Min/Max Boards

So, I'm working out ideas for a Bloodborne-inspired "blood magic" Discipline. I actually have ideas for quite a few Maneuvers, because Bloodborne has a considerable number of things that can be used for Maneuver chains. And when I say "inspired," I really mean "shamelessly ripped off game mechanics" for a significant number of them.

So far, I've pinned down a good number of ideas for Maneuvers. Two firm Stance ideas, based on the Rally mechanic and the Chikage sword, two firm Counter ideas based on the Visceral Attack Caryll Runes, three firm Strikes based on the Bloodletter mace, the Quicksilver Bullets from HP "emergency" option, part of the actual Visceral Attack mechanic proper and quite a few ideas for Boosts revolving around the concept of Quicksilver Bullets.

While I haven't hammered out the exact numbers yet, the Rally Stance would give a delayed damage pool with a capacity equal to either full or half IL and make attacks remove damage from the delayed damage pool at a fixed rate of damage dealt to damage removed. Acts a lot like DR at higher levels and mitigates the HP costs all over the place by putting them somewhere they can be recovered easily. The Chikage based Stance would be taking a few points of damage each round to add Constitution modifier and/or IL, possibly for different numbers(Con to attack, IL to damage?), to all attacks.

For the Visceral Attack Counters, one would refresh Boosts, where the various Quicksilver Bullet based things go, while the other would restore HP and grant temp HP. A possible third could be pure damage at a lower level, dealing the same damage as the higher level ones, but lacking extra effects to make it worth keeping for anything other than Maneuver spam at higher levels.

The Bloodletter-based Strike would eat HP and heal for the total damage dealt by the Strike, with extra reach for the Strike and for 5-10 Rounds(1/2 IL?) after making the Strike and keeping some of the damage bonus on the Strike for that same duration. The Quicksilver Bullet Strike would add damage to a ranged attack with an ammo-using weapon, with crossbows and firearms having the shot put directly into the weapon, skipping reloading as a separate action from the Strike. This would cost HP based on the base damage of the weapon and be a multiplier of the damage, technically usable to instantly load and fire a cannon at the cost of being effectively hit by said cannon. The part of the Visceral Attack mechanic in a Strike would basically be a super-feign, using a ranged weapon to cause a rather different save to avoid being rendered Flatfooted, and thus subject to the Counters and possibly Boosts with a Flatfooted target requirement.

The Quicksilver Bullet based Boosts would make up specialty ammo, including being able to make thrown weapons like daggers. Similar to the instant-loading Strike, the cost would be proportionate to the weapon used and the damage improvements would be multipliers. An Oil or two with flat damage that apply to melee weapons could also work. The fluff I'd use for the Boost-restoring Counter would also fit in with a few oddball tricks, like changing damage from Maneuvers to Acid and Con-poison instead of... I suppose that Fire is the main energy type fit, with all the explosions involved. Physical damage would still be a major component, obviously.

Hmm... The smallest official Discipline is 20 Maneuvers, while the largest is 27. Here, I have concrete ideas for five to seven Maneuvers, as well as stuff for a category of Boosts which can easily cover another three or four Maneuvers. Having the Acid and Con-poison as a set of higher-level replacement Maneuvers gives rise to a set of replacement Maneuvers that actually act as a choice of which version, because Poison Immunity is common enough that having a Con poison be a significant chunk of the damage makes it worth actual consideration between low and high level, while the chances of an enemy having both large Acid resistance and large DR that isn't bypassed by Silver, Adamantine or Magic is very low.

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An idea I'm considering right now, thanks to a thread on GiantITP, is a Discipline that's made up of networks of Maneuvers that feed into eachother. Lots of use of "If you used X maneuver immediately before this one, add Y to this Maneuver's effect." Or the other way around, with the Maneuver specifying how it alters other Maneuvers in the Discipline. The point of this is being a partially customizable Kata setup, where a series of Strikes, Boosts and Counters have different effects when done in immediate succession than when they're used alone. This models proper martial arts better without going full Heron Marked with it.

A bit of an example with an existing Discipline would be if using Burning Brand while in Holocaust Cloak gave a larger, multiplier, range increase instead of Reach, while using Searing Charge immediately after Burning Brand would cause a Lance-like damage increase to Searing Charge. Chains of particular Maneuvers having greatly increased effect over the initial forms of each. Holocaust Cloak in general would grant added effects to Maneuvers based on the fire lingering in place.

Merging it with the above idea, using the Bloodletter-based Strike with the Chikage-based Stance would extend the range of the Strike even farther and increase the scaling value for the Strike itself, but not affecting the lingering bonus damage of the Strike. Preceding the Bloodletter Strike with one of the Quicksilver Bullet Boosts would add a variant of the effect of that Boost to both the initial Boost and the lingering damage buff. This results in chaining Strikes, Boosts and Stances to get much larger overall effects, enabling a constant series of large damage attacks in a near-cyclical pattern of Maneuvers that keeps going until there's either not an enemy in reach or a refresher is missed. Or the character runs out of health to fuel it, in this case.

