Author Topic: Discussion  (Read 12009 times)

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #20 on: March 24, 2012, 08:31:05 PM »
1: I'm probably going to increase the AC bonus, but not by much (+1/3 bending levels).  It is meant to replace your armor though, so it's definitely not going to stack.  As for concentration, I did mean to add an augment to make it a free action maintain, but it's definitely not going to be a +1 or 2 (those are reserved for tiny bonuses, like +1 to a skill or something).  it'll be about a +8.  That makes it so you won't be able to reliably do it until level 6 or so.  And I don't know why it's a move action concentration right now, it should be swift.  I thought I changed that.  I didn't even notice it until right now.  It did used to be more powerful (justifying the move action concentration, restricting you to bending as a combat means, and no movement), but right now it's intended to act as an alternative to armor, and it should end up slightly more powerful, but in a different way, than regular armor.  Would you recommend going back to the powerful, deserving the move action concentration, or acting as an armor replacement?

3: It scales MUCH faster than that.  it scales at 1d6/4 points, which is about 1/2 levels (probably slightly faster), as you gain +1 point per level, +1 point every time your wis bonus increases, and +2 points at 3 and every 4 levels past that.  And then you can increase it further with feats, although that won't be much.  There is also the successful save still having a penalty, although it's not a big penalty.  i really should add -2 to attacks for that (non-stacking, of course).

10: ah, yeah, that's a problem.  The line is supposed to be that: a line.  The cone is supposed to deal more damage, and I did say I was going to switch them.  Good eyes.

4: :facepalm
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Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #21 on: March 25, 2012, 12:23:39 AM »
Updated earthbending.  Still working on that second half of the air seed.
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #22 on: March 25, 2012, 04:58:52 AM »
3: It scales MUCH faster than that.  it scales at 1d6/4 points, which is about 1/2 levels (probably slightly faster), as you gain +1 point per level, +1 point every time your wis bonus increases, and +2 points at 3 and every 4 levels past that.  And then you can increase it further with feats, although that won't be much.  There is also the successful save still having a penalty, although it's not a big penalty.  i really should add -2 to attacks for that (non-stacking, of course).
Put it this way, to deal the same amount of damage an a completely unoptimised blaster at level 20 (20d6) you need to hit a DC 91 check. I know you are not trying to balance off casters but optimised blasting is awful and unoptimised blasting is even worse.

Plus you have to hit with an attack for it to even work, the ability has 2 failure conditions. Miss attack = no effect at all, they pass save = minor debuffs.

Assuming a level 20 character started with 18 Wis and boosted that at every level they should have a bending modifier of:
+9 from Wis 28 (22+6 from items)
+10 from the Advanced bending bonus
+20 from ranks
Total +39. Take 10 for 49. Compare with the DC 91 check needed to match an unoptimised blaster wizard on damage.

With a 49 you could do... 9d6 damage.
« Last Edit: March 25, 2012, 05:12:50 AM by littha »

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #23 on: March 25, 2012, 10:26:51 AM »
And.....it should be about 10d6 damage, that was my goal.  Because it is touch attack with damage and blindness.  Do keep in mind that no matter what, the target takes a 10% miss chance for the duration, whether they are affected by the blindness or not.  I should probably change this though.  I'm going to make it 1d6 damage per two bending levels, and then change the damage augment to instead introduce the miss chance.  It'll be +4 DC for +5% miss chance, maximum 60%, and this will last twice as long as the seed's effects do.  This miss chance will, as it already is, be automatic as long as you hit.  I'm lowering the base DC to 10 as well.  This seed should be accessible from level 1 easily.  At level 1 you'll have a +5 usually, so this'll let you either increase the duraction by 1 or cause a 5% miss chance.

Huh, I'm surprised you haven't brought up the Dust Cloud issue yet.  Not the flavor, but the maintainance action is currently standard with no way to reduce it.  There will be an ammendment to that shortly.
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #24 on: March 25, 2012, 02:20:42 PM »
And.....it should be about 10d6 damage, that was my goal.
Why is your goal an average of 35 damage at level 20? I get that it has a rider effect but its a single target touch attack ability, the damage should be a lot higher unless its your intention for people to basically ignore the damage at higher levels.

Other thoughts: you want to clarify weather the "1d6 bludgeoning, slashing, and piercing damage." on Rubble wave is 1d6 damage split evenly or 1d6 bludgeoning, 1d6 slashing and 1d6 piercing. I imagine its the former but it could do with clarification. Same argument as above for the DC increase for damage, at 3 points per d6 that is a DC77 for 20d6 damage and there is a save for half too.


Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #25 on: April 24, 2012, 01:53:12 PM »
Okay, I added the content that was missing from Control Winds.  However, I'm not sure about the area that it should use.  I'd rather give more control to the, er, controller and have it be a shape able number of cubes, but that's more the purview of Funnel, so I was thinking about having it be a cone instead.  The cone is what it is now, but the augment for size is still the cubes.  I'm currently leaning towards a 60' cone, with an augment of +5'/2 increase.  I'm also considering upping the increase for wind speed change to 5, and adding a stipulation that changing direction costs the number of increases that the wind currently is.  So example: there's a Strong wind blowing east to west, you want to change it to North.  So you need to up the DC by 10 to change the direction, and then any other increase to DC lets you increase the speed as well.  So to make it Windstorm going North, you need a DC of 30.  That might be a tad low though.  And by a "tad" I mean "wow, this annihilates archetypes easily and locks down the Terrasque".  Dang I wish I still had the original version of this.
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Offline Garryl

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #26 on: April 24, 2012, 02:05:12 PM »
Have you considered having the effects of the wind be dependent on the Control Winds effect, rather than the predefined wind categories that exist already? Like saying that it has a DC of X and does Y to missile weapons, which get augmented by A and B, such that it doesn't really fit into the existing categories but explicitly counts as one or the other categories for the purpose of other effects that care about that thing?

