Page 2 of 5 FirstFirst 12345 LastLast
Results 11 to 20 of 48

Thread: More Powers

  1. #11
    Senior Member Trithemius's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Canberra, Australia.
    Posts
    408
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    It wasn`t balance I was addressing, but the appropriateness of such

    > abilities for PCs. Things can be balanced game mechanically (and should be

    > if one is going to maintain the EL, ECL and CR system of 3e) but a campaign

    > that contains PC awnsheighlien is likely going to go a particular direction

    > which the DM may not want to deal with. It`s a bit more difficult to find

    > or develop adventures for such PCs, so the DM should take that into

    > consideration before allowing players to have access to those powers.



    Personally, I have had a player awnsheghlien in one of my large

    "conventional" (i.e. non-PBeM) games before. The player was trustworthy

    and I feel that the character was a great asset to the game. However, I

    am by no means certain that such a thing should be granted to just any

    player.



    It should certianly not occur if the GM is trying to preserve a parity

    in ECL (or whatever) amongst the PCs. I was not striving to do this in

    that particular game (indeed "higher level" was one of the options that

    I had listed in my own homebrewed "realm creation options" system).



    --

    John Machin

    (between clients, so no sig)
    John 'Trithemius' Machin
    The Other John From Dunedin (now in Canberra)
    "Power performs the Miracle." - Johannes Trithemius

  2. #12
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Aug 2003
    Posts
    10
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    Is there going to be consideration for adding new powers? Who needs to give the idea the official ok? Perhaps a poll would help. What do you guys think?

    I think it would be interesting to have people submit proposed ideas (on the forum so everybody can see and give feedback). That way the developers can get more imput and add what they think will work the best.

    Geeman, thanks for the imput on my Shadow Jaunt ability. I will consider your suggestion on attaching it to bloodline strength instead of level. But let me ask you this, what did you think of the actual power? Did it fit the setting? Was the effect appropriate?

    Thanks for reading.

  3. #13
    Senior Member RaspK_FOG's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2003
    Location
    Moschato, Athens, Greece
    Posts
    1,128
    Downloads
    1
    Uploads
    0
    Well, I liked it for one!

    Gary, your advancement idea is really cool! And the propositions for the other levels of the power are also great.

    Truly, I would like it if we could run a poll on this.

  4. #14
    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    California, USA
    Posts
    2,165
    Downloads
    4
    Uploads
    0
    3 +0200, RaspK_FOG wrote:



    >Gary, your advancement idea is really cool! And the

    >propositions for the other levels of the power are also great.

    >

    > Truly, I would like it if we could run a poll on this.



    A poll would be interesting. I am curious what the community thinks about

    this sort of thing.



    Should all blood abilities have minor, major and great levels of

    power? For instance, many blood abilities have only minor but no major or

    great powers, while others have only great but no minor or major

    powers. Should there be new versions of the blood abilities written up so

    that they all have all three categories of blood ability power?

    A. Yes.

    B. No.



    En example in the post that introduces the poll might be apt. One doesn`t

    really need a "Keep things the way they are answer there, since that`s what

    a no answer means.



    Essentially the whole Bloodline Point system was an extension of that basic

    premise; that blood abilities should scale all the way up and and the way

    down. In fiddling around with such things I found the minor, major and

    great categories to be too broad a grouping in order to reflect the

    permutations possible.



    Even if one does only fill out the three categories of blood abilities it

    does represent an awful lot of effort. The BP system had at least nine

    levels for each power and that took a lot of time to put together. A

    shorthand way of doing it might to take a look at the powers granted by the

    BP system and just assign the first three BP of powers to a minor version

    of the power, the next three to a major, etc. At the very least one gets a

    point based method of developing blood abilities to help deal with issues

    of balance.



    Gary

  5. #15
    Senior Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2002
    Location
    BR mailing list
    Posts
    1,538
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    bilities have minor, major and great levels of

    > power? For instance, many blood abilities have only minor but no major or

    > great powers, while others have only great but no minor or major

    > powers. Should there be new versions of the blood abilities written up so

    > that they all have all three categories of blood ability power?

    > A. Yes.

    > B. No.





    No. Not all. I might say that MOST should probably be expanded but don`t

    expand stuff simply for the sake of expanding them. I don`t know if my

    games really need a GREAT version of a hightened-percpetion power. Minor

    versions of Travel would just be a little bit silly in that typical

    D&D-esque fashion. (Though I can`t find any rational argument for excluding

    The Incredible Blinking Scion from the game...)



    -Lord Rahvin
    NOTE: Messages posted by Birthright-L are automatically inserted posts originating from the mailing list linked to the forum.

  6. #16
    Junior Member
    Join Date
    Feb 2002
    Location
    Aarhus, Denmark
    Posts
    6
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    Ooh, inspiration coming up.

    One of the things I like in the Bloodline Proposals is the BP system in option C. I began thinking about and came up with the following outline:

    Option A: Add a new skill called: Use Blood Ability (or something to that effect). Each blood ability has a rank, which can be increased by spending points. Some blood abilities are considered automatic and does not require a check. Depending on the rank of the ability and the result of the check, the abilities result may vary greatly.

    Option B: Consider the blood abilities to function like skills. You buy ranks in your blood abilities (those that are not considered automatic) and each time you wish to invoke a blood ability, you make a blood ability check. This check would something like 1D20 + Blood ability rank + bloodline score modifier.
    The result depends on what the check is.

    This would serve to emulate the work needed to learn how to properly use blood abilities. I recall the Birthrigth Novel "War" where the young half-elf "Gannd uses a lot of time trying to learn how to use his blood abilities. Some of them, like Divine Wrath, catches him more or less unaware, but others he have to work with. (Divine Wrath are an example of an automatic blood ability).

