[PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread

[Garryl]

This thread is for discussion of anything related to Power of Cybernetics.

Typos and wording notes:

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PoC Feats

• Extra Energy: Change from "You gain 2 additional points of energy" to "You gain 2 points of energy" to match the wording of the System feats and to reduce the implication that you already need some energy to take the feat and benefit from it. Note: Don't try to add anything like "Note that this grants you an energy pool if you did not already have one." First, that might incorrectly imply that the System feats don't grant you an energy pool for your 1 point of energy if you don't already have one. Second, it's factually wrong, since all characters always have an energy pool, even if they don't have any energy or aren't cybernetic.

Items - Grafts

• Nanogun Chem Cell: Missing a word. "Chem cells are no safer to handle"
• Leg Portal: The text only directly mentions holding weapons. As such, it's not clear that you can still use the space for loose items, separate from weapon storage. While it refers to functioning as the Leg Compartment, which does explicitly mention this capability, the modifications that the Leg Portal makes to the storage space affect nearly every component of it aside from the ability to store loose objects, so that capability seems to be lost, which is not the intent. As such, it should explicitly spell out the full extent of the extradimensional storage's capabilities for full clarity.
  
  Proposed replacement text for the first 2 paragraphs:
  
  The leg portal graft is an enhanced version of the leg compartment graft. It functions exactly like a leg compartment except that instead of opening into a physical hollow within your leg, the hatch covers a portal generator that connects to an extradimensional space.
  
  The extradimensional space to which your leg portal is connected is finite, but its shape is malleable; the primary limit to storage is the total mass of objects within it. The total mass of objects stored within the compartment cannot exceed 1/3 your maximum load, with no limit on the volume or shape of objects stored within. The weight of items stored within your leg portal does not count towards your encumbrance. The extradimensional space also contains attachment points secured to the edge of the interface on the interior side. These can securely store two light or one-handed weapons, or a single two-handed weapon, in a readily accessible manner, just like a sheath or holster. Loose items can also be stored within the space. Retrieving a specific loose item from a leg portal is a move action, unless it contains more than a more ordinary leg compartment would hold, in which case retrieving a specific loose item is a full-round action.

Bugs and balance notes:

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Creatures and Monsters

• Medical Probe is mindless and has no ranks in Heal. Its Battlefield Treatment ability needs to give it some virtual Heal ranks (ie: the battlefield treatment ability of a 4th-level medic with 7 ranks in Heal) to be actually usable.

[samnemath]

What is the tier you are aiming with these classes? I also asked this to SirP and his Magipunk setting. Would it be possible to refluff the classes here and put the side to side to a, let's say, Warblade?

[Garryl]

Target is Tier 3, more through tremendous versatility than raw power (though there should be a reasonable amount of that, too). I don't know where the classes (and modules) actually stand right now, but that's the goal.

If you want to refluff them, I put up some stuff about that in Sirp's Magipunk campaign setting a long time ago (look for "Spellmolders"). If you want to go farther than that, just call it Incarnum by another name.

[radmelon]

I must say I'm quite intrigued as to how the unfinished modules will turn out, I really like this project. In fact, it's already given me two ideas for entire campaign settings, one partly based on skyrim and the wind waker, the other based on Reboot and a MLP fanfic I'm currently rereading.

[estradus]

So long as we've been directed to the d20 future systems in the power of cybernetics preview, I just wanted to address the difference in how money works between d20 future and standard dnd. This has often been a problem for me when I try to integrate something from this system to that system... They use a price dc thing where you roll to buy things and it only goes up or down at weird intervals that don't feel like real money all the time? But is certainly easier to use. I'll share with you my findings on the topic.

This doesn't turn up in the srd, but on page 204 of the core rulebook there is a price dc to dollars conversion. From here, you multiply the dollar count by between 5 and 20, depending generally on how accessible some of these things are. If an purchase is an increase to the price dc, then multiply the price of the item you're applying this to by 4/3 to the power of how much increases the price dc by (so if it increases the price dc by 2, increase the base cost of whatever you're buying by (4/3)^2.) (also 4/3 isnt exactly the value but I forgot how maths works and it was a good thing to round it to.) It isn't the prettiest  system... I just wonder why they used such a rather awkward number system on the table. Wether or not that number applies before or after magical enchantments and the like is between you and your dm. (I'd say no, though. It is ridiculous and getting +8 worth of gadgets will increase the price tenfold.)

