Detect Bloodline Skill.

[Sir Justine]

My point is not that Scry is necessary bad. But only Scry having a skill for it... Just makes no sense!
About a new magic system, I thought about it already (well, I guess everyone has already). Having one based on skills would be interesting. Do you know Star Wars d20? The force powers are used with skills.

[Trithemius]

Sir Justine wrote:
> My point is not that Scry is necessary bad. But only Scry
> having a skill for it... Just makes no sense! About a new
> magic system, I thought about it already (well, I guess
> everyone has already). Having one based on skills would be
> interesting. Do you know Star Wars d20? The force powers are
> used with skills.

I had thought about using the `magic skills` to provide the "caster
level" of spells. That way more different mages could be designed. I`m
not sure exactly how one would go about it though.

I like the Star Wars force system, but I am not sure if I`d want to make
a skill for every use I could think up for arcane magic.

--
John Machin
(trithemius@paradise.net.nz)
-----------------------------------
"Nothing is more beautiful than to know the All."
Athanasius Kircher, Ars Magna Sciendi.

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[Sir Justine]

[quote]Orginally posted by Trithemius

I like the Star Wars force system, but I am not sure if I`d want to make
a skill for every use I could think up for arcane magic.

That's a interesting point. One of the factors I less like on D&D arcane spellcasters is that they can do virtually anything. A mid to high-level wizard makes fighters (fireball...), rogues (invisibility, knock, silence...) and everyone else inutile. I mean, one an one a fighter can beat a mage in single combat, but the power of mass destruction a wizard possess with spells like fireball is huge. And I'm not even talking about spells like fly and teleport, that make the rest of the party just hinder the mage ;) .
My point is that others "wizards" like the force users from Star Wars and the Mages from Middle-Earth are powerful, yes, but they have limitations, so they are not absolute. Even in Harry Potter mages have limitations! (they must have their wand in hand to cast spells). I know there are things as spell components and the spellbook, but, well, IMO magic is too absolute in D&D...
I want to know your opinion about this, as you mentioned a different magic system.

[Sir Justine]

Humm, I guess I shoud have started another topic for this dicussion... this isn't exactly about Gary initial post! Sorry!

[kgauck]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Sir Justine" <brnetboard@TUARHIEVEL.ORG>
Sent: Friday, September 06, 2002 6:53 PM


> A little off-topic, but I don`t use Scry IMC. I find it a ridiculous
> skill. I mean, if there`s a skill for scry, there should be one for
> teleport, magic missile, fireball... To don`t change the way the
> spell works much I make the characters use Spellcraft instead.

I think Scry is a justifiable skill, and I`ll argue for its preservation.
The reason is not internal, but external. Scry has a powerful game effect,
and therefore should require a little additional investment. Many of the
other skills do involve alternative dice rolls either for damage, or for
touch attacks. Teleport has its own table of effects. In a sense it has a
skill of its own, with five catagorical ranks.

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Machin" <trithemius@PARADISE.NET.NZ>
Sent: Sunday, September 08, 2002 7:40 AM


> I am almost inclined to go in the other direction though, and create
> skills that modify the effectiveness of other sorts of spells.

This is my thinking. I have required the use of the heal skill in
conjunction with the cure and healing spells. In general, I`d rather have
spells interact with the skill system. Pass without Trace might only
provide a modifier to Track DC. Difficulty could be increased by a base 20
+ caster level. A 12th level druid increases the DC by 32, and that makes
his party functionally impossible to track for two hours. Only the most
high level rangers can track them. But maybe that`s as it should be. Just
like with the Uncanny Dodge, always leaving the exception for a rogue four
levels higher.

Overall, I`ll make more use of the skills, not less. Its a preference of
mine.

Kenneth Gauck
kgauck@mchsi.com

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[Sir Justine]

Orginally posted by kgauck
This is my thinking. I have required the use of the heal skill in
conjunction with the cure and healing spells. In general, I`d rather have
spells interact with the skill system. Pass without Trace might only
provide a modifier to Track DC. Difficulty could be increased by a base 20
+ caster level. A 12th level druid increases the DC by 32, and that makes
his party functionally impossible to track for two hours. Only the most
high level rangers can track them. But maybe that`s as it should be. Just
like with the Uncanny Dodge, always leaving the exception for a rogue four
levels higher.

I agree with this. And I find your idea of linking skills with magic (I'm not sure if it was you, but I think it was, that said that invisibility should only give a bonus to hide checks) great! It's a very good way to make spellcasters less absolute than they are in D&D.
The only point I criticize Scry is that, as a rule, I think it's weak because it isn't connected with the other rules. As I said, only ONE skill for magic is something I don't agree with.
I will certainly work on linking skills to magic IMC.

[Ariadne]

Orginally posted by kgauck

I think Scry is a justifiable skill, and I`ll argue for its reservation.

I agree, that Scry is useful. The base thing is, that you can't use it for actively scrying, but for being scried too!!

IMO the "detect bloodline" skill should be used for being detected too. If you (as a blooded character) don't have any ranks in it, make a wisdom check to see, if your bloodline is detected. What do you think of this?

[Azrai]

Orginally posted by Ariadne
IMO the "detect bloodline" skill should be used for being detected too. If you (as a blooded character) don't have any ranks in it, make a wisdom check to see, if your bloodline is detected. What do you think of this?

Not a bad idea. this gives the bloodline a "highlander flair", even more than at the moment.

However I still think detect bloodline should be a feat, not a skill. compare it for example to "dragon blood" of the Kalamar Setting or similar feats in the Forgotten Realms Setting.

[geeman]

At 12:10 PM 9/10/2002 +0200, Ariadne wrote:

>IMO the "detect bloodline" skill should be used for being detected too. If
>you (as a blooded character) don`t have any ranks in it, make a wisdom
>check to see, if your bloodline is detected. What do you think of this?

The table in the original post included one factor "Target`s Detect
Bloodline skill." (The format of that table got screwed up since it`s hard
to reproduce these things sometimes.) You add the target`s ranks of Detect
Bloodline skill to the DC of an attempt to be detect. Detecting the
bloodline of a character with a major bloodline (base DC 15) who himself
had 8 ranks of Detect Bloodline would be DC 23.

Gary

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[geeman]

At 12:58 PM 9/10/2002 +0200, Azrai wrote:

>However I still think detect bloodline should be a feat, not a skill.
>compare it for example to "dragon blood" of the Kalamar Setting or similar
>feats in the Forgotten Realms Setting.

Could you give us the gist? I don`t have that particular text. How would
that feat work?

Gary

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