it, and they get a bonus success if the spell is cast successfully. Further, spells cast through the Banner cannot suffer the Price of Failure. Draconith Barding: You can buy this, but it's 2000D, so...probably you won't. Draconith scared people when they first showed up, because they're giant dragons that, unless you know they talk, seem like they're probably going to eat you. Draconith barding was developed by the Draconith to make it more obvious that they're friendly, and it is not functional armor. Steel plates just aren't going to do much to make a Draconith harder to hurt - they're already tougher than that. Rather, Draconith barding gives you a place to emblazon symbols of a Free City, a god or some other sign that you're a friendly happy Order friend. This tends to work pretty well - most mortals are pretty positive towards Sigmar, whose symbols are the most common, and also wild animals don't usually wear fancy armor. While you wear Draconith barding, you get a bonus die on rolls to interact with people from Order factions and people are much less likely to assume you're just someone's mount or a wild animal. Excelsis Glimmerings: One Glimmering is worth about 100D. They're mostly used as high-value currency in Excelsis, but you can consume them to gain prophetic visions. Glimmerings typically appear as rough jewels, but can be minted into coin shape or, very rarely, found as smooth beach pebbles around the bay. Consuming a Glimmering is identical to casting the Prophecy spell and asking a single question. If you are in Excelsis, during downtime you can convert 100D into 1 Glimmering on top of any Endeavors you take, and their resale value usually goes up outside Excelsis, especially if they're likely to contain valuable information as appraised by the Prophesiers' Guild. Heartpiercer Shield: You can get one for 210D, if you can find a seller. They are most typically wielded by Khinerai warriors as both offensive weapons and defensive tools. Mechanically, a Heartpiercer Shield is a Shield that only increases Defence against attacks made from within Close range. However, they can also be attacked with as if they were a Sword without losing the defensive properties of a Shield, and they still count as a Shield for Talents. Keldrisaith: A Keldrasaith is a Khainite weapon, costing about 400D. They are serpent-headed staves wielded as the signature weapons of the Melusai Ironscales, both as weapon and badge of rank. They are able to fire bolts of shadow energy as a Medium-range 1+S Damage weapon, but it is in close range that they are most dangerous, as the snake atop the staff will bite at nearby foes, dealing 2+S Damage with Penetrating. Meteoric Standard: You can't buy these - they're Sigmarite standards able to call down comets, after all. They function the same way as the Banner of Apotheosis, but the spells they can cast are Comet of Casandora, Foretell Doom and Orrery. Nullstone Manacles: These tools were the signature anti-mage devices of the Order of Azyr and the Nullstone Brotherhood alike. made from an alloy of various metals plus a few small shards of nullstone, preventing anyone locked in them from using magic easily. They can be fit around the wrist or ankle, and once locked, whoever's wearing them is Restrained until they're taken off. Breaking out of them is a moderately difficult Might roll or you can deal 4 points of damage to them to break them. Unlocking them without the key is a moderate Dexterity roll if you have lockpicks. Anyone wearing the nullstone manacles has the Difficulty and Complexity of all Channelling rolls increased by 2. You can get your own for 200D! Pennant of the Stormbringer: Another unpurchasable Sigmarite banner. This one works identically to the other two, but its spell list is Chain Lightning, Favorable Winds and Sigmar's Storm. Relic Censer: These artifacts cannot be bought, and are holy relics of Sigmar, meant to bear the bones of martyred heroes. The Knights-Relictor use them to burn the bones to produce a pleasantly fragrant smoke that nullifies evil power. While you wield a Relic Censer, you can spend 1 Mettle or 1 Sacred Remains to unbind a spell as if you had the Unbind Talent, but using Devotion in place of Channelling. However, it can only unbind spells that target you or a Zone you're in. Scathborn's Guise: These artifacts aren't easy to find outside Khainite hands, but you could get one for 550D. They were designed long ago by Morathi, to allow the Scathborn to move through the Realms without being noticed. Typically, they take the form of masks decorated with snakes, but they could be amulets, rings or crowns just as easily. (Khinerai tend to prefer jewelry while Melusai prefer masks, as Khinerai have to worry about weight slowing them in the air.) While you wear the artifact, whatever it is, you can spend an Action to conceal or reveal your monstrous bits via illusion, and the artifact itself can also be concealed or revealed this way. Scathborn's Guise isn't a disguise for who you are, however - you keep your face and voice and other features that make you identifiably you, just not your wings or snake tail or whatever. Terminus Greatbow: These weapons can't be bought - they are made singly for Knights-Judicator when they get promoted. They are essentially longbows with the strength and size of a ballista. You need Body 4+ to wield one, but they're very potent - 2+S Damage, Penetrating and Long range. Thunderstrike Armor: This is Sigmarite armor, but specially made by Grungni to pierce the Cursed Skies. You can't buy it, obviously. It comes in Medium or Heavy, and the primary thing that makes it different from older Stormcast armor is simple: it's explosive. The armor is infused with energy that bursts upon the death of the wearer so that it can punch through the Chaos storms in a blast of divine lightning. When the wearer dies, the armor bursts into lightning and envelopes their soul, sending them back to Azyr at speed. This also deals 5 Damage that ignores Armor to everything in the Zone the wearer died in. All Stormcast PCs can get a suit of Thunderstrike Armor for free when they spend an Endeavor to return to their Stormhost during downtime if they didn't already have it. Warsong Flute: Another unbuyable tool! These are sacred instruments carved from the branches of the Oak of Ages Past for the Warsong Revenants. Using one requires two hands, and while playing it, you get a bonus die to all Entertain rolls, including spellcasting since Warsong Revenants use that for casting Jade spells. Weapon of Banishment: A Weapon of Banishment costs 600D, and they come in many forms. They're mostly wielded by witch hunters because they are designed to fight endless spells, daemons and mages. They can be guns, swords, crossbows, whatever - but they always incorporate anti-magical wards of some kind, often silver or nullstone, and holy symbols. Most are masterworks of craft, but they don't need to be - it's function that matters, not form. A Weapon of Banishment can take the form of any Common or Rare melee or ranged weapon, and on top of whatever that weapon normally does, the weapon does +2 Damage to Daemons or anyone that has a Spellcaster trait or Spellcasting Talent. Further, they can be used to strike spells out of the air. If you, the Zone you are in or someone in Close range of you is the target of a spell, you may spend 1 Mettle to unbind it as if you had the Unbind Talent, but using Weapon Skill or Ballistic Skill instead of Channelling, as appropriate to the weapon, and adding the weapon's Damage to your rolled successes. If you're using the realmstone rules from Artefacts of Power, Weapons of Banishment also count as being nullstone weapons, meaning they do double damage to endless spells. Next time: New monster stats.
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Apr 7, 2023 19:04
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IthilionTheBrave posted:Dwarven magic resistance in many settings is actually just because they have denser bones than other species, making it harder for them to use magic and to be affected by said magic. Hipster Occultist posted:How else do they fly then, duh! Spell-like ability: Overland Flight
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Apr 9, 2023 01:02
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