DC     $
2        5
3        12
4        20
5        30
6        40
7        55
8        70
9        90
10      120
11      150
12      200
13      275
14      350
15      500
+8      x10

ending it basically the same way the "strength to carrying capacity" table ends. 22 is 14+8, and therefor 3,500. I don't know if this actually helps anyone, but it seemed like a thing I should do.

Also, I would suggest looking into copies of some of the other d20 future books, there are at least many interesting odds and ends in the future tech book.

[Garryl]

I've been thinking about how to deal with radiation. I like the general principles behind how d20 Future handles it, but the specific implementation lacks in a few areas. It seems to just deal with radiation on a day-by-day basis and doesn't handle long-term exposure in any meaningful way. It also doesn't explain what happens if you're exposed to multiple strengths/types of radiation throughout the day. I'm considering using the following instead:

You accumulate radiation. Your radiation reduces by half every 24 hours.
The values given are for exposure to an irradiated area. Direct contact with a radioactive material causes radiation at 3 times the normal rate.

Mild: 1/6 hours (4/day)
Light: 1/hour (24/day)
Moderate: 1/10 minutes (144/day)
High: 1/minute (1440/day)
Severe: 1/round (14400/day)

You are subject to radiation sickness while you have any radiation. Every 24 hours, you are infected with radiation sickness, the strength of which is based on the amount of radiation you have. While suffering from a more severe form of radiation sickness, you are not at risk of the lesser forms, only the strongest applies. Even if you are cured of or recover from your radiation sickness, you are still at risk of infection each day due to any remaining radiation in your body.

Exposure	Minimum Radiation	Fortitude Save DC	Incubation Period	Damage
Mild	1	12	1 day	1d4-2 Con (minimum 0)
Light	10	15	4d6 hours	1d6-2 Con (minimum 0)
Moderate	50	18	3d6 hours	1d6-1 Con (minimum 0)
Heavy	250	21	2d6 hours	1d6 Con
Severe	2500	24	1d6 hours	2d6 Con
Lethal	12500	27	1 hour	3d6 Con + 1d6 Con drain

It still needs some tweaking, this is only a rough draft. For one thing, the current numbers just don't apply radiation fast enough for it to be any danger beyond a persistent lifestyle hazard, that is, hours of exposure. Even contact with a severe radiation source needs over a minute and a half to cause moderate radiation sickness, something it should be doing inside of a round. I'm hesitant to scale it up too fast, however, as that could have some rather ridiculous numbers easily (earlier drafts had each degree of radiation as 100 times as much as the previous, leading to severe radiation providing 1000000 points per round). At that point, there's barely any reason to even track radiation as points, as the difference in scale between any two degrees of radiation is too extreme.

Why am I focusing on this right now? It started because I wanted to get the Phazon mechanics ready, and Phazon damage is closely tied to radiation. Now I just think that radiation mechanics are an interesting thing to have in the system, and I want a flawless set of mechanics (also, I can't leave well enough alone).

Am I on the right track? Am I just barking up the wrong tree?

[estradus]

The last time I encountered radiation in anything I've dealt with it was because a flying machine made out of bones left radation all over the underdark and it just dealt 5d6 radiation damage each round you stood in the irradiated area, so I might not be particularly knowledgeable on ideas for mechanics... But heres what I have.

It seems to me that sometimes there should be some manner of immediette effects associated with radiation? Maybe some areas that deal direct hp radiation damage like the above, but also deals radiation acruement if you survive. Anything that deals lethal radiation should kill you faster then in one hour I guess is all I'm saying.

I like the idea of assigning a radiation score- a value of just how irradiated you are seems very appreciably straight foreward. Most of the numbers do seem a little low- none are really quite as dangerous as it seems like they should be. Severe radiation should take less then a minute to make someone lightly irradiated.

