Author Topic: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread  (Read 56603 times)

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #40 on: May 03, 2013, 10:47:35 AM »
There's some good stuff for mundane combatants now. Aid Another with ranged attacks, Autofire, and Suppressing Fire are new actions that ranged combatants can take (based on their implementations in SWSE), and with the better variety of ranged weapons available, hopefully we'll be seeing more of them.

Armor is pretty much finished. The prices and weights could use some tweaking, maybe, if anyone feels like taking a look. And from a balance perspective, yes, it is entirely intentional that medium armor is completely eclipsed by the armor of the future, but plate mail and chain shirts still have their places.

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #41 on: May 21, 2013, 04:06:24 PM »
I finished another 9 modules last night.

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #42 on: May 23, 2013, 07:59:51 PM »
I think I found a bit of a typo:

The Ice Spreader module is only available to Energy Warriors, yet one of its prereqs (Missile Launcher) isn't available to Energy Warriors.  Perhaps add it to the EW list?

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #43 on: May 23, 2013, 09:32:24 PM »
Thanks for catching that. Missile Launcher is now on the Energy Warrior list (or at least, will be once I update the post again).

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #44 on: May 24, 2013, 03:13:16 PM »
Races are up.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #45 on: May 24, 2013, 05:32:07 PM »
Okay, I've officially added this as one of my favorite homebrew projects and did some more digging than I have before and I have a couple of questions/comments.


First, I see that modules don't take up magic item slots the same way that soulmelds do.  I like this, it simplifies things immensely.

I thought you were going to base everything off of activator level and do something ToB style with it?

I like the classes and how they compliment each other.  No useless Soulborn equivalent here!


...too many modules.  I might go over them later.




Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #46 on: May 24, 2013, 06:38:15 PM »
Okay, I've officially added this as one of my favorite homebrew projects and did some more digging than I have before and I have a couple of questions/comments.
...
First, I see that modules don't take up magic item slots the same way that soulmelds do.  I like this, it simplifies things immensely.
...
I like the classes and how they compliment each other.  No useless Soulborn equivalent here!

I'm glad you like it. That's what I'm shooting for.

Quote
I thought you were going to base everything off of activator level and do something ToB style with it?

It's on my to-do list. I'm working on appropriate wording. I also have to make sure that there aren't any unintended interactions between the AL-based energy capacity and ToB-style AL calculations and any existing abilities and creatures before implementing such a sweeping change. It's mostly down to saying that monsters (of the inflated HD by CR variety) need some special instructions saying that their AL from non-advanced racial HD is some specific amount, rather than 1/2 HD, sort of like how Reth Dekala have IL 5 as 5 HD creatures, and Valkyries have IL 10 as 11 HD creatures. It'll be a bit funky for the true dragons, though (having AL by age category which amounts to roughly 1/3 HD, and also have AL by effective Cyberneticist/Energy Warrior level, only the larger of which is used to overwrite the 1/2 non-advanced racial HD).

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...too many modules.  I might go over them later.

Yeah, there are a lot of them. Not so many that it's a problem, I hope? I'm basically making them so that there's something for every occasion, plus a lot of interesting and unique effects on top.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #47 on: May 24, 2013, 07:37:48 PM »
There aren't too many modules at all, especially given that each class only seems to have access to a third or so.  There's just a lot to go through and I was at work and lazy.  Right now I'm just lazy.   :p

Speaking of to do lists, is there anything that you feel I could help out with?  I'm not awesome at homebrewing things on my own (though I've done a bit) but I'm a helper!

Offline radmelon

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #48 on: May 24, 2013, 08:02:38 PM »
I absolutely cannot wait until this system is at a more playable level of completion, it looks like it'll be great.

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #49 on: May 24, 2013, 09:43:19 PM »
There aren't too many modules at all, especially given that each class only seems to have access to a third or so.  There's just a lot to go through and I was at work and lazy.  Right now I'm just lazy.   :p

By my last count (which includes several WIP modules and one or two that aren't posted yet; I have a script that parses the files and outputs statistics automatically), there are 43 Cyberneticist modules, 40 Dreadnought modules, 35 Energy Warrior modules, and 1 module on no class's list. There are a total of 74 modules so far. Each class has roughly 1/2 of the modules available to them.