    As mentioned this is only outlines, they need alot of work, but I personally think that it would be worth considering. Combining it with the Scion class of Option D in the proposals, and the BP system in Option C, I think the blood ability system would become extremely flexible and do away with the minor/major/great classification, which always has bothered me quite a bit.

    What do you think?
    Greetings From
    Thomas Due
    tdue@mail.dk

  7. #17
    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    California, USA
    Posts
    2,165
    Downloads
    4
    Uploads
    0
    3 +0200, Cinder wrote:



    >Geeman, thanks for the imput on my Shadow Jaunt ability. I will consider

    >your suggestion on attaching it to bloodline strength instead of

    >level. But let me ask you this, what did you think of the actual

    >power? Did it fit the setting? Was the effect appropriate?



    I think it works. I even like the title. In effect, it`s similar to the

    ability of the Shadow Dancer prestige class, which is a class that on the

    whole probably should not be included in BR, but the power itself is

    apt. Here`s a version I just wrote up using BP:



    Shadow Jaunt (SJnt) - Az, Br

    With this ability you are able to manipulate shadows, even taking on the

    characteristics of shadows yourself.

    Base Power: You gain the following powers and abilities for each BP spent

    on Shadow Form:



    BP Power

    1 Add your Bld to all Hide checks made while in shadows.

    2 You gain low-light vision and a +1 dodge bonus to your AC while in

    shadows.

    3 Once per day you may add your Bld as a dodge bonus to your AC while

    in heavy shadows. This bonus remains in effect for 1 minute/Bld.

    4 You may use the equivalent of Dimension Door (PHB 195) with a range

    of 50 feet + 10 feet per Bld. This ability is useable 1/day. Such

    movement requires concentration and is a full round action.



    Enhancements: For each additional BP spent you may increase the number of

    times you can use the Dimension Dorr ability by 1/day.

    BP may also increase the range of your Dimension door ability. Each BP

    spent doubles it`s effective range. That is, 1 BP increases the range to

    100 feet + 20 feet per Bld, 2 BP doubles it again to 200 feet and 40 feet

    per Bld, etc.

    A BP may also be spent to make the ability to Dimension Door a standard

    action.



    Gary

  8. #18
    Site Moderator geeman's Avatar
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    California, USA
    Posts
    2,165
    Downloads
    4
    Uploads
    0
    3 -0600, Lord Rahvin wrote:



    >>Should all blood abilities have minor, major and great levels of

    >>power?

    >

    >No. Not all. I might say that MOST should probably be expanded but don`t

    >expand stuff simply for the sake of expanding them. I don`t know if my

    >games really need a GREAT version of a hightened-percpetion power. Minor

    >versions of Travel would just be a little bit silly in that typical

    >D&D-esque fashion. (Though I can`t find any rational argument for excluding

    >The Incredible Blinking Scion from the game...)



    Well, that would be a silly addition, but that`s not the way it need

    go. Minor versions of the Travel ability could improve movement rate,

    improve constitution checks made to avoid the tiring effects of making a

    forced march, improvements to ones ability to jump, climb, swim, run, etc.

    before getting to the ability to actually travel instantaneously. Several

    of the blood abilities work this way. I wrote up advanced versions of

    enhanced sense for all the bloodline derivations (except Azrai) and it

    works just fine.



    Gary

  9. #19
    Birthright Developer
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Gothenburg, Sweden
    Posts
    949
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    4 You may use the equivalent of Dimension Door (PHB 195) with a range
    of 50 feet + 10 feet per Bld. This ability is useable 1/day. Such
    movement requires concentration and is a full round action.

    Enhancements: For each additional BP spent you may increase the number of
    times you can use the Dimension Dorr ability by 1/day.
    BP may also increase the range of your Dimension door ability. Each BP
    spent doubles it`s effective range. That is, 1 BP increases the range to
    100 feet + 20 feet per Bld, 2 BP doubles it again to 200 feet and 40 feet
    per Bld, etc.
    A BP may also be spent to make the ability to Dimension Door a standard
    action.
    You mean 100 ft +20 ft/bld, then 150 ft + 30 ft/bld, then 200 ft, then 250 ft, etc, right? I don't see a good reason for not using the normal doubling rule here, if for no other reason than to avoid confusion. I think a slightly higher range for the base ability might be apt as well - some characters can practically jump that far (and that is without invoking any of the psionic feats for jumping far, which don't belong in Birthright at all, unless you want a Matrixy feel to it).
    Jan E. Juvstad.

  10. #20
    Birthright Developer
    Join Date
    Nov 2001
    Location
    Gothenburg, Sweden
    Posts
    949
    Downloads
    0
    Uploads
    0
    Is there going to be consideration for adding new powers? Who needs to give the idea the official ok? Perhaps a poll would help. What do you guys think?

    I think it would be interesting to have people submit proposed ideas (on the forum so everybody can see and give feedback). That way the developers can get more imput and add what they think will work the best.
    Feel free to run a poll if you like - that's what the ability to do so is there for, after all - just try not to put any bias in the basic poll questions. Of course, no poll is binding, but any feedback does get listened to, considered, carefully examined and analyzed, and deliberated upon.
    Jan E. Juvstad.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Tags for this Thread

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
BIRTHRIGHT, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS, D&D, the BIRTHRIGHT logo, and the D&D logo are trademarks owned by Wizards of the Coast, Inc., a subsidiary of Hasbro, Inc., and are used by permission. ©2002-2010 Wizards of the Coast, Inc.