Ex: (numbers are all made up and have no correlation to your system because I haven't read through it yet)
Normal: Causes a -4 penalty to ranged attacks and checks Medium or smaller creatures (DC 20). This counts as a strong wind for the purpose of other effects.
Augment: For every +3 to the bending DC, the ranged attack roll penalty increases by 1 and the save DC increases by 1. For every 10 point increase in the bending DC, this wind checks creatures of one size category larger and counts as wind conditions one category more severe.

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #27 on: April 24, 2012, 02:41:17 PM »
I have, but if I don't do it this way, then Airbenders have no way to change the wind around them.  The penalty on attacks is taken care of by Babylon Control, actually.  This is actually changing what the winds around an area do.  Hmm....that makes me think I should change it to a cylinder instead.
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Offline Amechra

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #28 on: May 17, 2012, 03:22:50 AM »
I just noticed that Water has two templates, Earth has one, and Air has none, while Fire has 3~4. Just mentioning it.

Also, how would you represent a bender studying with another style? I remember that lightning redirection was created by studying waterbending forms; will there be rules on doing something like that?
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Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #29 on: May 17, 2012, 09:32:22 AM »
The "rules" are there.  It's just that they don't have specific rules.  It's more represented by your feat selection and play style.  I mean, I do have lightning as an option (and the Dai Li feats, and the PrCs), but this is an evolving project (as Kora is still going on), so there will be more things added eventually.

For templates: this is true, and it's mostly because fire lends itself more easily to templates.  I'm not going to add templates for the sake of templates, but I am looking for new seeds to add, and indeed I want to have more templates on the other three.  Again, Korra will help.  I was thinking of adding a new template to Air that made them do sonic damage with their stuff (replacing the damaging sound seed), but it ended up being a seed instead.  I'm about at 60/40 seed/template on that decision, so it might change eventually.

Also: minor update done, no rules changes made, just clarifications of grammar and such.
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Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #30 on: May 21, 2012, 09:51:19 AM »
I fixed Dust Cloud and changed Dirt Spray.  See if you like that one better littha.  I upped the damage slightly, and altered the focus of the augments.  Hopefully it's more clear that this is primarily a debuff seed, not a damage seed.
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #31 on: May 21, 2012, 11:12:41 AM »
It is a little clearer but I would have removed the ability to augment damage completely so as not to create a trap unintentionally, a lot of people wont do the math on the damage and just assume its ok. Plus Dust cloud still references using a gust of wind to lift the dust rather than just bending off the ground.

Irritation from dust cloud seems like it shouldn't work on nonliving creatures. Cant see a skeleton or golem being particularly bothered. (The effect is fine, just the description)

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #32 on: May 21, 2012, 09:43:53 PM »
Try the Air version.  That's the one that's different.  I still need to copy over the new versions for Earth.  And I thought I fixed the fluff of that one?  That was one of the first things I thought I did...

EDIT: Okay, fixed Earth's Dust Cloud fluff, fixed Earth's versions of Dust Cloud and Dirt Spray.
« Last Edit: May 21, 2012, 09:48:55 PM by dman11235 »
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #33 on: May 22, 2012, 02:16:32 PM »
Both are much better now, both power wise and they don't draw people into trying to do their damage with them.

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #34 on: December 14, 2012, 11:37:44 AM »
Okay, been a long time (holy balls, 120 days +???!!!???), but I'm coming back.  I just modified Dodge and Mobility.  Now, Dodge lets you ignore AoOs from movement from one target.  And Mobility avoids all AoOs from movement.  I'm probably going to tweak or revert them.  But you know, I'm back.
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #35 on: December 14, 2012, 03:36:01 PM »
Those are really going to screw with lockdown builds and they were one of only a few decent melee strategies.

Offline dman11235

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #36 on: December 14, 2012, 10:45:28 PM »
Yeah, that's why I realized a better way to handle them literally 5 minutes after I posted them.  The new way, which will be updated later, will be "Dodge grants a bonus to all AoOs, and Mobility makes you immune to movement based AoOs one your dodge targets."  For feat investment, I think it's fine that it invalidates somewhat a lockdown.  You still provoke for getting up, for instance.  And you provoke for ranged combat (unless you have a different feat, PBS), and you provoke for casting and stuff.  I may change it to "first 5' of movement don't provoke", how about that?
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Offline littha

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Re: Discussion
« Reply #37 on: December 14, 2012, 11:27:30 PM »
Why make the change at all? it just screws with lockdown builds. I know Dodge and Mobility are bad feats but there is no reason to shut down a lot of builds just because of that.

Also you would need some clarification on what happens when it interacts with thicket of blades