By comparison, Magic of Incarnum has around 90 soulmelds (plus the ones printed in Dragon Magic and online in the Mind's Eye articles), but a greater proportion are restricted to only one class or another (many PoC modules are usable by 2 or 3 of the activator classes). Incarnates only have about 45-50 or so soulmelds, Soulborn have around 35, and Totemists have around 40.

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Speaking of to do lists, is there anything that you feel I could help out with?  I'm not awesome at homebrewing things on my own (though I've done a bit) but I'm a helper!

Thank you very much for your offer. Off hand, I can think of the following for PoC:
- Fluff for everything. I'm horrible at that.
- PrCs, or at least PrC ideas.
(click to show/hide)
- Items and equipment for sci-fi settings.
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- Lots to do with modules.
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- A few more Cybernetic spells and powers. Enough spells to fill out the Cybernetics domain and one other, and enough powers to fill out the Cybernetics mantle (which doesn't need as many powers because psionics and its augmentation rules condense a lot of spells into one or two powers).
- Some Cybernetic invocations for Warlocks and DFAs.
- A deity or two for cybernetics and sci-fi games. Bonus points if you can write up WH40K's Omnissiah as a D&D-compatible deity.
- ACFs, racial substitution levels, and class variants.
- More Cybernetic creatures.
- PoC true dragons.
- A generic Mutant template, suitable for various mutations appropriate for LA +0 through LA +3. You can see what I'm going for in the WIP thread.
- Some parts of the Computer Use skill are still in the process of being ported from D20 Modern.
- Various things related to sci-fi environments.
(click to show/hide)
- ToB-style activator level and AL-based energy capacity, as mentioned earlier.
- Metroid campaign setting things.
- Starcraft campaign setting things.
- Anything else you can think of that would be handy for a sci-fi setting.

I absolutely cannot wait until this system is at a more playable level of completion, it looks like it'll be great.

I'm glad you like it. It's actually in a pretty playable state as-is. The base classes are complete, as are the feats and the core of the module lists.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #50 on: May 24, 2013, 10:00:47 PM »
I started a line by line response but there were too many lines.

I'll see what ideas I can come up with to help out.

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #51 on: May 24, 2013, 11:36:40 PM »
A lot of that is from scope creep. Some time between when I stopped working on MaI and a couple of months ago, I decided that I didn't just want to make a sci-fi themed subsystem, but I actually wanted a whole slew of rules sufficient for sci-fi D&D games. Without that, the to-do list would just be fluff, modules, and PrCs, and I'd probably be content with the modules that are written already.

Let me know what you want to work with. I have notes for a bunch of them on my computer that might help.

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #52 on: May 24, 2013, 11:42:15 PM »
I can try to come up with ideas for modules and PrCs.
 
Anything else I came up with would be blatantly stealing ideas from other sources, for example I know a few places to look at mutation templates.

Offline Jackinthegreen

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #53 on: May 25, 2013, 12:16:15 AM »
How many sci-fi universes might you want to draw inspiration from?  You've already mentioned Metroid, Starcraft, and Warhammer, but could other places be acceptable?  Mostly thinking about Stargate, Star Trek, and Star Wars, with some Deus Ex thrown in for good measure.  Hmm, maybe some Ghost in the Shell too...

Edit: Addition to Space Marine:  If you intend for Dreadnoughts to get good use from their Helmet slot, it might be better to let the Space Marine class have access to that slot.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 12:59:36 AM by Jackinthegreen »

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #54 on: May 25, 2013, 01:26:51 AM »
I can try to come up with ideas for modules and PrCs.
 
Anything else I came up with would be blatantly stealing ideas from other sources, for example I know a few places to look at mutation templates.

I'm looking more for mutation abilities and effects (both positive and negative) than full-fledged mutant templates. I'm building a point-based, do-it-yourself template since,
   a) Mutations are always described as really different things that are rarely the same for two people.
   b) D20 Future did it point based, and that seems like a good place to start.
You can see what I have so far here.