For the radiation recovery, instead of reducing by half every day; perhaps radiation could lower more slowly, but the speed it lowers by can be increased with a heal check? I guess I don't know if there a medical treatment for radiation poisoning. Perhaps a spell spell to reduce it, or even to increase it? Inflict moderate radiation, touch attack to deal 2d8+cl radiation accumulation? This numbers could become an interesting alternate resource, but right now it seems slow in some parts- even lethal radiation needs the "once every 24 hours" mark to be reached before it suddenly drops a serious hammer on your constitution.

On the topic of using radiation as an alternate resource; are there any plans for something like a taint sorcerer/warrior that uses radiation? Presteige class for those who can turn the radiation they've accrued in their bodies into a weapon? I guess phazon is kiiiiinda like that, but just thought so long as you've given us a number we want to keep down, give us some twisted people who can use it.

What effect does radiation have on magical effects? I always saw that the two were intrinsically related, but I come from a weird superhero world where magic and magnets and radiation and all that are all from a related source, or different forms of the same energy or something. For that matter, what effects does radiation have on technology? A quick google search seems to imply that it can cause errors and eventually permanent damage if it can get through the packaging to the electronics themselves, but this only does con damage; for shame. Though I cant say I'm expecting it to do much to the walking dead, aside from maybe make them radioactive and dealing radiation effects to people. And slimes... Would or would not slimes be effected? It seems like they would thrive on mild radiation, but I can't see them lasting long in the strong variety. What about angels? I remember stories somewhere where angels were like super radioactive and melted faces when you were near them, but it might have been a thing I just accidently made up. It seems outsiders might be either particularly resistant to it because they aren't bothered by these silly mortal things, or maybe its like superman vs magic and they're really weak to it. According to the drow necroship adventure I mentioned earlier in this increasingly long post, the main effect on elementals is that they go craaaaaazy, which makes sense to me. Just some thoughts, what effect does it have on the abnormal.

[veekie]

Why not just use disease/poison mechanics(with the labels changed so it's not so trivial to cure)? Unlike usual disease, it stacks with itself. It is somewhat infectious, someone heavily irradiated is radioactive enough to inflict the same upon others, though at a reduced intensity.
Mechanically thats what radiation poisoning is, long term ability damage over time. For variety you could have the first point of rad damage be ability burn if you want it to be harder to fix.

Acute radiation poisoning is simply straight damage + a large dose of the affliction. Any radiation strong enough to cause immediate damage is straight out an environmental damage effect. This degree of radiation even weakens metals, and can burn other stuff, so it's simply a poisonous energy attack.

Mid term radiation poisoning is disease/poison. Until it runs it's course, you're taking ability damage/drain/burn over intervals.

Long term radiation poisoning is simply living with ability loss. It can kill you because your Con is weakened and vulnerable to other causes, but that's all.

[Garryl]

Okay, how does this version feel? The bit about tracking different levels of radiation separately and then stopping tracking when you get hit by something stronger is there to make sure you don't get double hit by walking through layers of lesser radiation on the way to a stronger source, but it's too complex, I think.

Chronic Radiation
Long-term radiation exposure can damage the body, but the effects are rarely immediate, especially when dealing with weaker levels of radiation.

You accumulate radiation. Your radiation reduces by [formula] every [time period].
The values given are for exposure to an irradiated area. Direct contact with a radioactive material causes [more radiation].

At the end of each time period (the length of which varies based on the strength of radiation you were exposed to), you gain the indicated amount of radiation. For example, 6 hours after your initial exposure to mild radiation, you gain 1 point of radiation, regardless of whether your exposure was for 1 round or for the full 6 hours. After those 6 hours have elapsed, you would track your exposure to mild radiation again, regardless of whether you were still exposed to the same source or a new one.
   Track each strength of radiation separately, but if you are exposed to multiple strengths of radiation during the same general time period, lesser forms of radiation are essentially overwhelmed and washed out by the stronger ones. At the end of a period of radiation for which you gain any amount of radiation, stop tracking the periods of lesser strengths of radiation. For example, if you were exposed to light radiation and then to severe radiation a few minutes later, you would gain the radiation from exposure to severe radiation at the end of the round, and you would cease tracking the light radiation until you were next exposed to light radiation. However, if you were exposed to light radiation, and then to moderate radiation 58 minutes later, you would gain the radiation for light exposure 2 minutes after that (1 hour after your initial exposure to light radiation) and then the radiation for moderate exposure 8 minutes after that (10 minutes after your initial exposure to moderate radiation).