Basically, having the Clockwork Warrior variant of Initiation as emergent behavior of optimal play, instead of hard rules forcing it. And it also has the nifty advantage of promoting staying in a Discipline, as you build up chains of Maneuvers that increase eachother's effect, building up a set of moves that you want to cycle through as much as possible because of their value. But setting up more cycles for better versatility can be just one Maneuver away, so you can end up dumping seven Maneuvers and two Stances into Desert Wind just to be able to use fire for every combat application and several utilities.

Because an inescapable part of Bloodborne is the creation of ammo from health, I'm extending this to making objects for the sake of some heftier utility, even if most of the Maneuvers call out IL-scaling effects. Consequently, this means Special Materials, which are going to be spelled out here as they come up:

Burnsilver
A perpetually warm material, Burnsilver is difficult to acquire due to its instability and very narrow applications, being seen in only a scarce few extremely odd magic items and disposable equipment. As a result, despite the problems of creating it without the self-mutilating methods of practitioners of Silverblood Night, it is typically worth only half as much as standard equipment made of steel, and armor made of Burnsilver will typically be refused purchase by any but the most desperate if the nature of it is known, unless the buyer has ready access to resistance to Fire damage. The use of it as ammunition, however, is a frequent application where it excels, typically costing twice the normal amount for a piece of ammunition. By weight, it is typically purchased for 25 silver pieces per pound of the material.

It has hardness 5 and half the HP of Steel, and will deal Fire damage to its user or wearer and what it strikes or is stricken with equal to the damage dealt or taken and lose the same amount of HP. This includes damage taken by a wearer of Burnsilver armor, causing such suits to quickly melt down into worthless slag while inflicting severe burns on the wearer, but using it as ammunition for a projectile weapon simply adds extra Fire damage based on the damage dealt normally. And as fitting its name, it also counts as Silver for bypassing damage reduction, producing a small market for backup weapons made of it to dispatch Lycanthropes and other such creatures, alongside reason for some to wear armor made of it.

Hardsilver
Duller than typical silver and possessing a deep red patina, Hardsilver is a highly sought after material for its advantages over more conventional Alchemical silver, including sizable value in ordinary combat separate from the use against the supernatural and otherworldy, with a harshly limited supply caused by the limited number of practitioners of Silverblood Night making any beyond their own personal needs. Consequently, its cost is typically far in excess of true silver, costing 100 GP per pound of material, regardless of the type of item.

It has twice the health of typical steel and hardness 12, and weapons made of it deal Slashing or Piercing damage increase their critical damage by x1, while Bludeoning weapons instead increase their critical range by 1, against targets with Damage Reduction or wearing armor with lower Hardness than Hardsilver.

Adrenal Coagulation
Silverblood Night (Stance)
Level: Crusader 1, ???
Prerequisites: None
Initiation Action: 1 Standard action
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Duration: Stance

While you are in this stance, your blood flows with a mixture that makes wounds bleed slowly, while also holding onto otherwise lost vital energies for moments. Whenever you take HP damage, it is moved to a delayed damage pool with a maximum quantity equal to your ranks in Craft (Alchemy). Damage that would exceed the maximum of the pool, and damage remaining in the pool at the start of your turn, is dealt to your HP. HP restoration can heal damage from the delayed damage pool or normal HP, at your discretion. This Stance stacks with other Delayed Damage pools, such as the Crusader's Steely Resolve class feature.

Additionally, whenever you deal damage with an attack against an enemy in your threatened area, you restore health equal to one-quarter(1/4) of your Initiator Level. If that attack is a Strike from the Silverblood Night discipline, it restores additional health equal to the level of the Maneuver.

Burnsilver Forging
Silverblood Night (Boost)
Level: Crusader 1, ???
Prerequisites: 1 Silverblood Night Maneuvers, 5 ranks Craft (Alchemy)
Initiation Action: 1 Swift action or 8 hours
Range: Touch
Target: Object
Duration: Instantaneous.

Stabilizing the vital energies and reagents into transmuted Silver is a risky and difficult operation, especially with the pain of an open wound. Failure in this task creates a volatile, hazardous substance, scarcely usable for any but the most utterly disposable weapon, but this is itself a thing to draw the eye of one who seeks to hunt creatures of the night with little regard for themselves. Upon initiating this Maneuver, the user loses 2 HP and must make a DC 15 Craft (Alchemy) check. Failing this check causes them to take 1d6 Fire damage, while succeeding it allows them to make a unit of Burnsilver ammo or Thrown weapon weighing less than 2 pounds, or restore HP equal to the check result to a Burnsilver item.