You know, with all this feature creep, I'm sorely tempted to just split things off. PoC can keep just the things related to the cybernetics subsystem, while the parts related to sci-fi as a whole can go under their own tag, WoT (World of Tomorrow) (or something like that; I kinda like acronyms to tag things like they would be divided if printed in books).
(click to show/hide)

How many sci-fi universes might you want to draw inspiration from?  You've already mentioned Metroid, Starcraft, and Warhammer, but could other places be acceptable?  Mostly thinking about Stargate, Star Trek, and Star Wars, with some Deus Ex thrown in for good measure.  Hmm, maybe some Ghost in the Shell too...

All of them. Metroid, Starcraft, and Warhammer are just the ones most on my mind these days. They also share the idea of relatively high end technology (power armor and the like) on a personal scale, so they're more closely related to PoC's mechanical concepts.

Quote
Edit: Addition to Space Marine:  If you intend for Dreadnoughts to get good use from their Helmet slot, it might be better to let the Space Marine class have access to that slot.

Good idea. That would give it earlier access to one greater slot in exchange for access to the others (which could still be acquired through feats). Given that PoC classes are of the "loaded with class features" type, dropping activator levels isn't as necessary as it is for spellcasting and manifesting classes, so as long as it stays at full or near-full progression, it should certainly get something up there.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 03:21:21 AM by Garryl »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #55 on: May 25, 2013, 02:17:31 PM »
Splitting it off seems like the best way to go since you've already got three different tags in this project.

Offline radmelon

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #56 on: May 25, 2013, 07:21:38 PM »
Looking at the races, it seems to me that Space Pirates would get a bonus to Con instead of Str, since they Tend to live in hazardous conditions and seem to prefer ranged combat to melee. I realise that these aren't that good reasons, but it has always seemed to me that they were more tough than strong. Also, +Str races are a dime a dozen while few give a bonus to Con unless they also give a bonus to Str.

That said, even as they are I want to play one right now. *Sigh* so much homebrew, so little time.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 07:23:25 PM by radmelon »

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #57 on: May 25, 2013, 10:59:25 PM »
Really? I don't know of many +Str races without LA or RHD. Offhand, I can only think of Half-Orcs and Wood Elves. +Con races, meanwhile, include Dwarves, Gnomes, Dusklings, Warforged, Mongrelfolk, the Dragonborn template, and several lesser planetouched races.

Edit: Huh, I forgot that Orcs were LA +0.

The Master +0 LA Race List III, among the +0 LA, 0 or 1 RHD races, lists a total of:
- 21 races with +2 Str
- 9 races with +4 Str
- 65 races with +2 Con
- 4 races with +4 Con
which includes
- 7 races with +2 Str and +2 Con
- 1 race with +4 Str and +2 Con (Water Orcs)

It also lists 2 LA +0 templates with +2 Con (and no +Str), 1 with +2 Str (and no +Con), and 1 with +4 Str and +2 Con.
« Last Edit: May 25, 2013, 11:51:25 PM by Garryl »

Offline Nanshork

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #58 on: May 26, 2013, 12:21:27 AM »
How would you feel about a feat that will allow Energy Warriors to treat their Energy Beam as a light weapon?  This would help out builds that want to focus on the Dual Weapon module.

Offline Garryl

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Re: [PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread
« Reply #59 on: May 26, 2013, 01:03:50 AM »
Sure that can work.

Lithe Energy Beam [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Energy Beam.
Benefits: You can treat any one-handed forms of your Energy Beam as light weapons where beneficial.
Normal: The energy blade and beam cannons forms of your Energy Beam are one-handed weapons.
Special: Your activator level increases by +1, to a maximum of your total Hit Dice.

Isn't this mostly just Oversized Two-Weapon Fighting by another name, though? Not that that's a problem, as this is a more specific feat that has advantages over the more general option in various situations, and better draws players into considering its usage.

Anyways, now I'm going to draw up some more energy beam feats. A chain to get a bunch of natural attacks, maybe? Or to summon an energy beam-based companion beast?