[PoC] Power of Cybernetics General Discussion Thread

[Nanshork]

Okay, a complete (enough) list of grafts and sacrifices is in this guide.

Things I'm noticing:

No official graft loses only 1 hp.
A good amount lower stats.
There are no feats to make grafts better/more useful/less annoying with the penalties.

[Garryl]

I'm upping the graft sacrifices a little bit. I don't want them to be too much; frequent complaints about grafts are that they just cost too much for their benefit, and the high gp cost is only part of that. If you have any suggestions for graft sacrifices that should be adjusted, I'm all ears.

Just finished this:

Chameloenic Metaskin
Price: 20000 gp
Graft Sacrifice: 4 hp, -2 Search, -2 Spot
Graft Location: Skin
Activation: Use-activated (full-round)

Metamaterials embedded in your skin allow you to blend in with nearly any environment. You can attempt to hide without cover or concealment and you gain a +10 circumstance bonus on Hide checks. This bonus does not stack with the bonuses from being invisible. Additionally, if you hold yourself perfectly still (typically a full-round action), the metamaterials can align and seamlessly bend light around your body, rendering you completely invisible. The system is designed such that a nearly imperceptible portion of the light striking you around your face is still absorbed and amplified, allowing you to still see, although some visual distortion still occurs.

Construction Prerequisites: Cybernetic Grafter, Stealth Field.
Cost to Create: 10000 gp, 800 XP, 20 days.
Graft Donor: A tissue sample from the intended recipient.

[Nanshork]

Don't worry, I'm happy that your grafts don't have stat reducers.  I don't like paying money for something that's a mixed blessing unless I'm buying a cursed item.

I think that just making all of the hp loss into an even number would put them in line with other grafts enough for my taste.

If the feat removed all penalties and you took the most hp reducing grafts per slot (after all the odd numbers went up one) you'd be gaining back: 16 hp, +2 concentration, +2 spot, and +2 swim (plus an additional +6 hp if it let you have 2 grafts in a slot and you took the second most expensive body one).

Honestly that doesn't sound excessive as a "best case" scenario.

I'll look closer at the sacrifices after you've made your adjustments.


The graft looks good but the invisibility needs a duration (and probably removing the "typically" unless you can think of a scenario where it would be a different action).

[Garryl]

Aaaaaaaaand posted!

Edit: Also, Smartlink weapon property and Brutal Strike battle talent for Dreadnoughts have been added to the change log, because those have also been added since I gave you the preliminary version.

[Nanshork]

Looks good.

I really like Augmentation Mastery as a feat.

Graft changes look good.

Too lazy for turrets right now.

Dragon template looks good.   

[Garryl]

Just some typos I need to get to:

Armor - Barrier Armor: "A character wearing boost barrier armor is protected from most energy-based attacks."
Gadget - Environmental Seal: "No Fortitude save is required against the pressure when the damage is completely prevented in this way."
General Cybernetic Items - Bottomless Magazine: "as long as the standard ammunition used has a market values value of less than 1 gp per unit."
Feat - Nanobot Dissolution: "you can make separate yourself"

[Nanshork]

If you want a high level NPC I've got a level 20 Energy Warrior that has only 1 level of another homebrew class which could easily be removed if you want a level 20 Energy Warrior example.  I'm even using one of the races from this system.

[Garryl]

I'd love to hear the story behind that.

[Nanshork]

It's for a play by post game here on the boards, Blood Crusade Against Thoon. 

[Nanshork]

I didn't realize that you had armor concealment rules, that's pretty neat.

[Garryl]

It's based on D20 Modern's rules for concealed armor, which was a fixed DC 30 or so Spot check depending on the armor in question, and only for specifically concealable armor (no Disguise skill, no way to make it harder to find, etc.).

Also, the new Search use for frisking is actually in the D&D 3.5 SRD. It's just really easy to miss because it's described under the Sleight of Hand skill.

[Garryl]

I had some ideas that I want to keep track of, even though I'm not planning on working on this at the current time.

Floating Charge [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Access to a lesser socket.
Benefits: You grant a +1 enhancement bonus to the energy capacity of your energy receptacles that are not attached to any of your sockets.

Floating Current [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Access to a greater socket, Floating Charge.
Benefits: Your modules that are not attached to any sockets count as having 1 more energy allocated to them than they actually have, to a maximum of their respective energy capacities.

Power Armor Mastery [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Medium armor proficiency.
Benefits: While you are wearing armor that is an energy receptacle, you can treat it as being 1 category lighter than normal where beneficial, to a minimum of light armor. If you can allocate energy to it, its maximum energy capacity is 1 higher than normal.

[Nanshork]

Floating Charge/Current looks good (although I haven't looked into balance).

Power Armor Mastery looks nice.

[Garryl]

An idea that was floated way back when I was working on converting MaI to PoC was absorbing energy attacks to power yourself up.

Energizing Absorption [Cybernetic]
Prerequisites: Access to the Energy Emitter socket, Energy Warrior's Energy Resistance class feature.
Benefits: Whenever you take at least 1 point of damage (after applying resistances, immunities, and other defenses) of a type or sort that your Energy Resistance ability protects against, choose a module attached to your Energy Emitter socket. You gain a +1 bonus to your energy capacity for that module, and you gain 1 point of temporary energy which is automatically allocated to that module and cannot be removed by any means. This effect lasts until you go 1 round without taking damage that Energy Resistance protects against.
Special: You can select this feat multiple times, up to a maximum of your normal energy capacity. If you take damage multiple times, this effects stacks, up to a maximum energy capacity and temporary energy bonus equal to the number of times you selected this feat.

[Nanshork]

Interesting, I can see potential abuse though.

[Garryl]

I have to imagine that with a decent amount of fast healing, replenishing temp hp, or regeneration, you could damage yourself and freely heal back up. Most significant damage sources have a large variance in damage dealt, so if you're dealing enough damage to reliably get past 20+ resistance (2 base energy + 1 class feature + 1 from the feat if you're doing this at level 10 when the class feature shows up), you're probably actually taking more than a few points of damage each round. There are multiple modules that give fast healing and the like, but you'd probably have to allocate significantly more energy to them than you're getting back from the feat.

Probably needs to change the temporary energy to just counting as though extra energy was allocated or something, though. I'm sure there are ways to abuse just getting the quick, free, and repeated source of temporary energy, even if you can't move it elsewhere.

Also, I think I mucked up the wording. It should only stack up to +1 energy and capacity for each time you selected the feat, not giving you +1/feat each time you take damage.

Did I miss anything? Probably. What abuse potential did you see?

[Nanshork]

You covered what I saw, damaging yourself and then healing it back up for free boosts above the normal energy cap.

[Nanshork]

Autoturrets from the Autoturret Construction Kit can never get Precise Shot, so they're always stuck with a -4 to hit if targeting someone who is in melee. 

Edit: Also, didn't you finish morph ball on the temp board?

[Garryl]

Autoturrets from the Autoturret Construction Kit can never get Precise Shot, so they're always stuck with a -4 to hit if targeting someone who is in melee. 

True. I may have to do something about that. I'll look into it.

Edit: Also, didn't you finish morph ball on the temp board?

I think so, yes. I'm still in the process of updating my homebrew here with the changes I made when reposting to the storm shelter. I don't remember all the changes I made to PoC, although they're all in the change log.

[Nanshork]

Autoturrets from the Autoturret Construction Kit can never get Precise Shot, so they're always stuck with a -4 to hit if targeting someone who is in melee. 

True. I may have to do something about that. I'll look into it.

Let me know how this goes at it will affect my character.