Author
|
Topic: Embracing The
Source |
sfgiantsfanmike Member Member
# 86751
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posted August 06, 2002 07:23 PM
I posted
this about a month ago in the one power forum, and got two
responses (other than the one I made).
I am starting a
game real soon (hopefully withing two weeks, got 99.9%
complete), and I just don't like the way embracing the source
goes via the gamebook rules.
I deveolped this so that
embracing the source would be more like the books, and make
sense. I use a Composure skill check to see how fast you
embrace the source (seems about right, at least from the way I
think on it).
This "system" allows for something the
game doesn't take into acount.. inability to embrace the
source, and the ability to "counter" something coming at you.
When a character wants to embrace the source, have
him/her make the composure check. This can be used in
situations to "counter." By that, I mean they can do something
when some trys to do something to them. ie, some one throws a
knife at the character (like Brashear does to Rand in the
begining of Lord of Chaos), they can try to embrace the source
and snag it with a harden air. Can be attempted only once a
round.
dc- How long it takes
0-9 Fail to embrace
the source 10-15 full round action 16-25 action 26-35
free action 36+ free action + one weave up to lvl
1
I see this method of taking into account experience
with the one power through max ranks (a level one channlers
just dosent have the ranks in Composure to be able to react,
but a 10th level channeler should be able to, some of the
time).
Comments, ect apreciated.
[ August
07, 2002, 01:38 PM: Message edited by: sfgiantsfanmike
]
-------------------- What was once, will
be again...
So where's the rewind button???
From:
sactamento, ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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Nae'blis'
Chief Eunuch Member Member
# 94367
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posted August 06, 2002 08:07 PM
It looks
surprisingly good although I am cautious to give more power to
channelers then they already have. IMHO I don't think there
should be anything beyond embracing the source as a free
action. The way I am reading it currently, a character can in
the first round of combat roll a really good composure check
and get off two weaves in the one round (one as a free action
as part of the embracing mechanic you describe, and the other
as a normal standard action).
The way to limit this
would be to introduce a new channelling feat. Without the
feat, the character would only ever be able to embrace as a
standard action at best (the current game mechanic). If the
character has the feat however, they can achieve better
results.
You might also want to consider inserting
somewhere on your table embracing as a move action. This would
allow the channeler on their action to embrace and cast a
weave in the one round. so a revised table would look
like
DC less than 10 fail to embrace the
source 10 to 15 embrace as a full round action 15 to 25
embrace as a standard action 25 to 35 embrace as a move
action 35+ embrace as a free action
New feat:
Quickened Embrace prerequisites: Composure 8
ranks Normal: without this feat, a channeller can at best
embrace the source as a standard action. Benefit: With this
feat, they are able to achieve better results as listed on the
table above.
-------------------- I was once in the
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From:
Sydney, Australia | Registered: Jul 2002
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torchflame
Member Member # 42148
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posted August 07, 2002 11:39 AM
I would
also limit it to a free action. Anything more would make
channelers more powerful than is really
necessary.
-------------------- "As flies to wanton
boys, are we to the gods; They kill us for their
sport."
William Shakespeare - King Lear
From:
US | Registered: Sep 2001 | IP: Logged
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sfgiantsfanmike Member Member
# 86751
|
posted August 07, 2002 01:37 PM
First
off,
in WoT, there are no standard/move actions. Just
actions. The round is supposed to be broken up into two such
actions, a move action and an attack action.
Second, I
think you might be right about letting them get a freebie...
but the just is awful high to get it. A level 10 channeler,
with 20 in wisdom, and max ranks (total check of 18)makes this
check on a 17. That's pretty rough to do. Even a level 20 with
22 in wisdom doesn't get that high of a check routinely (total
check mod of 29.. still need a 6, a 30% failure).
How
about making the check a little tougher.. like 40 or so.
Again, given the max wisdom score and ranks of a 20th level
channeler, she only makes the check on an 11.
It makes
the check almost impossible to make at even decent levels...
I am going to change the level of the weave to 1st or
less though, not fireballing as a free action (even with a 5'
spread). This will give a channeler the ability to counter
something (again, the thrown dagger), but not much
else.
Thanks so far
-------------------- What
was once, will be again...
So where's the rewind
button???
From:
sactamento, ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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Crimson_red
Member Member # 9977
|
posted August 07, 2002 03:36 PM
IF I'm
figuring this 'countering' thing out right You don't need the
extra free action; this is how I see the example you gave
would play out (using your quicken embrace use of
composure):
-Brashear choses to throw the knife at
Rand; both characters are aware (atleast at some level). So
roll initiative.
-Initiative resaults: Rand
wins
-Rand's Action: Succeeds Composure check;
embraces as a free or move action (it rather irrelavent
which). Attack: he readies Harden air incase Brashear fallows
through.
-Brashear's Action: Move: Draws Knife.
Attack: Throws knife.
-Rand's Ready Action:
Catches dagger with harden air.
I'm assuming one can
ready a weave.
If you still want to give that free
weave for a high score make a feat to do so, much like Heroic
Surge. I guess it could go like this:
Power
Surge
You can embrace the true source with such
efficeincy that you make channel more than one weave per
round.
Prereqs : Heroic Surge, Quicken Embrace,
Composure 12
Benefits : You may cast an extra
weave either before or after your regular action if your
composure check resault to embrace the source is 35 or higher.
This weave can not be heigher than 3rd level and can't have a
casting time longer than 1 action. You may use Power Surge
once per day for every four channeler levels you have
attained, but never more than once per round. You can't use
this feat during the same round that you use Heroic
surge.