Initiating this Maneuver by spending 8 hours allows the user to take 10 on the Craft (Alchemy) check, and lets them expend two HP and 1 GP of reagents per point the check was exceeded by to create a pound of Burnsilver in the form of raw ingots, units of ammo, or Simple weapons.

Hardsilver Quickshot
Silverblood Night (Strike)
Level: Crusader 2, ???
Initiation Action: 1 Standard action
Prerequisites: 2 Silverblood Night Maneuvers
Range: Ranged attack
Target: One creature
Saving Throw: Dex partial
Duration: Instantaneous

Using the first, and safest, of the Sliverblood concoctions, you create a projectile for a ranged weapon you are wielding in the same motion as readying it to fire, then let loose the stained silver. Make an attack with a ranged weapon you have, without expending a unit of ammunition or needing to load the weapon. This attack deals 1d6 additional Piercing damage per four Initiator Levels and the target must make a DC 12 + your Dexterity modifier Reflex save or be Flatfooted until the start of your next turn, in addition to the normal effects of an attack with that weapon. Initiating this Maneuver also costs 3 HP

Marrowblade
Silverblood Night (Boost)
Level: Crusader 3, ???
Prerequisites: 1 Silverblood Night Maneuver
Initiation Action: 1 Swift or Standard action
Range: Touch
Target: One melee weapon dealing Slashing or Piercing damage
Duration: 1 round/2 IL

As they learn to craft their blood into a weapon, many huntsmen look to extend the weapons they hold for when a fight inevitably closes in, carving themselves open to forge a simple extension in the midst of battle. To initiate this Maneuver, the user must first attack themselves with the weapon they wish to improve. This attack automatically hits, and for two rounds per Initiator level, your reach with the weapon increases by your base reach and attacks with it deal an additional 1d6 of its base type per five Initiator levels and healing for half the damage added.

If this Maneuver is initiated as a Standard action, then you may make an additional attack against an enemy in the improved reach, increasing the damage of this attack by 1d6 per three Initiator levels instead of per five.

Burnsilver Quickshot
Silverblood Night (Strike)
Level: Crusader 4, ???
Initiation Action: 1 Standard action
Prerequisites: 1 Silverblood Night Maneuver
Range: Ranged attack
Target: One creature
Saving Throw: Dex partial
Duration: Instantaneous

Using the second, and simplest, of the Sliverblood concoctions, you create a projectile for a ranged weapon you are wielding in the same motion as readying it to fire, then let loose the unstable silver. Make an attack with a ranged weapon you have, without expending a unit of ammunition or needing to load the weapon. This attack deals 1d8 Fire additional damage per three Initiator Levels and the target must make a DC 14 + your Dexterity modifer Reflex save or be Flatfooted until the start of your next turn. Initiating this Maneuver also costs 6 HP and deals 1d6 Fire damage to you.

Caustic Runoff
Silverblood Night (Boost)
Level: Crusader 6, ???
Prerequisites: 3 Silverblood Night Maneuvers, Con 15
Initiation Action: 1 Swift action
Range: Personal
Target: Self
Saving Throw: Fort half
Duration: 1 round

At the extremes, the reagents imbibed and twisting of one's life inflict a permanent change upon a practitioner of Silverblood Night, a toxifying influence often used without hesitation as another weapon in their arsenal, agitating the residue into a corrosive additive to their blades and bolts. Upon initiating this Maneuver, you take 3d6 Acid damage, and your melee attacks and Silverblood Night Maneuvers for the next round deal 1d6 Acid damage and 1 point of Constitution damage for each Silverblood Night maneuver you know unless the target passes a DC 16 + your Constitution modifier Fortitude saving throw. Passing the throw halves both forms of damage added by this Maneuver, but does not affect the underlying damage of the attack.

Learning this Maneuver gives you Acid resistance equal to twice the number of Silverblood Night Maneuvers you know.

February 11th, 2017: Moved Burnsilver Quickshot to level 4, boosting damage rate and save DC in the process, and replaced with Hardsilver Quickshot, a Peircing damage equivalent running on the previous numbers. Also adjusted wording on some things.

June 2nd, 2020: Changed changelog date format to remove possible confusion, changed Adrenal Coagulation from needing specifically a melee attack to caring only for Threatened Area, removed the itallic flavor lines for my sanity in later addition, shifted the shooting-strikes to normal Strike wording, completed Caustic Runoff and Marrowblade, which has been moved to a Boost with optional standard-action use, and finally carried out on the "second and simplest" flavor by having the first ammo-maker be Fire damage instead of bonus Piercing, alongside getting the Special Materials for the held-onto items started, even if the Maneuvers will keep having written-out numbers.