Mild: 1/6 hours (4/day)
Light: 4/hour (96/day)
Moderate: 14/10 minutes (2016/day)
High: 40/minute (57600/day)
Severe: 200/round (2880000/day)

You are subject to radiation sickness while you have any radiation. Every 24 hours, you are infected with radiation sickness, the strength of which is based on the amount of radiation you have. While suffering from a more severe form of radiation sickness, you are not at risk of the lesser forms, only the strongest applies. Even if you are cured of or recover from your radiation sickness, you are still at risk of infection each day due to any remaining radiation in your body.

Exposure	Minimum Radiation	Fortitude Save DC	Incubation Period	Damage
Mild	2	12	1 day	1d4-2 Con (minimum 0)
Light	5	15	4d6 hours	1d6-2 Con (minimum 0)
Moderate	100	18	3d6 hours	1d6-1 Con (minimum 0)
Heavy	2000	21	2d6 hours	1d6 Con
Severe	40000	24	1d6 hours	2d6 Con
Lethal	800000	27	1 hour	3d6 Con + 1d6 Con drain

Acute Radiation
Stronger doses of radiation can have obvious, immediate effects.

Moderate: 1d6 damage/10 minutes
High: 1d6 damage/minute
Severe: 1d6 damage/round

[radmelon]

I think that that works fine for radiation, as it's not likely that radiation is going to be a massive thing in the game unless a fallout-esque setting is being run.

[Garryl]

Cyberneticists were looking a little dry at level 1, so I added the Tinkering Activator feat as a bonus feat, letting them use Int for save DCs instead of Con. I've been working on the feats a lot today, along with cybernetic items. I put the preliminaries for the items up in the WIP thread, in case you want to take a look. Feats are still evolving.

I just realized, I'm going to need a sidebar on Magic/Technology Compatibility, akin to Magic/Psionics Transparency.

[veekie]

That should do it yeah.

[Nanshork]

Yay, progress!

[Garryl]

Chapters 1, 2, and 3 are up! Yes, there are "chapters" now, just like in any professional printed sourcebook. Feats are mostly ready, just needing some touch-ups and tables. You can see the current version (as of writing) on the Rule of Cool forums. The rest will come over time as I write it.

[Garryl]

Skills and feats are up. I'm still adding to the Computer Use skill, mostly converting it from D20 Modern, but also trying to determine what existing classes should have it as a class skill (assuming, of course, that they were not in a fantasy setting where the only computers as we know them are things like Deep Rot).

[Garryl]

Just posted a preliminary version of various mundane and cybernetic (read: magical) items, and various spells and powers.

[Jackinthegreen]

I find it somewhat interesting that your least, lesser, etc sockets don't line up with the chakras from MoI.  For instance, the crown chakra is a least in MoI, while the helmet socket is a greater in PoC.

Now that I've thought about it I think I like it a bit more.  For some silly reason D&D places too much value on senses, but swapping the visor down to the least level instead of making it a lesser opens up things that are actually at a reasonable level.

[Garryl]

I was just thinking about the Dreadnought, the Energy Warrior, and Evasion.

Dreadnoughts can pick up the Armored Evasion talent at level 5, despite the fact that they have poor Reflex saves and don't get Mettle until level 14. I was thinking about removing that battle talent. Possibly adding some talents to get or enhance cover instead if you want to be protected from explosions and whatnot.

Energy Warriors are the dodgy folks (light armor, good Reflex saves), but don't have Evasion. What they do have is a +1 DC boost at level 6 that has irked me for some time (I put it in originally as a replacement for the Totemist's +1 meldshaper level upon which the progression was based). I don't think there are any modules that grant Evasion, anyways, although I think there's one or two on the drawing board (I know there's at least one for Uncanny Dodge). So, this is my longwinded way of suggesting that Evasion should be added maybe to the Energy Warrior at level 6 in place of the +1 DC boost.

Thoughts?

[radmelon]

I think that makes more sense, both thematically and mechanically.

[Jackinthegreen]

I can say nothing more than what Radmelon said.  It certainly does make sense.