Not the most origenal feat in existance, and it
doesn't counter very well. Alone I wouldn't think it very
good, but building with heroic surge as a base does toughen it
up... exceptionaly.
Not that it matters
but...
quote:
Originally from the Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game:
Pg. 132
Actions: There are four types of
actions: attack actions, move actions, full-round actions,
and free-actions.
[ August 07, 2002, 03:47 PM: Message
edited by: Crimson_red
]
-------------------- He Who Should Not
Speak, Crimmer
From:
Here and There | Registered: Mar 2001
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Eldren
Member Member # 54611
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posted August 10, 2002 12:32 AM
If I recall
correctly, Wheel of Time uses the same basic round structure
as all the other d20 games: You can have one move-equivalent
action and one standard action in a round, or you can take a
full-attack action and only move five feet, or you can take a
full (double) move (or run at four times your movement
rate).
According to the RPG book, embracing (or
seizing) the True Source is a full-round action. They did this
to balance the awesome power that channelers have (don't
believe me? See how YOU like it when your channeler busts off
with a mere 3rd level "Arms of Air" weave and incapacitates
your BBEG in one round!). If you're a Wilder, it's even worse
because you have a block to get past, if you didn't take the
Eliminate Block feat. I didn't like that a Wilder was going to
have to take two rounds before they could channel, so I made
the Composure check to reach the appropriate state for them to
get past their block part of the round in which they were
embracing or seizing the True Source. But that was just
me.
But it's an important balancing tool, since those
with the use of the One Power are so obviously more powerful
than mundane people who can't touch the True Source. To remove
this balancing factor would make the channeling classes WAY
too powerful. They already, IMO, hover on the edge of too
powerful as it is. No one who isn't a channeler is going to
beat a channeler, unless they have assistance FROM a channeler
(or, if they're really lucky like Mat Cauthon, they have a
ter'angreal that completely shunts aside any weaves cast at
them). That's just the way things work in the Wheel of Time,
unfortunately.
So I would highly recommend keeping the
"one round to prepare your weave" rule. After that, it makes
no real difference, because I don't think there are any weaves
in the book that take longer than a standard action to
cast.
[ August 10, 2002, 12:33 AM: Message
edited by: Eldren ]
-------------------- "Is
touching myself a full-round action?" Asked by a Paladin who
wanted to know how long his Lay On Hands would
take...
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sfgiantsfanmike Member Member
# 86751
|
posted August 10, 2002 11:50 AM
To say that
a channeler isn't balanced vs. the other classes is unfair.
Take a high level arsman, woodsman, algai'd'siswai.
Will probably go first, get to you, and deal you what might be
a lethal blow before you can TRY to embrace the source. Plus
they have one other advantage over you... they keep their
levels in their classes untill they die.
Not so with a
channeler. They get hit with sever, using some of the new
shielding rules that should give a linked group major bonuses
on dc's, a channeler can loose the ability to use their class
abilities/ect and still live.. and be really uneffective
characters. They can also burn themselves out if they're
trying to overchannel, they can also be controlled with an
a'dam, they can be turned to the shadow against their will. If
all that isn't enough balancing to the other classes.. I don't
know what is.
You try playing a 20th level armsman
that's lost nearly every feat he's taken and see how well he
plays.
That's that with balance question, at least to
me.
As for the rest... I'm probably taking out the
"free" weave... or setting it to lvl 0, and adding some other
restriction to it. I'm still playing with it.
As for
the actions.. In WoT their are 2 actions to a full round
action, and the actions are move, and attack.. don't have the
quote from book handy, so I may be wrong. If I am, I
am.
-------------------- What was once, will be
again...
So where's the rewind button???
From:
sactamento, ca | Registered: Jun 2002
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JosephKell
Member Member # 99447
|
posted August 10, 2002 03:27 PM
Sever is
just a risk that goes with having great power. The only risk
of severing I have noticed is being severed by the opposite
gender, and that is a level 12 weave, because you can't detect
it. The only way the Aes Sedai did that historically was to
use a circle of 13 and the White Wand (+7 Sa'Angreal), and I
think you would notice thirteen women holding hands staring at
you intently while clutching an exotic item. Still
scared? All you have to worry about are shields, and
they aren't permanent.
Face it most male channelers are
on the same side, and most female ones want a reason before
they turn on their own.
And Non-channelers have like
one chance to take out a channeler once they reach about 5th
level, and that is with an ambush. Ward against people makes
an armsman useless, and forces woodsman and Aiel to go to
ranged. And ranged can still be stopped by harden
air.
And why would someone take a feat that could
potentially leave them defenseless? the Quicken Embrace feat
should never extend the time it takes to embrace or sieze the
one power. If you can embrace at the top of the round (i.e.
before anyone acts like a "super" free action) you should
count as not flat footed and get your normal actions, and you
could count affects done to you as not occuring until your
initiative. The dagger thrown comes to you and on your
initiative it is about to reach you and you do what. And the
DC to stop it should be the attack roll against you. Treat
this as deflect arrows but with Willpower rather than Reflex.
And you expend a weave slot appropriate.
[
August 11, 2002, 06:36 PM: Message edited by: JosephKell
]
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From:
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Dortamur
Member Member # 63897
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posted August 10, 2002 07:29 PM
I like the
idea of faster embracing being possible, and a skill check,
but I don't think a "Composure" check is correct in all
situations.
The prime example is wilders. They do not
embrace the source the same as initiates, and often they need
to be the opposite of composed, requiring high emotions to get
over a block, etc...
How about making it a
Concentration check for Wilders, and maybe even Initiates?
Perhaps Initiates could use either, as they choose, or as the
situation warrants?
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